Eating popcorn, watching a rain storm bring in our first wet weekend!
But before the rains fell, we biked down to the Farmer's Market... gorgeous this time of year with everyone's harvest at its peak!

After much shopping around, this is pumpkin I decided to bring home with me.

We left our camera at a friend’s house this week, so no pictures tonight—sorry. I’ll try to give you the proverbial “Thousand Word” equivalent, but beware: sappy, doting mama bear is at the keyboard. Consider yourself warned.

Winona and I rode the bike to a neighborhood park other than our own this morning…and it was unofficially but most definitely Toddler Time. Thirteen 18mo-3 year olds (and their parents, who were a different story for a different blog site, but I digress). Thirteen kiddos. Two of them—Nona included—were girls. That seems to be a trend. Anyway, Winona is usually very cautious about entering into any kind of social contracts with folks. Enter party, stand at door, take it in for 10 minutes, make cautious move to comfortable corner, familiar face or tempting toy, fully engaged in party by about 1 hour in…. Similarly, this morning, a well-equipped mom shows up with a mesh bag full of 50+ buckets, shovels and trucks and dumps them out into the sand. Before one could say “Wow-she’s-good-I’m-lucky-I-remembered-to-put-shoes-on-my-kid,” there were 12 toddlers converging on the fun. One held back. That would be NonaLou. She struggled a little with her choice to hang back—stomping her feet back and forth a few times and letting out the beginnings of a “minenominenonomine” diatribe that can only come from the mouths of babes. But she relaxed and watched intently as the other kids played. After a few minutes, she turned and ran to me, sitting 10 feet away and said, “SnuggleMama!” One quick hug and she ran back to the maddening crowd, grabbed a shovel and pail, and plopped herself down next to her New Friend Ian: Son of Mother With Toys—that’s my girl!

In other news...
She loves to sing and now demands to get through her wobbly versions of our Most Oft Repeated Top 10 Songs on her own. (If we join in, she’s quick to redirect us. Read: “NO!”)

Dress up is a popular sport these days. Clothing finds all sorts of creative ways to fit her body… ShoesOn is a favorite saying.

Bodhi, Lucy and Winona are becoming fast friends. And the cats!! She nearly pops out of her skin when the cats come around.

Moons, stars, circles, hearts, triangles and, er, Baby Beluga symbolize her current artistic phase. Or so she says. One has to have a trained eye to recognize them as such.

About a dozen stickers decorate the positive reinforcement chart next to her training potty. We suspect there would be more if we were half as good at this training process as she is. Diapers are just so EASY. (Maybe if we got stickers, too…)

Fall is here! Socks and sweaters in the morning and night, tank tops and sunshine all day long. I love it. Mike loves it, too, but it makes the LA Boy in him a bit nervous about The Cold To Come. Goodnight all! Pictures soon.

A few shots of Daddy's Weekend at the Coast! Mike and Nic took Nona and Cole to the Oregon Coast for a weekend of fatherly bonding... and a weekend for Julie and Kari to be at home doing. absolutely. nothing. It was glorious... and I'm sure the boys and Winnie had a good time, too!

This weekend was the EUGENE CELEBRATION-- three days of live music (mood area 52 seen in the background here), serendipitous rendez-vous' with everyone you've ever met in town, street food, and a line-up of parades that can only be described as unique. It's been fun... and we'll all sleep well tonight.

Daddy, Nic, Cole and I provided a little pre-parade entertainment, getting the crowd revved up for the mayhem to follow: Vets for Peace and When Pigs Fly are pictured below. Pictures simply don't do justice to this line-up of events that Eugene calls its annual parade, but it ranges from silly to politically poignant to utterly fabulous. Until next year, Eugene Celebration... we absolutely celebrate you!

This was the best campsite, yet! I found a DRAGON to ride--does it get much better?

WAIT, SUMMER, WAIT! DON'T GO ANYWHERE, YET! We're cramming in our summer fun...This weekend it brought us up to Waldo Lake with a group of friends, four of whom were under the age of three. (Yeah, if you think I'm tired, imangine my mom and dad. They felt obligated to ensure that we didn't run too deep into the woods or too deep into the water, which, in my opinion was a little excessive and more running around than was really necessary, but we all made it home alive and well and that's the important thing, I guess)! Anyway, I haven't been many places in this world, but this is pretty up there on the list of BEE-YOO-TI-FUL!

Some reading time and hang time by the lake during the day, then reading a book at sunset... Great trip!

Headed out to the Middlefork of the Willamette River this weekend for a little R & R, as seen here... and some hiking, napping and campfire lovin' as seen below.

Just spent a fabulous week in Wisconsin visiting G'ma, KooKoo, Aunt Jenny, Uncle Tom and Uncle Paul...and lots of friends, too! Had a fantastic trip. Here's my photo journal--enjoy! (Remember: you can double click on pictures to enlarge).

How many uncles and aunts does it take to draw a dog? I'll be over here coloring on the table while you guys figure it out.

Hello Friends and Family! Went camping at the coast this weekend with Mommy, Daddy, Bodhi and Lucy. We took long hikes, played in the dunes, found a great swimming hole where I could practice my stroke and took long naps in the hammock--I call that a good weekend! A couple shots of the flowers in our yard are below, as well. Love to everyone!