Jeremy's Graduation!

FINALLY!! Pictures from graduation! We're all so proud of Jeremy for doing so well and following through. He absolutely loves his job, and the facility where he works. I'm really excited for this next part of our adventure together. Hopefully after this weekend I'll have some video from the ceremony I can post here too.

Cadence was such a doll. Even though the girl behind us in the picture has her coat on, it was a lovely evening. Cadence had a HORRIBLE cough, but she was a trooper. We had to leave a couple of times to go run around, but the bubbles really kept her going.

Kennedy hanging out with Grampa/cameraman

Okay, so you can't actually see Jeremy in this one, but I assure you he is sitting directly in front of the guy in the last row with the yellow shirt showing out of his gown, next to the gal with nice blond hair.

Having his name and degree announced before walking across and shaking hands...

Hugs with his instructor, Libby

Cadence trying on Daddy's stuff

The cake says Congratulations YVCC Graduates 2008

What can I say?!

The Circus Came to Town...

...But we didn't stay to watch. We had a heat wave come through over the weekend that the circus was in town. We were planning on attending, but we were all just melting by the time they got the big-top up, so we settled for feeding the camels, admiring the elephants, and harassing the goats.

The promoters had advertised a petting zoo, and the opportunity to watch the elephants help put up the big top the first morning they were in town. Well, the petting zoo consisted of random clusters of animals behind fences, with no handlers or supervisory staff present. It was a little disappointing for Mom, but I'm sure it was exciting enough for the girls. Auntie Pammy and Dylan were in town for the weekend (quite a treat!) and we all piled in Gramma's car and braved the scorching sun to have fun. After admiring the animals, we perused a flea market, then Cadence went with Gramma and Auntie Pammy and Dylan to ride the train while Mom and Kennedy went back to the car so Kennedy could get out of the heat, have a snack, and take a nap.

There were three elephants that we could see, and when we arrived, one was helping to place support poles for the big top, although a large machine was doing the rest of the work.

Dylan thinks he's a goat too

Cadence wasn't too sure about feeding the camel, but once she saw Dylan do it, she decided she couldn't be outdone by her little cousin, so...

She took the plunge and decided that it was actually kind of fun! The camel just laid there and stretched its lips out towards the fence as the kids shoved bits of grass and weeds through. There were two camels, but one was being rather antisocial while we were there.

Here's the train engine the kids rode on

Cadence was a little unsure about the train at first too, but Auntie Pammy makes great choo-choo sounds

Having a good time on the train

Taking a tractor ride back to where the animals were to see if the hippopotomus had decided to come out of the trailer yet. In addition to the camels and elephants, there were horses, Shetland ponies, goats, a donkey, a cow, a zebra, a few llamas, and what we all assumed was a hippo, what with the large tank of water with a ramp leading up to it, and the large, leathery backside of the sleeping creature peeking at us from the trailer.

Back at Gramma's, playing dress up. Dylan is the knight in shining armor.
(I know, his dad's going to kill me)

Visiting at Auntie Pammy's

When we were on the West side for the wedding where Cadence was a flower girl, we stayed with my sister in Poulsbo, WA. Cadence had a great time heckling her cousin Dylan, and generally making sure he didn't get into anything - whether it was his to get into or not. In short, I'm sure Dylan thought she was the fun police, and was doing her darnedest to make she he wasn't going to have any fun. On the other hand, Dylan thought it was great to have Kennedy around, since she couldn't boss him or take toys away. He brought her things, petted her head, and would tumble about on the floor around her while she was playing. It was very sweet. These are some pictures of our adventures while we were there...

Just gotta check everything out...

Cadence posing in front of some lovely lavender at the lavender festival in Sequim

Cadence making sure Dylan stays put for a darling photo op

Cadence splashing about in one of several wading pools at the Bremerton ferry dock, before the 'great fall'

Kennedy, enjoying herself immensely

Hangin' out with Great Auntie Maureen

After the 'great fall' - notice the bandaids on both knees. She really did a number on her left one. Of course, it was the same knee she scraped in the parking lot 2 days before as she was heading into the church for the wedding...

Breakin' out the cute

Making a getaway in Dylan's Jeep

Sailin' the Seven Seas with Cap'n Cadence

You sunk my battleship!

She's on the move!

It's official - she's started crawling. Kennedy has been working on her crawl for a couple of weeks now, frustrated to no end that she cannot go any faster. I'll have to re-baby proof the place now; there'll be no stopping her! She is so determined to keep up with her big sister. Tonight as I was picking up in the girls' room, Kennedy decided that hanging out with me just wasn't as fun as it must be in the bathroom where her sister was taking a bath. So, she navigated around all my little blockades (well, small piles of stuff) around the corner and into the bathroom where we could all hear her squeals of delight at having found Cadence. It was great. She really loved it when I stood her up on the side of the tub so she could see Cadence. I figured that was really her ultimate goal, although she could only get coordinated enough to bonk her head and slap her hand on the side of the tub by herself, so I have her a little boost. Then we let out some of the water and Kennedy got in the bath too. It was much fun for all, and even Mom got a little bit of a bath (Cadence insisted she was only trying to splash herself as a tidal wave swept over the side of the tub, down the front of Kennedy and onto my face, arms and knees, drenching any article of clothing touching those parts.)

