Meet Ben

The swing is a huge part of our day. This is the swing in our back yard, but the one in the park is also good. Maybe there is something about the motion that brings forth creativity, for today we got to meet Ben. Ben is Erika's first imaginary friend!

In this picture, Erika is handing Ben to Jackie.

From what we can tell, Ben is a red firetruck. He likes to climb high. He likes to snuggle, he often needs a diaper changed. He is small. I think she got the idea for Ben from the Cars movie. Although she does not care to watch the movie, she has a Cars postcard which shows all the characters. She studies it every night with a magnifying glass and a flashlight. What punnishment it is to have the postcard taken away. It makes Ben sad.

Erika and the Alphabet

Wedding Party

Erika knows all about parties. Well, Birthday parties at least. This past weekend we attended cousin my Mary's wedding party and Erika enjoyed showing off her dress and doing nose kisses with the guests. Nose kisses are performed by touching noses. Saying "Beep!" is optional. Such cuteness cannot be stopped.

Toddler Miffed

Erika is not happy with the amount of diaper changing necessary. Four of her favorite animals all need changing at the same time. I think the names of the stuffed animals are: Bunny, Big Meow-Meow, Little Mew, and Moo-Moo. What's a pants less toddler to do!?

Company Picnic

The annual company picnic involves an extensive toddler area with pony and hay rides. Erika found lots of things to do, but most things were too much for a cautious cupcake such as herself.

I don't remember this piece of a car from last year. Anyway, here we have a glimpse into the future.

Mountain Meadows in North Bend, WA is a place to hold corporate events. It easily held the nearly 4,000 of us.

Here Erika enjoys the pink plastic house. Forget the 30ft inflatable slide! There is a pink house!

Edmonds Underwater Park

This beach is on Puget Sound, so we are getting some salt water action here. We spent the morning with the Hayatsus at a beach in the nearby town of Edmonds. Here you see Ilene and Kaemon getting acquainted with water which is most likely around 50F. The sand is a lot of fun for digging, but you can easily grasp the reason for Seattle's temperate climate. Note the passenger ferry in the background and if you look carefully you can see divers. This particular area is an underwater park and there are sunken boats and all sorts of things out there for divers to explore. It was a beautiful day and I got a sunburned knee. Just one.
Speaking of sunburn, Jackie was quick to notice that there are a lot of very pale people in Edmonds as the Scandinavian influence is still strong. Everywhere you looked, there were people in the sun who really shouldn't be. A lot of very white skin with alarmingly red patches- tanning was simply not happening. Jackie felt right at home.

Non serviam

This is Erika's portrayal of the word "no." Just in case you didn't know what "no" looked like.

A Very Brief Visit to Idlewood Park

Saturday, June 30th, 2007. After our delightful visit to Ohio, and the beach at the Springfield reservoir in particular, Erika is up for more sand and surf. On the east side of Bellevue, about a 20-minute drive from our house is Idlewood Park on Lake Sammamish. Idlewood has a charming bit of sand and the lake is quite inviting. However, Erika was not in an accommodating mood that morning. She failed to comply with mommy's instructions and was given the ultimatum, "Do you want to go home?!" to which Erika replied with a spirited head butt! So we went home. It was a long, tearful 20-minute ride back. I hope that on our next trip to Idlewood, we can break the elusive 2-minute barrier and actually touch the water. Or even the sand.