Happy Birthday Mei Li

Here are some pictures of the kids with Banjo.  Banjo is getting ready to lick Mei Li's head.  Mei Li is more smiley than ever.  She just started 'talking'.  She likes to wave, move around (if only she could crawl)  (Thank god she doesn't crawl yet!)

 Why does Abe always make such goofy faces for the camera?

 Look who's 4!

Swimming!

This summer Abe has taken swimming lessons all by himself at Southwest Pool.  He has two other classmates (and he is a head taller than both).  They stand on this little platform in the pool and take turns with the teach floating on their backs and fronts, doing bobs, etc.  Abe doesn't like to put his head underwater.  And when all the other kids jump into the pool, Abe holds the teachers hands and sits down on the side to slide in.  Mr. Safety.

Abe's Semi Truck Birthday Party

Today Abe had his 4th birthday celebration with his friends from preschool, Maryan's and church.  The sun came out just in time for the festivities, which included painting the cardboard semi, running through the truck wash, playing pin the 18 wheels on the truck, and just plain running.  Everyone had a good time.  Happy birthday little buddy!

9 Month Mei Li

As I post this I realize that Mei Li is actually 10 months, but I I figured we'd better get some in from her 9 month Banjo photos.  At 9 months, Mei Li had 4 teeth.  She loved eating everything on her own--especially taking bites off of big things--like the poppy see bagel below.  She was moving around--pivoting and somehow making it in different spots on the floor.  She rocks back and forth on all fours.  I keep saying that any day now she'll start crawling.

Hood Canal Fish Stories

We had nice weather for our week in Hood Canal.  Everyone was able to come for part of the week.  Last year Abe caught his first fish.  This year he caught some more and they are getting bigger.  He said he couldn't believe that he could catch a fish that big.  We also caught a couple of crabs for seafood paella.

The house was big enough for everyone

Digging Clams at the Tsai's since there weren't many on our beach

Nice Fish

Abe shared it with everyone

Pizza Chef

Nothing as tasty as fresh crab

Roasting Hot Dogs

The house came with a rowboat & two kayaks, although one leaked

Grandma and Grandpa

Abe's Mountain

Happy Birthday Daddy!

We had a 4th of July BBQ for Neil this year.  A bunch of family and friends came out to celebrate--including Neil's friend Cam who was dressed in his oh-so-patriotic "Gators for McCain Palin, Don't Tax Me Bro" t-shirt.  Neil smoked some ribs on his grill and people brought yummy salads and drinks to share.  Here Neil's modeling one of his b-day gifts--a t-shirt from his favorite restaurant--Dick's.

 Abe got an all american bouncy ball (despite the made in China label).

 For the rest of the weekend we went camping in Mount Rainier National Park.  This was our first time camping there and it was a lot of fun!  Here we are hiking up at Paradise.  Abe's favorite part was running around in the slushy snow and throwing snow balls.  Silly Alaskan.

 We stayed at Cougar Rock campground.  We did a little hike to carter falls across the nisqually river basin.  Abe hiked the entire way up to the falls (about 1.4 miles with some pretty big elevation gain).

 Because Abe's middle name means "child of the mountains" we like to refer to Mt Rainier as "his mountain".  We get some pretty great views of his mountain from around our neighborhood, but this was our first time getting up close.  Abe was super excited for us all to visit.

 Peein' in the woods.

 A fun time had by all!

8 months and growing

I figure we'd better post Mei Li's 8 month picture before she turns 9.  Mei Li continues to be a happy little girl.  She loves to smile and talk out loud.  Mei Li has 2 teeth that she's working on.  She's happy to sit and play with her toys, but it won't be too long before she's moving around.

Grandpa's Burial

Here are a few pictures from Grandpa's Burial and Long Beach

 

 

 

Long Beach

We were watching the RV get towed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abe Wants to be a semi-driver when he grows up

Georgetown Festival