Fish on!

The salmon were back this summer, which made fishing on the beach a whole lot of fun. In these pictures, you see Ella helping her dad, then celebrating when she heard he had a fish on the line and later showing Liam the big stick and explaining how to kill a fish with it. Liam looks a bit wary of that fish, eh?

Playing with Hero

Ella looks up to her cousin Hero quite a bit and relishes play time with him. One day, the three of us build a house in the sand with all the driftwood, shells, rocks, feathers and garbage that collects on the beach. It was a really special day.

So much sand, so little time

Liam, who used to raise his feet in the air (insisting that they be wiped off) the minute they touched sand, now rolls around in it. These two loved all the beach time out on Whidbey.

Whidbey and the swing

My dad had the idea to hang a swing in the wonderful Maple tree in the middle of the yard at Whidbey. Whether it was to challenge his son-in-law or entertain his grandchildren I know not, but it certainly turned out to be the highlight of the stay - both the hanging of the swing and the swinging of it! In this first photo, Ella was watching her dad head up the tree. As he got to the top of the ladder, she said "Bye, Dad." which humored and worried us all!

Dew drops on a spider web

After a particularly good play session with the hose (on mist), Ella ended up with what looked like a hair net of diamonds. It was beautiful and not totally captured on film, unfortunately...

Seattle Aquarium

It's an amazing place and we've had such great visits there. Ella was particularly interested in the sea horses and octopus this time. And I love their cheeky pose on the otter sculpture.

Gardens with Grandma, Posicles with Poppa!

To each his own...

Learning new things

Liam learned how to use a bike pump, how to do a somersault and many more things. 18+ months is an incredible age of discovery!

Really?!

We went to the beach with Cousin Hero and had a fantastic time, but were quite impressed and almost horrified at how far into the water (50-60 degrees?) these two got! Wow.

Playing

We had a great two weeks in Seattle. We experienced a bit of sibling tension and fell into some tough sleep patterns, but no travel is stress-free with kids, right?

Westward Ho!

With Summer Programs over, we headed West to see some water and mountains - and we were not disappointed! Will spent the first week out in Colorado at a conference and the kids and I settled into Seattle life.

Teaching (with) kids

I taught a Conversational French course (with only two students!) in our Summer Programs. The students were great and I really enjoyed the experience. In our final week, we had an outdoor class with piquenique and game of pétanque. Ella and Liam joined for a bit and Liam showed particular fondness for the Petit Écolier cookies...

Love these faces

Boy, I wish Liam would still sit in his highchair! Those were the glory days... Now meals are mostly mobile and quite chaotic.

More sibling bonding

Awwww...

Faces and hair

This kid has amazing expressions. Though he is still not talking, he is more than making up for it in his facial acrobatics. And these are not just miracles of modern photography, he holds these looks for long periods of time.
And he still has his obsession with hair, which has finally moved to his own. He runs his fingers though it, twirls it, loves it - especially when he's tired. It's pretty cute.