snapshots

Sweet Baby Esley

 

She matches our family! She has Frank's hair, and the kids' cute Korean lip indent-y thing that I love!

Dear Angela, please bring her back soon. Love, Auntie Shawn

a conversation of 4 year olds

Overheard...

Keston: I am so drinky! I need some water.

Ashley: Ya! I am drinky too!

Keston: Hey! We're drinky buddies.

Ashley & Keston: We're Drinky Buddies (repeated 106 times, loudly in little girl's not-so-enunciated-voices, in a Lynden public park). Lynden, you caught that, right? Where alcohol isn't sold on Sundays.

4 year old Drinky Buddies. Nice.

The Birthday of Madyson...

How can my girlie be 14?!  She is such a lovely young lady, talented in so many ways. I love her to bits.

We celebrated with her friends at our timeshare condo, per usual. Swimming, crafting, movies, pizza, lots of talking.  She has really sweet friends that I am so thankful for.

 

  

Better Late Than Never: Inaugural Post

You asked for it: more blogging. So let's start at the beginning...

Toward the end of June, my affectionately named "adoptive family" left for their summer trek to Alaska. The characters in this story are Johnny (adoptive "dad" type),  Barbara (his lovely wife, she doesn't fish anymore), Chantel (their oldest daughter, and my friend since kindergarten - she was my ticket into this family, now she's a mom and stays home too), Nicole (the next kid, and my personal massage therapist, is super-tough and can fix the boat engine and pile corks and whatever else she does), and Lance (the youngest kid, whom I used to babysit, and is now Keston's boyfriend, is the skiff man). Confusing.

This is the boat they've had since I was probably in third grade, maybe fourth.? (I remember this, because their first boat sank when I was in second grade.) Wally G. saved them all. Whew. Every summer my best friend (Chantel) went to Alaska, while I stayed home and picked strawberries. Sad.

But then I grew up and was adopted into the family (for lack of participating parents of my own). Happy!

When Mady was three, and I was a much younger version of myself (26?), we were stow-aways, and went to Alaska with them for a week. We rode up on this boat, saw bits of Petersburg and Sitka, then flew home. There was amazing wildlife and scenery. Little Mady kept busy for the three day boat ride up by repeating "We're all gonna die!" Over and over. (We didn't). We saw lots of porpoises and whales and bald eagles and swimming deers in the Inside Passage. Breathtaking.

And now, each year we go to the boat send-off.  Ike says a blessing, and away they go...

 

 

  

 

 

 

  

The apple doesn't fall far.

 

This afternoon Mady got a call from the library, telling her she'd won a prize from the weekly reading contest.  She got $10 to a local bookstore, and $5 to a donut shop. So nice for her!

I like to think it was my lucky genes that made her win, but maybe it was the fact that she read 16 books last week. (Note: to accomplish this yourself, read while in the car, restaurants, bed, and in the hot tub.)

SFG envy

On Father's Day we wandered around in Fairhaven with the in-laws. I stumbled across this heavenly square foot garden. Next year, maybe...

 

hello, Martha.

 u-picked strawberries, hand-whipped cream, and shortcake from scratch.          Uh huh.