New Pool

A couple weeks ago I posted that Lauren got a new pool. Her old one ended up with a small hole it that mommy duct taped...which wasn't good enough for daddy. (I think he felt a little bad because it was his fault there was a hole...he used it to store truck parts!) It was getting small for her any way, so daddy got her a little bigger one with a slide.

There's a spot for the hose to attach to the whale's spout for a slide!


She can't climb the slide by herself because it's slick and wobbly. But she knows what to do once she gets placed at the top!


Lauren has also turned into a "diva" of sorts. She gets grass on her feet from walking around the outside to get back on the slide. Well....obviously it gets transferred to the pool and she does not like grass floating in her pool! She also gets frustrated if there's a hole in the toe of her p.j.s or a string hanging from a sleeve. Wow does she get concerned and things are not ok until it's fixed!


Here she is on her belly. Daddy helps her with this and she loves it!


I think her face says it all as to her approval of the new pool.

Catching Up

Before we left Oregon (which has been a little over a month now), Lauren and I met some friends at the Strawberry Festival Kiddie Parade. It was the shortest parade ever.....even shorter that Browntucky's! But we sat at the very beginning and the kids made out like bandits with the candy!

And the following Sunday we ran over to mommy's friend Erin's house. Her little guy is about 10 months old than Lauren. He shared his blanket with Lauren which was a BIG step according to mommy.

They took a liking to each other, which is what happens with most kids!

This is a cute video of Lauren dancing at the old Browntucky home. This was the last week when we were without TV. There was a lot of dancing going on during normal cartoon hour. Now she tells mommy and daddy to "dance" when she's dancing, so it's a family affair!

When we were at Grandma and Grandpa's, we started her on ice cream cones. They are a tad messy since she didn't get the "you have to eat the cone" part....but she's learning.

Washing the boat

Lauren helped daddy wash the boat when he got home from work today. She found it very entertaining. Here she is getting her soggy wash mit out of the bucket.

A little scrubbing.....with certain height requirements she was limited to the wheels.

Back to the bucket.....

And a little more scrubbing.....they did look rather sparkly when it was all said and done.

She scrubbed about 1 square inch with every dunk in the bucket! It was a time consuming process. It ended rather abruptly too when she wrung it out all down the front of her. Mommy put down her camera and finished what Lauren started which was much to her dismay. And she let the entire neighborhood know about it which is hard because are neighbors are not close!

Oh and it's a little hard to tell, but she is wearing a WSU shirt. I figured the Henry clan would be proud! Yes, she has a Cougar shirt....and no she will never have a Dog shirt. And no her Cougar wardrobe will never be bigger than her Beaver wardrobe!

Weekend Visitors

This weekend we had our good friends Mike and Mindy over for a visit. It was sooooo nice to have them over on our side of the mountain! They hit some major traffic and turned a 2.5 hour trip into a 5....so needless to say, Lauren tried to wait up but couldn't pull it off. However we stayed up until midnight chatting and of course Miss Lauren finally heard us and was up as well.

Here she is half awake opening a present from "Uncle" Mike and "Auntie" Mindy......she has a lot of "aunts" and "uncles"! Auntie Mindy did some major girly shopping and hooked her up with bracelets, a shirt and skirt. Super cute outfit. I think the bracelets are retired for the time being. She likes to pull on the elastic with her teeth.....and I'm just waiting for them to snap her!

The next morning us girls stayed at the house and chatted the morning away! The boys jumped in the boat to run around the Sound. Lauren found Lacey to be a wonderful "horse". Pickle was also there, but for some reason she missed out on all of the photo ops!

The girls saying buy to the boys. Lacey wouldn't stay in the window with Lauren long enough for the pic.

After a morning of laziness, which was very relaxing, we got ready and went to the boat ramp, but the guys weren't there....somehow we missed them on the road. But this is the spot and the view of Mount Rainier in the far distance. It was beautiful in the afternoon, but the clouds didn't burn off until almost 2. We have very coastlike weather.

Back at the house, Lauren sporting the super cute outfit she got the night before.

We got the sprinkler out for the "kids"! Lacey enjoyed it the most!

Then daddy broke out the new pool. That's another story that I have pics from last week to post.

Lauren liked to splash and Lacey attacked the splashes. She never got in which was good because she probably would have popped it, but it was pretty amazing for a lab!

Break time for bean dip! Lauren was a mess! Between the bean dip in her hair and everywhere else.....as well as the black soot from crab cooker......she needed a bath, again!

We had such a good time with our friends this weekend. We watched "Hot Tub Time Machine" which was hilarious and ate really well all weekend. We were only able to send them home with 4 crab, which was a tad disappointing, but there's always next time! They had to leave fairly early Sunday so they could stop and see family on the way home. Lauren and I took advantage of it and took a 2 hour nap! We are fighting colds (I don't think they are allergies but who knows at this point), so the naps were needed! Can't wait to see them again, hopefully we can get over on their side of the mountain in September.

