Photo

This year, as part of the registration packet for Jake's school, we are required to include a recent photo of our child. So I took a photo of Jake to get printed and sent to school. It turned out nicely!
And then Jake insisted I take pictures of him making silly faces. So I did.

Short but Sweet Visit

Mike's Aunt Jeanie had a long layover between flights from Anchorage to Arizona so she spent a few hours with us. She and Jake had a fabulous time together!
The last time they saw each other, Jake was 5 months old.

Parade, Year 3

Waiting for the annual Multnomah Village Days Parade to start. This year I was smart and sent Mike down early with chairs to get a good spot.
Then it started! First came the dogs...

and a llama.

Then the candy madness started!

This robot is so cool.
Hula hoopers.
Bagpipes. What a noise! (I liked the marching band better.)
Plug-in electric hybrid car. Drool.
Loot.


Batman tossing candy instead of bad guys.

Then face painting after the parade was over.
Happy.

Fun Rides!

This morning Jake went with Skylar and her mom to preschool time at Oaks Amusement Park. They had a great time! I am so lucky that Jake got to go and have fun while I stayed home and worked (which included being on the phone for 2 hours!).

Glasses for Jake

A few months ago, Jake started complaining of headaches. Since then, I have been trying to figure out why. Finally, through the process of elimination, I took him to the eye doctor at the end of July. None of us had noticed any vision problems, but I decided to make sure. Lo and behold, he needed glasses and his headaches have pretty much gone away. Yay!

The reason this was so hard to figure out is because his right eye is 20/20 while his left eye is farsighted at about 20/60. He was using both eyes together to focus, and thus had been doing just fine seeing things. But his eye and brain sometimes had to work really hard to focus, especially when focusing on the same thing for a while, like a movie, hence the headaches.

So now he is wearing these cute glasses. He is doing really well with them. They are mostly needed for home and school, so he doesn't need to wear them when he's on the playground or other situations where they could get bent or broken (whew!)

I think he's quite handsome in his glasses!

Water Play

It is summer again with temperatures in the upper 80's and 90's expected for the next 5 days. Time for water play!

Jake and Max loved playing at this water park.
Taking a break for a snack.


Running off to play some more!

Belly babies

These two kids have been having lots of fun playing together this summer while both their mommies work. Skylar has been fascinated with my growing belly and in the last 2 weeks has started imitating it. Jake loves playing along. Sometimes they put stuffed animals under their clothes instead of balloons and then out pop the babies! Too funny.

BBR Again

We feel so lucky that we got over to BBR for the 3rd time this summer! This time it was just the 3 of us Vees (plus the baby in the belly).



It was warm and sunny the whole time we were there and we played outside a lot and went swimming two days in a row.

40 Years of Love

Today is my parent's 40th wedding anniversary!!
About a week ago, my sister and I hosted a dinner party in their honor. We had so much fun!
Desserts -- we had 2 marionberry/raspberry pies and vinsanto with biscotti.
Pictures spanning the last 4 decades were collected and hung to view.

Jake suddenly decided he loves cherry tomatoes and mozzarella balls.

Drinks (proscetto) and appetizers (white bean dip on baguettes and cherry tomatoes/mozzarella balls/basil on skewers) in the backyard. It was a hot day but was perfect outside in the shade.

Amy, Tyler, Dad, John.
Dianne, Mom, Joe, Jake, Shelley.

Theo the cat joined in the company.

Jake was telling stories and entertaining us.

At the end of a wonderful meal (halibut and vegetables cooked in parchment paper with herbed orzo on the side) and desserts, chatting late into the evening.

More pictures thanks to Dianne!