Juan's bike and Mary Lu's latin roots

Juan got a bike about two weeks ago. He jumped on it and took off. Every time he rides he goes faster longer and it's just about as thrilling to watch as it is, I imagine, to pedal. He falls periodically as he's learning his balance, but he's up and back on before you know it. We go down to the state park (about 1/2 mile from our house) and pedal around the paved trails by the campsites. Mary Lu and I stroll beside him (in a related note, Mary Lu is so in love with being in the stroller that taking her out almost always involves a good deal of yelling and protesting on her part, more on that later). When we're done, we go over to the lake where they throw rocks and wade and dig canals. It's awesome.

Some notes on Mary Lu these days. . .She's taken to rolling her "r"s and wanders around the house rolling them like a tiny latin lover. I don't know that I've mentioned her climbing but she climbs up, over, and onto anything that will (and many things that won't) accommodate her. One day she discovered diving onto things, at the time it was me but she has since graduated to. . .everything--off chairs, onto Leafy. She puts her arms high over her head, grins, and then dives forward without breaking her body at all. All adventure and trust, that's Mary Lu. She continues to love music and to dance. In the car, she points at the radio and yells "music" until we turn it on (she's probably coming off sounding much more tyrannical than she is. She's just, uh, assertive). The best part, though, is that she anticipates the end of the song and a few notes before each song ends she starts yelling "more! more!" and making the more sign (she loves the more sign, it's very big with Mary Lu.) John said one day that if she ever runs for president she'll run on a platform of the dissolution of empty space between songs on cds. Then we realized that there probably won't be cds anymore and we drove on somberly in the car pondering our ever-increasing age. Also of note, is that Mary Lu yells no, all the time, constantly really. I realize that this is our doing but, it is worth noting, that we tried to avoid it. I think we were maybe better and the positive redirecting of behavior the first time around. At any rate, that's Mary Lu in a nutshell right now.

John is healing and back at work doing light duty. He continues to invade the blog--he hits me with, "it's our family blog" and so I back down. I know, I know, he's funny. My teaching credential is processed so I hope to substitute at least next year. My dad and Zach were up to visit last week, the first of the family to see the house and that was awesome. I thought Leafy was pregnant but now I don't know. NO, it was not intentional, YES I know it was irresponsible. We just waited too long to have her spayed. No hate mail, please!!!At any rate, now we're in weird puppy limbo because it seems silly to pay for an ultrasound now. . .although eventually I guess we'll have to. Anyway, we'll keep you updated.

Juan has entered a new phase that's pretty interesting. I'm not certain how to describe it. . .he can be very emotional, more than before, but also he's very articulate about his ideas and feelings. I think he's growing more comfortable talking about his feelings. He is, I think, more often behaving in ways that he knows he shouldn't, but then he is very remorseful. I think he's feeling his independence and experimenting with it, but has mixed feelings about it as well.

The kids and I head off to Family Camp at Camp Silver Creek this weekend. I so, so wish John could go too but it will have to wait until next year. Silver Creek is where John and I met and spent about 8 of our summers in our youth (plus, I was a camper there for 5 summers myself) and it is way beyond exciting to be going back there with our kids.

Love to you all.










Juan on his bike, just down the hill from our house























Ok, this bike is for when Mary Lu's older. She's just
sitting on it here. I want to get her a Skuut; they're cool.











There's a historic town near here called Molson. This is
at Molson Days--Juan on an old fire truck














Have I mentioned Mary Lu's upper body strength?











Juan balancing











Watching the Wenatchee Youth Circus perform in Tonasket.











Ok, they were no Fern Street Circus for sure, but at
times it was entertaining











We have decided we're going to have a Mary Lu and Chain Link
exhibit.











Mary Lu feeds Sasha (our neighbor's dog and Leafy's BFF) some
Veggie Booty while Border looks on.











Grandpa Randy and Mary Lu repair the train set. I don't know
about you, but in our world the train set takes about 1/2 hour to put
together and falls apart again within 15 minutes. We're not going to
glue, but on some days I certainly understand the appeal.











Mary Lu and Uncle Zach















Juan and Mary Lu hold a sit-in in Grandpa Randy's car
to protest his leaving.











Border too















Playing at Aunt Sandy's in Grand Forks, BC






























In a rare photo, I catch Sandy hoola-hooping. Or, shoop-shooping? I learned
from Sandy and dad, on this afternoon at a Grand Forks ice cream parlor that
the hoola-hoops that make sounds were called "shoop-shoop-hoola-hoops"

Below, this is a photo of the fam. Stevie, Sandy's grandson is in the blue shirt (my
second cousin?) and my cousin, Shimmer is in the pink. I had not seen Shimmer since I was about nine.