Worms

We had another busy weekend. On Sunday morning, I woke up to find that Landscaping Obsessed Guy had posessed Bob overnight. While I snoozed, Bob had decided that his project for the day, other than mowing the entire yard (!), would be to finally redo one of the back flower beds. In the before picture (coming soon!), you can see that there's a gigantic rose bush blob, our new Japanese Yew, and not much else. Bob elected to removed the rose bush and replace it w/ Encore azaleas. I had thought we'd leave the rose bush, but I wasn't really in a position to argue with someone motivated to dig in the dirt in the hot sun all day, so out it went. We had a couple family outings to select plants, soil and mulch and came up with 3 azaleas, some perienniel blue salvia stuff, coriopsis and lambs ear. It looks a million times better and will really look nice once it all gets established in a couple more seasons.
And Parker had a nice time digging up worms.

Cold Water

Another beach picture. The water in the bay is FREEZING cold. This is the first year I've been in it past my ankles.
Parker spent most of her time running from the sand into the water. Then turning around and running all the way back. Over and over again, until she was exhausted and then we'd take her back to the condo for an afternoon nap. It's rare these days that she consistently takes a nap, but in San Diego, she konked out every day, and then again at night.

Cousin pics con't

Cousin Closeups

More San Diego pics of Parker and her cousins.

New 'Bracelet'

For the past 4 days Parker has been wearing her "special bracelet". If you look closely, you'll notice that it's actually a ponytail holder. She got it with some hair bows and things for her birthday. We were putting all of the bows and clips into a box and she saw the ponytail holders. Pink with sparkles. She had me put it on her...it fits with out stretching....and she's had it on ever since. Anytime we go somewhere new...swimming, bday party, school, etc she checks to make sure she can wear her special bracelet. If we have to leave it at home (it doesn't go swimming), then she puts it back on as soon as she's home!

Be careful what Bob and Parker wish for.....

Well they got their trampoline. I showed just the slightest crack in my no-trampoline armour and it was like trying to stop wild horses. Saturday morning, after Bob mowed but before we had guests over for dinner, Bob purchased and assembled Parker's new trampoline. It was on sale, which was nice.
On the way to the store, we were waiting to turn left, and lots of cars were zipping past us. Parker's observation was

" Looks like a lot of people are going to get a trampoline! We better hurry before they're all out!"

Parker LOVES it and she just laughs and laughs and jumps and jumps. It is a bit of an eyesore for our neighbors though. Hopefully Parker's squeals and giggles will cheer them up.

Skipping

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Carnival pics

Here are the carnival pics I promised. At the beach, there is a permanent carnival set up. We usually go once when we're there and ride the rides. The big question is whether or not to get a wrist band or buy individual tickets. You have to ride x amout of rides to get your money's worth, and it's not recommended for kids Parker's height because the amount of rides is limited. Turned out, we had no trouble getting our money's worth! All of her cousins were so great about riding with her too.

Merry Go Round

submarine thing that wen up in the air and back down

driving a boat

Tilt-A-whirl....she rode this 4 times! It flings you around in circles. I couldn't believe she rode it so many times!

July 4th

We had a long fun day yesterday. Our neighborhood has a full day of activities. In the morning, we took Parker up for games and the bounce house. She LOVES to bounce! I'm starting to conceed on getting a trampoline I think. I don't have pictures of the morning, but maybe I'll have some forwarded to me that I can post.

In the evening, there is a live band around the pool area and at the lake behind the pool, there are fireworks, and people bring their own and shoot those off too. Parker loved dancing to the music and watching the fireworks. When she got sick of that, she played tag and other games with some of the neighbor kids. We were there until 11pm! We had a sleepy child to deal with.


Watching with dad. Parker's observation about the noise:
"This is gonna bother my sleep."

Dancing with friends

At the carnival

More carnival pics coming soon.....

Sea World

I'm going to try to post some chronological pictures of the stuff we did on vacation. Here are some from Sea World:


At a 3d movie w/ cousin

Looking at the Clidesdales w/ another cousin

Walking around. She spent as much time as possible holding hands with someone.

