It's Time to Say Goodbye for the Summer

Yesterday we said goodbye to summer by spending the afternoon at the Grachur Club with two other couples. Big thanks to Kristen for taking photos!

My best friend Sara came with her husband Dave and their baby Daniel (who's also Katie's best friend). Here Daniel enjoys quality time with his mommy and daddy:

John and our friend Brent enjoyed a rousing game of Grachur Ball while the rest of us played near the shore:

My little sandcrab enjoyed splashing in the water, chasing ducks, climbing the pier stairs, and playing in the sand.

On our way home, we did our usual stop by Royal Farms to pick up Berger Cookies (a local phenomenon which we got to introduce to Kristen). We also stopped by a fruit stand as well. Here Katie samples a Canary Melon. I'd never heard of one, and I hate cantaloupe, but John, Katie, Bella, and I all enjoyed it for dinner. Pretty good!

Quality Time with Grammy, JayPa, and Krista

On Sunday, John's parents (Grammy and JayPa) brought us dinner and cheer. We love how much we get to see them, and Katie always loves spending time with her grandparents.

After dinner, JayPa sat Katie on his lap so she could play piano with him. Doesn't she look like she's reading music? She even has her fingers curved. Looks like JayPa already has a pianist-in-training!



And Grammy sang "Old McDonalds Farm" to Katie using a finger puppet book:


The next day we got to have dinner with our dear friend Krista, visiting from Colorado. John and I met Krista through church, and Krista later helped me get my job at Heritage. She's been a dear friend for many years, and I've missed her since she moved back home to CO a few years ago. What fun to catch up with her, and to introduce her to Katie.

Gorillas and Elephants and Monkeys, Oh My!

My brother Jason and his family were visiting the National Zoo last week, so Katie and I decided to join them! We invited along several good friends: my future sister-in-law Lindsey; my friend Sara and her son (and Katie's BFF) Daniel; and my friend Kim.

We had a wonderful afternoon! Katie loved seeing her cousins again after a whole week had gone by since the beach trip. Here Katie and her cousin Ali greet each other like old friends:

Katie also loved the animals (no surprise there). Here's an orangutan who climbed wires just over our heads. I found out later that he had actually peed on some tourists. Thankfully, our heads remained dry.

We saw baby tamarins. So cute!

Katie and Daniel loved the elephants. I'll have to record Katie's imitation of an elephant. It's fantastic. Here are Katie, me, Sara, and Daniel (thanks for taking the photo, Lindsey!).

Gorillas always seem to give a show for Katie and me. In San Diego, we got an up-close look of gorilla butt. In D.C. we got to see one pee:

After only 3 1/2 hours, Daniel and Katie were asleep in their strollers. I was pretty exhausted myself!

After the naps, we met up with Daddy and other members of my family for an early dinner. Here Katie and her cousin Andrew play with each other:

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The Dog Finally Feels Included

These days Katie constantly babbles our names, both at us and in general: "Mama" "Dada" "Mama" "Dada" "Mama" "Dada" "Mama" "Dada". It's totally endearing.

However, Bella our dog was feeling left out. Not anymore. Katie's finally calling her by name too. She doesn't quite have the "B" sound down, so it's hysterical to watch her try to say "Bella" with her tongue sticking straight out. See it for yourself:

Roberts Family Beach Trip 2008

Earlier this month my family spent more than a week at my in-laws' wonderful beach house in Delaware. It was a wonderful time to gather, and all of our family was able to be there, even including Stephen's new fiancee Lindsey for the last half of the week. Here's a rare whole-family photo that we took our last hour together. You can click the photo to see it larger.

(l-r: My dad Jeff; sister-in-law Sharon, brother Jason, and 15-month-old niece Ali; brother Mike; brother Daniel; 4-year-old nephew Andrew (Sharon and Jason's son); Katie and John; future sister-in-law Lindsey and brother Stephen; mom Debbie; and me)

You may remember that Katie's cousin Ali is only 3 weeks older than her. Here's a photo of the two close cousins with their respective mommies. Their grandma is hiding behind us.

Here's Katie goofing off with her cousin Andrew. Katie and her cousins bonded immensely over the week, so much so that they were regularly exchanging hugs and kisses as they played.

We had a wonderful time, and so did Katie. Her favorite activities were enjoying the beach, the kiddie pool, and her cousins. My favorite activities were spending time with family, watching the Olympics till at least midnight every night, and being able to catch up on sleep a bit.

Here's a cute photo of Katie modeling one of her new fall outfits (thanks Anna!) and "reading" Little Red Riding Hood. I love how, more often than not, she "reads" books upside-down.

Beach photos
Katie ran up to a group of kids building a huge mound of sand and chatted nonstop at them. They were a bit bewildered by her, not knowing what to do with her because she was obviously too young to help them. But she wasn't too young to help them knock down the mound afterwards!

Sandy-faced Katie! You don't suppose that's because she likes to put her entire face in the sand, do you?

Katie's new favorite pose: sticking her rear end up in the air. Why? So we can help her do a somersault, of course!

Katie decided this trip that she LOVES the ocean. She was quite the Kamikaze Katie, running full-speed ahead toward the waves every chance she could. John and I would stand with her at the edge of the waves, holding her safely. But if she saw a wave that didn't quite make it to her, she'd get mad at the wave and try to run further into the ocean. It was exhausting to restrain her! But of course a lot of fun to watch as well.

Kiddie Pool

Katie also loved the kiddie pool in the beach house community. Here's a video of her enjoying the water, the pool signs, and Mommy and Daddy.

We Love It When Dear Friends Visit

First of all, my apologies for not posting to this blog for a month. Thanks to those of you who have lovingly prodded me to start posting again! Glad to know people are reading!

At the end of July, we had a special visitor: one of my oldest friends, Sarah Castillo! Sarah and I were both born when our moms were in Bible study together back in the 70s, and we remain dear friends to this day. Sadly, Sarah and her family moved to Texas a few years ago, but that just makes our times together extra sweet. Now Sarah is pregnant with her second son, and we really enjoyed our time together before her #2 makes it even more challenging to travel. Here are some photos from her visit.



One of the highlights of Sarah's visit was that Katie got b--.... well, let's just say, she suddenly developed physically. Hard to believe, but this actually was not my idea. Leave it to the mother of two boys to come up with such a diabolical plan regarding my little girl. But boy was it funny to see Katie's reaction to the balls under her shirt!