Where did the summer go...

Well, it looks like I have devolved from daily, to weekly, to monthly postings lately... Will try to be better, though we have been slacking on the taking of pictures too, so the impetus to post is a little lower too. Partially been "busy", but we have been on the move with her more too and not focusing on the camera...

Lot's of things have happened in the last month. Sara understands a lot more words, she is even letting us try to use a few signs here and there too, and she picks them up fast when she is motivated (e.g., more food). It seems like she is growing a bit too, we'll see at her next dr. appt later this month, but she has a couple of inches on kids of similar age... she walks and runs everywhere. Tantrums for tantrums sake have slowed down a little, though they are worse when she is really tired or teething, or both. Speaking of teething, she got 2 new top teeth recently (5 total teeth now!) and is working on another on the top. She is also completely weaned now... went surprisingly well, when the Boppy disappeared that took away the major reminder for her. She tries to climb stairs standing up... at the very least she doesn't use her knees as much, and she can get on and off one of our couches pretty regularly now... This weekend we have been playing with her out in the yard with some medium size rubber balls, and she likes to walk behind them an sort-of kick them in front of her... watch out Mia Hamm, could be a record breaker coming along :) Sara also loves music and will just dance and very rarely sing too.

Weather has been odd here this summer. Didn't rain much for 2-3 months... It was really quite brown here a couple of weeks ago, and the lawn was just mowed for the first time in almost 2 months yesterday(!). Now, everything is turning green. We've had major thunderstorms with lots of rain, like 5 inches in an hour downtown during one of them. We lost power last weekend for about 10-12 hours... we decided to bag it and leave for our long weekend with the Bussey-Corrigan clan in Snowshoe, WV a night early and find a place on the road... a good choice since it was 90 and muggy and no power.

It was a fun weekend, and the kids had fun eating tons of Cheerios and going down waterslides, while the so-called adults caught up (and ate Oreos). I like ski areas in the summer, a little bit quieter, with nice scenery and things to do.... heck, we even saw a pretty big black bear (Bubba to the locals) while out for a walk with the kids (yeah, that induced a little rush). The ride back was wet and long, lots of rain, through winding WV roads... even found myself hydroplaning going up a hill at one point...

Unfortunately, the weekend before that was not as fun, my Grandma passed away a couple of weeks after her 97th birthday... so it was up to Michigan to go to the funeral. Nice to see family, but also a little rough at the cemetery since that is where Davis is too...with both Grandma and Grandpa now. The trip was a good warmup for the WV trip, since Sara hadn't spent that much time (and in a decent mood) in a car since last x-mas. To help break it up, we stopped at Cabela's and checked out the big aquarium and stretched our legs.

Other than that, we finally got a new kitchen table (sorry, no picture)... nice walnut table, counter height, 56" round table... good for family dinners... and the floor in the kitchen is easier to clean than the floors in the dining room. Also, we finally bought our first new computer for home since 2001... got another Dell, haven't done much with it other than a little work for Danette and video-calls with Sara's grandparents. Now that we have a good computer setup, we have done that more often, so much that Sara just waves at the computer monitor in there even if it is just the screen-saver....Other than the relief of learning that none of our friends or family in MN was on that bridge over 35W (right near the exits to mine and Danette's apartments in college)... not else new to report. School starts soon... too soon.

So, without further ado... what you have really been waiting for.... pictures.

This is Sara's newest favorite activity: checking out and playing on all the pillows in the guest room... and maybe a little tickling too... I think both sets of grandparents taught her this one...


This is a pic from the end of one of the waterslides from the weekend in WV.


Picture from yesterday at her favorite park, just before she flung, yes flung, a whole bunch of sand using one of the shovels into her mouth... needless to say, I didn't get it all back out... 5 minutes later she almost repeated the trick.


And more pics below in the next post.