We had a little time to hang out with cousin Ethan and Katie at the end of their visit. Baby Ethan is ridiculously cute.
Katie came down with a bad virus the day after we took these pictures so the kids didn't get to see her again for the rest of their visit. Poor kiddo!
But we had our usual robust schedule - Patrick had a both soccer and baseball that week.
His soccer team is so cute. And they started to get pretty good by the end of the season!
Patrick went straight from soccer to an amazing birthday party for his friend Timmy at Main Event.
There was laser tag.
Air hockey
And unlimited arcade games with the birthday package. We have fancy friends.
Poor Nathan went straight from soccer and birthday party to taking the girls to the Daddy Daughter dance at school. It was quite the day for him.
So worth it though. He was supposed to leave on a work trip to go to a conference but he rebooked his flight to a very early morning one so he could go to the dance with the girls.
They went out for dinner at Panera with Lorelei Watt and her dad.
And cute Juliet was so delighted about the whole event, although the music was a bit loud for her in the gym so she spent a fair amount of time in the food and photo area in the cafeteria.
We were so surprised when Eleanor requested that Juliet come to the dance with her. We thought she would like getting her dad all to herself for the elementary school dances. But she was adamant that it would be more fun to go with Juliet as well.
She's smart - she got to get a new dress because of this because I'm a sucker for buying new outfits if it means children match each other.
More snacks!
But I think Eleanor mostly wanted Juliet to come because she's so fun to be around and they had a blast at our church's father daughter event. Eleanor's friends were thrilled to see Juliet as well, Nathan came home and commented on the large percentage of kids at the dance who seemed to know our three year old.
Official pictures of the dance. So cute!
Then Nathan got to come home and go to bed in order to wake up at 4 AM for a flight out for a conference in San Diego. Besides the travel time, I don't think he really suffered on the trip. Fun fact - his buddy Brian Rutherford used to work at a different company. Then he got a job at Burns & Mac. Then he transferred to be in Nathan's department and their desks are now perhaps ten feet away from each other and they get to go on work trips together. It's some true love right there.
Palm trees and sunshine!
Meanwhile - me at home with this.
We had another trip to the dentist for the kids. Juliet did not like the water getting suctioned out of her mouth but she was a champ. No cavities or problems for any of the kids, phew.
The dentist is exhausting.
While Nathan was gone I still got in a fair amount of board games with my awesome gamer buddy! Bradley and I have been really into Railroad Ink lately.
And then it was talent show time. Nathan was back in time for this. Eleanor got a couple friends to sing "We Don't Talk About Bruno" with her and it was so good! They had choreography and everything.
Eleanor threw herself into the performance. We got so many compliments. She's a champ.
My dad even took a video!
And the talent show was just the first stop on our day of anniversary celebratory fun! My lovely parents took care of Juliet for us while Nathan and I went to the Cardboard Corner Cafe.
We played a bunch of new games.
And we only ended up buying two games next door at the game store so we showed remarkable restraint. Followed by going to Half Price Books and once again showing restraint, we didn't even have to carry all of our books out in a big box this time.
Next we stopped by an indoor putt putt course and bar.
It was fun but definitely a bit funky at times - some of the games required you to hit your golf ball rather hard and we spent a fair amount of time chasing loose golf balls around the bar. It's awkward to have to apologize to people at a table while you're crawling underneath to get your ball.
And for dinner we went to Red Door. Cute, easy, and delicious!
Eating out has been tricky with needing gluten free and dairy free options for Nathan. We're very happy he was able to eat some good food here.
And then we had a bit more time and I'm a fresh air fiend so we went for a walk around Heritage Park and played one of our new games outside. Canvas is an art came with see-through cards that you stack on top of each other, it's a very fancy addition to our game collection.
Then we came home a bit before bedtime and taught the game to the kids. Many thanks to my parents for babysitting!
And then because we don't have a problem with too many games, we tested out one of my new ButtonShy games before bedtime.
In Skulls of Sedlec you are a half-blind monk exhuming graves in an overcrowded graveyard and rearranging them. Goal is to get the most points. Amazing game concept, lots of fun to play.
The next morning I had some good help making banana bread.
And good help teaching a very excited Bradley some new games. He's playing Food Chain Island in this photo and shocker, he's better at it than any of the rest of us.
Meanwhile, wonderful Nathan took Patrick on an adventure to get plants for our house. We now have a hanging tomato plant on the back deck, a twisted hyacinth tree in the front in a planter, and a geranium in the other planter in the front. Patrick is in gardening heaven.
