I'm not officially declaring summer over yet, but it's pretty much done. And it was a great one. Some highlights:
- Met friends to pick berries
- Hosting people for bbqs or fire pit nights
- CC park day every week
- Adding a range hood and some other little fix-ups in our kitchen. And adding outdoor string lights to our deck.
- Three idyllic summer nights with the mother daughter CC group. First was a picnic and nature study walk through woods and meadows, followed by painting flowers that we gathered with watercolors on sketchpads, completed by the older girls carrying the younger girls for piggyback races through the meadow while the sun covered everything in golden light. Second was learning about birdwatching and feathers on a CC family's property which was concluded by the girls chasing chickens to pick them up and picking berries. Third was a potluck where everyone brought copies of the recipe they brought and the girls made keepsake cookbooks, with a grand finale of the girls individually reciting poetry around a bonfire as the sun set. Are you kidding me?! I love our group.
- Camping at Lost Lake by Mount Hood with the Albers for three nights. We just booked next year's trip to the exact same place and we are so excited. It was such a fun trip.

- A Eugene visit for the kids to say, "Play Ball" at an Ems game and for some special Camp Cousin time with Jonathan's parents.
- VBS. Woosh, I feel tired just typing it.
- Some fun be Salem's riverfront with my sister's family and a yurt trip to Beverly Beach for my birthday. Something about adding a year to my age makes me want to be by the ocean.
- Washington County Fair
- A giant reunion bbq for Varsity House/co-op friends
- Hosting the wonderful Ihde family for two nights
- National Night Out Block Party
- A coast trip with Jonathan's family

- Having an electrician fix up our lighting situation (I'm still so pumped about this, thanks hubs!)
- Camping at Battleground Lake with our community group
- A trip to LA, just me, to visit my dear Amber and meet her sweet baby. Such a treat.
- A Eugene trip to swim and play while Jonathan travels for work.
- And tons of other fun I'm sure I'm forgetting. 

And there was sadness too. My Grandpa passed in July. He was a very jolly and thankful man and he always had a way of finding something positive to say to others. He was very encouraging to me and he will be very missed in lots of little sweet ways. For one, he was one of my most dedicated blog followers and always sent me a note after a post to tell me he liked it. Love you, gramps!

This summer was all about reading for Quinn. Wow. So many books! We probably went to the library twice every week. She is very into historical fiction, and also likes Cam Jansen mysteries, Strawberry Shortcake, and the Rainbow Magic Fairies series. She told me a couple days ago that she wants to break her record of reading three books everyday and start reading four. And these are chapter books. I guess our hopes of having children who love to read are becoming reality. 

I feel like the wonder of summer comes alive for three year olds. I remember when Quinn was three in the summer everything felt like magic. This was true for Archer too. Jonathan and I so delighted in his rascally little self running around and playing in water, having sweaty hair and grubby paws, constantly gathering sticks and rocks to bring inside, helping take care of the garden, getting a farmer's tan on his still barely pudgy arms. He's grown up so much this summer.

Swimming starts next week and Awana, and Jonathan gave me three hours of teacher prep time the other day. But I can't declare summer to be over and school to start until after we go to Sunriver. On Friday last week, when many of Quinn's friends started school, I began what I think may become a new tradition. We loaded up our beach gear, got Burgerville to go, and played for hours on the Oswego Creek beach. It was so fun and no one was there. I love having the freedom to start school whenever I want and it was fun to celebrate it. I can't believe Quinn will be starting kindergarten soon though!

Another month of fun! 
- Date nights
- friends over for meals and playing
- Nancy's birthday party
- brunch and good discussions with some friends we haven't seen in a very long time
- meetings for my new role as treasurer of our neighborhood citizens involvement group (such a random story)
- a wonderful and much needed five day trip to San Juan Island with Jonathan to celebrate our upcoming TENTH anniversary. Sea kayaking, hiking, running, reading, eating, massages, perfect! My parents wore the kids out every day with baseball, volleyball, bike riding, ice skating, basketball, and all sort of other craziness.
- lots of time outside enjoying the sun. 

Today was a very significant day for Quinn. Five weeks ago, she wanted to quit swimming. She didn't like getting water in her nose and would cry leading up to class and be full of dread. We tried our best to encourage her and we had her practice all that she was learning in the bath tub over and over. Her skills improved and her confidence grew. Today was her last class of the session and she graduated from level 1 and was bumped up to level 3!! Her hard work and courage paid off and she was so excited about it. It was truly amazing to watch her conquer a fear and improve in such a short amount of time.

It feels like summer is coming to a close. The mornings are cooler, I'm feeling ready for routine again, Quinn is working on birthday party invitations. We still have a few more adventures before we settle into an autumn rhythm.

