summertime update

This summer has been a whirlwind so far. It started with an awesome trip to Disneyland (photos to be posted at some point!), soccer camp, Safety Town, baseball games, family visits, trips, and lots of plain old summertime fun! Many stories to be told - but they must wait until I have a bit more time to post.

Summer Vacation - Smilebox

Make a Smilebox slideshow

a fruitful season

One of my favorite times of year is the beginning of summertime - when it's ripe for strawberry picking! I have really fond memories of heading to the strawberry patch in Oregon with my mom and siblings when I was really young to pick strawberries. We'd eat more than would make it into our buckets! I could live on strawberries...strawberries and bread. Yum. We picked buckets and buckets of strawberries this year. With our first batch I made some strawberry jam to give to others and strawberry shortcake to eat. Unfortunately we picked most of our strawberries the day before we left for our vacation...and I wasn't organized enough to get them washed and frozen before we left. So, unfortunately, lots of strawberries went to waste. A tragedy!

My little helper.

Picking and weighing the berries.

summertime

I haven't posted anything in ages and will try to get back to more regular posts soon. In the meantime, here are some recent photos from our happy transition into summertime!

Pure popsicle bliss...

Corn on the cob. He's such a good helper!

Walking the surfboard with his friend.

The view from our walk to the store.

Hamming it up on our walk to the store.

Inexpensive sprinkler = hours of fun!

Flowers are in full bloom.

Looking down from the deck.

Looking out forward from the deck.

Resting inside after a long day of fun.

Collecting pebbles at the park.

A trip to the Oregon coast.

summer training

Marek and Grandma are back from vacation in California. I'll be posting some photos from their
trip shortly. He had such a good time with his cousins. He road the train down with Grandma, played with his extended family in Tehachapi, and then headed back home via train to Mommy. He definitely got homesick, but also had so much fun playing with everyone there. We can't wait to return at Christmastime. I wish he had a big family here to grow up with. He is becoming more social these days. Yesterday he asked if he could go visit his cousins again. Of course, next time he has to bring me with him!















These photos are from summertime in Tacoma...
Marek is working on his stance on the skimboard.














Toes to the nose - Jake has been teaching Marek the basics...
No sharks in the backyard at least!













One of the highlights of Marek's summer was going fishing with his "honorary Uncle" Jim from Tacoma. Marek came back talking about fishing, the boat, and Jim's big truck. All very important things!

He also saw his Grammy from South Dakota last weekend and had a great time visiting with her.

Marek and I met up with our friends this morning for a playdate. We hadn't seen everyone in awhile, so that was really nice. Marek is definitely playing well with the other little ones. He remembers picking strawberries with them and Isaac's play "house" that he loves. Summer is flying by way too fast this year...