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Little Girl (H), Big Mountains, Big Alpine Lake

(Tap, tap– hey, is this thing still on?  Whoa, and all these posts by Eleanor– wow, I guess this thing has been up and running [oops])

We had a great weekend, starting on Saturday with a hike up the “Lake 22,” apparently named that for the creek that drains it being the 22nd that a certain railway line passed.  The area was set aside as a natural area in the 40′s and has lots of relatively pristine northwest forest along the entire trail.

The hike is very pretty, starting off with a well-marked trail through forests filled with evergreen trees, some huge (10 or more feet across), and some beautiful waterfalls (or cascades as we call them here in the Cascade Mountains).

Beauties by the waterfall

The girls were in out backpacks, along with our lunch and hiking supplies, so Eleanor and I certainly got a workout.  However, being out in the woods with L and H was really fun– Lydia had a big smile on her face the whole hike up and back:

Lydia's big smile

H was smiling too...

It was a long way up, since E and I had to carry both the girls and all of the supplies (lunch, etc.).

Of course milk is available in alpine lake country!

But the incredible view of Lake 22 under Mount Pilchuck and the great company of E, L, and H made everything worthwhile.

Side of Mt Pilchuck from Lake 22

Everyone at the top of the trail

Here are some highlights from our fabulous week on Cape Cod (plus a little RI).

Sailing on Ode to Joy, my parents boat that they sailed to RI from Michigan earlier this summer.  The boat was at Barrington Yacht Club, the club we belonged to growing up, so ran into lots of old friends as we were going out for a sail.

Skippers Lydia and Hadley

Laura and Maren swimming off the boat

Cousins hanging out below deck (A, M, H, L)

Lydia helping Hadley fasten her life jacket

Awful-Awfuls at Newport Creamery

Allan, Lydia, Hadley, and me -- yum!

Clamming — and eating them of course!

My dad and his clam-rake

Hadley, Laura and Lydia playing with clams

My dad, Truman, and Alden (the shucking crew)

Lydia trying a clam and Hadley shoving one into Allan's mouth

Playing on boats

Nisa rowing the tin tub

My dad coming in after a sail on the sunfish

Whistle Stop Ice-cream shop, a great local ice-cream place complete with a toy train running around the store, where the girls tasted their first ice-cream last year.

L&H still like ice cream

Lydia and Hadley’s 2nd birthday (see previous post)

Visiting our good friends, the Mattisons

Melissa, Levi, Eva, Zoe, and Allan (standing in for Harry)

Zoe, Eva, Hadley, and Lydia in the sandbox

Dels Lemonade – mmmm.  RI chain that makes frozen lemonade with fresh lemons.  Nothing quite like it.

Allan and Lydia

Lots of beach time

The double-stroller beach crew (H & L)

Gigi and Alden

Nisa, Alden, Truman, and Maren

Lydia

Hadley

The End (H & L)

In mid-July we made our annual pilgramage back east.  We kicked off the vacation with my cousin, Charlie’s wedding near Hartford, CT and then spent a week at my parent’s place on Cape Cod.  It was a great week+ where we got to see friends and family, hit some of my favorite New England haunts, and soak up some sun and heat — a welcome change from our cold Seattle summer.  There are zillions of pics to weed through (which is why I’ve been procrastinating in doing this post), so here are just a few of the highlights, starting with Charlie and Abby’s wedding.

Bride, groom, and my entire mom's side of the family

Us -- (L&H)

Lydia and Hadley lasted the whole ceremony thanks to the magic of mom and dad's phones

Alden, Nisa, Truman (my brother), and Maren

My parents

Charlie and Abby

Hadley and Lydia on their new trikes

The girls got some awesome tricycles for their birthday from Grandma Judy and Big Daddy.  One of the great features of these trikes is the pole that comes out of the back that parents can use to push and steer, which is very handy to help little riders learn the mechanics of steering, in addition to reining in occassionally obstinate 2 year-olds.  It’s been a busy summer plus we had to wait for their helmets to arrive, so this weekend we (by “we” I mean Allan) finally put them together and the girls took them for a spin.  They knew just what to do and were thrilled by their new trikes — thanks GJ and BD!