Reason #451 to hate Ducks

Besides the fact that they are enemies to our beloved alma mater, we have a new reason to hate ducks! Lauren and I went to Oly to meet Daddy for lunch. We got sandwiches and walked to Capitol Lake. Lauren saw some ducks which she calls "Ming Ming"s because that's what the name is of the duck from one of her favorite shows "Wonder Pets". (Yes, that's right, we let our kid watch crap tv!)

So of course rather than eating, the duckies caught her interest.

The view for lunch.

Daddy got a cracker from Lauren's lunchable and fed it to the ducks. Lauren thought that was a swell idea and ran back for more.

She shared not only her crackers, but by the end of it, the ham and cheese too! We then decided to go for a little walk. That's when the trip went from enjoyable to "damn ducks." We found a sign about 100 yards away that said "Do not feed the waterfowl". Great. Too late for that.


Here's the duck that took a liking to Lauren. It was quacking....Lauren quacked back. They walked back and forth mocking each other. We were out of food.

I said she was going to get bit and low and behold......that damn duck put its beak right through the fence and got her. On the lip of all places. Thank god the fence was there because it could have been worse. It just looks like she bit her lip. A little fat, but nothing big. We've cleaned it, ice it and she'll heal before she marries.

An older couple even walked by before it happened and said "Mom, the only way she'll learn is the hard way." It really didn't even phase her. Yes, she cried at first, but she sucked it up almost as quick as it happened. Now she really has a reason to say "Booooo Ducks!"

21 months and full of energy!

It's a little bit of a shock to think that our "little" baby will be 2 in 3 months. Wow. The last couple of days we've been enjoying the weather and spending some of our time outside to expel some energy! It's even hot in Washington!!

Miss Lauren's hair is long enough for pigtails! A ponytail is hard pressed, but it's getting there!




There is a noisy bird that always gets our attention in the tree. Even when we are busy with the sprinkler.


This was a first for Lauren with the sprinkler. She's really enjoying figuring out how it works, how to make it stop, how to make it go! She has an engineers mind!!!


Look how cute I am, I made it stop! I kept waiting for her to sit on it, but it didn't happen....
This swimsuit is being retired. We used this one at the end of last season. Mommy tried to see if we could wear it again and as you can see, it worked....barely. We are mostly wearing 24m and 2T clothes (depending on the brand), so it's not a shock that the 18m bathing suit needs to be put away. Her foot is NOT small by any means. She is in a 7 wide in a Stride Rite shoe. I swear this kid's foot grows a 1/2 size every month.

We are trying to cut back to 1 nap a day. Today is one of those days and we are winding down with some cartoons after a PB&J sandwich. After nap time, I'm sure we'll break out some water outdoor toy and go back out in the heat.

More 4th Fun!

It was extremely nice to have a playmate all weekend with Lauren. They had a ton of fun and now that Noni is mobile they truly entertained each other.

Lauren taught Noni how to slide....or at least she thought she was teaching. Noni already new how!

Miss Noni is a true carnivore. There's no vegetarian there people!


The pot of crab from Saturday's excursion. The boys caught a bunch of rock crab over the weekend and one dungeness. For their first time, it was quite impressive and yummy!

Noni tested out Miss Lauren's 4-wheeler. Lauren did a pretty good job of sharing. We still have room for improvement though!

The girls crashed on the way to the Farmer's Market on Sunday in Olympia. We went early to beat the crowds. We got some tasty jam, dip, honey, oysters and lots of other things. They had Umpqua ice cream which was an "Whoopee!" moment for mommy.....reminder her of Oregon. I ordered a puzzle of Lauren's name for her too. She loves puzzles right now.

When we got home from the market, the girls had crashed out again in the car....so we let them sleep. Then it was time to get messy with some spaghetti! I think Noni looks a little "spaghetti stoned" in this pic! Who can eat spaghetti with their clothes on though??!! We had the girls eat in shifts typically but not this time. Neither could wait. So Lauren was in the high chair and Noni sat on Franki's lap but bellied up to the high chair and helped Lauren eat what was on her plate!

Lauren being silly with her binoculars.

Yesterday Franki and Noni boarded the train to leave. When they left the house, Lauren bawled! Then Uncle Kyle returned and it was "baby?" Lauren really enjoyed having Noni here. She was actually saying "Noni" (or at least that's what we think she was saying) by the time they left. It was more like "Nono" or "Nani" but it was an A for effort!

Here's some pics of them saying "bye" with some good old fashioned snuggle time yesterday morning. Sweet girls!