Going the distance

After Rebecca and I walked to church, we turned to see how far behind Daddy and Alex were (they'd gone back for Alex's scriptures).
"They're not far behind," Rebecca said. "But they're still shorter!"

Baby

Becca decides to show baby how well she can put away silverware, so I carry baby over. As baby watches Becca carefully dry and place each piece, Becca says, "It's baby theatre!"

K:" It's baby's [1 week] birthday! We should feed you cake so baby can have special milk."

On Getting Sick

5-year-old Katherine: "I want to get sick.'
Me: "Why?"
Katherine: "Because I want to eat candy!"

5-year-old Rebecca: "I want to get sick.'
Me: "Why?"
Rebecca: "Because I want to stay up too late."

(Non-lazy) summer days!

Monday and Tuesday:
Sunny Clyde beach, with kayaking, takeout, grandparents, and a teenager-installed tightrope!

Tuesday music lesson: a singing lesson for Katherine, with Alex's first guitar lesson (hooray for an inexpensive, if slightly out-of-tune, Craigslist guitar!)

Wednesday
-Lunch with Dr. Grandpa
-Hiking through Bridle Trails, where Alex read signs about invasive species, Katherine picked four different wild berries (salmonberries, red huckleberries, native blackberries, and thimbleberries), and Rebecca ate the berries
-Swim lessons, followed by open swim at the Kirkland pool, where Katherine and Alex are now old enough to pass the swim test and play on their own!

Day at the Dub

Can't beat visiting the UW, getting free parking, and getting paid, all for a few minutes work of letting my children test cushions on a future brain-scanning chair! After my child models had finished their task, we spent several happy hours enjoying things like...
-trying to identify the "gargoyles" (people faces) on Savery Hall
-The neogothic reading room at the Suzallo Library (Katherine pointed out that the ceiling wasn't exactly right for a cathedral)
-exploring the stacks at the Suzallo, where we found German-language books about Japan, Arabic books, books over 100 years old, Sunset magazines from the 1950s, and children's books about Ben Franklin (quickly disproving my assertion to Katherine that "you can walk through shelves and shelves of books here and not find one you'd ever want to read)
-The "Mt Rainier" fountain, in which one mother duck and one baby duck spent most of their time losing each other
-sushi and teriyaki at the tiny Ichiro restaurant, where my children distinguished themselves by each draining two huge glasses of water (yes, it was hot, and we only survived because we took the corner table by the one fan, which blew all the straw wrappers off the table)
-Magus books, which I just wanted to show the kids, but where we ended up spending money on decades-old Dover edition coloring books of medieval images, Audubon birds, and a cut-and-assemble your own castle
-the Burke museum, where we enjoyed the crystals, the Stegosaurus fossil, and the employee who invited my children to come examine the fossils on the cart she was about to put away