Emery Turns 2

  Today is Emery's second birthday.  I can't believe she's not a baby anymore.  Now she's my energetic toddler.  She's not much of a talker yet.  Here favorite phrases to say are: thank you, look I see, and let's go.  Emery gives amazing high 5's.  She has a giant belly laugh, and loves to suck her thumb.  Her favorite cartoons are Max and Ruby, and Mickey Mouse.  Playing outside is one of her favorite things to do.  She loves eating a wide variety of things, but she really appreciates a good hamburger or hot dog.  Her hair is grower longer, but it just curls up.  I love her curly cap.  She still adores Luke, and loves to give him kisses and hugs.  Luke loves getting them too, and laughs joyously.  Emery can put her dirty dishes in the dishwasher with a lot of prompting.  

   For her birthday we just had a small get together with my mom, Karl, Aimee, and Tyler.   We opened her presents and did cake right after she woke up from her afternoon nap.  Once she saw her pile of presents on the table she became very excited.  Watching her open presents was so rewarding. Each time she opened one she gasped with delight upon revealing the gift inside.  

Tyler, Avery, Emery, and Harper

I love Tyler and Avery's faces in this picture.

I love that everyone's heads had to come together for the opening of the gifts.

While everyone else ate cake Luke was stuck with a paper plate.

Avery wanted her picture taken with this piece of frosting.

Emery enjoying her birthday cake.

Just one other picture of Luke and Karl.

Emery's favorite gift were these interlocking foam letters and numbers that my sister Nellie gave her.  I'll let you decide if they're my favorite gift.

Mt. St. Helens

     Yesterday Ashlyn and I loaded up the kids and picked up my Mom to go to Mt. St. Helens to the Forest Learning Center.  My sister DeAnna drove up from Portland to meet us there too.  The visitor center is pretty nice.  It has a large playground outside that Avery and Harper liked.  Emery as usual didn't want to stay in one place at pretty much any time, and cried when I tried to get her to do anything.  I managed to buy her happiness with some peanut butter cups from the gift shop, and then all was well.  We had lunch at a roadside restaurant, and then headed home when I-5 was closed for an accident forcing us to take about an hour's detour.  It was still a good trip though.

Mount Saint Helens

Ashlyn in a helicopter.

Avery in the helicopter.

Emery in the helicopter.  She wouldn't wear the headphones.

Harper in the helicopter now.

Avery really wanted her picture taken with this eagle talon on.

DeAnna being hugged by Avery and Harper.

This is what Emery did when she wasn't crying.

Luke was unimpressed.

Last Day of School

  Monday was Avery's last day of school finally.  She went for two hours only that day, so I spent the day at school with her attending the end of year assembly.  I also got to see their typical morning routine.  Avery was excited that I was able to come and be a mommy helper.  The next day when she woke up she proudly stood in front of me and asked if she looked like a first grader.  Naturally I said yes and she mused that she must have grown during the night.  Avery is very excited for summer vacation and happy about going to a new school next year.  We are going to miss her current school a lot.  

On the last day of school.

Avery with the girls from her class.

One of Avery's best friends at school and church is Tommy.  His family moved too though.

Avery and her amazing Kindergarten teacher.  We are so grateful to her for helping Avery have a great year.

Father's Day Weekend

  We had a fun weekend.  On Saturday I was able to give my BFF Christie her baby shower with Zander in tow since the first time I tried to make the baby shower happen he decided he needed to come into the world that day.  Daryl and my dad took the girls to the movie while the shower was going on.  Then Sunday was Father's Day of course.  Mom, Dad, Adam, Angie, and Logan came up for dinner.  Harper looked at Logan during dinner and called him a pig.  Then she started to oink.  That girl has a funny sense of humor.

Daryl, Avery, and Harper.

Adam, Logan, and Dad

Logan trying out Luke's exersaucer.

Avery visiting the bunnies at the baby shower with Hannah and Ender.

