Anniversary date

 Dinner

 A night at a B&B

And breakfast without the kids.

Building a road

 The dump truck follows closely behind the bulldozer.

 Around and under the play structure at the park.

It's hard to not step on the road that's already been built.

Floating along

 Isaiah has taken whole-heartedly to using objects to float in the water.

Bernadette remains suspicious that the water may just be a bath.

Trucks

Trucks by daddy, decoration by Isaiah.

Spiral cone

Frosted

Poor child ...

Speaking of Numbers...

Isaiah has decided we need some pets, and he has it all planned: two goats (a blue one with horns and a white one without), two parrots, and ten alpacas.  They will "wander about" outside in the shrubs by our building, and every morning we will bring the goats and the alpacas oats and water.  Not the parrots? you might ask, as I did.  No, they eat insects.

Countdown

Bernadette: "8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 6 ..."

Hiking

Heading up the trail with Olivia and Fred at Zion.

Jumping into the river

Shortly after I made this jump, I meandered downstream to where our packs were stashed and the smaller kids were playing. I suddenly noticed I couldn't feel my wedding ring and panicked, thinking I had lost it in the water (too deep to touch) where we had been jumping below the dam. A couple of bad words and a few moments later, I decided to check the pouch in my hat on the shore, where I had stored the ring for earlier jumps. It was there! Saved! Not as stupid as I had felt for a few agonizing moments.

Mahopac

Therese, Bernadette and Isaiah on Rody's dock.

Summer sky

Pool party

Cooling off on the Fourth of July.

Bernadette and Grandpa

Vacation wore me out

Water works

Bernadette cools her toes.

Sunday hike

Camping

The morning after the screaming. Hot and still to start but breezy and cooler as the night wore on.

Vacation

Grandma and Bernadette.

Sharks

Uncle Paul and Isaiah in Las Vegas

Taking flight

A girl and her book.

Toes

 In the sand

In the water

Not Instagram

 The kids, image shot through a plastic bowl

Ice cream

 Moorne ...

Don't like it? Naw, he's just watching the road.

Beach time

Isaiah and his project.

Playing

With Caden at the Green House graduation party.

Bernadette's vocabulary

ummy -- food
moorne (generally accompanied by gestures): more ummy
eat -- her newest call for food
baaa -- sheep
blue -- the smoothies Marian made for breakfast
side -- outside
easah -- pizza
ball -- ball


She's also singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" with varying levels of enuciation depending on the word and she sings some other songs that I can't identify.

She repeats some of her favorite stories including "Hoff!!" ("Drummer Hoff"). And this morning she was talking about "Where's Spot," saying "No. No Way."

Fire engine

In the dress Aunt Marty made

Bernadette

 For a while I was worried that I was slighting Bernadette and taking more pictures of Isaiah. I think that tide has turned.

Salesman

Isaiah spent quite some time the other day organizing his cars and trucks into a dealership.  And every time Bernadette ambled over wanting to play with one of them, he informed her, "Make it ten bucks and she's yours."

More hats

Baseball!

Christmas video

Time machine

I'm working on the backlog of unprocessed video. Here's a classic from November.

Napping

 Marian takes advantage of a quiet moment to document the goings on in the living room.

Book him

 Isaiah certainly likes his books.

The Right Words

Here are a couple of descriptions Isaiah came up with this week to replace words he didn't know.  I didn't tell him afterwards what the "right words" were.  You'll see why. :)

"This boat is peanut-colored [tan/beige]."

"I smell the breath of trucks [exhaust]."

Mad hatter

 Riding in the car with her hat pulled low, and highly amused.

Trying to put Cynthia's hat on Momma.

Yum

Grandpa brought ice cream when he visited recently.

Notes

Me as I pushed Isaiah: "booster rocket."
Bernadette in the adjacent swing, almost chanting: "rocket, rocket, rocket, rocket, rocket, rocket."

 Bernadette after pretty much everything in the firehouse drove past, sirens and lights in action: "Again!" She also says this after some of her new favorite books, including "Drummer Hoff" and "Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs."

Coffee filter breakfast hats

Rain doesn't mean no play

A note from Grandma

The Winnie-the-Pooh exercise song is running in my head this morning, and while ‘playing’ I hear Isaiah’s very enthusiastic:  “I’m ready, I want to exercise now” . . .  and he wants to do yoga with me which encompasses 30 seconds of poses and then immediately goes into playing cats. . . 

Bernadette is of course, a loyal supporter of all these activities.