Michigan Wedding

At the end of September we spent a week in Michigan with Todd’s family for a wedding event. Todd’s cousin, Brittany & her new hubby Wesley, tied the knot in a beautiful outdoor ceremony. We spent the other days thrift store shopping (just the ladies :)), visiting a goat farm, catching up with old friends, walking around quaint towns, and eating ice cream with GG. Thanks to Aunt Linda, our wonderful host for the 6 days we were there.

It was a late night for Ada, but she had lots of fun at the wedding. We could not keep her off the dance floor once the music started 🙂

31 Months

Ada loves to make up songs about what she is doing. She sings about meal time, going shopping, or relaying events from the day all to her own tune. She is very creative. She also loves to interact with her food; grapes become wheels, chicken nuggets become vehicles or animals, and her water cup is their pool. She has quite the imagination although we do have to limit her food play at meal time 🙂

One of her current expressions (that makes us giggle) is her “no waay.” When we say something sarcastic, she picks up on it and responds appropriately. She has been asking her whos, whats, wheres and whys lately too.

Oh, and these are the last pictures from my Rebel Xsi taken down by the river. The shutter died on me so instead of fixing it, we put that cost towards a new one. Enjoying figuring out my new Canon 70D

Lego Fun

Ada has started to enjoy playing with Legos. Todd has a box full of them from his childhood that has been great entertainment for her this summer. She loves the people, especially changing their helmets and having them ride horses. She also has little conversations as she is building or stacking multiple blocks together, such as all their heads.

The first picture is of her baby in a cradle with a blanket on 🙂

30 Months

Ada is officially over half way to becoming a 3 year old. I try not to think ahead, but time is flying. Even challenging days seem to go quickly 🙂 As usual she continues to make us laugh, amaze us, and test our parental authority on a daily basis. She has an amazing memory, especially when it comes to things we have said or things we have misplaced. She is showing a caring, tender side (in between poking things with sticks). If I hurt myself (or herself) she often says “let it heal, just let it heal ok mommy” followed up with a kiss. She still is not potty trained, we gave up that battle for now, and yes it turned into a BATTLE. She is a redhead after all 🙂

We drove up to Artist Point again with Todd’s Mom. The snow had melted quite a bit over the course of 3 weeks. I really tried to get her to hold a “2” but didn’t have much luck. She is not really 2 anyways, well maybe a little 🙂

Kid’s Museum

I took Ada to the children’s museum in Bellingham a couple weeks ago with our good friends, Jessica, Owen & Jimmy. It’s a small room with several interactive sections for the kids such as an art room, woodland scene, stop-motion camera, building blocks, and more. It’s geared for a little younger audience but all the kids were easily entertained for over an hour.

Picnic Fun

We had lots of fun at the Logos picnic this year. Ada spent most of the time running around, seeing the animals, climbing the playground, and playing on the giant inflatable slide.

I put the picture of the round hay bales in because I asked Ada if she could tell me what shape they were and she yelled “toilet paper!”

Artist Point

The second to last weekend in July we drove up to Artist Point because we heard it was open (the snow melted enough). The drive up to Mt. Baker was gorgeous, I often forget just how beautiful this place really is (with or without snow). We stopped at the ranger station, a couple waterfalls, Picture Lake, Artist Point, and Heather Meadows. Ada enjoyed running around and playing in the snow, especially throwing snowballs at Mommy 🙂

Birch Bay Waterslides

We spent half of a day at the Birch Bay Waterslides. Ada was hesitant to try the slides at first but seemed to enjoy them after awhile. Todd mostly took her down the slides (I did a couple with her) and she liked the double inner tube one the best. Our friends did all the slides, including the one that drops straight down. You couldn’t pay me to do that one 🙂

That afternoon we cleaned up and headed to a beautiful outdoor wedding of a friend of ours. Afterwards we drove back to camp for s’mores and one last campfire. We discovered that s’mores taste really good with a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup sandwiched between the marshmallow and graham crackers.

Birch Bay Camping

During the middle of July we camped with some old friends from our Trinity Western days. They have two cute, adventurous boys a few years older than Ada. We found a playground the first morning there and then drove to the beach for lunch where we spent the rest of the afternoon playing on the mudflats, building sandcastles and flying kites. We saw crabs, blue herons, tiny fish, lots of sea grass and clams. We ended the day eating ice cream at a little yellow shop with a pretty garden.

We also shared a campsite with a family of skunks, five babies and their mom. All my pictures are blurry, they were always on the move around dusk (and I was at a safe distance). Thankfully we did not smell them or have any close encounters 🙂

All Comers

Every summer Bellingham has an All Comers Track Meet that runs every Monday evening for the season. The little kids get to run two races, a 50 meter hurdles and a 50 meter dash. Ada participated last summer and had fun, so we tried it again (we only made it to one this year). Todd had to run along side her to keep her going, especially with the hurdles since she would stop at each one and gingerly step over them. She didn’t win any prizes other than a green participant ribbon. It’s all for fun!

I forgot to post these before our California trip so they are a couple months old.