Lydia

Hadley

By the end of our outing, Lydia and Hadley decided that that they wanted to push instead of us.  No control issues here

L&H fully in control

Lydia and Hadley successfully received their first hair cut today!  I learned from my first naive attempt a few weeks ago and this time brought Allan and booked haircuts at a place specializing in first kids cuts, Beachcomber Kids.  It was an awesome place, with tons of kiddie toys, sea-creature stools (although the girls opted for Allan’s lap), and most importantly — a DVD player and Elmo DVDs.  That little red muppet is magic.  We’re trying to save him for very special (aka, desparate parent) occassions.  The girls think he only comes out on airplanes, and now at the hair salon.   After some initial suspicion of the hair cut process, the girls were champs and emerged with sassy little do’s.

Lydia Before

Lydia During

Lydia After

Another Lydia After

Hadley Before

Hadley During

Hadley After

Another Hadley After

The full set-up -- Daddy's lap, Elmo, and lots of distractions

Lydia and Hadley with their new do's

Lydia and Hadley bundled up for our picnic

If it was October, this would have been a lovely weekend — high 60s, a little overcast, sunbreaks.  However, being the last weekend in July, it fell woefully short of expectations.  This has been the coldest summer since we’ve been here and for people like  me who suffer through the rest of the year because summer is so spectacular, I’ve about had it (as has Allan with my incessant complaining).  I never thought I’d be wishing for an escape to Hawaii from the gray, July weather.  Despite the actual temperature, we soldiered on with our summer plans.  We took the girls to the Ballard Locks fish ladder, which is one of my favorite things about Seattle. 

Hadley, the salmon, and Lydia

At the Locks (which by themselves are pretty cool) connecting Lake Union to Puget Sound, they built a fish ladder and viewing area for the salmon to go through. 

Big fishing boat going through the Locks

We hadn’t yet taken the girls and I hadn’t been there for a few years, so it was fun to go back.  The salmon were plentiful and the girls were mildly impressed (it’s a high bar for two year-olds).  Afterwards, we had a nice picnic overlooking the Locks. 

Allan, Hadley, and Lydia laying out the picnic blanket

Later in the day we went for our first summer ice-cream, at Seattle’s famous Molly Moons ice cream shop. 

Hadley, Allan, and Lydia enjoying their (our) ice-cream

Great ice-cream, although a bit froo-froo for my tastes (balsamic strawberry, cumber sorbet, honey lavendar to name a few).   I’m a purist and being from New England (where interestingly, the most ice-cream is eaten per capita), I’m a bit of an ice-cream snob and prefer the classics.  We each grabbed cones and dishes and ate it at the park across the street, although of course, the girls preferred their parents’ ice-cream to what we had gotten for them.

Lydia

Hadley

Birthday girls Hadley and Lydia

Lydia and Hadley turned two last week (July 22), while we were on vacation with my family in Cape Cod (post and pics to come soon). 

I always get a little sentimental on their birthday thinking back to everything we went through in the months on either side of their birth, but will avoid getting too sappy and just say that have become bona fide little people and continue to get more and more awesome with every day.  

The last few weeks have ushered in a word explosion and Lydia and Hadley now have quite a vocabulary.  Their current favorite words (which also characterize their personalities at the moment) are:

Hadley: Self (as in, I’ll do it myself)

Lydia: No way (occassionally, accompanied by a tantrum)

Here are their stats from their 2 year old check up:

Hadley Weight: 22lbs 13 oz (5-10%) — yeah, finally back on the charts!

Lydia Weight: 23lbs 7 oz (10%)
Both Height: 33-1/2 inches (50%)

Both Head circumference: 48.5 cm (75%)

So in a nutshell, we have long and lean 2 year-olds with big heads  

Happy, happy birthday to my amazing little girls!