Emery hanging out.

Baby Zander all snuggled up.  I think he's wearing a little jacket that originally belonged to Addison.

Luke trying to figure out how to untie Dad's shoe.

Mariner's Game

  Last Friday we took Avery and Harper to there first ever Mariner's baseball game (Emery and Luke sat this one out with Ashlyn at home).  Aimee, Karl, and Tyler were also with us, so we had a really good time.  It was also Star Wars night, and there was an amazing fireworks show after the game.  Harper was really funny wondering where all the Star Wars stuff was before the game got started.  Apparently that was the selling point for her.  When it was time to go meet Princess Leia she was the only one who wanted to get pictures with her.  Avery stayed in her seat with Daryl and Karl, and Tyler was being camera shy.  The girls had a great time, stayed for the entire game, and said they would do it again. Also the Mariners won!

The Seattle skyline from our seats on the third deck.

Here are Avery and Harper in there seats with their Moose buckets.  It was pretty bright out.

Harper spent the majority of her time using Karl as her lounge chair or toy.

She also would hang out with Aimee to check on the person dressed up like Darth Vader seated two people away from Aimee.

Avery spent most of the game glued to Daryl's lap.

Harper was scared of the Storm Trooper which is why she is standing as close as she can to Princess Leia.

Here's Aimee, Harper, and me with a lot of dedicated Star Wars fans.  

Sunday

  Sunday Karl, Aimee, and Tyler came over for dinner.  It had been too long since we had seen them last.  After dinner we made up some cupcakes for the kids to decorate.  Emery really only ate the frosting off of her cupcake, and was pretty concerned about the frosting she kept getting on her hands.  We also went over to Robinswood Park to feed the ducks.  There about twenty ducks on pond there that are very enthusiastic about bread.  Tyler, Avery, and Harper helped me throw out bread to the ducks and were very excited to help out.  There were some very demanding ducks; especially these darker colored ducks.  They came right out of the pond and stood right by our feet demanding food.  

Emery upset about frosting on her hands.

This is how Emery eats cupcakes.

Harper, Avery, and Tyler.  I love Tyler's silly grin.

Emery held onto Aimee's hand for the longest time.

Harper feeding the aggressive ducks.

Emery hanging out with the ducks.

These are all the ducks that came for bread.

Luke was pretty unimpressed.

A nice picture of Avery!

Beautiful Oregon

  On Saturday we went down to Portland along with my parents to meet up with Brad and DeAnna, so we could see Multnomah Falls.  On our way to Multnomah we stopped by the Vista House that sits on the Columbia River Gorge and more than lives up to its name.  We also stopped by another waterfall called Latourell Falls that wasn't as busy as Multnomah.  There was a narrow little windy trail to the base of the falls with a steep drop off on one side that Emery thought would be great to run on full steam ahead.  Daryl had to carry her kicking and screaming back to the car because she thought we needed to keep on hiking.  When we got to Multnomah Falls it was very busy, but it was worth it.  I haven't been there since I was a little kid.  We just went up to the bridge since we had too many little kids to hike up to the top.   It was great visiting Brad and DeAnna and enjoying the natural beauty of my home state.

The Vista House.  It was built in the 1920's.

One of the views from the Vista House.

Avery wore this little headband that she made in school for almost the whole trip.  Luke is admiring Avery's hair.

Latourell Falls.  This one is pretty fun because you can get really close to it.

This is at the stream the runs from Latourell Falls.  The girls found out that the water was really cold.

Here is the base of Multnomah Falls.

I'm pretty sure the ice cream cones were the highlight of the day for Harper and Avery.

Harper, Avery, and DeAnna sitting on a bench.  You can also see Brad's shoe.

Harper, Daryl, Avery, and I standing on the bridge at Multnomah Falls.

Avery and Harper squeezed into the trunk of an old tree.

Daryl holding an extremely wiggly and upset Emery.