I had about the best morning ever because Nathan took care of errands and I just baked and played game after game with any kid I could snag.
Patrick was very good at Why I Otter.
We got some sad news that day that my Granddad had passed away. He was 97 so it wasn't a shock but it was still pretty rough. They aren't holding an official memorial service for him so we talked about his life with the kids and then watched a Murder She Wrote together (the show I grew up watching at his house) while eating popcorn out of the bowls he gave us. The kids have been really into watching Murder She Wrote ever since we did this so it's kind of sweet really - I think of Granddad every time we watch one of the episodes or have popcorn out of those bowls.
On Monday my dad took Juliet to Deanna Rose.
Meanwhile, I had kept Eleanor home from school because she had a pretty good cold and even though we were 100% certain it wasn't covid because she just had covid, coughs aren't really cool to have at school these days. Sooooo I took the sick child out to brunch with me at McClain's Market.
We made a return at Kohl's on the way home and she talked me into buying her some summer pj's and then we went home and played Canvas together. I don't know how restful it was but it was certainly a lot of fun for both of us!
Juliet got home from Deanna Rose and we had a lovely picnic lunch.
And then we got the boys from school and Juliet and Patrick went nuts playing outside together. Sharing the tricycle is their new favorite game.
Then Patrick went to baseball. They still use a pitching machine for this age level, which I greatly appreciate.
Patrick kept on running over to cuddle us and he was super sweet when Juliet wanted to borrow his mitt and then would take the ball out of it and throw it down on the ground on repeat while they both cackled with laughter.
Patrick hit a home run after his teammates chanted his name while he was up at bat. Miles gave him a big hug when he got home.
More sports the next day. Yes, Juliet is wearing snow boots outside to play soccer in 90 degree heat. Who can blame her, they have princesses on them and they light up. So fabulous!
Getting water for watering plants. It's scary that they look so naughty while doing this.
More Canvas time with Bradley. He loved this game until he was going to play it with Grandpa while Eleanor and I left to go rock climbing but I took too much time getting ready and Eleanor took over the game explanation. She did too good of a job and Grandpa beat him handily and now Bradley prefers to play other games.
Field day! Each child had their own separate two hour time slot and it was in the mid-90's on the days they had field day so I was a bit worried about volunteering and making it with Juliet there with me. Juliet LOVED it and joined recess with one of the preschool classrooms and didn't seem to mind the heat too much ... except she crashed hard for naptime after we got home.
Eleanor at my station, the baton relay.
With my cute and sweaty girl!
We even hung out for the tug-of-war competition between classes. Eleanor's class didn't win but she looked awesome at the front of the line.
Home with a cute girl for our lunch break / roller skating time.
And wading pool time.
I get a lot of help watering the plants. Juliet likes to pluck bits of green off the bushes and toss them in on top of the dirt so that the plants have "weeds".
And then swings in the back!
Followed a joyous return to the school for Patrick's field day later that morning. But we showed up during Bradley's recess, which was an exciting surprise for all involved!
I had missed Bradley's field day entirely because I was supposed to bring popsicles at the end but when I went to pick up the popsicles from the school they weren't frozen yet (horror horror) so the organizer ran to make an emergency popsicle trip to the store and my delivery job was now unneeded. Oops! Poor kid, he was very sad about things.
However, having Juliet join him for recess turned out to be better than going to his field day because she got to help him play kickball with his friends and we got more time with him than we would have for field day.
We stayed for half of Patrick's field day. He was a maniac and I tried to get him to pay attention to me when we found him for a picture but he was too excited about the competition and wouldn't look at me or Juliet until the race was over.
A picture before a very tired and sweaty Juliet and I went home.
A friend shared this picture later - Patrick brought his customary intensity to the class tug-of-war competition. It was SO hot. He had soccer practice after school this afternoon and apparently most of the kids were pretty wrecked after field day and were dragging for the 90 some degree soccer practice ... not Patrick. He feels nothing when there are sports to be done and it's go go go.
Juliet LOVES singing the Bruno song and knows a large number of the lyrics after hearing Eleanor and friends practice it on repeat.
She also loves sneaking into Eleanor's room and playing with toys. Like the tiny ballet jewelry box.
Eleanor was still ready to do some rock climbing with me that evening even after a hot day of field day fun.
This was our second time climbing together and the first time it was just the two of us. It was so fun, it's some pretty amazing mother/daughter time.
