Father’s Day weekend.

Elna is lucky to have Brian for a dad!  He is a really great dad!  Elna absolutely adores him and I do too.  When she sees or hears him come home every night her face lights up and she screams for joy.  She has been saying Dada for a while now, but this weekend, just in time for Father’s Day it seems, she has been saying it more enthusiastically.  When he goes to the other end of the house she will yell Dada until he comes back.  I love it. 

I love the routines he has with her that she has come to totally expect. He takes her the second he gets home from work (thank goodness!) and puts her on our bed while he dresses. She loves playing on the bed with him. He is also the one who feeds her dinner, bathes her, and reads to her before I feed her every night.

For Father’s Day I gave Brian a barbeque grill. He has been patiently wanting one for quite some time. He really loves it!

Brian had Friday off because of flex time at work, so we spent most of the weekend doing yard work.  But yesterday afternoon we also got out for a beautiful hike in the gorge.  We hiked to Ponytail Falls.  This is a fun hike because you actually hike behind the waterfall. 

This path curves behind the waterfall—you can see other hikers behind the waterfall.

Behind the waterfall.

Behind the waterfall, but with the waterfall behind Brian and Elna.

Me & Elna at the bottom of the waterfall.

Today after church, we went on another hike in the gorge.  We did Bridal Veil falls which was perfectly short and very beautiful.

With Bridal Veil (the lower portion of it) in the background.

The three of us!

At one of the view points—looking out over the Columbia River. 

Happy Father’s Day, Brian!  You are the absolute best!!!

My triathlete.

Last Saturday Brian competed in the Blue Lake triathlon.  It was a little stressful in the beginning because we were running late and Brian was a bit more tense than I have ever seen him.  Let’s just say that it didn’t motivate me very much to want to do one myself.  But, by the end I was all excited to start training for one myself. 

Here is Brian’s race from start to finish:

Brian getting his number pinned on.

Elna doesn’t look too thrilled to be there—it was a bit cold and long for her.  Brian getting into his wetsuit as fast as he could (since we were running a little late)

About to start his triathlon with the swim portion.  He’s a very good swimmer!

Our good friend, Stacy, was also competing.

Coming out of the water and running to change out of his wetsuit and start the biking portion.

                                          About to start the biking portion.                                                                                                     His supportive fans.

He did it!  An exhausted Brian on the left just seconds after finishing.  Yay Bri!

Just a little more birthday and other things too.

Elna’s neighbor friends, Sara, Joshua, and Caleb brought one of their toys to give Elna for her birthday.  These kids are some of the nicest kids I’ve ever met.  They are really kind to one another and to Elna.  Elna adores them!  Sara made several cards for Elna and Elna loves the toy they gave her.

Brian took these funny pictures of Elna’s faces when I was reading her cards to her.  She is the best face maker!

Sara and Elna

Joshua, Caleb, Sara, Kendra, Elna & Brian.  Kendra’s family also gave something to Elna.  And so did another neighbor (the man who borrows our water every few months, for those of you who have heard that story…)  I really don’t know how everyone even knew it was her birthday, but they were sure nice.

Elna with her doctor, Dr. Mary.  We really like her!

Playing with her puzzle table that her Uncle Chris gave her—she loves it!  And I love that she has her name in it!

I love her little bum in the air!

In her new car seat.  She loves sitting forward.

Elna LOVES her new swing—we have park swings directly outside our backyard gate, but they don’t have a baby swing, so we purchased this and hook it with carabineers to the normal swing.  She could spend all day outside on the swings!

We took her to the duck pond last week and it was a hilarious experience.  First of all she hasn’t quite figured out the release function with her hands, so she kind of drops it right in front of her if we were lucky.  Mostly she just ate the bread.  Why feed it to the ducks when you can it yourself, right?  We had to make sure her mouth was filled with bread when we gave her another piece, and then maybe just maybe she would drop the piece on the ground for the ducks.

On the slide and loving it.  Parks were made for this girl!

Veggie Grill

The most fortuitous thing happened last week and I have to write about it!  Elna and I met Brian downtown for dinner with our friend Stacy last week.  On our way to dinner we decided to go see if this vegan restaurant was open yet.  We knew it was opening up any day.  We looked inside and people were eating, so of course we got excited.  A manager saw us outside and motioned us to come inside.  She invited us to eat there, but we couldn’t because we already had dinner plans somewhere else.  She then invited us to come back the next night for a grand opening dinner—complimentary.  Heck yes!

We came back the next night and ate some of the yummiest food we have ever had.  Seriously delicious!!

I wish I had taken a picture of our food before it was gone.  Those buffalo wings you see in Brian’s picture were the tastiest we’ve ever had!  And those sweet potato fries—wow!  I had a blackened chick’n burger and Brian had a pulled apart beef sandwich—both were awesome!  And that lemonade was amazing!  We will be back again and again!

Deja vu (28 years later)