Spring Lake

At the end of June we visited Santa Rosa for the weekend to see family and celebrate Father's Day. We checked out the geese at Spring Lake and hunted in the tall reeds.

 Sweet hugs

 Berry picking in the yard with Grandma. He didn't like to discriminate between ripe and hard berries so the crop is a mix of sweet and sour.

 Cosette's a doll, as usual. She hardly makes a peep she's so happy. Her sideways thumb-sucking is adorable

 Both Papa Tim's had their birthday and Father's Day around that time, so Dan and I treated for several golf rounds. Very refreshing to get back on the course after a 2 year absence and my score hasn't changed much. I had a few pars and mostly double bogeys. Dan had better results with quite a few pars and only got so mad that he couldn't speak one time!

 

Living the "High Life" with Miller (Yeah right, not at 8am. Actually, not ever)

 Howarth Park for more pony and train rides. By 2-years-old Jack's been on a pony more times than I did before the age of 10.

 And here are some of Cosette's first successful sits all by herself. She's 5 months old here. She leans forward and does the bulldog to say up.

My Beautiful Lady

  Testing her wings!

 Jack's hanging by himself for some reason so Papa gets some rare time with Cosy. Jackson makes a habit of occupying ALL of Papa's time when they are together and all but ignoring everyone else.

 Happy Father's Day Papa!

4th of July

The 4th was on a Wednesday this year and Dan didn't get the rest of the week off, so we had to skip the traditional Kenwood Footrace near Santa Rosa for something more local. We decided on the Woodside Youth Rodeo for the cooler morning hours. Woodside is so gorgeous and feels rural and secluded from the rest of the busy bay area. Mounted teens, western attire, and rodeo princesses everywhere. I didn't know there was so much "country" in this area. We were glad to get there early and beat the crowds and heat.

Checking out the cows that were yet to be roped.

 Petting zoo.  Miniature horse or donkey? Newborn chicks were adorable.

In the stands watching the rodeo events.

 We saw a lot of cow roping and barrel racing. Jackson was most concerned that the cowboy/girl's hats kept flying off and he wanted someone to retrieve them.

 Hanging out with the sweet horses.

  We ended the day with a BBQ in the park with our church small group. So fun to hang out with all the kiddos. Our neighborhood had a lot of illegal fireworks going on and freaked the kids out throughout the night with a lot of loud noises and bangs. We ended up with scared kids in the bed with us all night :(

On Her Way

Cosette is getting close to crawling! She's up high on her hands and getting her knees under her. So far she can only back up, but she's so adorable and I'm not ready to have a mobile baby! She's only 6 months. Jack didn't crawl until 8 months. Either way it's a short time away.

Going after toys 

Got it!

 Backing under the couch

 Get those knees working!

 She seriously plays it up for the camera. She stops what she's doing to smile and pose.

 A little rolling fun.

 Brother jumps in there to "help"

 I don't know why they're wearing snow-flake and polar bear PJs in mid-July.

 He likes to press his forehead firmly into her face. It is very hard to rid him of this habit, we've tried.

 "If I push her head, she tips over."

 Not gentle.

And then the wrestling begins...

 She's a tough lady

 Trying to escape

 No concept of personal space

 Pinned! My sister and I used to do what was called "midget wrestling" for the enjoyment of our older cheering cousins. It has already started with these two.

 Matching her pose

 She's very tolerant of getting pushed around, as demonstrated by the fact that she's not crying in any of these pictures.

 We secretly call this "riding Baby like a dino" because he has tiny play dinosaurs that he tries to ride in this way. I'm constantly saying "get off of Baby!" She usually doesn't mind too much until she's feeling very squished. He thinks he's being sneaky.

 Face to face, sharing secrets

 The brother-sister play has only just begun!