Visitors from the Islands

My brother and sister-in-law came to visit earlier this month from Hawaii and we hadn't seen them for a whole year! It was SO nice to have them here. Natalie especially enjoyed them!

Natie and I took them to the zoo one morning. I love this VIDEO of Natie and Michelle demonstrating their tribal dance moves while Brad plays the bongo drums.

Uncle Brad and Natie checking out the elephants

A picture of all of us together...and we're all smiling with eyes open!

Auntie and Uncle loving on Natie

Natie with Nana

Natie finally perfects her shaka :)

Crabbing

We took our annual family camping trip to Bandon a few weeks back. Natalie really had a great time this year! We had beautiful weather and lots of fun with the family!

Here's Natie in her camping chair. It was sunny that day at the beach, but a little windy and chilly (if you couldn't tell from all the layers).

Natie with Poppy

Randy, Uncle Skip and Jenny enjoying the oysters on the half shell.

Dad and Brad

Aunt Joan, Lindsay and Mom

Natie with Auntie Chelle

Auntie Chelle, Natie and Nana

Preschool

Guess who started preschool today!!

This is the picture the school took of us. I'm excited for her, can you tell?

This was the art project they did. So serious.

Sunflower

Thanks for the sunflower, Mimi!! Look how big it is!

"Look Mom!!" A raspberry for each finger. :)

Zoo Visit

Natie and I took Nana and Poppy to the zoo a couple weeks back!

I find it really peaceful watching the sea lions swim. Even though they're blurry, I love how these pictures turned out.

My Dad was watching the one down below and Natie was watching the one swimming down.

Natie's new fascination is dinosaurs. She was so excited about the T.Rex she got.

Here she is on the train with Nana...and the T.Rex.

So glad we have such a cool zoo in Portland. What a fun morning!

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...