Summer Recap

It's already December as I write this post so I have some really good perspective by now. And I say it was a GOOD summer! What a blessing to have Benjy at home with us that whole time!! He is now working part-time at CostCo and we're hoping he'll be hired full time at the beginning of the year. I say we're "hoping" but I'm not sure I really mean it from my heart. I miss having him around more. Any time he's gone, Riley walks around the house saying "Er daddy go? A work."

Summer, once it finally came, was HOT! We made good use of the blow-up pool we got last year and both of the kids were thrilled with it. I would work in the garden for a while and then go jump in the water with Annie. We also went to the pool at Lakeview Park quite a bit. Annie still does not quite understand why we can't go to the pool now, in December.

At the fountains at Settler's Park

Head all the way under water this summer!

Playing together - a rare moment for these two.

We were steadily working our way through all the flavors at the snow cone shacks but just ran out of time. Oh well, we'll give it our best shot again next summer!

"I can do it by maself, mom!"

The kids really got into playing with each other - and teasing each other - this summer. Riley likes to "wasso!" (wrestle) and Annie likes to run away from him and slam doors. Unfortunately for her, he learned to turn door knobs by the end of the summer. He also got his first haircut and "helped" dad mow the lawn.

Mowing and vacuuming are great attractions for Riley -
let's hope it lasts!

He also loves the electric clippers.
Actually, anything that's loud will do.

   Annie got to go with me to her first Caldwell Night Rodeo. She had a great time, although it was about an hour too long. Once the Dr. Pepper ran out it was a little less appealing to sit still, so we took a few laps up and down the fence and got to see some broncs up close.

Her shirt says it all!

Good times with Grandpa Cook!

 So to wrap it all up, here are a few of my favorite smiles from the summer.

Yikes!

The original title for this post was "First Anniversary." That was three months ago! Life just got away from me and now I have a lot of catching up to do! So buckle up, kids - momma's in a hurry!

Meanwhile, back in September...
Well, folks, it's been one year since I started blogging. I'm very glad I did now as I look back over the year's entries. Time WELL spent!

It's been a little sparce lately as the summer winds down and there's so much to do. My garden is taking over the world and requires an inordinate amount of my time. I keep trying to get the kids excited to come help me, but Annie's arms and legs always hurt out there (very odd, I wonder where she gets that?) and Riley tries to take bites out of everything he picks. Then he gags. Then he tries to wipe out his mouth but he's got dirt and sand all over his fingers, so then he's crunching on what he wipes INTO his mouth. Then more gagging... So it's mostly just me out there.

I've learned some valuable lessons that I'll need to keep in mind for next year's garden (yes, I plan on doing it again next year!). First, I now know what spider mites are. Hard lesson. Secondly, 2 pepper plants to 9 tomato plants is not a good ratio. More pepper plants next year. AND FEWER CUCUMBER PLANTS!!! All those gardnener jokes about zucchini are true - except that for me, it's cucumbers. I take a cooler full of foot-long cucmbers with me everywhere I go. Yes, I'm that person. I don't think I will ever be able to bring myself to actually buy a cucumber again. Ever.

I've been filling the fridge and the pantry with jars and jars of salsa and marinara sauce and, when I'm too tired, just whole canned tomatoes. It's fabulous!

A normal day's haul - mid August

Fresh garden salsa

I got behind one week.
Three days without picking = 39 cucumbers!!!

The runt of the litter

Still, I really didn't get sick of any of it and I'm sad to see the garden winding down - not because of the end of summer but because I can no longer battle the spider mites. They win this round but they've suffered heavy losses and I will come back stronger and smarter next year!

Beck Family Dictionary

A-nok!: (always with the emphasis on 'nok') milk (R)
Bee-doh: bottle (R)
Cacka: cracker, or cookie, or "I'm hungry, let's go to the pantry." (R)
Dikar: guitar (A)
Eh-come: welcome, but it means 'thank you' (R)
Eh-pane: airplane, or sometimes a bird or even a shadow (R)
Errupting: interuppting, as in "Riley! You're errupting me AGAIN!!!" (A)
Fairy Gladmother: "the one who says bitty-bop-what's-that-word-again-mom?" (A)
Fowuh: Flower (R)
Me-nah: banana (R)
Panio: Piano (A)
Peace: Please (R)
Uh-fy: butterfly (R)

One of Riley's first sentences: "Uh-fy on fowuh!"
We're so proud!

Oregon Coast

Ten days ago, Benjy decided we better quit putting off our family vacation to the Oregon Coast (in case a job came up) and just go! So we did. We planned it and reserved motels and packed and left in 5 days. And it was WONDERFUL!!!

This was the kids' first trip to the beach. We drove all 8 1/2 hours on Tuesday and got to Seaside in the evening, left half our stuff in the car and headed straight out to the beach. Annie loved it right away! Riley wasn't so sure - he didn't like the sand getting in between his toes. But as soon as he saw a pack of seagulls he was all in. And once we got out to the wet sand and he could really run, he was enthralled.

First walk on the beach (well, for Annie anyway)

Wednesday the weather was beautiful. We headed out to Short Sands beach in Oswald West State Park. To get to the beach you have to hike a mile through a forest along a little stream - trees covered in moss, ferns filling in every inch of space. It was amazing! More magical than a Disney movie. And then you come out onto a huge cove where the stream washes into the ocean. There were tide pools with starfish and a little cave we could wade into at low tide. Annie played so hard that her feet ached and she could hardly walk the next day. And she wasn't even exagerating.

We headed back for naps mid-afternoon and then got some fresh fish-n-chips for dinner that night and topped it off with Tillamook ice-cream cones.

