grandonna

Sadly, on our way home from the San Juan Islands, my grandmother (my dad's mom)--Grandonna--passed away. She was living in Tacoma and we happened to be staying there overnight as a stopping point for our drive home. Needless to say, our stay was extended. Uncle Dan and cousins Danielle and Devin came into town for the service. I will always remember her for her lively spirit, fun adventures, spoiling her grandkids, being a hardworker, and extrememtly loving and devoted to her family.

san juan islands

Every year (almost every year for us) Ryan's close high school friends and their families go to the San Juan Islands together. The Crain's generously host us and it is always a lot of fun and a lot of great food. This year's highlights include building forts on the beach, going crabbing, going hiking, walking to the lighthouse, Alex learning to do the splits on the beach, late night mustaches and Alex and Baby John chasing each other around the house.

zoo visit

We have visited the Portland Zoo a couple of times this summer--one of which was with Nana and Papa. Alexs' favorite thing at the zoo seemed to be the benches :) But she also got pretty excited about the monkeys and watching an eagle fly at a bird show.

4th of july neighborhood parade

We found out this year that our neighborhood has a Fourth of July parade (the parade takes place on the opposite side of the neighborhood that we live on) so we had never seen it (plus we are often out of town for the 4th). Ryan and Alex decked out her bike in red, white, and blue. A lot of neighbors showed up as well as the firetruck. We had a great time. Later that day we had dinner with Mel and watched the fireworks from her condo (well Mel and I did anyways).

who doesn't love strawberries

Mel invited us to go strawberry picking--so we found a farm on Sauvie Island and headed off. I think Mel picked just as much as Ryan and I combined...but I'll blame that on a strawberry lover who couldn't resist eating the strawberries (I think she ate one for every two I picked). Ryan and Mel created a speedy way of washing and drying the strawberries before we froze them (involving all of our baking sheets, pyrex, and legos). We definitely had a lot of fun and now we have strawberries in the freezer for smoothies this winter.