4th of July

We started of the holiday with a bike ride up to the library.  Oh, the joy and freedom Benjamin feels now that he is big enough to ride the trailer bike.  Check out that smile!

We bought a few fire works this year.  This kid... he is a pyromaniac.  He just LOVES fire and fireWORKS, even better.

 Josie likes them.. doesn't really love them.

 

So we ended up buying a few illegal fireworks down on the reservation by Oma and Opa's house.  We asked for more sparkle and little to no boom!  Ummm, I think we were misled!  Benjamin, of course, LOVED it. Josie was a bit freaked out. 

Happy Birthday, Marty!

Marty flew home on his birthday so we faked him out and told him we would pick him up curbside after he picked up his bags.  Instead, we parked, walked in and were waiting for him at baggage claim with this sign.  Very fun!

 Josie worked hard on his watermelon birthday cake and the sign we brought to the airport.

 Happy Birthday, Marty!!

 After we enjoyed lunch and birthday cake we headed out to the raspberry farm to pick some berries.  YUMMMY!  They are so fresh and tasty.

 After about an hour we had 25 pounds of berries!

 And after all that hard labor we decided to go to one of our favorite Chinese restaurants for birthday dinner.  The kids are all over Indian food.  In fact, it is their favorite meal when we go out.  They hadn't tried Chinese food though.  I was SO proud of them.  Marty and I ordered what we normally order and just hoped they would find something they liked.  Neither of them were too sure at first but they both found enough to eat and even really liked it.  Yay for adventurous eaters.  They even brought us some yummy mango sorbet with a candle in it for Marty's birthday.

 Benjamin and ALL 25 pounds of berries.

With all of those berries I just had to use Oma's recipe to make delicious raspberry jam. 

Of course we just ate a bunch too. 

End of June

When we dropped Marty off at the airport in Bend, he flew to Florida.  His purpose there was to take a remote control helicopter flying class.  Interestingly enough, the class was just a couple miles away from were he grew up.  After class he drove through his old neighborhood and checked out the house he grew up in for his first 8 or so years of life.

Benjamin sleeps so much more soundly these days- thank God!  He is often found in interesting positions... kind of like this one.  Spiderman ready to pounce!! 

For Father's day I got Marty a home brewing kombucha starter and recipe book.  He has been making a batch nearly every 3 weeks- 3 weeks is the time it takes for the kombucha to brew. Unfortunately, it looks a lot like an organ waiting for transplant. 

 The SCOBY doing its thing. 

Josie and Benjamin really get into a TV show for awhile and then move on to another one.  They are into that for awhile and then move on again.  Early this summer they were really into Phineas and Ferb.  They even had the theme song memorized.

 While Marty was away I surprised him with a newly painted mudroom. I love orange!!

 Play time. I swear the magna tiles get more use than any other toy we have had!  Young kids and older ones love them.

 This was one of the last times I saw them in the bath together.  I think bathing together is a thing of the past....

Out and About with Grandma

Josie loved watching Grandma play her words games on the iPad. She even helped her out with words a few times. 

One day while Grandma was visiting we spent the afternoon at Seattle Center with Josie's good friend, Elliott.  First up was lunch under the Space Needle. 

With lots of pictures, of course.

After lunch, we spent a couple hours at Pacific Science Center

And after that we headed to the wading pool/fountain for a swim.  It's amazing more people don't know about this place.  It rarely has more than a handful of kids.

Bathing Beauties

Water Taxi

We decided to head to dinner in Seattle via the water taxi. 

We actually go there too early and had fun throwing rocks into the water while we waited.

Walking hand in hand with Grandma and showing her how it is done.

Sweet moments with Grandma.

After dinner Grandma treated the kids to dessert.  Josie chose this huge ice cream cone.

Benjamin chose a bag of salt water taffy.

Benjamin may have eaten one too many taffies.

Wind blowing in their hair on the boat ride back.

Smiles...

And silly faces.

Smiles..

Silly faces...