++Pumping++

It's so fun to track the progress of your kids as a parent.  When they are small it seems as if you are hitting a new one every week.  If you ask my husband, each time they reach a milestone it is yet another sign that they are destined for greatness. 

When Nana was in town she taught Wyatt...in about 30 seconds...something I've been trying to get him to learn for a year.  How to pump a swing! 

 Destined for greatness.  For sure.

++Birthday Girls++

Susan and Cora have birthdays less than a week apart.  This weekend they celebrated with a joint party at the beach.  I always love it when we get together with her friends.  I feel very safe.  There are three pediatricians in the photo below.  

Birthday beauties.

 How fun is it that this is the third time we've watched Cora blow out her candles...in person! 

 Who's this cutie?

 Or this one?

 I had to take the chance to snap a few photos with the great scenery.

 Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

++Cousins Day Out++

In blogland it may appear that we see the cousins a lot.  It's probably because we tend to do fun things with them so I'm more likely to take pictures.  In reality, we aren't exactly next door neighbors and between work, school, sports, swimming, skiing, birthday parties, church, and on and on, we actually have a hard time finding time to get together.  This summer we hatched a plan.  Susan is now only working part-time (yea!!) so we decided every Friday we would get the kids together and do something fun.  Once again, reality prevailed and between camps and vacation we only were able to make 4 or 5 outings work, but we made the most of them. We even named it "cousins day out" because everything seems more fun with a name. 

Nana is in town this week so we decided to show the cousins one of our favorite Eastside treasures: Remlinger farms.  Aren't these the cutest strawberries you've ever seen?



Oh wait, we're missing one...

Or  maybe these are the cutest strawberries.  Or craziest old ladies.  Photo credit to Wyatt.  I've trained him well, huh?

This is perhaps in the running for one of my top 5 photos of the year.  It so perfectly captures these boys right now.

Did I mention that I'm not sure the cousins have ever done rides before.  Believe it or not, dare devil Cora loved the pumpkin.

Claire was perfectly satisfied with her mini-carousel.

Boy boat.



Girl boat.

A good time was had by all.

++No Sympathy++

I think sometimes people feel sorry for the little sister.  They worry that she might get beat up on by her big brother.  Let's just say, no sympathy needed here.  She'll be just fine.  

Props to the big brother...he takes it all in stride.

++No excuses++

Remember me?  I'm back.  I don't really have any GREAT excuses for our absence.  No illnesses, pregnancies, injuries, MOVES, or other exciting things to report.  I just got bogged down with another photo class, a couple of trips and trying to get some other stuff updated in my photo life first.  And, to be honest, when the backlog gets longer and the task grows more daunting it's just that much harder to tackle.  But, I refuse to let these memories be lost forever so I'm going to try to get us all caught up.  I may post from the past simultaneously with present events...so dig back every once in a while for fun.  I sat down and made a list of back posts I need to work on.  There were 36.  Now where in the world did I get the idea this would be daunting?

But I know you  missed these crazy rugrats.  And I'm tired of getting harassing emails from the grandparents...

So here we go!

++Mr. Handsome++

I learned the hard way last year that my kids don't warm to well to professional photographers so I decided to take matters into my own hands this year. 

Hands off ladies, he's all mine. 

Total cost of photo shoot?  $20.  $10 for family ice cream following shoot and $10 for lego police truck bribe.  Success.

++Girls Day++

The boys were at a Mariners game so the girls were left to their own devices.  Since I know some of you who come to my blog are equally fans of the cousins as well, I thought I'd share a little glimpse of sweet Cora at almost three.  

 I believe I've said it before but Cora is a dare devil.  A total thrill seeker.  Just like her mom.  My sister was on the other end of the teeter totter and was sending them flying.  I love the difference in expression of the two girls.  Totally them. 
Cora: "bring it on".
Claire: "I think this is fun."