Coloring

Bella is a big fan of coloring these days. Ironically, coloring to her is what I do in my checkbook and not what a normal toddler does all over walls and cabinets. So when she sits down with her markers/crayons/colored pencils, she grips the marking implement very close to the tip and colors in very small little areas.

Camping Under the (falling) Stars

We realized on Sunday that early this morning (Tuesday morning) was the peak of the Perseid meteor shower for this year, so we decided to make a bit of an impromptu camping trip out of it. We borrowed all the gear from my parents (thanks again, Mom and Dad) and staked out a spot at Spring Valley Reservoir. We kept it simple and had hot dogs for dinner, roasted over the fire of course.


And Bella loved them and called them pickles.


After she went to bed, the real stuff started and we laid back to watch the stars fall from the sky. We saw a lot of beauties, but despite my 50+ pictures of mostly black sky, we didn't get any pictures of the falling stars. But here are a few pictures of the night sky. Just imagine that the stars are falling. (click on the photos to view them larger so you can actually see the stars)



After a long night of non-sleep under the stars, we got up and snuggled around the campfire, trying to wake up.


It became clear that caffeine was in order, so Andrew put the pot of coffee on the fire.


We then realized that we had no coffee cups and so we had to get creative and find a way to hold our hot cuppa joe. Last night's empty beer bottles to the rescue!! And let me tell you, it looks oh-so-responsible to be walking around at 7 am with a two year old and beer bottles full of dark amber liquid.

Miss Rosey

Bella has a new nickname, and it is Rosey, because she has roseola. What started out as a 4 day long fever last week resulted in a few visits to the doctor (we met some nice new ones) and a very long and agonizing time at the hospital trying to get her to, well, give a urine sample (I know she'll hate me for writing that in a few years). We (and the doctors) originally though she had a UTI, so she spent a number of hours on the potty and in other uncomfortable situations until we finally got a sample and determined that she did not in fact have an infection. The doctor at the hospital mentioned that it might be roseola, and when we got her up the next morning and noticed the rash all over her face and body (and the sudden lack of fever), we knew that that was it. So for the past two days we've been calling her "Rosey" and trying to keep her away from mirrors because she is now scared of her face. She also doesn't like to look at her belly, because it's all splotchy too. Anyhow, here's a few pictures of our little Rosey.

Fun at the Park

We headed up to Spokane on Monday for Andrew's day off and took some time out of our busy shopping schedule to take Bella to the park (after getting our frappuccinos, of course). She thought the ducks and geese were pretty funny and loved the playground and her two new little friends. The first shot also shows off her cute new haircut.

LaCrosse Games

A couple of weeks ago we headed to a nearby park for a little back and forth with the lacrosse ball. Bella mostly wanted to just run around "like the kids" (the kids I coached in track this year), and sort of whack at the ground with her LaX stick.

Another Arboretum Outing

We headed out to the arboretum Sunday evening to enjoy the lovely weather. I had to take the requisite "portrait in a palouse wheat field" shot, which ended up not being quite so fun because Bella didn't like the prickly wheat. And then she didn't want to get into her stroller, hence the set of pictures of her crying.