Lazin' in Longview

On Saturday we went to Longview, WA to visit some friends. Justin's friend Chris, his wife Shirley, and their 9-month old, Dominic (you might remember him as Ramona's valentine) recently moved to Longview, and are now in driving distance from us. Justin's and Chris' friend Kristian was there visiting from New Mexico, so we decided it was the perfect time to make the drive. Jason, Andrea and 5 month old Liam caravaned with us from Seattle, and we had a great time together in Longview. Kristian and Chris had BBQ'd ribs, and salmon, and made many wonderful sides that were ready for us when we arrived. So, we just hung out with the three babies, ate fantastic food, and caught up. We decided it is something we're going to have to do every year, it was such a good time. There is something to say for people that you can always have a good time with. I'm already looking forward to next year (or maybe planning a get together sooner).

On Sunday we went to the Ballard Seafoodfest, and had some amazing smoked salmon. That festival is just another reason why we want to stay in Ballard. It has such a great feeling to it, and it is fantastic that we can just walk down to it. After we went to Seafoodfest, we went all the way to Seward Park for our friends' Tour De France party. There was amazing French food that our friends' Verena and Mike made from scratch. They worked so hard, and the food was to die for. Ramona had fun until she completely fell apart, then fell asleep on Justin's shoulder on the walk to the car.

baby's first concert

Last night we went with a big group of friends to ZooTunes to see Josh Ritter. We set up a few blankets and were joined by Ed, Christina, Courtney, Kim, Ben, Shayla, Verena, Mike, Heather, James and little Miller. Ramona was really psyched about the show in the beginning....she did a little boogieing, and entertained our group by climbing all over them. She lasted almost two hours, and then we walked home. It was a great experience, and I would love to go to quite a few of these shows next summer, they are a great compromise between going to a show, and spending time with your family. I don't have any pictures from the show unfortunately, the camera is one of the only things we forgot to bring.

weekend at the beach

We had a great weekend this last week. Justin came home early on Thursday, and we took off for the beach for a nice, long weekend. My parents met us there on Friday, and we were all entertained by Ramona and her antics.

She still hates water. She also hates sand, especially wet sand (worst of both worlds). She mainly wanted to spend her time inside, though she did have fun trying to escape out the door when someone left it open. Those antics made her laugh maniacally, which kind of made her escape a little less sneaky. We stayed there until Saturday, then left that night.

On Sunday we did our usual market walk, and then went to Wedgwood pool to meet our friends Justin, Amy and their daughter Lauren. Justin went to college with Amy, and now they live in N. California. Their daughter is literally two days older than Ramona. She must have been born on a day where they gave out "the love for water", because Lauren was quite the swimmer. Ramona on the other hand, looked frightened to even be near the water. She was much happier when we returned to the shade to play.

That afternoon we went to a BBQ sendoff for my brother at my parent's house. He is leaving for China for two months and should have some great adventures (he even gets to go to some Olympic events, jealous). After that we went to Sabrina and Eric's for Eric's birthday fondue party, yum. It was a full weekend, and we're looking forward to another one next weekend. See you then!

she will like water, she will like water

We had a water filled weekend, to Ramona's initial disgust. After watching Ramona obsess about playing in Max's water bowl, I figured we had to try water again. Surely she must be over her fear of water if she wants to play in a bowl full of dirty, drool filled water. So, first I let her play with some Tupperware with water in it. She thought that was kind of fun (not as fun as the dog bowl though), and eventually picked up the container and dumped the water all over herself. She did not scream, just seemed a little stunned, and I even got a picture post-dump where she looks slightly pleased.

The next step was buying a baby pool. So, I blew it up (which almost made me pass out), filled it with water, put Ramona's swim diaper on, and put her in the pool. I started with just her feet, which just made her whimper, but when I sat her down in the pool......the crying really started. I'm sure that people walking by my house probably thought I was torturing her, which in her mind was completely correct. We have yet to go back in the pool, but I'm going to try again this week. The upside was that she did like the little plastic boats I bought for the pool, enough to distract her from her screaming for at least 30 seconds.

To take a break from water, we went to two first birthday parties on Saturday. Grayson and Sofia from our PEPS group turned one last week and had really fun parties. We went to Grayson's party first where we played with the other pepsters, as well as the Howells. Grayson really got into eating his cake....his mom had to eventually take some of it away, so he didn't go too crazy on the sugar. At Sofia's party we got to see Toljabee (yes, I looked it up......Sofia's mom just called it the Korean business), which is when they put out objects on a table that infer a certain career path, and then the one-year old chooses one to predict their fate. Sofia picked the dollar bill, even though her dad tried to sway her to choose the computer chip........so we'll see if she ends up working in finance like her uncle.

Yesterday was the best day of all. We walked to the market, then Ramona came home and took a nap.....so I went on a bike ride with my mom. When Ramona woke up, we went on a boat ride with the Howells, and Kim and Ben. Eric is a member of the University of Washington Boat club, so we got to go on a 26 foot sailboat, which Eric captained for us. Ramona had to wear a life jacket, which was pretty horrifying to her. I also went swimming, which was amazingly refreshing. It was a real Seattle summer day for us. It made me really love this city (and love knowing someone who belongs to a boat club). That night we had dinner with a bunch of friends, and Kim made homemade veggie burgers, yum!

It was a packed weekend in the city, and next weekend we get to go to the cabin!

Ramona's first sushi

After celebrating with the Howell's Ramona kicked back with some kappa rolls Sat night....