Typhoon Fanapi and mowing the lawn

Luc is off to chase the Typhoon Fanapi. He left this morning and will hopefully make it to the ship before the typhoon hits land. The decision to go was made yesterday afternoon and made the last 16 hours here rather hectic. I didn't even get a chance to go grocery shopping and we ran out of sugar and eggs yesterday.

Here is a cute little video clip of Amelia earlier this summer mowing the lawn. It was super cute. But two days later she tried to do the same thing with my chives. It is hard to explain to a one year-old that it is ok for one patch of grass but not the other!

More summer fun!

Amelia has been keeping us busy this summer. She is mobile with a capital M. Independent. Fearless. Adventurous. Here are some on-the-go shots to get the flavor. There is not a great little video clip to upload, although I am sure I will post one soon. They are short, unfocused, and almost always end prematurely. But she is all over- climbing the stairs, going to the beach, and dragging us to the playground any chance she gets.




She also loves our garden. This year we started ripping out our front lawn to extend our garden. We planted a couple of tee-pees with green beans and squash (should have been cucumber, but oh well). Our neighbors Nicco and Luccio often play in our yard and Amelia is starting to interact with them more. Here she is checking out what is growing- picking strawberries and eating them while they are still warm from the sun. Last week she picked this cute little Japanese eggplant that was just larger than her hand and clutched it for a better part of the day- took it to the playground and rode around on the merry-go-round with it. She loves the garden.

Vacation! Orcas Island

I was intent on starting fresh with new pictures since we got so far behind, but then we have to leave summer behind and embrace fall. I am just not ready, so allow me this little indulgence. While we are at it, let's just leap back to our vacation! Who doesn't love vacation? In July, we went to Orcas Island and stayed at the cabin of Jeff and Ann. Luc works with Jeff and it was the first I met them. They are great people and tons of fun. I hope we get to see them sometime soon in Seattle.



We took the ferry to Orcas Island. Amelia loved it and wanted to hang over the edge of the railing for the whole trip. But we decided against it. The cabin is across the island near Doe Bay Resort. We had cocktails and dinner with Jeff and Ann that night up at their place. They have such a beautiful place and we were thrilled to have some adult time with them. Truly a perfect way to start a vacation! The next day Jeff gave us a tour of his studio. He has a lovely arrangement including three looms (is that right? or were there four?) for weaving anything from art to rugs (and some artful rugs to boot). Pretty incredible!





We spent most of the week lounging around. Fortunately the beach was just a short walk and spent a lot of time there. Amelia re-arranged the rocks on her beach with her new bucket. She REALLY loves that bucket and took it everywhere with her.










Amelia was busy walking those days and we did a lot of this...

We managed to make it out to the Moran State Park for a little hike, vista point, and swimming at the lake. Amelia had a ball with her bucket. She really seems to love the water. Even though she does not looked thrilled in these pictures- she was just getting warmed up.




Back at the beach, Amelia discovered her first low tide animals. There were some crabs and anemones hiding in the rocks. Turns out the anemones were not hiding very well and once she discovered that poking them resulted in water squirting out, she was delighted.



It was a great week. Very relaxing. Just what we needed!