A cute dad and his girls.

I made Brian and the girls go outside right after church on Father’s Day Sunday to take a few pictures before lunch and naptime.  Such cute sports they were!  Brian is the best dad there is.  The girls might not understand yet how lucky they are, but one day they will realize how blessed they are that Brian is there dad.  He is so fun, so present, so patient, and full of love, and we just love him! 

Brian wanted to take the pictures in front of his new soil in the backyard.  (now we have grass!)

We like to kiss in our family.

Hattie’s pretty face in this picture makes me happy.  And Elna’s haircut looks pretty great too.  For knowing next to nothing about cutting hair, I’m always surprised at how well I pull off Brian and Elna’s haircuts.  Now, Hattie’s hair…I haven’t really figured out what to do with it yet.

This picture depicts Brian best—the girls are crazy, hungry, tired, and just want to get down, and Brian just rolls with it and still manages to smile.  This is my sweet, sweet life—it can be crazy sometimes, and the girls can be cranky and crazy, but then Brian comes home and everything is okay!  Happy Father’s day to him!

Latourell Falls.

We have started hiking a lot more, and me and the girls really love it.  This hike was to Latourell Falls, and it was just a few miles and so much fun for the kids.  Elna hiked the entire thing by herself and was so tough.

It was fun to watch her getting excited over bugs and slugs and sticks like the cute boys she was with.

Cade, Ian, Elna, and Cody

Me and my girls!

A cool tree.

Elna and Cody—these two are only 4 days apart in age.

Grandma Elna comes!

My mom came to visit us at the beginning of June!  Elna had quite a bit of one-on-one reading time with Grandma and loved it!

My mom came to help me sew a dress that I had been wanting to make, but the dress ended up being pretty difficult to make and kind of complicated, so instead of her helping me make it, she just made it.  I really want to learn to sew better, but it’s certainly not very easy for me.  My mom is good!  And the dress turned out so cute!

Here is a picture of me in the cute dress:

My mom took Elna to swim lessons one day so that I could stay home with Harriet who was napping.  A few days later we all went to swim lessons together for her last class of that session.

Our little belly flopper.  We are working on jumping.

You might notice that Elna is a head shorter than most of her class members.  It’s because they are all 5 and 6 years old, and she had just barely turned 3.  I’m so used to her being a giant around her peers, that it’s funny to see her being so short in this class.  Right before I took these pictures, she had marched right up to the side of the pool to jump to her teacher without realizing that the other kids were waiting in line.  This is her first experience with “lines” and my mom and I were getting a kick out of watching her figure it out.

Elna and her teacher, Jordan.

Harriet got her cast off on June 4, after only 3 weeks of having it on.  This was the last picture I got of her in her cast, in the doctor office.  She hated the process of getting it off and cried quite a bit, but got over it pretty quickly.  We were so ready for her to be done with the cast so that she could take baths again!

After the doctor’s office, we headed to the zoo.

Looking at the bears.  I love the bears at our zoo.  They are usually pretty active—moving around our wrestling with each other.

We loved having Grandma there!

Elna with her birthday book from Grandma Elna and Grandpa—The Alfie Treasury by Shirley Hughes.  It’s a collection of all of the Alfie books I grew up reading.  We have read it every day since, and Elna loves it!

Grandma and her girlies with Hattie’s birthday book, Brown Bear Brown Bear, by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle.  Another favorite around here!

Come again, Grandma Elna!

Blue Lake Triathlon, 2014.

Brian convinced me to be part of his triathlon again.  This is the third triathlon we’ve done together.  I’ve ran during two of them, but this time I did the bike portion.  I don’t really run, and I certainly don’t bike, but he likes me to be a part of the experience, and I actually really like being a part of it as long as he doesn’t put too much pressure on me.

Before—I’m usually pretty good about taking pictures of the event, but when I’m competing too and no one else is there to take pictures, we just get a before and after…

After

Somebodies hair got forgotten in the all of the getting ready for the early morning triathlon…

I absolutely love the atmosphere at triathlons.  The people are motivated, kind, and healthy, and I always leave wanting to be a healthier and stronger person.  I’d really love to do a triathlon by myself one day.  We did well, placing third, but I’m sure we would have done better had Brian just done it all by himself.  But that’s what I love about Brian—that he wants to do it with me, even when it slows him down!  Maybe one day these girls will want to race too!

A pool party for Elna!

We wanted to wait until Harriet’s cast was off to have Elna’s birthday pool party.  We had a very small party, with just two of her little friends and their parents.  Elna was very excited about her party and the pool!

She probably stood here for 30 minutes waiting for her friends to get here.  I love how excited she gets about life!

It was pretty cold, but that didn’t stop Elna.

This girl loves water!

Elna’s pretty okay being by herself, but of course she loves it even more when either me or Brian get in with her.

Hattie woke up part way through the party, and was pretty groggy at first. 

Elna requested Oreo pops.  They are so good! (and easy to make!)

Mostly Elna was solo in the pool, because it was a little chilly, but in a rare moment that the other kids were in, I took this picture really fast.