isla was pretty excited about being at the beach (read: eating sand).
noah's beach bum, still pretty tiny.
but even tinier last year!
this is how isla waves--like she's raising the roof. it's so funny!
noah made a "k" from sticks. it's sort of already falling apart here.
little girl on the ferry.
what cheeks!
now it looks like this:
the biggest difference is the finished porch. aaron and his dad worked on this project, which included a new deck, new front pieces with cedar shingles and new railings.
here's grandpa working on the bones.
and getting some help from noah.
we also landscaped the bed to the left of the porch, with lots of help from colin and nicole. it used to be a weed-bed set off by an old railroad tie. now it's a fancy planter with a fancy border.
so much dirt to shovel!
aaron handled the measuring.
nic and i picked out all these plants, which are all still alive! hooray! i don't necessarily love where i put things, but i think in the fall i'll move some things around.
i love the lupine, which is just beginning to bloom.
we also made a planting bed under the holly tree, which is full of squash and beans. and holly leaves.
and a little bed by the north fence for blueberries and strawberries.
and a long bed along the south side of the house, where i'm growing sunflowers, peas, beans...
tomatoes, basil and marigolds.
and one strawberry is nearing ripeness!
the past two weekends have been busy with raising a tall cedar fence on the south side of our yard. we shared the cost and labor with our neighbor, who was eager for the privacy as well. good fences make good neighbors! (although noah is saddened by the new barrier. he loves to hang over the porch wall and grill our neighbor about her every activity. aaron has joked about making him a peephole.)
the nearly-finished fence.
and lastly, but mostly, we are occupied with thoughts and plans for raising a garage/shop in the backyard. here is kevin biggs chopping down a cherry tree where the garage will go.
and here is the garage, before aaron and his dad helped dismantle it and trucked it to our backyard in pieces. we found out about this garage through the restore, a great used building materials store in bellingham. it cost much, much less than a new garage would, and we like the idea of resurrecting old materials. aaron is working on drafting plans and applying for permits with the city. we're thinking that we'll begin working on the foundation in the next month or so.
noah was very excited about the big flatbed/dump truck aaron rented to move the garage.
maneuvering under electric wires was tricky with the tall trusses on the back of the truck, but grandpa is a professional.
aaron and our friend jesse working on unloading all the pieces, which are now piled under tarps in our backyard (aka "no-man's-land"). i'll do another post soon with plan pictures. aaron is of course very excited to have another big project to work on, and especially one that will yield a place for him to work on many more projects!
what have we been up to lately?
noah and isla are getting into yard-kayaking. it's a very exciting sport. (aaron traded his coworker a custom cabinet for this kayak. we tried it out last weekend and it's lots of fun!)
aaron hung a swing for isla in the holly tree, and she loves it. (please note our tiny squashes growing in the bed under the tree.)
naked baby cozy in mama's bed!
isla munching a teething biscuit. she is very much enjoying eating food these days. she especially loves to feed herself, and is getting pretty good at the pincer grasp.
isla is trying to figure out how to crawl. she often gets herself into this or a similar position, and can't quite get out of it.
noah got this cool barn for his birthday. thanks, grandma louise, great grandma katie and grandma helen! he loves the pulley thing on the side that takes hay up to the loft. also, vehicles sometimes end up in the loft. (and here i thought i'd snuck in a toy that didn't have to do with cars or trucks...)
two kids in a box. we finally said goodbye to the dishwasher box, but it did provide hours of fun.
noah is a hard worker in the yard. he'll spend a long time digging, loading, dumping and starting over again. he has his sandbox and a designated dirt digging area, and thankfully he is pretty respectful of the plants. let's hope we can say the same for isla!
avocados. i love her eyebrows in this picture!
more swinging!
riding the bus to fairhaven. we've done this a lot lately. noah loves the bus.
silly girl with many toys at grandma's house.
a few weeks ago the kids and i went to the greater vancouver zoo with grandpa, uncle colin, aunt nicole, aunt jess, kate and john spencer. it's a really fun place--lots of space for the kids to run around and climb, a train ride around the zoo, a great playground, a big garden, etc. i almost felt like the animals were secondary, though they were fun to see too.
standing on one foot like flamingos.
waiting for the train to come--good thing grandpa was there to keep noah safe!
