Cross Country Racing

(Back in September when people still wore shorts in Dickinson. And no winter coats.)

Little nervous to begin. Can you tell? At least she came dressed to run! Not sure where everybody else got all the orange shirts. Clearly we were out of the loop on something. But we were there!

 And they're off!

 And back again! Go M!

 Red-faced and proud of herself!

 Next age group up! Again with the nerves.

 And THEY'RE off! If I knew how to draw a cool little arrow to help you see J, I would. But since I don't, she's the one in purple shorts without a cool, I-belong-here orange shirt.

 Cutest thing about this picture - M running alongside her on the edge. After she'd finished her own race. And was exhausted. She was just so excited to cheer J on. 

 J confessed later that she sprinted too hard at the beginning and had to walk a little in the middle. Good lesson to learn :) But she finished nonetheless, although a little disappointed in herself sadly.

 But a ribbon helps to cheer anyone up, right?

Summer livin'

I got oddly ambitious when I saw a yummy-looking recipe and so we made our own homemade fudgesicles. I wasn't really sure why since you can buy a box for a couple of bucks but the girls enjoyed making them in our sweaty, air-conditionless kitchen, and we all enjoyed eating them in our slightly-less-sweaty-because-of-the-breeze driveway. They were yummy! And ended up all over faces and strategically-placed aprons. By the way, anyone have any tips on getting homemade popsicles out of their containers without just pulling the stick out?
And here we have our themeless homemade water park. Who needs six flags? We have an $8 pool from Fred Meyers, a slide from a garage sale and our sprinkler!Ta Dah!And on one of those recent not-so-nice summer days in Portland, I took the girlies to Omsi. We pass Omsi everytime we roll into town and they've been begging me to bring them for forever. So here they are finally, in seventh-heaven:Future city-designing architects with distinctly different styles:They'd been quiet for awhile so I went to see what they were actually up to. Just having a princess tea-party complete with make-overs in their homemade salon:
Love the creativity they have all on their own!

Happy Birthday USA!

Sadly, there was no fireworks show to go to in The Dalles, nor any parade for the girls to ride their bikes in and we even missed the ward party. But that didn't keep us from doing a little of our own firework show (although ask Coop how fun it was to try to light the fireworks in the crazy wind!). And we had company, which made it even more fun! Coop's mission companion, and his wife and girls came to visit. Before they got here, my girls were worried about whether or not their girls liked to play with dress-ups. Fortunately they did, so they were all best friends! Here's a few pics of our celebration:The spectators

Our girls reactions crack me up:

Wahoo! Finally got a sparkler lit!

And when the dads ran out of fireworks to light, they started burning all the boxes. There's something about boys and matches. They just can't resist.

The next day we went to our super cool park and let the girls run until they couldn't anymore! So fun to watch their little heads bouncing around. And since the dads were there to be on kid duty, us moms and their baby enjoyed relaxing on a blanket in the shade, providing water breaks whenever someone slowed down enough to take a drink. Cute girls!

Thanks so much for coming! We had a blast - hope to get together again sometime soon!

Going to the Park

So I'm sorry about the excess of posts lately. I just don't have a lot of things to do and blogging makes me feel at least somewhat connected with all you guys that I love so I keep finding excuses to blog! And these girls are so cute, that it's easy to find a reason, even when we're just walking to the little park down the road:They just chose to hold hands the whole way down the street all on their own. And then had the following conversation. Meri: "Jell, will you hold my hand always?" Jell: "Yeah, I will Meri. I'll hold your hand the whole time." Meri: "Even when we're at the park and you made a new friend?" Jell: "Even then. I'll always remember you." They walked a few paces in contented silence and then Meri exclaimed excitedly to me, "MOM! Jelly says she won't never ever forget me even when she makes a new friend!" Love it!
We're loving playing in the sun! Yeah for summer! And I've had a change of heart - yeah for all the wind that cools us down so it's not too too hot!

Getting a little crowded in here

We're ALL ready to go on a walk to the library! I was promised that the girls wanted to pull the wagon, so I allowed them to fill it with their stuffed animals. However, it was about a block and a half into the walk when, "Mom, can you pull it now and we ride in it with all the dolls? Please, we're SO tired!"

Just playing around

Last week when we were still ... enjoying rainy spring weather, we had to get creative to find things to do! So the girls decided to go "camping at the beach." I love all the friends they brought with them. They sat there while I read Pollyana to them "around the campfire."
Then, miracle that it was, they didn't take all night to eat dinner! And as we've said a million times, when you eat quickly there's time to do fun things, so, since it had cleared up nicely, we went on a walk down by the river and found one of Lewis and Clark's campsites, nicely marked with interesting stories for Mom and Dad. And, of course, there were plenty of rocks to throw in the river!
As you might be able to tell from wispy one's hair, The Dalles is rather windy. So much so that the previous couple that lived in this house had a big BBQ that frequently blew over and off the porch into the neighbor's yard. We're not so sure about the wind. It's nice in that we don't have any AC and if we open all the windows, a healthy breeze blows air in and cools things down nicely. However, it's usually more than a healthy breeze and I have doors slamming shut of their own accord left and right and loose papers, toys, picture frames dive-bombing each other all day long. I guess something to get used to? Or another reason to keep my house less cluttered?

Couldn't have been cuter

The girls got to take a dance class from a friend who did an awesome job. They loved every minute of it and we sure loved just watching them (as opposed to normal dance studio's recitals where you watch other kids for hours) perform 4 whole dances at the recital. They even had a solo number :) which was hilariously adorable. I'll add the video later for family that didn't get to come but here are some too-cute-for-words pictures for starters!
The whole gang:
Sisterly love:
Aah! Too much love!
Nice smiles and excellent form girls (this is just too funny not to include):

We're sure going to miss the dancing and all of our friends!!

Ah! The beautiful tulip festival...

So I included slightly less than a tenth of the pictures we took. With such gorgeous surroundings and such cute subjects, it's hard to stop snapping pictures! Jell was a little distraught to discover she didn't fit inside the shoe as well as she did last year while Meri still disappeared inside:
Not sure what the tulips did to deserve this grumpy face but it's sure one I'm familiar with:
The girls only smelled a gazillion tulips this day - do the different colors really smell that different?
Some of the tulips were nearly as tall as Meri, and with her headband, she looked like she almost fit in!
Where have you been all my life? Love the drama and enthusiasm in all she does:
And the posing:



Somehow we made it home without any major encounters with the mud puddles, I mean lakes, and without caving in to the girls' requests for rides, popcorn, ice cream, or any other thing for sale that they laid eyes on. All in all, a beautiful family outing (Coop was there too, although he didn't make it in any of the photos)!