Penny's Bark: dog

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

swimming, ice cream and sunshine!

As usual, we had a pretty eventful week. The beginning of June brought us some sun and warm weather, which means ice cream, swimming, and lots of time outside. Here's a little of what we were up to last week (lots of videos at the end):

I found these "Paleo" ice cream cones at Value Village. Oliver had been asking for some the day before (ice cream cones that weren't made out of food) and it turns out they exist!

Oliver's preschool took a field trip to the beach and he found a starfish!

Oliver rode his bike a lot, he probably averages two miles a day.

Elliott likes to collect dandelions on our walks :)

Oliver asked me to paint his toenails for the first time, and he was quite excited by the result. Elliott, too, wanted his painted and they love to show off their toes when they are barefoot.

Cuties in the bath (this was after we convinced Oliver that his toenail polish would not wash off)!

A summery look on his way to school

Bouncing fun at the playground

Penny and I made our monthly appearance on It's Raining Cat's and Dogs on KIRO radio.

The boys have a weekly tradition of eating really long fruit leathers from the farmer's market.

We even stopped at a new(ish) ice cream store on our way home from the market that sells coconut milk ice cream. They approve!

I love this picture of the boys swimming in Lake Washington with Nick. The boys had a birthday party and it was amazing to see how much more comfortable Oliver was in the water after just two private swim lessons.

The boys have been really into seeing videos of themselves, so here are a bunch of short clips from the week as well:
Here is Oliver's first private swim lesson at Swim Guru. I am shocked with how much he accomplished in a short amount of time. He learned next to nothing in the group lessons we took last summer and wouldn't even willingly put his head under water.

They made this goofy video for Gramma:

The audio didn't work for some reason, but here is a clip of Oliver riding home from the library (about a mile uphill):

Oliver and his adorable toes. One of my favorite videos of him!

Elliott sings his favorite song (Run Baby Run by Caspar Babypants):

This temporary fence that Nick put up isn't quite cutting it:

They obviously love the playground:
And finally, Oliver dunks himself in the lake:

Friday, August 2, 2013

camping in Darrington

We had a wonderful time on our four day camping trip to Darringon last weekend. My friend owns property that backs up to a campground so we had the perfect spot. Dense, lush forest, two acres fenced so dog and kids can run wild, river on the property and a five minute walk to the bathrooms and water at the campground next door. It was Elliott's first camping trip, and Oliver's first in two years (we didn't go last year since Elliott wasn't walking yet) and the boys couldn't have been more excited! One of their favorite things was "trying" to fall asleep with their daddy in the tent. Two naked boys running around wild in the tent, with Nick laying in there with them lead to many hours of roughhousing and not so many hours of sleeping. I'm pretty sure they are still catching up on lack of sleep. We went on two beautiful hikes and Nick and I each wore a kid when they got tired so we could actually hike some as well. Oliver tried fishing for the first time and didn't seem too disappointed that the trout weren't interested in the piece of hot dog we put on the hook (didn't have bait).

The only downside to the trip was the amount of mosquitoes and bites I received. I came home with over 100 bites (not joking!) so before we go back next weekend, we have some serious mosquito bite prevention research to do. In researching mosquitoes Nick discovered that 10% of the population produces a pheromone that mosquitoes love, and I apparently fall into that 10%. How did I get so lucky?

Anyway, here are some of the pictures from our trip: