Father's Day 2008

We spent Jeff's third Father's Day going to church, out to lunch with friends, and then relaxing at home before he had to drive back to Bellingham for the second week of Defensive Tactics training. You can tell he is smitten with his girls by the pictures, but this story illustrates it well: I had to teach Sunday School, which put Jeff in church alone with Abby, since Charlie goes to the nursery. A man asked Jeff after the service if it was his first Father's Day. When Jeff said no, he had a two year old as well, the man said from the way Jeff was looking at Abby as he held her in church, anyone would have thought it was his first baby, he was so in love. I thought that was the sweetest thing to hear. He sure does love his little girls, and can't wait to come home to them after this long time away!

Abby Hope- 8 weeks old!

Abby had her 8 week checkup today, and she is doing great- 23 inches long, and 10 lbs, 14 oz. That is up three inches and almost three pounds in two months! She is lifting her head up, trying to stand when we hold her up on our laps, smiling a lot, and being a wonderful baby. We could not ask for more!

Jen's Birthday at the Zoo

I chose to go to the Point Defiance Zoo with Jeff, the girls, and our friends the Ziembas for my birthday. The best part of the day was hearing what Charlie had to say about the animals. About the elephant, she yelled "Look how big he is!" to everyone around us. When she saw the tiger, she announced with confidence, "That's a tiger. He's orange." When she saw the water buffalo, she said "It's a yak." We thought that was pretty good guessing for anyone who's never seen a water buffalo before, let alone a two-year-old. But she has gotten a pretty good education from my Planet Earth coffe table book. So although my only pictures from the day are of Charlie on the slide, looking at fish in the aquarium, and Abby as I wore her in the Snugli, it's only because we had such a busy day that I often forgot about the camera. Sometimes those days are the best days, and you have only the pictures in your head to remember them by. Twenty-eight is going to be a busy, yet wonderful year for me, I can already tell.

Charlie's Day At The Park

We love many things about Battle Point Park: the vast open space, the duck pond, the winding paths, the wild geese, ducks, and rabbits, and the blackberry bushes in summer. But if you are a kid, the best thing has to be the playground. Charlie has a fantastic time moving handfuls of gravel from one side of the wall to the other; she loves to run all over the wooden fort structure and peek out the little openings; she practices her balance as she climbs the whale tail and the giant starfish; she screams with glee when Jeff pushes her high on the swings; she musters courage I didn't think she had to go down the big slide all by herself and land on her knees in the sawdust at the bottom. She makes me envious of her age, her size, how giant and fun this all must seem to her, while I sit in the shade keeping an eye on her and her sleeping sister. Oh, to be little again, and for the world to be huge and exciting. No gas prices or carbon footprints or presedential elections to worry about. No wondering if in a few years we'll be riding horses to Safeway and hitching them up in the grassy area that used to be the parking lot. Just big wooden forts and bridges to climb and explore, wild geese and rabbits to chase, cool juicy blackberries to pick and eat, and a swing in which you can touch the sky, but only if Daddy pushes.