If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this post is worth a dictionary! Part 1.

Ok, maybe more like an essay or short story. Still -- lots of pictures!

Ahhhh Summer........When you live where I do, during the summer you wake up every morning and say "I live in the most gorgeous place in the world!!!!!" It is so beautiful. Other times of the year, you wonder if you might be starting to grow moss on you.

So summer is coming to a close! We've been doing lots of stuff, I don't even remember what all we've been doing. But it's been good. Here's some pictures! Here's how these collages will work: they're imaginarily (not sure if that's a real word, I'm really tired) numbered top-to-bottom, left-to-right like this
1. 2.
3. 4.

clear as mud?



1. This is the moment I thought to myself, "I guess it's time to babyproof again!" Jonas rolled under the TV table and was eating some cords.
2. Sophie discovers Lincoln Logs and loves them! Such a great toy. Did you know they were invented by Frank Lloyd Wright's son? cool. (nevermind Jonas is still eating cords under the TV table in the background.....Don't worry, I eventually got him out of there.)
3. At our local park, they have an animal farm with PONY RIDES!!!! Sophie is "on deck" for her turn. We waited in line a good 40 minutes, and she waited so patiently, she was so excited. You know how much of an animal lover she is.....
4. Riding the pony!


These are all pictures of our camping trip with our friends the H's, and their friends Matt, Bri, & Olivia, and Lindsey & Logan. We had a GREAT time. We went to the Olympic Penninsula -- our favorite place ever.
1. Not an optical illusion, the H's tent is truly that ginormous, and ours is truly that dinky. Luckily we found a site we could fit into together!
2. Me and my babies at the giant sitka spruce! I have pictures of me at this tree when I'm pregnant with Sophie, and with Sophie while pregnant with Jonas, and now with the two of them -- and definitely NOT pregnant this time. This tree is estimated to be 550 years old. But, as Brian said "we'll never know for sure unless we chop it down!" But seriously, there is something so awesome about being near a living thing that has been around for 550 years. I love this tree.
3. Sophie + Dalia = Trouble. They both got into plenty of it on the trip.
4. See what I mean about the moss!!!!!
5. This picture looks fake, but it's real. We are REALLY close to this bull elk on the Hall of Mosses trail. He was just hanging out, eating.
6. Danny took this great picture of the elk. Beautiful. His antlers were all fuzzy, it was gorgeous.
7. Can you believe there's 4 of us? This group of trees is called the Patriarchs, I think...
8. Jonas is all loaded up and ready to go to the beach! We were heading down to Second Beach, which just has a little hike down to it from the parking lot.
9. All of us ladies needed a picture with the Forks sign of course. Yes we like the Twilight saga, no we're not 14 year olds -- just leave us alone, ok????!!!


1. So, like I was saying, we went down to second beach one of the nights. We did some great tidepooling, as the tide was -2.5! We had a big bonfire, ate hotdogs, some marshmallows, and thoroughly tired ourselves out by the end of it. Keeping track of 2 preschoolers, and 3 babies at the beach is tough!
2. There are 2 sea otters in this picture, if you can tell. Everyone saw the sea otters but me. Sad. Danny got this picture.
3. Me and the kids with some lovely starfish!
4. This was the most vibrant purple starfish I've ever seen, it's color was SO intense.
5. Jonas having fun at the beach!
6. Family picture.
7. On the last day, we went with the H's to Rialto beach. This is the beach we camped at last year with jamie. Sophie had SO much fun chasing the waves and sea foam. By the time we left the beach, she was wet from head to toe.
8. Jonas and Me, trying not to freeze to death. It was really windy and cold this morning.
9. So, of course Danny felt like going for a swim! Look at those legs!


1. After Rialto, we continued down the road to the Crescent Lake area. We went on a little hike to a waterfall. The hike had these cool little bridges over the river, they're made from one big log and they wiggle when you walk on them. Also notice sophie's lovely attire. By this, the last day of the trip, she had muddied/peed in/went swimming in every article of clothing I brought for her, and yes, I did bring extras. She's left with this wierd combination of jammies and dirty shirts.
2. At the waterfall, I can't remember the name of it.
3. Best part of the entire trip -- waiting in the crazy long ferry line!!!!! I took this picture from the H's car. In the distance you can see Danny and the kids at our car, and off in the FAR distance you can see our ferry finally coming! We had to wait through 2 ferries, plus the wait on the road before the terminal. Luckily there is a little crepe shop right by the ferry lines, yum.
4. Back home. Here's Jonas in his bouncy-play contraption we bought him. It was a total splurge. But it's totally awesome -- look at that thing! And look how cute Jonas is in it.
5. Jonas and Trey, our friends the W's new baby. Amazing the difference a couple of months makes in the life of a baby! Compare the size of their legs!
6. Jonas and Daddy on the computer, it looks like he's typing.
7. Before -- Jonas has his first haircut.
8. During -- he was very tolerant, and wiggly.
9. After -- who is that baby?


1. Sophie gets a pet!!!!!! We caved. You know how she loves animals so much. We let her get a fish. It's a blue Betta fish, a male. She named him all by herself, and his name is Pokey. So far so good, I've only caught her trying to pet him once.
2. Went to Volunteer Park on a super hot (90 degrees!) Saturday afternoon with Jamie. So hot, we nearly melted. Jamie took these cute pictures of Jonas while the two of them hung out on the blanket.
3. Look at him!
4. Danny, Sophie and I playing frisbee. We had a great time at the park, and then headed over to U Village for some dinner at Specialties, which Jamie has been telling us about forever. It was, as Sophie would say "super yum!" P.S. Volunteer park is awesome. (see my comments under "stuff I like" in right-hand column)

Hopefully sometime soon I'll put up the pics from my H.S. reunion trip to Spokompton and our trip to Utah. Til then....