She is getting so confident and can climb faster and higher each time we go!
Lots of fun photos to be taken while climbing.
Climbing the big wall remains the big challenge. She has gotten so close to the top but hasn't quite managed the last few feet yet.
I finally made it to the top! I just stared straight ahead of me and refused to look down and that helped a lot. 50 ft is very very high.
Some girl scouts were watching from up above and cheered for me as I belayed down. Rock climbing is an individual sport but I love how everyone cheers each other on. Eleanor and I are currently going about once per week.
The next morning - still very hot. So much time for wading pool fun!
I mostly hold her hands while she roller skates, I just back off to take a picture or two before I hold her hands again.
She found a roly poly and it's lucky she survived all the love she had to give to it. And yes, she found a single glove that was very necessary to wear outside while it was pool weather.
We popped on some clothes and played games! She's a good sport about The Sneaky Snacky Squirrel but it's not my favorite game to play with her.
Eleanor was very willing to join Juliet in the wading pool after school.
Cuddling up by my sweet Bradley for an evenng show.
Eleanor is so good at teaching other people how to play games. Here she is teaching my mom how to play Canvas.
Juliet has gotten in some very exciting trips to Scheel's lately because I keep buying gift cards for end of year gifts for leaders and coaches and she's tall enough to go on the Ferris Wheel now. Nathan took her and Patrick to get some new soccer socks and apparently the mountain lion made an impression on the group.
Ferris wheel! Juliet screeches "eeeee!" in excitement whenever she waits in line for this.
Baseball that afternoon. Grandpa came to watch and was given the appropriate amount of Patrick cuddles.
One nice picture.
Patrick was being a bit of a stinker. It was also amazing to watch him play - he treated baseball like soccer and while fielding ran to wherever the ball was on the field. While playing short stop I saw him run into the outfield while chasing down the ball, he routinely would try to outrun players to first base (from second) in order to try to get them out, and he even chased a ball back to the home plate one time. It was adorable.
Another new game. Labyrinth Jr! This one I also really enjoy and so did all the kids.
Eleanor had a bridging ceremony for girl scouts where she graduated from Brownie to Junior.
We're really excited that she moved up a level because we can go on a lot more cool trips now! Girl Scouts does things like kayak trips and rock climbing trips. Eleanor and I are game!
Afternoon time outside together. This was the day after we did family pictures.
And still more rock climbing for me and Eleanor!
This is me at the top of the 50 ft wall. I was brave enough to look down this time.
Eleanor is getting so so close to the top! We keep talking about how it's way trickier for her than me because I've got about a foot in height on her.
Museum class the next morning. Guess who was overjoyed with the marshmallow craft?
Guess who very quickly completed the craft and then ate all the marshmallows? We were learning about stars and constellations. We're very knowledgeable now.
We ran into Grandpa at Costco and Juliet was so very excited that she linked our two shopping carts together and was quite an imp about letting Grandpa's go. We walked away as she shouted "I love you better than Mommy!" which was really a poor strategy when one is spending the day with Mommy.
Eleanor comes in every morning to cuddle me while she wakes up. Can you tell that I rather adore it? This goes away in the summer because Eleanor likes to sleep in until 9 given the opportunity.
Morning time with the reading crew. Juliet fits right in.
Patrick had dress up days for the final full week of school and this is what we came up with for the swim day. It's my Hawaiian shirt ... he was very proud of how cool he looked.
Juliet and her buddy Caroline had a play date at Franklin Park.
It was the day after a storm. Did you know that Juliet loves storms now because she loves puddles? Some crazy mom had her daughter dressed up in a fancy outfit and was catching her at the bottom of this slide because she was trying to avoid the puddle at the bottom. We have never gone to a park with the goal of staying clean so Juliet ran laps around in the giant puddle until she was thoroughly covered in water and muck and then she went down the slide a bunch and so everything was wet. The fancy little girl came back and I don't know what the mom expected, everything at the park was dirty and wet. Then Juliet sat in the puddle and was so so happy. This was outfit #1 of 4 for the day. It was a good puddle day for Juliet.
Rinsing off her legs at home.
New outfit for afternoon because it was hot.
Good news - there were puddles at Patrick's soccer practice.
The next day Bradley and my mom and I left for a trip to Washington because a childhood friend of mine was getting married. I had to take Bradley out of a day of school for this which wouldn't have been a big deal but there were only one and a half days left after he got back. Oops. Worth it though, it was such a good trip. Here Bradley is holding the tip money for our shuttle driver after we left the parking lot.
