Back From Oregon!

Although I promised to update our blog more frequently during summer, dial-up access dampened my zeal. So we now are back on broadband and I've included all sorts of media goodness.

Kara loved the lake. Loved it a bit too much, actually. Which is one reason why we're back early. If she had her way, she would still be happily sifting the beach sand with her toes and filling her watering can with the softly lapping lake water. The moment we brought her back inside, she would scream, "AhDice! AhDice!" which means "outside." I might even go so far as to say that Kara was obsessed with "AhDice." Often, she'd wake up and 6 am and scream from her Pack 'n Play, "Daaaaaaaad. AhDice!" The lake house doesn't have a fenced backyard, so managing Ellie and Kara required our full attention. Gone are the days of reading a dozen books during the summer while sipping lemonade in a shady hammock. We did have plenty of fun, memorable moments and it was all time well-spent, but we were ready for the Kara-friendly conviences of home.

We've been very productive (when Kara has tolerated being indoors for some length of time). Kim was a scrapbooking maniac and is currently caught up! I was very happy to see her scrapbooking, not only because I enjoy watching her smiling, content face as she lovingly preserves our most cherished moments, but also because I had to load and haul all of her scrapbooking stuff 800 miles. Even more amazing than the scrapbooking, Kim has also started her quilt for Kara. In my unbiased opinion, my wife has some of the most thoughtful, creative, inspired ideas ever conceived. My evidence? She's saved all of Kara's outfits so she can cut squares from each one to form a quilt. Isn't that unique, sentimental, and perfect? Speaking of sentimental, I'm almost finished with my summer project: a video/still photo montage of Kara's birth (33 minutes long) and a similar video for her first year (111 minutes long). Now I need to get a Blu-ray burner so the grandparents can see it all in high-definition! Man, between Kim's scrapbooks, daily journal, and blog entries and my videos, Kara will have the most well-documented childhood of all time. Poor Kara. I can imagine her as a teenager, hands on hips, asking Kim and me, "So what the heck am I supposed to do with all this?"

More Pictures

Vacation Bible School

Fourth of July

Fun times with Gramma and Papa

Such a big girl.

Wireless Internet!!

We are at the Ford dealership today getting Aaron's truck serviced and they have free wireless internet! So here are some pics! We are having a great time here in Oregon. Yesterday we had an amazing thunderstorm. The thunder shook the house and lasted for so long. It poured but wasn't too cold outside. My parents are leaving tomorrow and Aunt Nicole is coming on Friday. Kara will be so happy to see her but VERY sad when Gramma and Papa leave.

Dial-up

Wow, if I ever hated dial-up before it was nowhere compared to how much I hate it now. Before it was just an inconvenience but now with a busy 19-month-old it is just impossible to do anything internet related. I am trying at 3AM!! to upload a few pics so you all can see what fun we have been up to. We are doing well and enjoying my parents being here--breaks for us to read, scrapbook...etc. I just finished my 2008 scrapbook and updated Kara's baby book(s). Kara has actually referred to my mom as Gramma a few times instead of just "Daisy". Of course one of her favorite words (and people) is still Papa.

This week is Vacation Bible School and we are having a good time. Throughout the year my parents bring up backdrops, workbooks, crafts and TONS (literally) of stuff from about 5 other churches down in CA and we put on a VBS here at our small church. We do the theme from the year before and we get all of the "left-overs" that the other churches didn't use. It is really cool to have about 65 kids this year! At our church at home we had about 1,400 kids so there is usually enough stuff left over for the kids up here to be able to do a lot of neat crafts...etc.

The weather has been cool but should be warming up a bit in the next few days. Kara has changed so much and is growing so fast. She clearly communicates pretty much everything she wants to get across to us which is nice. The 4th was fun and there are lots of kids around that Kara loves to watch and play in the sand with. Overall, we are having a great time. Aunt Nicole is coming up on the 17th and it will be great to see her. I am trying to upload ONE picture--I may be sitting here until the sun comes up...