The birthdiversary

We celebrated our big family holiday quietly last week with a morning trip to Lewisville Park. It's a lovely regional park on the East Fork of the Lewis River with a swimming beach, lots of great picnic grounds, and a sweet playground. The sun never quite broke through the clouds, but we still had fun.

Love this shot of my two guys

Back at home, we enjoyed birthday pie (key lime) and checked out progress in the garden.

The sweet corn is getting tall.

This volunteer pumpkin threatens to engulf us all.

Monster zucchini!

Another good year celebrated.

I'll end with a video of Ole. Please believe me when I say that I never taught him to say "Cheese," but he just can't seem to help himself when the camera comes out. Then he rushes over and pushes me aside to see the photos I've taken.

That little cyclist sure can glide!

Alright already, enough with the parades!

We hit two more parades in the last week, and I think I've finally had my fill for the summer at four.
The Dufur Threshing Bee's parade is really more of a tractor exhibition with a few draft horses and muscle cars. We've been going for years and it's a fun day to revisit our old favorites--the guy who refurbishes and sells hand tools, the women who card and spin, the tractor pull. And it is so enjoyable to introduce all these things to our little guy.

Waiting for the parade to start

Ith my tongue blue?

Then it was on to the Skamania County Fair in Stevenson, Washington. We visited Saturday morning to catch the parade through downtown. Bagpipers and Bigfoot...that really says it all.

I love the walk to the fairgrounds over this great foot bridge.

My two favorite parts of the county fair are the animal barns and the 4-H exhibits, so we checked those out first.

Ole watched the ducks from all angles.

A wall of dahlias.

 

 

The theme this year was beekeeping, so there were lots of great displays and an observation hive set up in this nice, cool veggie room. We spent quite a bit of time in here. I also saw some of the biggest onions I've ever seen in.my.life. If I'd entered the Zucchini-Large category, however, I would have swept it.

Lots of prize-winning garlic.

Gobble gobble...my goodness, they are strange creatures.

Pretty nice ferris wheel backdrop, I would say.

Two!

Ole turned two on Sunday and we celebrated with a family cookout. Long after his chant of "Birthday Cake!" has subsided, we'll remember how much he enjoyed his second birthday.

The new bike sneaks in behind the kazoo sheriff.

With just a few days of practice, he's already so steady on his new balance bike that we've been riding a half mile down the road together to pick berries after dinner. And our road is hilly. He just "gets" how to coast a bit and then slow himself. It's mighty impressive for a just-two-year-old.

*****Blackberry break!!!!******

Now bike on home.

Here's the only self-timer shot I attempted. Not so easy with moving targets!