Where did the summer go???

I can't believe it is already September 17th... the summer flew by so quickly!!! Time really does fly when you are having fun!! And we had lots of fun. Our days were filled with going to the beach, the zoo, the science center, on adventures in our boat and so much more.

Jenna enjoying the petting zoo at a local playground. I couldn't believe that she wasn't scared! Miranda sure was!


Here we are at the Pacific Science Center.
There is a really neat butterfly exhibit and I was lucky enough to have a butterfly land on my pants as soon as we walked into the exhibit! Whenever Miranda sees a butterfly or a picture of a butterfly, she says "Butterfly was on Mommy's pants". It is so cute that she remembers!

Enjoying the day at Edmonds Beach, right next to the ferry.
Jenna loves looking for shells and rocks on the beach.

Jenna laid out her towel very neatly and said, "I am going to lay down in the sun now". It was like she was a teenager!
At the Woodland Park Zoo, you can feed the birds!! For just $1, you get a popsicle stick with bird seed on it and the birds eat it right off of the stick! Some birds even land on your stick to eat. Jenna did a great job!!


Since Las Vegas is only a 2 hour flight away, we decided to fly there for Labor Day weekend. We stayed at the Red Rock Resort, which is off the strip and next to mountains. The pool was really nice and since the temps were in the 100's, we spent our days swimming. They had really neat bed cabanas that the pool girl reserved for us each day. It was great because Miranda would nap there every afternoon. Miranda wouldn't keep her hat on and since she doesn't have much hair, I had to rub sunscreen on her head. Here is her nice sunscreen hair do!
Miranda loved swimming and jumping off the side!

Who is this bikini clad cutie????
One of Jenna's MANY jumps into the pool........
Lunch time!! What a life!!

Jenna even liked going under when she jumped in!!! Next step... no swimmies!
Here I am singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" to baby Miranda. She is still my little baby!!!
Nice tan lines!!!
At the hotel, there is a 72 lane bowling alley. Jenna was very excited to bowl for the first time. It was very high tech and the bumpers would come up whenever it was Miranda or Jenna's turn to bowl. We all had a lot of fun!!!

Jenna resting, listening to her iPod.
Sisterly Love!!
On September 6th, Miranda started her first day of school!! She is going on Tuesday and Thursday morning from 9-11:45. Her teachers are Miss Cindy and Miss Tina. She has cried for about a minute each day, but then she has a lot of fun. She is excited to see me when I pick her up and she gives me a great big hug! Last night, Ian and I caught her singing a song to herself and she kept repeating "Jesus". I am anxious to talk to her teacher tomorrow to see how this song goes!

On the first day, parents and siblings came back at 10:30 for snack time and we had a teddy bear picnic.
On Friday, September 7th, Jenna started her first day of school! She is going on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9-3p. Of course Jenna was very excited and couldn't get into her classroom fast enough. No tears from her!! Her teacher is Miss Sue and she is already holding hands with a little boy named Jack. Jenna loves eating lunch at school and having nap time too!



The weather last weekend was perfect so we decided to take our boat to a town called LaConner. It was about an hour cruise to the marina and the trip was very smooth and nice. The last part of the trip was through a very narrow channel. It was neat seeing the houses along the channel.


Miranda LOVES lollipops. This one should last her a long time!




On Saturday night, we had dinner at LaConner Seafood and Prime Rib. It was a nice night so we sat outside, right on the waterfront. We have been weaning Miranda off of her bubby (pacifier) and even cut a hole in it so that she wouldn't be interested in it anymore. She was only allowed to have bubby in her bed at naptime and bedtime. She was starting to get tired at dinner so I gave in and gave her bubby. She was standing at the railing on the deck, looking at the water, and then the worst that could happen did! Bubby fell into the water!!! As you can see from the picture below, there was no way we could reach bubby. Ian saw that there was a dock so he walked down to it since it looked like bubby was headed that way. Bubby was only a few feet from Ian when it filled with water because of the hole we cut in it, and it began to sink. There was no way to retrieve bubby now! Miranda was very upset and kept asking for her bubby. We momentarily thought about running out to buy a new one, but figured this was the best possible way to be done with a pacifier. Miranda cried for a little bit at bedtime that night, but we told her she was a big girl now and she didn't need it. And off to sleep she went!! For the next few days she would often say, "Bubby fell water, daddy couldn't get it". And now Miranda is a big girl without a bubby!!

Here is Mount Baker, covered in snow. In July they were still working on clearing snow from the road up the mountain!!!