8 months old!

Can you believe it!! Natale is 8 months old. She is really growing quickly right before our eyes. She is sitting up and rolling all over the place. She says Mama and Papa. She loves crackers and enjoys most baby food especially pears, sweet potatoes, applesauce and I have been biting down grapes to let her nibble on them. She has her first two bottom teeth and is working on others. This past week she went on a nursing strike. But after 2 1/2 days of that she came back to the breast. She is weeks away from crawling. She is GI crawling now. She loves her sissy and enjoys their encounters with lots of smiles and giggles. She is the sweetest little thing.


Sleepy girl at the Fair

Evergreen State Fair

We went to the Evergreen state Fair. We arrived when the gates opened and enjoyed a scone. We went straight to the animal barns to check out all the cows, pigs, horses, sheep, goats, rabbits, cats, chickens and dogs. There were lots of animals being shown in the arenas which was neat to watch.


We went to the fair with Granny and Grandpa Joe
Natale enjoyed her ride
Avery taking a ride on the tractor and Papa


Visiting the animals
Mama goat and her kids
There were lots of piglets. Three sows with litters
A sow being shown in the arena
A Clydesdale horse returning to the barn after a show
A baby draft horse with its Mama.

A turkey
Baby bunnies
Avery petting the soft bunny
Baby chicks
Riding on her future dirt bike. The bike actually has training wheels

The Rides......

the minute we arrived Avery kept asking when we were going on the Merry-go-round and nagged and nagged. So here she is on a few of the rides we took her on.

Driving a car
Flying an airplane with Papa
On the merry-go-round
A pony ride

We had a great time at the fair. We were very tired when we left. Avery was asleep before we left the parking lot. We are thinking about heading to the Puyallup fair in a few weeks.

HOT HOT weekend!!

Avery and Danielle....Best Friends and Cousins!!
Playing in the water on a hot day
Saying cheese!
bouncing cutie!!
Playing in the pool, sprinkler and hose
It was HOT HOT HOT this past weekend. We headed to Bellingham to spend some time with Auntie Krissy and Danielle. The girls loved playing in the water and we enjoyed watching them.

Gone Fishing

We went camping at MarDon Resort near Potholes in eastern Washington over the weekend. Grandpa Joe wanted to break in his new fishing boat. We were happy to help him. The Joes (Grandpa Joe, Uncle Joe and Papa) took Avery out on the lake to do some fishing. She spent most of the day on the boat. Here are a few pictures.
Papa helping Avery hold the fishing pole
Avery holding it by herself
Avery driving the boat
Grandpa Joe helping Avery cast her line
Joe is driving the boat back to the dock for the night and the bumpy ride rocked Avery to sleep on his lap. It was too cute.
Granny and Aunt Shar were also with us. During this outing on the water Grandpa Joe and Uncle Joe both caught fish, but were too small to keep. We saw lots of ducks and pelicans.
We headed home on Sunday afternoon. We had a great time and look forward to more fishing trips with the family.

Picking Peas

We took a trip to the garden at Auntie Natale's house. We all went out to pick and eat the peas and beans. Even the dogs ate the veggies. Avery had fun in the garden.
Papa and Avery finding a ripe pea pod
Avery teasing Bear
Avery showing Mama what she picked

Visit from Amanda

Our cousin Amanda from England made her second visit to us in 8 months this past week. She arrived on the 24th of July and left yesterday 31st. She stayed with Krissy in Bellingham. We had two family dinners in Kirkland on the night she arrived and on Wednesday 7/30. Krissy, Danielle and Amanda went up to Vancouver last Friday morning 7/25 and went to Stanley park. She helped Krissy out a ton with Danielle's party and she went camping with us. On Wednesday 7/30 Krissy took Amanda on the Ride the Duck tour of Seattle. Then we enjoyed our family dinner. She stayed the night in Snohomish with us and flew to California for her visit with my Aunt Wendy and her family. Amanda is taking an around the world trip. She started here in Seattle/Bellingham, next is California, then she will be going to visit our cousins in Hawaii for 5 days. She has a two day lay over in Fiji and then she goes to visit her cousins in New Zealand. Her final destination will be Sydney, Australia. She wants to make Sydney her permanent home and we all wish her the best and hopefully we will get the chance to visit her in the near future.

Amanda,
We all had such a great time with you. We all wish that you could come visit every year. We wish you the best of luck on your journey and can't wait to hear all about it and see the pictures! We already miss you!! Cheers!

Here are a few pictures from Wednesday night. I will add more of her visit when I get more pictures from Krissy and Amanda
All the girls with Amanda!

Amanda took this family photo