Sarah Artwork

This is "Mommy's" picture, which Sarah drew for me. I thought there were some pretty cool designs in there. I think it was inspired by Classical Baby's Art Show, but it could be just entirely made up too.

I particularly like the guy with stars on his head and the stripey thing with curliques and bird feet. Maybe sometime I'll ask her what they are. But I suspect they aren't supposed to be anything in particular--just designs.

Contest

A friend of a friend is sponsoring a contest. Her little Flybaby is giving away presents for his first birthday next month, and you're all invited to join in the fun. How nice is that?

Happy Birthday Flybaby!

Family Resemblance, Nine

Should I keep posting these? Vote in comments. (Because it's all for you, the occasional viewer...not just me. 8P)

I'm noticing differences in physical development for this month. At this age, Sarah was crawling; Noah was crawling, cruising, and nearly standing by himself; and Karen is content to sit. She has no interest in going anywhere.

Karen, 9 months

Karen is hitting her stride in separation anxiety. Mommy is not allowed to leave her presence. Ever. Unless Daddy is there. But fortunately, she still cooperated somewhat for pictures. :)

The white landscape view is Daddy's favorite. I can never pick one favorite. Which is why this blog is crammed full of pictures. You know that "More isn't always better. Sometimes it's just more." line? Baloney.

Speaking of Fruit...

The watermelon Sarah planted in the backyard is making progress:

Picking Fruit

We drove down to Willcox to Apple Annie's Orchard to pick some fruit last weekend. In addition to the fruit, we also enjoyed the apple-smoked burgers and homemade fresh peach ice cream.

Sarah was very independent about picking, and some of the peaches were low enough that Noah could pick some by himself.

Even Karen did some "picking."

We got lots of apples (Jonathan, McIntosh, and Gala), peaches, and Asian pears. I made apple pie and applesauce. My applesauce recipe overdosed on the lemon juice, so I ended up making it strawberry applesauce to balance out the sourness. If there are any apples left when I get around to it, I want to try making apple butter.

We may have to make this an annual tradition. Although hopefully next time we'll get there a little earlier in the day, since it was quite hot.

Family Vacation, Part II

Zion Ponderosa:

Sarah got to go to kids camp twice from 9-5. She got to do tons of fun things, although she was very tired afterward. One day, Sarah and her 2 cousins were the only kids signed up. She LOVED the pony rides. She liked dressing up for the zip line, but when she got up on the landing it was just too high, and she didn't want to go down. She was a fair little climber though (I was bad letting her climb a couple rocks without the climbing gear on). And of course, spending time with Grandma and Grandpa was the whole reason for the trip.

Noah's official activities were riding in the jeep golf cart where Daddy helped him drive and going for pony rides. He was really proud of his accomplishment at reaching the rings at the playground. He enjoyed mini-activities at family "mini-kids camp" gatherings and hanging out with Daddy. He also loved all the animals at the petting zoo.



Karen mostly hung out with whoever wasn't actively doing something else. And played with her cousins.



Since I was the one with the camera most of the time, I'm not in many of our pictures, but here's one Rich took of me doing archery. I hit a couple of bulls-eyes, and shot the 'deer' in the neck. Rich almost made it to the very top of the climbing wall; me, not so much. Good thing there aren't any pictures of that embarrassing performance.

Our other activities included horseback riding (for me), zip line, swimming, hiking in Zion National Park, paintball (for Rich), and various miscellaneous camp activities.

Family Vacation, Part I

July was a busy month for us. We did the annual Grand Canyon campout with my side of the family back-to-back with a big activity reunion with Rich's side.

Grand Canyon:



Karen spent lots of time sitting with people in the hammock.


Sarah and Noah liked playing with their "cousins," Melissa's kittens.






General cuteness ensued.

And I was just a little bit crazy about Harry Potter. Which we sneaked out to Flagstaff in order pick up at midnight.

Kanab:



We stayed in a hotel in Kanab in between the Grand Canyon and Zion Ponderosa. I was...reading Harry Potter much of that time, and Rich was nice enough to distract kids. But we did have time to go for a walk and to a little memorial park with small waterfalls, lots of lizards, and pretty rocks.

Family Pictures

We had new family pictures taken. We usually do this in April, but it got put off this year. Here we are: