The Beach

We spent last weekend in Rockaway Beach. The weather was perfect and we had such a great time, just the 3 of us!

Here's Natalie and Justin

Natie's snake stick

Searching the beach for treasures

Natalie and I

We found a few full sand dollars

Justin says to Natie "give me a kiss" so she blows me one :)

He says "no give ME one"

Pretty cute

Running around with bare feet, picking up shells and rocks

Such a beautiful morning

Our happy girl playing Candyland

Let's Catch Up

Just downloaded a bunch of pictures from my cameras so here's a recap from the last month...

Natalie took 4 weeks of swimming lessons. Every lesson was 30 painful minutes of whining and crying...until the last 3 lessons when she finally changed her attitude, put forth some effort, and had fun! I learned that donuts can be a powerful motivator.

Justin played in the Member-Guest golf tournament again in July. We had a couple fun nights with the Lesyks and Gladheims!

Here are Jeff, Alex, and Justin...

Here I am with Amy and Christy...

Here's Natie with Nana and Poppy after Nana's birthday dinner at the Spaghetti Factory.

We celebrated cousin Matthew's Birthday in July too. I can't remember the name of the place but obviously it was fun for the adults too.

Here's Natie playing grocery store with Papa at the party.

I'll post a few more tomorrow...

Water Park

A couple weeks ago, we went to visit family in southern Oregon. Natalie got to spend some time with her little cousin Brynnly. They had lots of fun at the water park!

How cute are these two? I think Brynn was more excited about her snack. :)

Don't you just want to squeeze these little legs? Adorable.

Natie had a blast! She was running through the water, squealing the whole time.

Thomas Ride

We took Natie to Hood River for Day Out with Thomas a couple weekends ago. Unfortunately, we all agreed it was lame. Maybe our expectations were too high. At least it was a nice day for the drive.

Here's Justin and Natalie waiting for Thomas to arrive.

This was the most exciting part....when Thomas pulled up, blowing his steam whistle.

Here they are again with Thomas after our boring 20 minute ride on one of his dirty old coaches.

Natie and Thomas

Natie met Sir Topham Hat (who was a high school girl in a cheesy nylon costume, not even a real guy).

On a cuter note, here's Natie playing in Nana's pool the other day.

She spent the longest time just pouring the water from the pitcher to the bucket to the pool, over and over again. So easily entertained.

3 Years Old!

Natalie turned 3 this week!

We had a little birthday party for her last weekend. HERE is a video of her blowing out her candles. She loves birthdays and has been waiting for months for her big day! You might notice her singing along to her own birthday song in the video. :)

Trying so hard to blow out those candles!

She got a pair of binoculars from Nana and Poppy...fun!

And Mimi made her a special snuggle blanket!

We went to the zoo the morning of her birthday and it was a perfect day for it! Great weather and we got there early enough to beat the crowds. She wanted to see the monkeys and elephants first and we were the only ones in the exhibits! Here we are checking out the elephants.

The obligatory picture with the lion statue.

I thought I'd post THIS video of her dance recital from last weekend. Its hard to tell, but she's the 2nd gnome to do her solo. She did a great job! Here she is with all the grandparents post-performance.

And with us...

We just wrapped up another session of Little Gym and here she is receiving her ribbon. HERE is a video from the last class.

HERE is video of our little nephew Joe. Isn't he the cutest?

We do regular iChats with my brother and sister-in-law who live out of state. Here's Natalie reading a book to Auntie Chell during our last chat.

My Gnome

Natalie's dance recital is tomorrow so we went to dress rehearsal tonight. I couldn't resist sharing some of the pictures I took. Hopefully we can get a good video tomorrow that I can share. Here's our little garden gnome...

With her ballet slippers this time.

Here are 3 of the 5 girls in her class.

Going up to do her solo.

Blowing a kiss to the audience. :)