Update for Thursday, November 1

We've had a great summer! Our May vacation was about it for the summer fun budget, but we did manage to have a few special days to celebrate the nice weather. Here's a random assortment of photos for your enjoyment.

Katie has grown into quite a little chef. Her specialties include plastic donuts and carrots, invisible soup, and scorching hot pretend coffee. Here she is serving me and Auntie Liz a delicious breakfast of carrots and coffee. You'll see that Liz is smart - she's blowing on the coffee to make it cool:

Random photo - Katie loves her dogs. Here she is 'taking a cuddle' with Luna:

Paul and Katie were the proud keepers of a magnificent garden this summer. Here's a photo that Paul took on his cell phone that I find quite striking. I can almost 'see' her adult face in here:

In addition to zucchini, they grew tomatoes, green beans, swiss chard (blech), green onions, beets (never got brave enough to try them), turnips (meh), lettuce, radishes, spinach, spaghetti squash (yum), cucumbers, potatoes (fun) & these beautiful carrots:

We celebrated the 4th of July by solidifying a great tradition, we went to the Children's Parade in Carnation with our Aunt, Uncle and cousin Morgan. Morgan's big dog, Triton, pulls the cart with the girls inside!

Katie also spent a lot of time at the park this summer. Here are a few photos that her Grandpa took when he was here babysitting his favorite granddaughter. She especially liked the bike-ride to the park:

We also spent a fun summer day with our friends Spencer Brown and his Mom at Remlinger Farms. Auntie Liz came with us for a picnic, train ride, and a great day at the park:

It was particularly fun in the water ride when they figured out how to 'catch' the ducks!

More recently, we joined Spencer and his Mom at the Circus! I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, me or Katie, but it sure was a great day!

Julie & Katie were lucky to spend a quick weekend up on Lopez Island with Katie's Grandma Teresa. A nice walk on the beach makes it all worth it:

During the hot days of summer, Katie developed a fondness for eating whole strawberries (and getting them out of the fridge by herself). This girl can put away a clamshell of berries in one sitting!

Here's another fun photo - Katie and our cousin Morgan at the Blue House summer party. These girls love each other very much!

Other than a relatively quiet summer, we had a bit of concern when we thought Katie was exhibiting some seizure-type behavior. We ended up getting her a series of neurological tests - which earned our girl the nickname Katie Goopyhead - that showed no abnormalities. Long story short, it seems that Katie simply has an extreme way of showing surprise - by stiff arms, wide-eyes, and a grimace on her face. Nothing to worry about, and a good lesson in pediatric epilepsy (which is surprisingly common).

That's all for now. We're exhausted! The next post is forthcoming - Halloween photos have already been downloaded!