Jumpin' Cousins - Foot update

This was a fun game Parker played until all the big kids got tired of it. This is one of her cousins...Bob's sister's daughter.

I was just reminded that i never gave an update on Bob's foot. He went and got Xrays and nothing is broken. He got good marks for keeping his cuts clean, they were very impressed considering he'd been at the beach for a week.
He received a velcro shoe to limp around in and promptly mowed the yard when he got home!
If you aren't easily grossed out, here's a link to the pictures.
http://www.flickr.com/gp/41254716@N00/MQ6J28
It continued to swell through the week, to the point that his toes didn't touch the ground at times!
You'll notice that he's wearing a dishwashing glove to keep his foot clean from sand and showing off his sunburn from Sea World.

Parker's first sand dollar

She wasn't terribly impressed, but it's a cute picture.

Beach Pic-1

Here is the first of many. I'll try to get them up sporadically during the week. As you can expect, we have a lot to do. We (hoped)expected Parker to have a droopy sleepy lazy day today, but to our (horror) surprise, she's the opposite, running everywhere, thrilled to be home and playing with all of her toys. So today should be a busy day. Bob's going for foot xrays in a while, I'll report the findings when we get them.

We're home

We're home safe and sound! Stand by for photos and vacation recap in the next few days.

Vacation report

It's Thursday here ;-) we are still having lots of fun. The weather has been amazing. Sunny but cool. Bob's foot cuts are healing nicely, but we're wondering if his foot might be broken. Adding insult to injury, he got a really bad sunburn through his shirt at Sea World.

Parker is having such a wonderful time with her cousins. Today we went to a little carnival and she rode a lot of little rides, including the Tilt O'World, which slings you around in circles. She loved it, to my suprise, and rode it twice!

Milestone alert:
Parker can skip now. She says "watch my new dance".
I'll try to get video of it.

3 year checkup

I just noticed that I never posted this:

-------------------------
Parker had her 3 year check up yesterday. She's doing great...weighs 27 lbs and is 36 inches tall, which puts her in the 25%tile in both. That's pretty much on the same growth curve as before, so we are pleased.

Hi from San Diego

No pictures yet, sorry. I'm borrowing a laptop to post this. We having a great time! The flight was fairly easy....Parker slept most of the way. Before getting on the plane, when we drove up at Park and Fly, Parker said:

"Where's the California?"

Today we are going to Sea World, which should be interesting...Bob injured his toes last night falling off a skateboard. We are probably going to have to push him around in a wheelchair. Seriously.
Parker is having a wonderful time playing with her cousins. It's like having free child care because she's constantly entertained and the center of someone's attention.

Dress up

Lately, the first thing Parker does in the morning is to put on her fairy wings and high heels. It's a nice way to start the day.
This picture will have to hold you for a while, because we'll be in San Diego for a week. I should have lots of good pictures and stories when we get back though.
Here's where we'll be :
http://www.missionbeachweather.com/
Notice there's a webcam too. I doubt we'll be organized enough to get in front of it at a certain time though.
http://www.sundiego.com/surf_cams_mission.php

Ignore the child, look at the plants

The patio plants are really looking nice thanks to all the rain. I've included Parker in the pictures for scale.

a game of jump the hat.....

I can't seem to do a photo that does the daylilies justice. I have some dark dark purple ones and some ruffled ones that are really neat. Those are jack beans growing up the shephard's crook.

Remember you can click on the photo
to see it larger.

She doesn't even like tomatoes, she's just eating one to be a goose for the camera. Remember to check out the plants in the background.

Pony explanation

Parker attended a birthday party for a little boy that was in her class at school. He had it at a petting zoo, and there were also pony rides and putt putt. I CANNOT BELIEVE she got on the pony and rode it up and down the grass. Her friends did it too and I think she was wisked up on the pony and was riding before she knew what happened. She is very brave in front of her peers, and didn't cry or let on that she was not enjoying herself, but she told me later she didn't like it.

Here are some more pictures of the party. How stinkin' cute is the little boy in his boots and hat?