Evelyn's Birthday, August 13, 2008

Evelyn at two months.

Evelyn at 4-5 months. How can they possibly grow so fast?????


Sitting on the stairs to the family room at Mom and Dad's. Evelyn is one today! She also had just been to the doctor's office for her one year old check up. I know, how awful to make her get shots on her birthday! Thank goodness she's too little to know what a double insult she's been given! She weighs 20 lbs, 2 oz. now. Just a wee thing but tall for her age at 2 feet 6 inches and a "ginormous" noggin in the 96 percentile! No wonder she's so smart!

Finley is wondering how soon HIS birthday will get here. In the meantime, he enjoys playing with the animal hospital we got for Evelyn (and him to share.)

Evelyn enjoying her new books from Grandpa and Grandma Chapman.

Evelyn loves her Cabbage Patch baby doll we got for her birthday. It has hair she can hang on to!

Reminds me of a certain bear who likes honey...


Birthday cake number two for a first birthday! Mom and Dad came over that evening to have a quick piece of cake and celebration with us.




Makayla, dressed and ready to go home after splashing in the little pool and playing on the slip n' slide at my parents' home.

Makayla, Finley and Evelyn in various stages of undress!

My niece, Lauren and her daughter Makayla, and infant son, Kaleb (not pictured) came up to Mom and Dad's to say happy birthday to Evelyn.

Finley and Evelyn checking out Mom and Dad's tractor sprinkler in their backyard on Evelyn's birthday, August 13.

An appropriately blurred photo to show how fast this year has gone. Evelyn seemed to never be a real new born, an old soul right from the start. I feel as though she is one, going on 20!

Evelyn is One Year Old-Birthday Eve Celebration with Grandma and Grandpa Sargeant and Aunt Erica

Mmmmm. Cake is good!


Cake number one with Grandpa and Grandma Sargeant! They were going back up to Samish the day of Evelyn's birthday, August 13, so we had them over for cake on August 12. They brought yummy Rooters barbecue for dinner.

A Little Music, Good Food and Great Friends

View to the SE, with Mt. Slesse in the distance. This is directly north of Mt. Baker in the states. We love to visit Fred and Edith here at their new place! (Todd and I took a little trip up to B.C. to visit our friends and a chance for me to play music with Fred at their community festival. We left the kids with my parents for one night. Almost two by the time we got home on Saturday night! There was road construction in Everett with only one lane open. It took us nearly an hour to go about 3 miles! ARGGGH!)

Hollyhocks along the deck add to this bucolic place!


View of "Slesse Alm" looking west over the existing house. Fred and Edith are doing an addition to the other guest quarters and garage, creating a new home, studio and massage room for Edith's clients.



Charlie, the patient Belgian, who was "volunteered" for the job of having his feet shod for the demonstration. With all the questions and demonstrations and explanations of the process, the whole thing took nearly two hours to do two shoes! Charlie was a retired draft horse who used to pull tourists through Stanley Park. He was about 22 years old and had arthritis in one leg.

By a strange coincidence, the horse shoeing exhibit was performed by the world reigning champion farrier from Switzerland! He had just competed in the Calgary Stampede blacksmith and farrier competition and he and his wife were touring Canada before they went home. He was friends with the farrier from Ryder Lake. It was fascinating to watch them work. I learned a lot!


Annie,Fred and I had fun playing swing tunes, waltzes, accompanying Edith on hammer dulcimer and an original piece by Fred.


Our little ensemble played at the first ever, Ryder Lake Community Festival! Whoo hoo! It was very fun with several artisans showing their pieces and a really interesting farrier/blacksmithing exhibition.


Edith made an amazing supper for us before we headed for home: herb chicken burgers, with sides of garlic mushrooms, grilled fennel, peppers and onions and basil, tomatoes and some kind of cheese like mozzarella, only better! Oh yes, and new potatoes. For dessert, our friend Marilyn, brought tira misu and chocolate mousse cake!

Finally! The Septic Drain Field Gets Backfilled!

After many a delay, for one reason and another, our septic contractors

finally came out and filled in our drain field. We were leaving for Canada that Friday but they had a last minute opening so I took it. The bulldozer showed up at 10 minutes to 8:00 a.m. and we were still in bed! The one day the kids actually slept in and we have an early event. Oh well. It was fun to watch it happening in reverse, with the dirt being pushed back in. Nick, the bulldozer driver had been one of the crew when they installed it. We had a nice chat and he let Finley look up close at the bulldozer.

A Foggy Day on Mount Rainier August 2nd

Lupine and phlox were out and their colors were even more vibrant with the fog as a backdrop.
Our soggy hike was still fun!

This is the Sourdough Ridge lookout at Sunrise. We used our imaginations.
Finley and I "raced" up the trail to get ahead of Todd and Evelyn. The fog and mist left our hair drenched. We had a nice time warming up in the lodge before we got back in the car.




I guess this is fun after all...


Evelyn wasn't so sure about hiking in a stroller.

Bits of Summer

Finley created his own slip n' slide with the playset slide. It was all apart while we were getting our septic field moved. It works great!


Hot days call for swim suits, or less....



Todd went to the All British Field Meet at Bellevue Community College, July 26. My cousin Jeff came over and they went sans kids. My anniversary present to Todd. :) The experience, not this car!





One grey day a few weeks ago, we had fun on the back deck with our "blue Thomas" layout. We tried to use every piece we owned! We didn't quite accomplish that but there wasn't much left in the bin!

Sculpture climbing at Lake Wilderness.