I love July. It's warm. The sun is out. There's no school. It's prime Lemonade Stand time plus, there are fireworks. Lots and lots of fireworks.
Well, this July was no different. We celebrated the 4th of July by going on a hike with a big group of friends up to the top of Wallace Falls. Unfortunately, the hike started with E taking a big tumble out of the hiking backpack and onto the hard, black pavement. I know there are a lot more injuries to come but the first is always a little bit more traumatic. I still remember my heart dropping as he fell and I couldn't stop him in time. On a brighter side, the hike was beautiful and E recovered just fine!
After the hike we had a BBQ before heading over to a little park about 2 or 3 miles north of Gas Works Park to watch the fireworks they shoot off over Lake Union. As the fireworks finally started E finally fell asleep. As you may know, fireworks don't last that long so he was only able to sleep for about a half hour. He was furious when we woke him up to put him in his carseat. I don't think he'd ever been so mad to wake up before in his life.
With July came a little bit more heat then we've had in over two years. It was wonderful. As the heat rolled in we made good use of the wading pools around Seattle but especially the one at Greenlake. While spending our time lying on green grass at different parks and reading books during E's naps was nice, the highlight of July was flying out to illinois to spend a week with Ben's family.
E was, once again, a traveling pro. We received several compliments about how great he was on the flight. Once we made it to Illinois he had a blast with all the attention he received from his cousins. And, despite the illness that was passed around it was great seeing everyone in person again; although, I think my favorite part was getting to see Tim and Fran on stage. They were incredible. I know who I'm going to if I ever need acting lessons.
Speaking of our trip to Nauvoo, and in case anyone has forgotten our trip there, it was great but it was hot. So, so hot! Almost every picture I have of E he is bright red in the face and sweaty! Poor guy isn't used to extreme temperatures. It made for lots of naked baby pictures in my July pictures folder though!
But Ben and I didn't let the heat get to us! With William's expert help, we (Ben and myself) BBQ'd for the first time. I think our dinner was a pretty big success!? Hmmm. We're going to need to BBQ again sometime now that I'm thinking about how yummy that was.
Anyway, some other things we were able to do while in Nauvoo included going to the Nauvoo pageant one night, unfortunately Ben had to leave early because E was just too miserable; going to Amish country and stopping by one of their shops; eating ice cream; visiting with family; and not really seeing any of the sites, except Carthage Jail, because it was too hot out and/or someone in our family was ill. I guess that means we'll just have to go back again some other time.
After we got home from that trip E started his swim lessons and we spent a lot of time outside enjoying the sun and the water. Both of which, I've realized, are my life fuel. And, in case you were keeping track, E turned six months old! I wrote a little exert in my journal about him that I figured I'd share:
"He's still ours. Six month's later (almost) and he's still ours. Can you believe it? I guess the hospital isn't coming to take him from us after all. ... E is amazing. He's so smart and he's so beautiful. I kiss him constantly and play with his full head of hair! (except for the bald spot in the back)."
I'm glad I wrote what little I did. I think I'm going to regret not writing more but I need to be happy with what things I have written down since I can't go back!
Before we move on to August there are a few more E things I need to jot down. I remember it was July when I finally put E in some six month PJs. They were, of course, huge on him. (Sadly, at almost a year old, he's finally outgrowing those 6 month clothes.) He discovered his tongue in August. It was so darn cute watching him stick it out over and over again. All we had to do was tap his chin and his tongue would appear. And lastly, he finally got his first real haircut. Not just around the ears or the back. His daddy chopped it all off and it made him look so grown up ... and nearly gave me a heart attack when he brought out a huge handful of hair!
And thus concludes our busiest month of the year!
On to August...
This month we pulled out the Kayak Ben got for his birthday last year and we made good use of it. We took it out several times on Greenlake and Lake Washington a couple more times. We usually went in the evening when the people were heading home and the lake started to calm down a bit. It was always beautiful and peaceful. E even managed to fall asleep on it once.
In other August news, Ben and I celebrated our FIVE year wedding anniversary. I don't know how that happened but apparently we've been married for a really long time. Well, relatively speaking. I know five years in the grand scheme of things isn't all that long but I remember when I thought three years was a long time.
Anyway, to celebrate we headed back to the Pacific Science Center and went through the King Tut Exhibit which was ... not worth the money but I'm glad we went nonetheless. We got the audio tours which I thought made it better. Ben got bored of it and admitted he'd start hoping that each segment would just end. I liked it because I learned a lot about the Egyptian pharoahs that I didn't know before. Like the fact that King Tut only worshipped one God and was therefore stricken from all the recorded books at some point after his death. If he'd died at an older age, buried in a more appropriate tomb, we'd never have known about him and then, through fate, he's become the most well known pharoah of them all.
After the King Tut exhibit we headed down to the waterfront and took a spin on the Seattle Great Wheel which was a blast but would have been better if they hadn't put us in a little compartment with complete strangers for fifteen minutes. I didn't even get to kiss my husband during our ride!
Other insiginificant, but maybe I'll want to remember this at some point things that occured in August: we went rock climbing one evening, Ben "significantly improved our quality of life" by dismantling practically our entire apartment and rearranging furniture in every room, E tried to grab my pizza and got his first really bad burn, we had the inflatable swimming pool a permanent part of our living room decor for the entire month so E could play in it whenever he wanted, and E could officially sit up on his own this month without any help. .... He probably had this down in late July but was still a bit wobbly.
Seattle in September is my favorite. It starts to cool off but it's still warm enough to go out and do all the summery fun things we didn't get done earlier in the year.
This September we went to the lake house in Bremerton with our friends. While there I learned they were going to be moving to California in a few short weeks. It was so sad to see them go, they were great friends to us while we were in the ward. We were definitely blessed to know them, I just hope we haven't seen the last of them during our lifetime! (*hinthint!)
After we got back from the lake house we decided we wanted to do one of our big "experiment on foods and have a fancy feast" meals. For these meals Ben and I pick the fanciest recipes we can find, three-course minimum, and go at it. We had some friends over for that and I think we ate about a quarter of the food because we made so much! But, on the plus side, I didn't mind eating leftovers because it was all so delicious.
Speaking of kitchen adventures: I discovered our kitchen cabinets were rotting which led to a massive hole in the ceiling for quite some time while it aired out. Thankfully, we don't have to do that sort of maintenance and our handy maintenance guys took care of it all. Once the hole in the ceiling was gone I tested a brioche recipe I had which turned out scrumptious but it did not look anything like any brioche I could find online.
OH! And, at the end of September, after living in Washington for three years, we finally made it to the Puyallup fair. And, if I remember correctly, our favorite part was the free concert we watched for about a forty-five minutes. I can't remember their band name but they were really good!
Other "good to knows" that happened in September... E's teeth came in in full force: two on bottom and four on top (well, they started coming in, they may have finished up at the beginning of October); at some point near the beginning of September, Ben finally committed to running a 5k with me and we started our "Couch to 5K workout"; and lastly, I beat everyone at a round of Monopoly and got a picture with my trophy!
September did not disappoint.
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