Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Hotter than a Match Head

It's HOT. They are talking crazy about a high of 105 today. Ugh. We are now down two air conditioners- the car AC, which you will recall went out last summer while we were en route to Montana (tip: don't drive through eastern Washington in August without air conditioning- even if you do not have morning sickness and/or a cranky toddler with you, you will be miserable). So not having any AC in the car is pretty bad (this is the car with black leather seats that bakes in the sun ALL DAY LONG because there is a giant BOAT taking up precious garage space... but I digress...)

So now, NOW during this major heat wave, now that we have four warm bodies in our house, NOW the window unit AC has died. This was discovered only after my dear brother gallantly wrestled the thing into the window one steamy morning. So there we sat, poised and ready to feel that whoosh of cool air on our sweaty brows only to be greeted with the sound of a dying fan. Like I said, ugh.

But instead of continuing this whiny rant about the heat and our apparent bad luck with heat relieving appliances, let's turn instead to some of the things that we are enjoying this summer:


Peas, zucchini, broccoli, basil, tomatoes, and tons and tons of pumpkins that are growing in our garden right now. We bought a chest freezer for the garage to preserve some of this year's harvest (and the 20 pounds of blueberries we picked last weekend), because as much as I would like to impress you with tales of canning my preserves, the truth is that I'd rather throw things in a bag and freeze them and be done with it. 


Improvising hats with pants.


Jack camping and cultivating friendships with my friends' kids.



Swimming.


Lavender outside my bedroom window. Sawyer. And Brent, too.

There, now I feel better.


Friday, July 24, 2009

Kate and Aaron Get Married!

Our friends Kate and Aaron got married last weekend at Sylvan Ridge Winery. It was a super fun wedding with great people, delicious food and wine, and funky music. A good time was had by all!



This is Jack's fairy godmother, Doris, feeding him a stolen cupcake before dinner.


Sawyer was so excited for Kate and Aaron that he sported his necktie for the occasion.



Beautiful wedding, beautiful day. We stayed late- Jack, the party animal, hit the dance floor around 10 pm. The next morning he woke up and said, "Wanna go to Kate's wedding again."

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Oregon Country Fair!!

If you've never been, you just won't get it...





(This is the nurse who assisted the midwife when Sawyer was born!)




Can't wait for next year!

Friday, July 17, 2009

First Kisses

Watch out, Jack. I'm sure Lily will be a heartbreaker!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Okay, I know this one is bad...



BUT!

The resemblance- it's uncanny! Maybe it's just us...


Monday, July 13, 2009

In the Garden...


We are growing blueberries...


chickens....


and fat babies.


Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Camping!

On our camping trip last weekend to Crane Prairie with some friends, Jack earned a new nickname: the Dude. As in "The Dude abides"...

Does he not look rather dude-like in this picture?

Melanie and her son Peter came out to visit us for a day. Peter is getting a baby brother in about a month or so. Let's hope he gets the non-colicky kind.



Jack and Keegan played on the boat and did a little fishing.


Both boys were asleep within 15 minutes of leaving the campground. They looked so sweet, all tuckered out in the back seat. Then Sawyer woke up and screamed from Oakridge home. That's about 45 minutes of screaming, in case you didn't know. Man, that kid, I tell you. 

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Pool Party

 The heat is on! Well, it was on last week anyway. I usually hate the hot weather, but since we discovered parent-child swim at Amazon Pool, those summer afternoons aren't so bad after all. Unfortunately the pool is across town and the Volvo has no AC (anyone want to give us $3000 to get it fixed? Didn't think so.) AND it has black leather seats. Yowch. But once we got there it was all worthwhile. We met MaryAnne and Lily there and the dads came after work.



Sawyer was a crabby pants at first. He had a quick dip in the pool and then he fell asleep sucking his little thumb on my shoulder. Jack is all about the water slide. After one less-than-graceful attempt at taking him down, I was eventually able to get us both down the slide without further incident. Being a fun mom is a lot of work.

I think this place is our new summer hangout.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Captain Underpants!



No, Jack is not potty trained yet. I just felt like living dangerously for a little while. And like doing more laundry, apparently.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

'Tis the Season

Strawberry season, that is! Our garden strawberries are long gone, thanks to Jack's daily attacks on the strawberry patch. I think I got maybe two berries this year. Sigh.

So we loaded up the kiddos and went for one last end of the season berry picking extravaganza. Sawyer was, obviously, not a lot of help.

Jack is still struggling with the concept that some berries go into the bucket, not into the mouth.


Jack and Lily were also not much help. Although they did provide entertainment for the serious berry pickers among us.

I made freezer jam, strawberry shortcakes, and a strawberry rhubarb pie and then crammed the freezer with bags of frozen berries. I think this is my favorite time of year.