We arrived in Seattle rather late and my mom went on a shuttle to go up to Camano while Bradley and I got a rental car and went over to Aunt Tina's to spend the night. She had some yummy snacks for us, Bradley very much approves of bacon before bedtime!
And heart shaped brownies.
Good news, I brought some games with us. Bandido!
Then we met my friend Serena at Top Pot. Bradley assured me that a growing boy needed not one, but two donuts and then we tossed my donut in front of him as well for a happy morning picture.
I have pictures of him as an infant at Top Pot, so sweet to be back!
And with Serena! So wonderful to find get to spend some time together after a few years apart.
Next we went to a neat Go-Kart track in Bellevue. Tina's idea. There was an arcade room attached and Bradley got to experience Buck Hunter for the first time.
Racing with Tina.
And then the Go-Kart track! Bradley had a solo time going on it the first time and he moved at about a snails pace. But he was happy, so oh well. Then for his second race there were three or four other kids racing with him. All of a sudden Bradley turned into a maniac and would bide his time until he could pass someone on the inside of a turn and he would often spin out a bit as he whipped around the track. I was so proud.
Champ!
Then we went back to the arcade and Bradley discovered the Buckzilla mode of Buck Hunter and became obsessed. We're lucky we ever left.
Next stop: the beach at the Edmonds Ferry stop. Bradley hadn't eaten so I got him a hearty lunch of ice cream and french fries. It's how we do things on vacation!
It was such a pretty day. Perfect for the beach!
I packed boots for Bradley specifically in prep for this outing. It was very worth it.
We were hanging out with my high school friend Sarah Allen and her two kids. They all started playing together just as it was time for us to go.
Bradley building a glompy sand castle with a ferry in the background.
Meanwhile, Nathan was having a good time with the kids at home. There were plenty of play dates and even a picnic dinner at the park.
I adore this picture from a rather chilly 8 AM soccer game for Patrick. That's an Eleanor wrapped up under the blanket and I'm told Juliet had a couple friends in the wagon with her under those blankets.
End of season pic for the team.
With their coach and our neighbor Grant Krieger.
Bradley had a very mellow Saturday doing puzzles with Grandma.
And cuddling his great grandma. Bradley didn't go to the wedding with me and my mom, we figured he would enjoy great grandma time more, and it seems we were correct.
He did get to come with me and run off some energy at the fun playground at Terry's Corner while I got in some Andrea time.
It's such a neat playground.
We call this piece of art the "Sonic Portal" and both Bradley and Patrick like it a lot because of this.
Then I had lunch at the Cookie Mill with Heather Hansen!
It was so fun to get to catch up, having a rental car was a key part of making this such a good trip. It made it easy to catch up with friends!
My mom and I visited with the Peterson's and then went back to my grandma's house to get glammed up for Amelia Hollingsworth's wedding. We showed up to the venue and took a picture right away without realizing we were taking a picture exactly where the ceremony was going to take place. I like this picture in part because I'm wearing heels and my mom isn't. The wedding was so nice, Amelia is marrying a really nice guy and I'm so happy for her. Also, she invited many of my childhood friends to the wedding so it felt like a wedding / really fun reunion with all my favorite people.
The next day we went to church at Camano Chapel and Bradley and I got fancy drinks together. A hot chocolate for the gentleman and a latte for the lady.
It was nice to know I was missed though.
Nathan didn't mess around while we were gone, Juliet may have missed me at bedtime but she was so busy having fun during the day that I think she hardly noticed I was gone. Nathan took the entire crew to Dave & Buster's one afternoon and my dad joined in on the fun.
A hungry hippos game? Amazing.
He then used a gift certificate my mom had given us to go out to a fancy ice cream shop. Yummy!
Nathan also had my dad babysit while he got to go out to fancy club seats at the royals game with his friend Adam.
Nathan has some really nice guy friends, it's so neat he gets to do stuff like this.
I suggested we take pictures before Mom and Bradley and I left. My skill as a photographer is that I just keep on taking pictures regardless of what is happening in front of me. Brenda shoved herself in front of Bradley for a picture and everyone was laughing and I just kept on clicking the take photo button.
You get some genuine smiles when Brenda has made everyone laugh right before you take pictures.
More Brenda antics. Perfection.
Mother and daughters picture! So nice!
