Starting to feel like Fall

One of my favorite sunflowers growing in the garden right now.














One of the pumpkins starting to get orange!!

Soccer has started. She has the same coach she has had for the last 3 years and she is thrilled. Another cool thing- they have numbers this year and she got my old number "7."

Little Wes standing up when he is supposed to be eating- knowing he is being a stinker and apparently loving it. Great.....

1st Day

Happy 1st day of 2nd grade!! back to 5 acre opening ceremonies complete with singing, circle dancing, introducing all the kids AND bagpipes.... sweet..sweet...sweet and one girl with this grin on her face the whole time.

As I watched her, I understood why a mother would starve herself to feed a baby; how there was always time and room for a child to curl close to her side; how she could be soft enough to serve as a pillow and strong enough to move heaven and earth.
- Jodi Picoult from the Plain Truth

Thanks Hannie for the book, i loved it. I also had a hard time putting it down. Was reading with one hand and making coffee with the other, walking around the house putting laundry away and reading. :) hehe.

The Rain

A quiet day at home today, all of us home. I got to go running for the first time in a couple months probably, it was hard. Always baffles me that i can run 13 miles and don't run for a month or so and 3 miles feels hard. ughgh, back at the start again. I came and got Wes to walk the last mile, him in the stroller. It was barely sprinkling when we started out, the air warm. On our way back it really started pouring rain. I love it when it rains hard like that, tipped my head back, smiling and stuck my tongue out to catch the water. I put the cover over his stroller so he wouldn't get soaked but he kept pushing it back. He wanted to be in the rain, too. His body was all still and at the end he just looked up at me and smiled the biggest smile, with his hair soaking wet and barefeet sticking out. Times when you see something of yourself in them so clearly, makes your chest so tight for all the love you feel.

La Push 2010

As a kid I remember these vacations with other families, tons of kids playing all day. We had our first mini- vacation like that out at La Push for 4 days. The weather was perfect, everyone in the water, wet-suits and boogie boarding, sharing meals, campfires, kids playing all day, and tons of laughing and just "being." horray!





The pictures never do this justice












Sunset under the Yates' awning.


Us girls and two of the "littles"





Joe and Wes hanging out up on the rocks. If Wes was on the sand he seemed to just make a b-line for the water. hmmmm... his papa's son? :)




Wes thought the long board was pretty cool.

The big kids the first night we got there. They couldn't stand it, eventually they all got wet even though it was basically night.

Eating dinner at the campsite. 6 adults, 9 kids and 3 motorhomes. Sooo much fun.

Whaaat we have to go home...? well as long as I can drive!

Wessy at La Push











Brrrrrr.... putting on cold- still wet, wet suits in the morning to go surfing.

Abs in her driftwood

Morning at La push

Alex, Jerry, Joe and Abs on the beach

Evening

Here at the computer, the evening hits. My face lit up by the sun through the window.
One baby asleep, the other occupied, the house is so quiet.
2 days at the river in a row, Wes flinging his body back to rest his head in my hand when i ask him, did you see the trees? aaahhhh, Kinkaid.
Out the window right now the water bright blue and all still.
Time for a night walk, how could you not go?

And You are 1

How can it be that it has been a whole year?

How can it be that it seems you have always been here and also that it was yesterday that you were born?

How can it be that in one year you went from sleeping most of your days to eating, yelling, and exploring most of your days?

You have shifted the dynamic of our family for the better, more balanced.

Your sister loves you to no end but is starting to feel you asserting your will- she is strong and so are you, i'm sure some battles are ahead of us.

A bit about you at 1.

- You love, love, love being outside. You sit by the sliding glass door, you cry if anyone goes out and doesn't take you with them. Outside you love riding Jobe's 4 wheeler, the tricycle, using any tools you see around, digging in the dirt in general exploring.

- You are LOUD, just like your sister. I don't know how it is that we have such loud children but i suspect you are just trying to compete with your sister to be heard.

- You like to eat most anything but you don't like your highchair.

- You love your sister's room and everything in it.

- You love to go wake your sister up in the morning as you are usually awake first.

- You are the only way i could get your sister awake without a fight for school during the year, as if it was you waking her she would wake up happy.

-You are walking and sometimes trying to run.

- You are a treasure, a gift to all of us, and we love you like crazy.

Happy Birthday Wes!

