We had a great time camping at Cape Lookout last weekend with some friends. The weather was perfect, the kids slept decently well, and they all played well together. We celebrated Father's Day there, went for a hike, played in the sand, and hung around the campfire.

There was also lots of smashing faces on mesh, sitting in camp chairs, drawing and pretending, and tackling sissy in her sleeping bag.

Also this week, Archer turned 15 months old! He's still 90th percentile for height and 70th for weight. He's getting pretty confident and quick with walking. He takes Mr. Fox with him all over the place. He still loves dancing and water and is starting to like kicking a ball and playing with cars. Something I hope I don't forget is after he is done eating (tons of) food at a meal, he'll do the sign for all done. If I say, "Are you all done?" he'll do what we call Super All Done and flap his arms like he's trying to fly away. He's got some rad surfer dude hair that's curly when he wakes up. I think I'll leave it long for the summer for the sun protection, but he's already had three mini-haircuts.  He's still just sweet and happy and we love him so much!

Two weekends ago we had our first Sundae Sunday party of the summer. We made a delicious vegan chocolate coconut ice cream with just cocoa powder, maple syrup, coconut milk, and arrowroot starch. The kids ran all over the backyard in the overgrown grass and picked cherries off the tree in the golden sunlight while the parents chatted. So nice.

We went to a splash pad, a pool, and spent many hours in the kiddie pool. I'm so glad both of my kids love the water. We also went to Cottonwood Beach on the Columbia River with neighbors and the kids loved it. We went strawberry picking with the neighbors too and Quinn did really well. All in the bucket, none in the mouth and she was very selective about which ones to pick. She spotted bird poop on a berry at the start, so I think that contributed to the caution. Our garden is past the strawberry and raspberry season and half way through blueberries. I think the berries have only actually made it into the house twice. My little harvesters pick some every single day. We've been enjoying many carrots from the garden as Quinn likes to pretend to be a bunny. We made it through our out-of-control spinach harvest and kale is almost done. 

We finished up a special version of the game Risk with the Johnsons. It took almost a whole year of playing, but there were many laughs, desserts, and surprise victories. 

Quinn started gymnastics this week and loved it. Huge grin the whole time. We, of course, had to get gymnastics books from the library and now everything in sight is something to climb or jump off. 

I think it's safe to say Archer is officially walking now. He's been taking a handful of steps in a row for a while, and will walk forever holding a hand, but still wasn't taking the risk to really walk. At library yesterday during the bubble time he started walking all over the room because he was so excited about bubbles it distracted him. Since then he's been walking all over the house and even walked on bark chips last night. Here we go! He's down to just nursing in the morning, so it seems he's getting close to leaving the baby stage behind. Today he was playing with the shoes (his favorite) and covered his face with dirt. As his own idea, he took a break and came across the room to give me a huge hug and kiss and then went back to playing. So even though he's growing up way too fast, I think he's still going to be a cuddly love. For a while anyway.

My Mom came for a nice visit and my Dad was up twice for continuing education. Quinn is still really into practicing writing and she worked with my Dad on creating Em's baseball tickets for each family member for at least an hour. She was so focused. I'm so glad my kids know my parents well. And with Father's Day ahead, we are extra grateful for lots of time with Boppa this week. You are an outstanding, impressive person, Dad! We are all so immensely blessed by you.

And speaking of great dads, Happy Father's Day Jonathan! Quinn decorated a card for him with a questionnaire inside (thanks, Martha Stewart) and I feel like her answers are so telling of how much she can tell Jonathan delights in her. We all feel delighted in by you, Jonathan!! You are a caring, thoughtful father and we are all better because of you.

We have been spending a lot of time with our neighbors lately. There are four main families that we see the most, and two of those we have been close with for quite a while. A lot of nights we meet at one of the parks near us after dinner and a lot of weekends we end up congregating to hang out and bbq in someone's yard. It really is a huge blessing to a part of this community. This past weekend, I went out to lunch followed by ice cream followed by wandering Alberta with the other four moms. It was such a nice luxury and we definitely need to make it happen more often. Sunday, we hosted some kiddie pool time in our backyard and then grilled up some dinner for the neighbor families. Monday I went to the zoo with one of the neighbor families. It was Archer's first time at the zoo and he was very entertained. He seemed to enjoy the fish and turtles in particular because they moved so much right next to the glass. He also liked the giraffes and lions a lot.

Jonathan's parents came for a visit last weekend. We saw the author of The Pout Pout Fish at the Beaverton library with some friends a week ago. Archer loves that book and consistently says, "blub" whenever he sees it. The marvelous Changs were in town from the Netherlands and we were able to have a very long brunch with them. Quinn made a welcome sign for them. Ever since writing her name, she wants to write a lot. She'll ask me to write out a phrase on a scrap of paper and then vanish to her little desk to write it out. Yesterday she asked me how to write "mommy loves me" and reappeared with this.

She wanted me to put it on her door. My heart almost burst. Sometimes it's easy to wonder if I'm doing "enough" for my kids. When I'm ready to collapse by 8pm everyday, it confirms to me that I'm being busy for my kids. But do they know why? Do they feel loved? Am I just managing them or am I nurturing them? Us moms don't get annual reviews or grades. To me, this totally counted as the feedback my heart has been hoping for. Thank you, Lord. And I hope she never forgets that it's true.