SKYDIVE

Call me crazy.... believe me many have. Last Saturday I jumped out of a plane at 13,500 feet. It was a very spontaneous decision to join Jodi (Marty's on air partner) and her husband David. Jodi was telling me about their plans on Wednesday and because I have always wanted to skydive I got very excited for her, obviously. Noting my excitement, Jodi told Marty and they called me while on the air the following day. So I thought about it, worried about leaving Josie motherless and Marty wifeless. Apparently the risk of dying is 1 out of every 380,000 - so skydiving is actually safer than riding in a car??
I decided around 7PM on Thursday evening. About 36 hours before jumptime.

The 5 seconds before I jumped and the first 10 seconds of freefall were the most terrifying of my entire life. But I have to say that the 45 seconds to a minute of freefall were the most exhilirating. So, I guess I will take the horrifying to get the exhilirating. Although I don't think I would need to do it again, I'm extremely happy that I did it. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

It has been warm and sunny for the most part these days. We have been thoroughly enjoying summer at parks, wading pools and just in our own backyard.
Here is Josie with her good friends Bryn, Boyan and Caroline.


Josie enjoying the peanuts and packaging.

Josie's meticulous side comes out every now and then. Here is in the bathtub with all of her little toys lined up just so.

One of Josie's "chores" is the help set the table. She very carefully unfolds all the napkins (because she likes them that way) and puts the silverware out each night. She is very proud of herself... and rightly so.

Last night we met a bunch of friends at the zoo for a zoo concert. Cowboy Junkies were playing but we really didn't hear much as we mostly just talked, laughed and ate. It was a really fun night.

Josie had a ball dancing and playing with Jessica and Joshua. Here is she "dancing." She got her dance moves and her attention span from her father :)

Family

Last weekend Angie, Kevin and Paul came to visit us. We had a great time at the beach....


At the house...


Tickling on the street....

And especially on the DUCK! Thanks for making the effort to come up. See you up here again in September??

The Beach, Biking, Blading and... Pirates??

Josie takes her bike riding very seriously. The only thing that makes her break concentration and smile is to watch me rolling along side of them on my blades. She is still just mesmerized by the fact that I'm keeping up with them but I appear to just be standing there.
Last weekend was gorgeous. After our bike/blade down the Alki path we played at the beach for a while.

At the end of the path, in the heart of Alki, was the celebration for the yearly arrival of the West Seattle Pirates. Thankfully, this was around 4 PM and they were pretty worn out and mellow by the end of the day. The were pretty tame but Josie was still a bit weary of them.

Marty and Josie showing off their dance moves.


After our bike/blade we worked up an appetite and headed to the West Seattle Street Fair for our favorite ice cream. We look forward to this ice cream all year. It is more icey than creamy, just the way we like it. It also brings back fond memories of our first trip together to Europe in 2004. There was a little ice cream stand in a small town called something like "Chesky Cremlov" and we always refer to this Street Fair ice cream as "Chesky Cremlov" cream. We can't find it anyway at any other time of the year.

The other day we found a bird's nest that had fallen from a tree in our back yard. There was one broken, small, blue egg on the ground but there was still one in the nest. We put the nest on the picnic table but unfortunately I think an animal must have come and eaten the little egg :(

EMP

Marty got a bunch of free passes to the Muppets exhibit at the EMP. Josie and all of her PEPS friends had a ball. Here are a few videos and photos from our time there.

Silly Josie

Josie has had many silly moments the past week. Marty and I have been playing a lot of scrabble lately. Here Josie is being silly as she "plays" along. She is learning her letters as we play. Fun for all of us. She can find or point out about 10 at this point. Pretty good for 2 1/2.

Here she is being silly and taking a nap in my office chair. She had a late night the night before and I can only assume was looking for me when she woke up from her nap. Obviously she hadn't slept long enough. I found her sound asleep in the chair.

The other morning she woke up, took off her pajamas and came out of her room with these old santa pajamas on. She has outgrown them entirely, it is July and it was at least 80 degrees that day... Notice her nice bedhead.

On Sunday, Josie went on her first bike ride with Marty down at Alki. I was roller blading beside them and Josie was much more mesmerized by the fact that I was skating beside them than she was with the actual bike ride. She kept saying "mommy is rolling her blades." She did very well for her first time.

We biked/bladed from one end of the Alki path all the way down to Pegasus. We ate pizza, of course, and for the return trip Josie was treated to a "lolly"

It was also Marty's birthday on the 3rd. We had a great time with Oma and Opa in the morning and then we went to the Green Day concert. On the 4th, we had a BBQ here with a bunch of Marty's friends.... unfortunately I was too busy to remember to take photos!! But we all had a great weekend together.