A few pics from our rainy, gray, and cold (don’t even get me started) 4th of July.  Per tradition, we found ourselves at Raaj’s annual Fourth of July party:

Sparklers on the deck overlooking Lake Union

True to form, the girls had lots of fun playing in the party cooler (H and L)

H and L sampling the delicious party cuisine

Lydia, making herself at home

Hadley, chillin' on the deck

Overhead shot (L and H)

Our fabulous hosts, Raaj and his sister Kanch

Me and my girls (L and H)

 We also had a fabulous 3rd of July cookout at our good friends the Durhams (where we met a family with two sets of twins — yikes!), although sadly I forgot my camera.  Plus, we got a lot of yard work done this weekend. 

L and H were very helpful transporting bark mulch at Lowes

The End

Hadley, Lydia, and the frogs

We had a busy, but super fun weekend.  Allan and I kicked it off by waking up at 4:30am to do the Seattle Rock n’ Roll 1/2 marathon. Great (although somewhat poorly organized) race that started in Tukwila (city south of Seattle) and ended at Qwest Stadium in downtown.  There were bands every mile along the course and it seemed that every running friend I have was doing the race as well.  Allan and I ran together — me running faster than I would have liked and Allan probably running slower than he would have.  We turned in a quite respectable time and headed to breakfast, taking full advantage of having a baby-sitter for the morning.  At breakfast, we sat between people we recognized from the 1/2 marathon — on one side was a band from the race and on the other was a minister who was handing out water along the course.

The World Cup match was a nail-biter (H and L)

After naps all around and the heartbreak of the US losing to Ghana in the World Cup, we hit the yard to do some gardening.  Lydia started off by eating a shovel-full of dirt which ended her enthusiasm for the activity and she moved on to the sandbox and then to frogs.  We have plastic frogs in our back yard (they aren’t quite as tacky as they sound, although probably close) and the girls discovered they are light enough to be carried around.  They spent lots of time putting dirt on the frogs’ heads and then moving them from the garden to the steps and then back again.

Lydia moving frogs

Hadley giving her frog a pat

Saturday night Allan and I had an awesome dinner out with one of Allan’s friends and former colleague’s at Canlis, one of Seattle’s best restaurants.  Raaj is a regular at Canlis — to the point where he has his own seat at the bar, his own table, all the staff know him, and he has a wine glass with his initials.  Raaj is a great guy and ensured that we had an awesome first trip to Canlis, which definitely deserves its stellar reputation.  He sent us home with an adorable gift for the girls — a wheely-bug ride-on toy (plus two stuffed elephants).  They absolutely loved it, although wheely-bug is now in our bedroom taking a time out since they both loved it so much that several battles ensued.

Hadley, Lydia and Wheely-bug (before things got ugly)

Today, we headed to Allan’s cousin Vanessa’s to see her parents and another Aunt who were visiting Seattle.  The girls had a great time with their extended family and demonstrating how non-childproof Vanessa’s beautiful apartment is.

Vanessa and Tigger

Hadley, Allan, and Lydia at the ball park

We spent a lovely, albeit rainy, Father’s Day at the Mariner’s Game.  Since we knew we weren’t going to make it nine innings due to nap schedules (we did hit the third inning, which was our goal), we went early and were treated to a special father’s day ”parade” around the field.  It was pretty cool to walk on the field of a  major league team.  We even saw a Mariner up close as he came out of the dugout. 

Hadley and Lydia on the field!

Mariner catcher Eliezer Alfonzo

 We then headed up to the nosebleed section, where we were in good company with lots of kids (and empty seats) around.  The girls had their own seats which kept them occupied for a while – opening and closing the seats, climbing up and down, putting cups in and out of cupholders. 

Hadley (stunned by that call), Lydia, and Allan in the stands

Hadley and Lydia in full Mariner fan regalia

Happy Father’s day to all the fabulous dads in our lives and especially to Lydia and Hadley’s special dad!

Lydia and Hadley taking it upon themselves to unwrap father's day presents