Bradley took this picture. He was very enthusiastic but his aim was questionable and you could see the camera moving all over the place while he was trying to take photos. In some I was in the photo, in some Brenda was in the photo, but rarely both of us. This was the second time around. Good job, buddy!
A couple of just Bradley and his great-grandma.
She got a LOT of Bradley hugs and cuddles on this trip.
And then they worked on some puzzles together before we had to leave! It was a very huggy farewell, Bradley tried to stay, it was a whole thing.
Luckily, I got to bribe him with the promise of going to the Funko headquarters in Everett on our way back down to Seattle. It was a such a cool store, they had amazing giant figures to take pictures with and so many cool toys and figurines.
Mom in the batmobile.
It was definitely life-sized.
This is my new favorite picture of me and Bradley.
Bradley LOVES Deadpool and was very pleased by the chimichanga truck.
Seriously, the displays were amazing. Star Wars!
Mom and I looking fancy outside of a questionable looking shop in the Harry Potter area.
Bradley might have had a bit of a jam-packed weekend. He fell asleep after we left Funko and headed to the airport.
It was very necessary we get home soon though. If you look at the very top of the tree you can see how high Eleanor climbed while under her father's supervision.
We landed very late, got home without too much fuss, and Bradley actually managed to wake up in time for school the next day, which was rather impressive. My parents took Juliet to the zoo in the afternoon which was also rather impressive, I thought they would be too tired after late night flight. We're all about the zoo these days.
Nathan was gifted a handbag from his company and it is of an impressive size. I put Juliet in it and she fit handily. It's a nice bag - but it is SO big.
I call this photo, "Layla Having a Bit of a Morning"
There has been great anticipation regarding going back to our lake lot and Juliet was finding it difficult to wait for the weekend to go back to the Tarvee.
There's a list of Juliet complaints these days. Can you believe my mom and dad selfishly decided to take a trip and leave her? Although, poor Grandpa, Juliet is rather fixated on the women in her life and mostly says she misses Grandma and she would miss me too. Sometimes she asks me when I'll die and asks if I want Daddy to die before me and I say "no" and the entire conversation is not great for anyone involved.
She's also been waiting a very long time for a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's. I was confused in this video - she wants a bunk bed in her own room at home. But in my defense, I don't know why she was talking about this while talking about sleeping somewhere else.
It was a rainy and cold end of the school year so the end of year picnic was canceled. Eleanor was lucky to have her friend Maggie invite a bunch of girls over to her house for a mini party. The boys got to play video games at home, they didn't suffer.
Patrick started out summer break very jazzed about the summer reading worksheet he was supposed to work on over the course of the entire summer. In one morning he crossed off at least eight spots by a variety of books, often in fun and interesting locations. This was his bathtub book.
Juliet was eager to assist him in his reading adventures, especially when it was time to read a book by flashlight.
He also made some scavenger hunts for Juliet. With poety at the end because that was one of the prompts from the reading Bingo page.
This poem was for me: "Cats can be red, cats can be blue, but the best cat mom is by far you"
WOW. I was thrilled. He also made me a little paper cat. It was 3D and quite impressive.
And that evening was supposed to be just me and Eleanor rock climbing but then we invited a couple friends and things escalated so we ended up taking a friend for each older kid and Nathan and Juliet came along to watch and cheer us on. Patrick showed up and immediately started climbing 50 ft walls like they were no big deal, it was ridiculous.
Another Patrick climb.
I got to climb because Nathan was there! We were lucky it wasn't too busy because we had a total of eight people climbing in our group.
Patrick's friend Timmy was invited and his dad Tim got very excited because it seems he used to climb so he came too. He helped a lot by hanging out with Patrick, and if we weren't already good friends this would have sealed the deal.
More Patrick. This is a view from the second level.
Bradley cheering on his brother.
Bradley did very well too, all the kids did, but he certainly preferred the 25 ft walls.
Me trying to climb up a rather challenging route. I ended up falling down this wall in front of people, it was rather impressive. Climbing is hard.
Juliet took this picture. I let her hold my camera while she hung out in a room with me and Eleanor and Eleanor's friend Evie and she took a ton of pictures of everything and managed to catch this one of me looking pretty legit!
I call this one, "enough climbing."
Eleanor has been getting more and more adventurous. She is straight ahead near the top in this photo and hollered down for me to take a picture as she got to her highest spot.
The next day we had nurse Karen's daughters over to play board games with us. We started off our summer break strong! They're good gamers and really enjoyed Canvas and Similo.
Bradley had a pool party at his friend Xavier's house that afternoon.
