the last days of summer

this is how we've been soaking up this last week of summer:

riley & henry enjoying e/o's company (and yes, those are stickers on riley - - her auntie martha thought it would be funny!)




riley dressing herself (of course) and pushing her baby to the store (p.s. not a good idea, even if the store is only 2 blocks away!)



enjoying her new table & chairs with her friend elizabeth

lots & lots of bike rides!


and plenty of rides on "my new wee" (aka swing)

zoo tunes

last week i had the pleasure of leaving riley with a babysitter in the afternoon and made the trek down to the zoo in seattle. i met up with my sisters, claire and some of her friends. i brought some yummy homemade chicken pasta salad and a delicious homemade peach pie. we spread out our blanket and had wonderful conversation and laughs over dinner and then listened to amos lee's sweet lullaby's. the evening was warm and breezy, the music soulful and being in the presence of girlfriends was the best!

sometimes a girl just needs a doughnut

especially when it's with her daddy, before he heads into work

and ESPECIALLY when you're wearing your party dress

(but there is no party to attend)

just a thursday

but that is how it goes in our house

our camping trip to winthrop...

first haircut

well, we did it. we gave riley her first haircut last week. we had wanted to wait a while to give her a haircut, but she started losing quite a bit of her hair, so we were kind of forced to! the nurse assures us that it is quite normal for toddlers to start losing their fine baby hair and (hopefully) start to grow in thicker hair. and as a side note, why is it that little boys have the most beautiful hair? and my little girl is stuck with very thin wispy hair? riley's cousin henry is blessed with some seriously amazing curls and super thick hair. anyway, back to riley's hair - - - due to her hair loss, she was starting to sport a very long rat's tail/mullet so it was time!

we took her into tyler's place of employment, and one of the instructors so kindly volunteered to snip her hair and make her look like a cute little girl once again.

as you can see, riley was not a fan. the second we walked through the door, she knew something was up and clung to me like she was about to receive several shots. thankfully the instructor worked quickly and in just a few minutes she was done.


riley was still not sure what to think when it was over, but as soon as i said the words "ice-cream" her face lit up and off we went down the street to the best ice cream shop in the world.




we had fun eating our ice-cream and admiring riley's new haircut. she had even warmed up so much to the idea that by the time we were walking back to the car, she proudly patted her head and repeated "so pretty" with a big cheesy grin on her face.

happy friday!

i can't believe i'm saying this, but we take off this evening for ANOTHER weekend away. we've been doing a lot of traveling, but i guess that is what makes life fun - especially in the summertime! we are headed to winthrop tonight to spend the weekend with some friends. we are pitching our tent next to their RV and will spend all of tomorrow on their boat. the good life! we are very excited and are hoping for sunnier skies to the east. we have not been very pleased around here about the colder temperatures.

a few of the things we've been up to this week:

mom's group at the beach on monday (and it just so happened to be our only hot day!)

i signed riley up for swim lessons, so i've been braving the chilly mornings this week and watching on the sidelines. hopefully next week it will feel more like summer and that way all the moms won't have to go dressed in jeans, boots and coats! but it has been quite lovely to spend 30 minutes on the lounge chair each morning by myself, not attending to my little precious.

a family bike ride downtown to our local favorite for dinner

riley's new trick this week: climbing through the dog door to give doc his cookie

a little arts & crafts time that ended w/a very guilty look

and finally a little picnic lunch in riley's room, with baby, of course!

i do have to add that after riley had lunch with her baby, she said, "ok, night-night time" and then asked her baby if she had "poo-poos", nursed, rocked and patted her while saying, "it's ok, it's ok" then laid her baby in bed and suffocated her with a blanket and said, "ready, set, sleep!". mothering at it's finest!

have a wonderful weekend!

at the coast

last weekend we made the trek out to the coast, to the tiny town of westport. it was time again for the shred dogs annual crab feed. because of a conflict in tyler's travel schedule, we were only able to camp saturday night. we were barely there for 24 hours, but it was a very pleasant 24 hours! we had a long walk on the beach, fresh crab for dinner, a blazing campfire and more surfing for tyler/playing on the beach for riley, doc, bjorn & i on sunday morning. i only took my camera out on sunday, so didn't really get many photos, but here they are:

riley last year, august 2008 - 8 1/2 months old

riley this year, august 2009 - 20 1/2 months old

cousins, bjorn & riley

a post-surf greeting

cookies, shovels & the back of the car