California Trip Pictures

Aunt Molly
Wearing Pap's hat

Aunt Cia

All dressed up for Mommo and Poppo's anniversary party

Playing in the hotel pool

Mercy loved the pool!

Mercy with her Great Grandpa Bernie

Mercy with her Great Grandma Minnie

Mercy's great grandparents gave her a soft kitty. She really liked the bag!

Mercy had lots of fun with her Pap.

Listening to Pap tell her secrets!

At the beach

Playing in the water!

Mercy loved the beach!

Playing in the hotel room

Eatonville 4th of July

I have to say, I am pretty impressed with Eatonville's 4th of July celebration. Having grown up in a town that goes all out for a whole week to celebrate the 4th, I think it is great that we have moved to a small town that whoops it up in a similar fashion, though they don't do it for a week.

Eatonville's celebrations begin the night of the 3rd at the middle school football field. Beginning at 5 p.m. they have live entertainment- bands, the local dance school girls, etc., along with lots of vendors selling yummy food such as roasted corn, hot dogs, kettle corn, ice cream, and cotton candy. The whole town seems to show up, along with loads of people from surrounding towns. Everyone brings their own blankets and chairs and claims their patch of grass on the field. After several hours of entertainment, the town finishes with a fireworks show. All this with Mt. Rainier as a pretty impressive backdrop. We only showed up for the first few hours and left before the fireworks. Mercy was ready for bed by eight, which is an hour past her normal bed time. Still, we had a good time soaking in the local fun.

The next day we headed back into town for the 4th of July parade. We showed up an hour early, and there were already people lined up and down main street. After walking around and checking out some of the booths set up along the streets, we camped out on a little patch of grass in front of the auto body shop. The parade was actually pretty long. It started at noon, and we left just after one, towards the end. They had lots of floats on display as well as classic cars, the high school marching band, people on horses, military stuff, and more. Mercy really enjoyed watching the horses prance by. Her favorite float was the Eatonville Dance Center float. I can't wait to enroll her in some dance classes one day!

We really enjoyed our fourth of July. Eatonville displayed a sense of community pride and truly came together to celebrate our independence. People passing on the flag lined streets were wishing each other a happy fourth of July. What a neat town! To all my friends and family back in Rupert- I missed you! Enjoy the photos below- I took our little digital camera...and some of the pics turned out a bit blurry. Oh well.

Enjoying the live music

Playing around

People were just starting to gather at the football field. This was a couple of hours before the real crowds showed up!

Getting ready for the parade

Munching on yummy kettle corn while we wait!

To signal the start of the parade, the town fire house set off it's alarm.


These guys looked like they were roasting in those old uniforms.


The high school marching band

Enjoying the parade with my girl!

The Daffodil Queen and princesses from the Daffodil festival last spring.

My little family!

Just wanted to show off our incredible view as we walked back to our car.

Fun at Grandma and Grandpa's Part 2

Cousins!
Porch sittin'

Story Time

Sliding with Grandpa!

Weee!

Fun at Grandma and Grandpa's Part 1

Mercy was a little unsure about the slip and slide.
Junie was showing Mercy how to play in the water.

Mercy decided she'd rather watch than get wet.

Her first time wearing a swimsuit!

Love those bright eyes!

Junie is ready to play.

Jenn shows her how it's done!

Almost there!

Junie didn't really slide...she preferred crawling through the water.

Or sometimes running.

She is so stinkin' cute!

9 Months Old

Mercy's nine month birthday was the thirteenth...so I'm totally late on this post! We were vacationing at my parents' house all last week, so I'm a bit behind. I have loads and loads of pictures to post of our time with my family, so I'll try to get to that in the next couple of days.

According to her pediatrician, Mercy is a very healthy 9 month old. When I took her in for her appointment a week and a half ago, she weighed 18 pounds and was 28 inches long. Mercy has two bottom teeth and is eating some finger foods. She loves finger foods because she can do it herself. She likes anything she can do by herself- such an independent girl! Mercy still isn't crawling, but she is getting up on her knees and rocking back and forth. We can tell she really wants to crawl, though! Soon, I'm sure. We have been teaching Mercy some sign language, and she has now picked up several signs and understands several more. She can sign for milk, eat, bird, dog, and wave hello/goodbye. She is picking them up quickly!

Enjoying Our New Yard

What a beautiful time of the year here in western Washington! We have really been enjoying our property and our yard now that the weather has warmed up. I am kind of surprised that our grass is looking so well because the ground is very rocky. The yard is still patchy, but we keep throwing out grass seed, so maybe by next year it will thicken up. Our house is on a hill, and during the rainy season water drains down our hill and into the pond on our property. The pond is also fed by a natural spring that bubbles up out of the ground. We're having fun planning our yard and doing some landscaping. We would love to be able to put a deck off the back and a fence around the cleared part of our property. All in good time!

Girly Girl

Mercy is such a sweet little girly girl! I painted my toenails last week, and ever since she has been absolutely fascinated with my toes. She points at mine and then grabs her own. I would paint her toes too, except she is always chewing on them, and I don't want her eating paint. She loves to watch me put on chap stick or lip gloss, and always leans in and puckers up for some. We call it "putting on our pretty lips". She loves having her hair brushed in front of the mirror, especially when it gets brushed with mommy's hairbrush. She also loves her clothes. Whenever I open her closet, she leans in and caresses her clothes, mostly the dresses. I think it is so stinkin' cute! What is great is that not only is she a girly girl, but she also loves to be outside, which I'm hoping means she won't be prissy! :)