Juliet is really into coming into my room for cuddles each morning and she made a very early appearance one morning. I was very relieved when she fell back to sleep beside me. I have actually started to wake up in this photo because Meg likes to perch on my right shoulder every morning and she had just yowled at me for pets.
Us (and the rest of humanity) descended upon the zoo on the first Friday of summer break.
We were so lucky though, because we ran into friends in line! Allison Smith was there with her family and it was such a happy coincidence and made our zoo time about 100 times more fun.
We got a train ride in very early because we were concerned about crowds.
The crew!
Patrick had been fussing about not getting to sit on the peacock with me on the carousel (I can't do it when I'm running solo with the kids) but he turned things around for the photo. Atta kid.
Juliet, like her sister before her, knows that this specific horse is the most beautiful creature on the carousel and it is the only one she wants to ride.
Patrick on his cheetah. It's no peacock but it had to do.
Allison took some pictures of the kids feeding Lorikeets. Bradley didn't want to so I took him and Juliet over to the penguins while the other two fed the birds.
And amazing picture of my kids towards the end of our zoo time when everyone was whining about the wait for the shuttle to Africa. If you look closely you can see that Eleanor is about to lose it because Patrick's head is touching her.
Patrick demanded to sit on my lap on the tram and there was outrage that he was the only one who got Mommy cuddles and I got the best smile in all of the Patrick pictures from this shuttle ride.
We had parted ways with our friends by this point and all the kids were tired and hungry - in part because they had started eating the lunch I had packed at literally 9:45 AM. All the food was gone by 11ish and we stayed until 1:00.
Eleanor instructed me to put on portrait mode for our picture. The girl knows things.
The next day we headed back down to the lake. The boys went down ahead of us and set things up and when we arrived we were greeted by the sight of Patrick with a fish!
I was so happy to get back out on the stand up paddleboard.
We had nonstop visitors at our lake lot pretty much the entire weekend. Patrick was thrilled to get to hang out with his friend Timmy and another friend from school. They even took him golfing. He came back with giant blisters on his hands because we hadn't thought to send him with gloves because we somehow forgot how Patrick is with sports. None of the other kids particularly cared about golfing, only Patrick.
Nathan and Eleanor went on the roof to clear a bird's nest out of our AC unit and this is the face of a little girl who really wants to go on the roof of the tarvee.
The water was so cold. I didn't think anyone would get it. I don't know why I keep thinking these things when I'm wrong every time.
Juliet loved the lily pad so much and also didn't seem to mind the cold.
The afternoon was spent with the Rutherfords, we love having lake time with them.
A little bonfire for s'mores on their lot ...
The fire was hot - this is as close as the kids would get while roasting their marshmallows.
Lake time, campfire, friends, and s'mores - I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that Juliet loves the lake so much.
She also had quite the successful fishing morning with Nathan and Patrick the next day.
I finally got in some board games with the older two. I need stand up paddleboard and board games in order to have a successful lake visit. Check and check!
Then some new friends from Green Meadows came by and after that the Rutherfords came back over for water fun. Memorial Day is a popular time to be at the lake!
Annie was amazing and got in the water. I camped out on a kid kayak because Nathan was on the stand up paddleboard. I really need an adult kayak.
Bradley and Charlie brawled nonstop on the lily pad. They love each other so much.
Eating snacks with goofy kids after water time.
Juliet went pretty hard and Nathan had been feeding her snacks and passed her over to me so he could do something in the skid shed and she fell asleep about two minutes later.
I got to go home ahead of the gang because I was pretty wrecked from lack of sleep and hosting duties so Nathan stayed one more night and told exciting lake bedtime stories and fished and cleaned up and then came back home.
We had BBQ dinner with the Kriegers! Things are so much easier when the youngest child is three. We just got to hang out with adults and chat.
And Juliet helped me put Patrick in bed and sing to him. Sookie always comes by when it's time for nighttime songs, it's the sweetest thing.
By the way, if you're talking to Juliet and she asks for something lemon or says that it's her favorite flavor, she means watermelon. It took us a while to figure this out. She wanted a lemon popsicle the other day, like her toothpaste! It slowly dawned on me that she has watermelon toothpaste, so instead of giving her the yellow popsicle she was given a pink one instead. Not that she actually cared one way or another. And fun fact - she doesn't actually like real watermelon. Just the artificial flavor, that's the life for her. Ahhh, Juliet. Such sweet mayhem she leaves in her wake.
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