We went camping with Jonathan's family a couple weekends ago. The junior ranger program was impressive with a bike safety parade in the morning and birds of prey show at night. The presenter asked if anyone had any questions after each bird was shown. Quinn raised her hand high in the air after the barn owl and I didn't try to coach her or find out what she was going to say, I was really curious. She was called on and asked in a loud, clear, confident voice, "what do owls eat?" After the great horned owl, she asked, "what is inside the owl's eye?" because their eyes are so yellow. So proud of my girlie!

 The kids were very helpful trying to build the fire and set up the tent. Totally safe.

Quinn is getting pretty quick on her bike and Archer is obsessed with bikes. His feet are able to reach the ground with the strider bike so we just ordered him a helmet. Look out world! 

I had the privilege of going on a silent retreat at the coast last weekend with some other women to celebrate a dear friend. From sunrise Saturday until 5pm we were all silent - reading, praying, journaling, etc. I found a cozy little spot to nest in some beach grass. I got completely lost in the book "Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus" which is so beautiful. This retreat was so refreshing!! I definitely need more periods of silence in my life. The rest of the time was full of socializing and encouragement. Bonus: I got to sleep in which has not happened in a very long time. 

Archer turned 17 months old yesterday. Jonathan and I adore this stage for him. He does so many hilarious things and just wanders around with his plump cheeks, big belly, and pudgy little legs. He tries to tackle us, hug us, dance, and makes so many strange noises. He loves being outdoors and seems very interested in basketball and climbing. He's a pretty fun little fellow.

A little update after a long break. Archer turned 16 months old last week. In the span of 24 hours he learned four new words: bubble, ball, truck, and bug. He also figured out how to get Quinn to dance with him and to play their favorite new game, Spin and Plop (they spin in circle with their yaps wide open saying "ahhh" and then fall down on purpose). Now that he's mastered walking (and practically running) he's back to trying out words apparently. For a while now, he has been drawn like a magnet if he sees someone playing basketball at the park. He'll hold a ball with both hands and do a dribbling motion. While visiting my parents, he spotted someone and started wandering over as though hypnotized. They were kind enough to share a ball with him and my Dad helped him practice.

He also had his first opportunity to shoot a bow at an archery event with Jonathan's parents. He seemed to enjoy it. I have never seen our children as filthy as they were after this event. We had a lot of fun.

Quinn is in her second session of gymnastics and loving it. She's still really into practicing writing, and is constantly singing songs she makes up. 

Some friends just moved back to the PNW from Texas and we had them over for dinner. It was wonderful to reconnect with them. I got out for a girls' night with a dear friend. Jonathan has two short notice work trips back-to-back so I spent one of the weeks in Eugene to see both families. While there, I was able to celebrate my birthday with my parents and sister's family which was a real treat. My sister and I had pedicures and treats and it was great to catch up. I also had a lot of quality time with my darling nephew. 

Last weekend we went to Jonathan's work picnic and my cousin's wedding reception. This weekend we've both managed to go for a run, hung out with our neighbors until quiet time and are about to hang out with our neighbors again in ten minutes. Tomorrow is the final Sundae Sunday of the summer. It's a pretty special time of life!

Today was the end of an era. Archer Man gave up nursing. Surprisingly, it all unfolded almost exactly the same way weaning went with Quinn. It came down to giving up the final morning one at just shy of 16 months and replacing it with a mug of cow's milk. I'm a little sad my nursing days are done, but most of all I'm so grateful to God that my body was able to feed two healthy babies for almost 32 months! Before I had children, I had no idea how everything would work out in this part of my mothering journey. What a gift!

Since I last wrote, we had the wonderful Littaus visit from the bay area. They just make us feel so loved and I'm so glad our kids can get to know them. 

We celebrated our ninth anniversary by walking to a favorite restaurant for a lovely meal. I love you hubs!!

The kids and I met up with some friends at a creek for some swimming and there were ducklings swimming there too.

We went to our friends' annual Fourth of July bbq. Quinn held about a dozen sparklers and Archer laughed at all the popping sounds from fireworks. 

We had another Sundae Sunday party with roasted strawberry and goat cheese ice cream.

We grew a strange conjoined twin zucchini.

We went camping with a couple neighbor families near Lincoln City. It was our first time in a yurt and it was pretty fun. Archer was mostly into practicing on the stairs, testing out bikes, and climbing into kayaks. Quinn spent most of her time playing ponies with the neighbor girls and picking flowers. 

Today we went to Oaks Park with the neighbors. Quinn went on a ton of rides and had so much fun! I was amazed how brave she was. Archer went on the hot air balloon, carousel, and train rides and seemed to like them.

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 finished our summer with some nice memory makers. The Warrior Dash was a blast. It was so fun getting to do this event together and with our friends. We definitely hope to do another. It was a good challenge mentally and physically. And I'm still cleaning the mud off of me. Now my goal is to keep going running and keep liking running, so far so good!

Our dear friends the Littaus visited. It was so good to see them! They inspire us to love others more and better by their example. We spent thirteen hours straight with them and they still seem to like us. Shinobi obviously remembered them too.

