Random July pictures.

We have been busy!  We just got home from an 11 day trip to CA, and a week before that we were also in CA for a Harris family vacation, but now we’re back and done with vacations and in much need of some sleep and blog catch up. 

So, I’ve been cutting Brian’s hair since we got married with no problems.  But the last time I cut it the guard fell off, and before I noticed I shaved up his head—a sad mistake— especially a month before family pictures.  We made an emergency trip to the hair salon he went to before we got married.  You can still tell in the picture on the right, but it quickly grew enough that you couldn’t tell at all.

                                                                                 before                                                                                                          after

Our little girl is very girly—some of her favorite things are putting shoes (hers or ours) on and playing with my makeup and hair things.  It’s all very cute.

Elna went through a stage where she only wanted to wear one shoe.  She would walk all around the house in just that shoe.  If I tried to put her other shoe she got very bugged.  She cracks me up.

Looking at these pictures makes me want to go on a walk right now.  With how much she loves our walks I really have no excuse not to get out and go walking.

I couldn’t pick just one of the following pictures.  I want to freeze these little expressions and never let her grow up. 

On one day in July we decided to meet Brian downtown for dinner and dessert.  We went to Veggie Grill for dinner and had some yummy vegan donuts from Voodoo Donuts. 

Elna in her stroller on the MAX ride downtown.

Hagg Lake Triathlon.

Brian and I competed in a sprint triathlon at Hagg Lake on July 7th.  Brian did the swim and bike portion and I only did the run, but it was a great way for me to get my triathlon feet wet—totally got me excited to do one all by myself!

And he’s off!

Our cheerleaders, Grandpa & Elna

In the picture on the left Elna is pointing at a dog and barking—she doesn’t bark much anymore these days and we miss it.

The Elna hand-off.  Too bad the photographer didn’t move a few steps to the left…

Brian, happy to be done with his parts.

And that’s where the pictures end because the camera battery died before I came back from my run.  Bummer.  The run portion was mostly uphill, but I ran hard and finished in a minute less than I had planned for.  Yay.  Such a fun thing to do together! 

Yard, painting, and the 4th of July!

To the blog world the fact that we have finally started working on our yard and house exterior may not mean much, but to our neighbors and anyone in Troutdale who has the pleasure of driving by our house each day it is very significant.  Our yard and exterior have been looking pretty shabby, but we are finally doing something about it!

Last month Brian built a walkway from our sidewalk to the walkway that leads to our house.  These pictures are before we poured the cement:

A view from the street.  This is before painting the house gray.  I’m also considering painting the door yellow.

Another picture of the whole front yard.  To the left of the walkway will be grass.  To the right I can’t decide if I want to do grass or fill it with trees/shrubs/flowers.  In front of the those two windows I want hydrangeas

A view from our house.

And the finished product:

Brian also trimmed out our front door.  I love how it turned out!

                                                                           Before                                                                                                                     After

I love this picture of Elna walking—such a funny expression on her face and one I see all the time.

Elna spends a lot of time in her stroller while we work.  She’s generally a great sport!

Before painting the house, Brian pressure washed the house.

He also pressure washed the sidewalk in front of our driveway.  Classy.  A ran into a lady down the street while walking one day and she called me by name.   I didn’t know her.

We painted on the 4th of July—it was the first full dry day Brian had off in a long time, so we took advantage of the sun. 

Brian used the paint sprayer while DeWin & Heather or I back brushed.  Brian’s family is always so happy to help us and we are very grateful.  We painted the house a really pretty gray, but it still kind of looks blue sometimes because the roof is blue-ish (ick!) and we haven’t finished painting all of the trim white.  I really really don’t want people to think our house is blue.  I think they will until we get a new roof.  Who gets a blue roof?

Heather took care of Elna while we painted.  She is so helpful and Elna loves her!  She put shoes on Elna—it was Elna’s first true experience with shoes on.  Pretty cute.  By the way, Elna has been walking since she was about a year old, and mostly full-time the last week or so.  I will put a post together soon on that.

Elna and Grandpa taking a break together.

And just in case you don’t think we know how to celebrate, on the morning of the 4th we went to a Stake pancake breakfast.  DeWin gave a very good talk to start out the program.

Happy 4th of July!