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?"