We went to Sunriver with my parents and my sister's family. My sister and I were sent by my parents to get a massage - heavenly! We also swam, ran, played, laughed, pigged out, and the adults got some naps...the kids resisted. Archer loooved swimming! I guess it makes sense since he was born in the water. He's been a couple times and liked it, but this time he was doing some serious dolphin moves. Quinn played mermaid in the pool for over two hours. I guess we have water kids. Quinn also spent a lot of the trip climbing on stuff. Sunriver is always a nice getaway for us.

My sweet Mr. Bubs is five months old now. He is a non-stop jumping machine; all day, everyday. Little man has some serious spring action going on. He is practicing his b/v and g sounds a lot. He frequently turns himself 180 degrees in his crib and seems very proud about it. He is at just the right height to peek over the edge of his carrier. He drools and spits up so much that I constantly have him in a little bandana bib. The peeking and accessories have earned him the nickname Pico Bandito. He loves smiling at anyone and everyone, but especially other babies.

Jonathan traveled for work last week so I took the kids to Eugene to visit family. It was a nice little break for me to have some extra entertainment for Quinn and Archer. Archer went to his first baseball game and we got some quality cousin time. 

Otherwise we've been doing more of the same routine we've been enjoying all summer. Lots of happy, golden, beautiful summer days outside. A typical evening consists of Quinn playing in the yard and Archer playing on a blanket while we grill up dinner, eating dinner outside, followed by more backyard playing or walking to the park with neighbor friends until it's way later than it should be and the kids still need a bath, but, oh well. I love it.

Jonathan did the Tough Mudder with some buddies for the second year last weekend. This year's obstacles and terrain were a lot more challenging, but he had a great time. He's such a tough dude. He barely seemed sore the next day. 

I've been doing workout playdates with the other moms that we are doing the Warrior Dash with in hopes of keeping up with him. Other than that, we've been sharing some dinners with friends, going to the park, reading, I've been doing some bookkeeping and sewing, and my mom visited. 

I had an epiphany today about my attempts at education with Quinn. The whole Montessori at home idea appealed to me because I like having clear checklists and quantitative goals. I loved reading the book and getting her activity cupboard ready. The goal is to have a set routine for accessing the activities and they are not supposed to be viewed as toys, but learning materials. She went along with it for a while, but the girl's imagination and creativity are just so powerful and...I love it. The ideas she comes up with using sorting pasta, pipe cleaners, and beads are wild. Everything is mixed up and overlapping with her toys and I'm not going to stop her. She's gentle and respectful with everything, toy or otherwise. So, I'm ditching the structure and letting her follow her curiosities. Besides, the things she wants to know about astound me. She asked me why some lines on the street are yellow and some are white (which I don't think I noticed until I was studying for my driver's license). She wants to read the Voice of the Martyrs newsletters we receive and then be shown where the places are on the map. Which led to her asking where Heaven is on a map. She knows almost all the states from her US Map puzzle. She picked out a book about presidents at the library and wants to know what the leaders of other countries are called. She asked me today why elephants are called elephants. She also asked me today what stamps are for and how letters get to people. I just can't predict this stuff. I'll keep her activities cupboard stocked with new little goodies, but for now I think just being fully available for conversations is the best education I can offer.

Summer is flying by! Since I last wrote, we had some friends we met in the bay area come to visit. They are missionaries on the other side of the world and came back for some training. We are both families of four now and we haven't seen them in over two years, but it was amazing how it felt like we just picked up where we left off. It was so good to see them and have our kids play. 

I quietly turned thirty a couple weeks ago. I celebrated by not cooking or cleaning, getting a sweet new watch, some new running shoes, and some treats with friends. I also had Jonathan give me a spontaneous haircut a few days before. We went to Cannon Beach the weekend after and it was a perfect day.

I gave Quinn her first haircut, a tiny trim. She still prefers her hair long and flowing free. We've been hosting some friends for dinner with our grill - still loving that thing! And the routine of lots of playing outside, eating from our garden, and enjoying all the sunshine continues. We had another Sundae Sunday party with blackberry cheesecake ice cream. Such an easy recipe without egg yolks, definitely making it again. And Quinn (kinda) helped pick the blackberries.

Last weekend, Jonathan's parents had us to their house. They took Quinn on her first fishing trip and had her camp in their backyard. She caught two blue gill right away, I hope she doesn't end up thinking that's how fishing normally goes! 

We had a date night last week. We went to a really great place, Prettyman's General, but unfortunately it was a going away party. Our beloved Changs are moving to Amsterdam, waaaah! We are sure going to miss them!

Archer finally had his four month check-up. My yummy little squishable guy is still healthy and right on track. He remains in the 45% for weight and head circumference, but jumped up to 90% for length. He's wearing size nine months for shirts and sleepers! He's chatting, giggling, drooling, and wiggling up a storm. He rolled from back to belly once last week but hasn't since. He wants to so bad! He loves watching Quinn and Shinobi and he seems to like being read to as well. We've also discovered he's pretty ticklish.