Raspberry jam made by 9am, a hard morning with a 7 year old that has the attitude of a 14 year old at times, not liking to say no to fun things, feeling like i have to have my thumb on her all day- hashing it out. Lunch out on a sand pile, both kids "helping" their grandma Kali on the sand- Abs all proud that she got to help on the real pile not her makeshift one on the side. Some management and errands but also some sweet quiet time in the middle of the day and a really good book. A girl right now laughing that belly laugh that i love so much while her brother is trying to fall down on purpose and laughing, crawling all fast like he does when he is having fun. The sun is out and the day is only half over, a big breath comes out of me.

Little Forever

We are in the hammock in the evening a few days ago- talking about Wes's birthday coming up.

Abby: Momma, wouldn't it be cool if we could do some sort of magic and make it so Wes never got any bigger than he is right now. Mom, he is so cute. I'm going to miss his little sounds he makes when he starts saying real words. Maybe i could have that magic too and just get to be a kid forever, maybe i would wait until i was 10 to do it because i think its going to be really cool when i'm 10.

Last night as we were heading to bed she wanted me to pick her up and carry her to brush her teeth.

Momma: Abby i'm too tired, you're too big.

Abs: Don't say that momma. I never want to get any bigger. I mean i want to have birthdays, of course..., but i don't want to get any taller and i want my voice to be the same.

My sweet girl, you are a gem.

Some Pics

The super cheesy grin I've been trying to catch on film. Ha- I got it.

The kids at salt creek in the raft.

The boys' early morning swim on Joe's birthday.

Joe and Wes doing some work. :) Wes loves the tractor- he is all still and in his observation mode.

Alex and Jerry when they got here for the summer!!

Horray for no school and barefeet

Summertime....summertime. Finally.

The kiddos braving the water at Lake Crescent, cold but beautiful!










Luigi, Asha, and Ethan up at Hurricaine Ridge, some hiking and sun.








The end of the week. Joe, Asha, and Kali

The cousins. Jeremiah, Keelee, Alex, and Chelsea

Abs took this picture of Keelee and Wes, so beautiful.

Vacation vacation

What a week we had. The hottest weather of the year, trips to the punch bowl and turquoise water. Salt creek, surfing, great food, walking back and forth from Asha'a house she rented to ours, soooo nice. We got to go kayaking in the bay as the sun was going down, the water all glass, the frogs croaking and the quiet- oh how quiet. Tents in the yard along with slip in slides, pools, and squirt guns. We had a party on the 4th for Joe, bad weather but everyone still came and by the evening the sun was out. We got to show them Port Townsend and they hiked around Hurricaine Ridge. Late nights, nice talks, lots of laughing and Terets. Cars full of teenagers and all the entertainment that that brings as well as sweet young kids, Abs and Ethan playing all week together- mostly they ran and laughed. We had the Payesko kids and Angelina to make the 6-8 yr old pack of kids bigger and tons of fun. We loved having you all, thanks everyone for the week, for the memories and all the sweet hugs and love. We really have such an amazing family.

Running

This is off Court's phone from facebook, not sure how to make it look normal. But here is us after the run, happy happy we are done!!

Pre-race shoes and numbers, ready.

So for the bit of grumbling i did about this race being a bit of a pain, the training was harder to find time for, didn't feel like i ran enough, a separate trip to Seattle for the registration, (WTF), and all that goes into leaving overnight by myself, to say the least it seemed like alot. But... when we finally got to the start, looking at a sea of people doing this, that all went away and I just felt where i was. I was lucky enough to be running with my niece in a half marathon. The conditions were perfect, the course- freeways shut down, running through tunnels and next to lake Washington. Running by people of every race, color, kids, mom's/dad's, grandparents, people holding US flags with people's names on them, all sorts of people cheering everyone on, didn't matter if they knew you or not. I saw moms walking with daughters holding hands the whole way, lots of women running with other women- laughing, talking, and encouraging each other along, couples running together, kids joining their moms for a bit of the way and then yelling that they loved them and back they went to the next cheering spot. I saw many people with names and pictures of people on their back that they were running for, people who had died of cancer. Mostly though, for that morning there were 27,000 people running or walking for something bigger than themselves, a whole morning where that many people in one place all had feelings of goodwill, everyone smiling and feeling empowered after they were finished. When we came out of the tunnel and saw Safeco and Qwest field I was endorphin high and basically had goosebumps until the end. Thanks everyone so much for helping me get all those runs in at home, thanks Cass for deciding to do it with me, to Court and Dawn for letting us crash at your house and for braving the morning race traffic/policemen, to Kali and Joe for hanging with the kids all those times so i could run. I could not have done it without any of you. And to end the story of the previous post, yes, the strep throat did get me but i'm on the mend!