It was a nice weekend away. We had a minimal agenda but knew we wanted to see Fort Stevens, Astoria, and Long Beach. The weather was amazing, we ate lots of good food, lost track of time, and even saw fireworks.

Seven years of marriage has gone by fast and there have been a lot of new adventures. I love that I've gone through them with my best friend and that we still love the simple things together. Walking, talking about God, reading, sipping treat drinks, and sharing really strange jokes. Hopefully as the years go by, we'll remember what a tunnel witch is :). I sure found a good man who works hard, deeply cares, and sacrifices for me. And the Lord has been gracious to us in giving us good health, family and friend support, earthly joys, and a pretty comfortable road so far. I love you, Jonathan!

Lots of garden babies, woo hoo!

Lots of garden babies, woo hoo!

Clockwise from top left: bell pepper, spaghetti squash, blueberries, green beans

This pretty girl trying to do pull-ups.

A pool party in our backyard. And Quinn is having her first night without me (yeah, I'm that mom) and playing with Nana and Boppa while Jonathan and I head to the coast for our Anniversary. Oh, summer.

June has been a busy month for us. I've been spending any free moments doing a big bookkeeping project. But aside from that, we've been having a lot of fun. 

Jonathan did the Tough Mudder with some friends two weekends ago. It was like recess for him, he had a blast. Eleven miles of running over rough, hilly terrain and a bunch of challenging obstacles. All the training totally paid off and he's already excited to do it again next year. So proud of him!

We went to Black Butte last weekend with Jonathan's side of the family. We had a great time. Quinn loved all the attention and practicing everyone's names. Plus, we went to the pool and playground which are always a hit. She liked sweeping the floor a lot. After Jonathan's dad took a group photo with his camera on the tripod, Quinn started pretending the broom was a tripod leaned against the wall and the dustpan hooked onto the handle was a camera. She'd walk up to the broom, push a small circle on the dustpan, then back up and pose and say, "cheese!"

Quinn's imagination is starting to show a lot. She likes to get out the travel changing pad and change her stuffed animals' diapers. She pretends to be Jonathan getting ready for work with a badge necklace, lunch bag, and phone. She has her stuffed animals do whatever learning or art project I had her do earlier in the day. She pretends a guitar puzzle piece is a guitar. And tons more. She's also making lots of connections with books that we read. When she saw the tuba puzzle piece she remembered the Sergeant Murphy book. When someone sneezes, she references a joke from a Little Critter book. When something was heavy she remembered the duck book. And any time we stop at a red light she mentions Go Dog, Go! And many more examples of this too. It's amazing to see her learning to make sense of her world!

Here are some photos from Black Butte taken by my lovely sister-in-law. And also an update photo of the garden. A couple weeks ago the spinach finished producing so I put in some basil in its place. From left to right we have tomatoes, green beans, basil, kale, zucchini, spaghetti squash, and nasturtium all around.

We went camping Saturday and Sunday night at Cape Lookout. It was gorgeous. I kept thinking I was in California because it was so warm and the sky was so blue. The Millers and Albers came with us so Quinn was right in the middle of the age range. She loved riding Moriah's scooter and bringing toys to Baby Ryan. But most of all she loved the ocean.

 

We all ate lots of tasty camping food, went for a hike, and enjoyed just relaxing. Even the sleeping was pretty decent considering we were camping with children. Both mornings Quinn woke up when the birds chirped but fell back asleep after joining me in my sleeping bag. Naps were really funny. A couple hours before her typical nap time, I would change her diaper in the tent and she would say, "bed? bed?" so I asked her if she wanted to rest and she said, "yeah." I put her in her bed with a book and she read quietly for about 30 minutes and then fell asleep for a couple hours. She did this both days. What toddler asks for a nap? It was like all the excitement made her want some downtime. 

We're definitely hoping to make it back to this campground. Really clean, lots of nice families, it was a great trip all around.

I have two baby tomatoes and a bunch of blueberries growing! All the food I have grown up to this point has been leaves so I am quite excited to see some fruits! I check on them multiple times a day.

We had some fun this week. Our Monday neighbor play date this week was a bubble, paint, and water table fiesta. Quinn ended up soaking herself in paint and water and wanted to run around in her diaper the rest of the time. Quite a wild child.

Of course there was also some pool time.

And my mom helped me go to Ikea so I could get Quinn a table and chairs with money from Great June and Great Pa.

She can't get enough of this table. So much drawing and puzzling now.

Library time is back. She's been missing it. It's amazing how much she has changed since the last one in April. Walking and singing and talking and following directions, it's odd to see her as one of the oldest kids in the group now.

It was a nice weekend. Saturday we discovered a secret hiking path through our neighborhood to a park we like. It's so nice to be walking distance from so many parks! We also ate at our favorite restaurant. 

Sunday was a great sermon at church followed by some parties. We went to a first birthday party for a friend's daughter that ended up being somewhat of a college reunion. It was fun to see so many OSU toddlers and babies zooming around. Sunday night we hosted an ice cream party at our house (I completely copied the idea from this blog) and it was so fun! I tested out a homemade mint chip recipe when Boo and Dennis were here using mint picked fresh from our meadow. It was delicious, so I knew I had to share it at the party too. We had two batches of mint chip, a bunch of store bought vanilla, and guests brought their favorite toppings. The kids all played nicely and the adults were all chatting even though it was a bit of a random assortment of attendees. Quinn enjoyed naming everyone she recognized, playing catch, and drawing with chalk. I think these Sundae Sundays are going to become a tradition.

On a gardening note to myself, I pulled out the spinach because it wasn't producing much anymore and Quinn and I planted pumpkin seeds today. She's really into this gardening book and wanted to plant seeds "like Max".