Thursday we woke up to rain. Riley was pretty tired so he took a long morning nap while Benjy stayed with him at the motel and studied for his sermon on Sunday (oh ya, we decided to go on vacation the week that he was preaching!). That afternoon we decided to head out to another beach, despite the drizzling rain. And I'm so glad we did! It wasn't that cold and we went to another amazing spot at Hug Point. The tide was still low enough that we could explore a couple of little coves - some with caves and one with a little waterfall. We had to keep a tight grip on Riley because he kept wanting to head straight out into the waves.

We got some of Mo's "World Famous" clam chowder on the way home and walked the two blocks into town later that evening to ride the carousel.

By Friday morning, Annie was pretty tired so she stayed in the motel room with Benjy and Riley and I got to play out on the beach. I made sand castles and he destroyed them. It was great fun. Check-out was at noon and that meant the end of our beach vacation. It was too short! We spent one night in fabulous Umatilla on the way back home (halfway between Seaside and Nampa) so we wouldn't have to drive the whole way on Saturday. I was able to get four loads of laundry done that afternoon, so by bedtime the sand was already washed out of our beach towels and vacation was officially over.

But now we have these to look at and remember:

And I'm already planning the next trip!

Doggie Princess

After a day up at the cabin last weekend where she got to play with "big girls" (ages 6-8), Annie has become enamored with playing pretend.

"Say I'm a doggie that got very hurt on my leg and needed to go to the hospital and you are my owner and you carried me to the hospital and I was crying and you couldn't get me to stop and I needed a bandage and the doctor wrapped my leg up and it was bleeding very, very bad. Okay mom?"

Or:

"Mom, I'm a princess and you're the queen and Daddy is the king and Riley is the little brother and I was going to dance for my cousins Sierra, Ally and Val-Val and Aunt Serena and Uncle Marc. Oh! Where's my beautiful dancing dress? (She soon emerges in her black and red spider dress that I got at the 25 cent sale a couple weeks ago - apparantly the "beautiful dancing dress" she was referring to. And by the way it's on backwards, and the edge of the skirt is tucked into her undies.) And I was dancing and then I got hurt on my leg and needed to go to the hospital... (same story, see above). Okay mom?"

And the really interesting pretend scenarios are when she starts out as a princess and then decides to turn into a doggie, or other way around. I don't so much mind playing princess with her but I'm not thrilled about pretending to be a dog. Fortunately, that's where Riley comes in. He loves to play doggie. Because doggies bite.

Annie, however, doesn't really like to play pretend with Riley because he won't put on any costumes. And he won't lay in the beds she makes for him and he won't be quiet when her babies are going to sleep (in fact, he likes to squeal and rip blankets off and yell peekaboo!) and he won't just be content with the blue cup and plate that she gives him at her pretend picnic. And he especially won't just be content with the plastic carrot and egg she serves him but insists on grabbing the plastic brownie, cookie, and BOTH doughnuts off of her plate!

It's tough. Sometimes she has to pretend to be a monster and scare him away. Lately, she's resorted to "swipping" - a word she came up with herself which perfectly describes the sweeping push or kick (it can be done with either a hand or a foot) that she uses to protect herself or her things from any perceived attack. Unfortunately, the day is fast approaching when Riley will outweigh her and no amount of swipping will be able to deter him.

Thankfully, summer is finally here and we can do lots of things outside that don't necessarily require pretending. Here are some of her favorites:

Cheese Puff & juice picnic

On her new bike

Playing in the sandbox Benjy built

Learning to ride a scooter!

The beginning of a pretend picnic
(no swipping has occured yet)

New favorite thing to do at the cabin:
motorcycle rides up the hill and back

Silly Smile

This is Riley at 18 months:

Words: Daddy, "Mimi" (mommy), Papa, car, ball, poopoo, stuck, a show (one word to him), "peas" (please), "guck" (truck), "faf" (bath), "fow" (flower, but can mean just about any plant), cacka (cracker or cookie)

Favorite Foods: Applesauce, meat, Little Balls (Kix), brownies, cheese puffs and generally anything he can crush and make a huge mess with

Favorite Things To Do: SLEEP (God bless the child), jump on the bed, play with the toilet plunger, wrestle, climb ladders, go down slides, find sharp sticks and run with them, go on motorcycle rides with Grandpa Cook up at the cabin, watch shows, bug Annie

Favorite Books: "Moo, Baa, La La La", Mary Engelbright's "Silly Mother Goose", and his beginner's Bible

Favorite Songs (Riley LOVES music): "Wheels on the Bus", "Old MacDonald Had a Farm", "The B-I-B-L-E"

He loves to come tearing around corners and get scared by dad, give big open-mouthed kisses that usually turn into bites, push buttons of any kind and yell "Go, go, go, go!" when it's time to get in the car. He can't stand to have anyone play with his little Cozy Coupe or to see ANYONE else sitting in my lap. But most of all, he loves to make people laugh.

MAY - hem

The month of May was a whirlwind of activities, accompanied by an actual whirlwind and rain almost the entire 31 days. Thankfully we had a few sunny days (or at least dry days) when it really mattered.

Like for weekends at the cabin:

And for the girls' birthday party at the zoo:

And for this:

     It was a crazy month! There were 4 birthdays (Serena's, Val-Val's, Annie's and mom Beck's). There were several trips to the mountains (weekends at the cabin and a church women's retreat for me). There were unexpected changes (I got my old job back and Benjy hurt his knee again). There were mini family reunions on both sides (unfortunately on the same weekend so we had to juggle time with people we wanted to see so much). There were really big moments (Benjy got to preach at church and we both went skydiving for the first time) And then there were all the normal activities (family nights, small group, garden planting, meetings). It has been a really fun month but we are POOPED!!!

At the cabin



Zoo birthday bash

 

Skydiving with Chuck