Here's sleeping beauty, all dressed up in her Snow White princess costume. Every time we go over to her friend Lily's house, Cadence bee-lines straight for this costume and doesn't take it off until it's time to go.



Below is my first attempt at posting video - if anyone has trouble with it, please let me know so I can work on the problem. It runs about a minute and a half, and I don't know if a shorter clip would be better.

Jeremy was trying to catch a little footage of Kennedy actually crawling, but he mostly got her hamming it up for the camera and rolling around instead of doing what he wanted her to do. So far that's been the theme. We run break out the camera as soon as she gets going, then she sits back and looks at us like we're just the silliest things for making such a big deal out of her. She really truly is crawling - up on all fours, one hand, then a knee, then the other hand and other knee, creating forward motion. She looks a bit like a chameleon, but we have so far been unable to catch her when she's in the mood, I guess. Anyway, enjoy what Jeremy did get. She starts out pretty good, then, of course, I have to walk by and she decides to throw a little fit. We were at a friend's house for dinner when this was shot (Wednesday, Aug. 27).

Adventure Page!

*I'll be changing this page periodically, so different content will appear at different times - older adventures will be towards the bottom*


~Central Washington State Fair~
Friday, September 26 was opening day for the Central Washington State Fair in Yakima. The girls and I were so excited to go! Opening day is always $1 admission and $1 parking for the first 3 hours of the fair. So I loaded up the car with girls and supplies, and we headed the 2 miles or so to the fairgrounds. We got off to a little bit of a late start because Cadence wanted her hair done, and then wanted to take pictures. Kennedy didn't want to be left out, so she got her picture taken too.



It took us about 45 minutes to get into the parking lot, and we ended up parking out by the carnival entrance, but that was fun to go through at the end of our day as it was all lit up.

This year's big animal show was a presentation by S.L.E.W.T.H.S, a sea lion research program with California State University. We had to sit for awhile before it started so we would have a good view of the show, but we had cotton candy and snacks, so it was okay. They brought two sea lions out for the show, gave us a quick overview of the importance of their work with the sea lions, then gave us a little show at the end. I can understand the importance of plugging the program, but we were really anxious for more performance. The trainers/presenters were really engaging and entertaining, though, so that helped.



Cadence really liked going through the animal barns, although she got a little tired of barn after barn after barn of horses and cows. The miniatures were out for competition while we were there, so we missed them, but Cadence got to meet and pet some nice BIG horses. I just realized we missed the Clydesdales. Oh well. Next year... In the goat barn were some pigs. There was a momma pig with nearly a dozen new little piglets. They were all eating when we came through. Cadence took one look and said "Oh! They're eating their mom!". So we talked a little about how the little piggies were nursing like Kennedy nurses, only little piggies are much more wiggly about it. There was a little girl pig named Tinker Bell, and Cadence thought that was "Just darling!". She really liked when we got down to the goats, and spent quite some time getting friendly with a few.



While we were there we met up with our friends, the Huard's. Cadence and Lily are good friends and when we went to get faces painted, Cadence decided she wanted a big butterfly face like Lily got, so the two of them were butterfly sisters for the afternoon. Cadence decided Kennedy was too little for face painting. Face painting is for big girls.



After face painting it was off to the rainforest exhibit. Brad's World Reptiles provides a really neat, interactive reptilian exhibit each year, and this year's focus was the rainforest. Cadence got to pet a tortois, meet several different varieties of snakes (including a green anaconda - we know a song about a green anaconda, so Cadence sang a little of the song to the one we saw), frogs, turtles, little lizards and big lizards, large bugs, and she even got to touch a snake! It was hard to tear her away, but I finally did and we went and looked at bunnies and chickens. And a couple turkeys. They weren't as fun.



To end the day, we went to the kid's barn which was full of kid oriented games, dress-up, play, science, and had saddles to try and a hay maze to get lost in. Cadence tried out all the saddles, and did get lost in the maze until a very nice older girl (maybe 5 or 6 years old) very patiently led her out. It seemed Cadence liked being disoriented in the maze, and was perhaps doing it on purpose. But that other girl was determined to show Cadence the right way out. Cadence finally gave in when another little girl we know from church came through the maze. Cadence didn't want her to finish ahead of her, so she followed the older girl out and had a blast doing it.



It was a day full of adventure and fun, and we were all tired by the end. We had wandered from one end to the other and back again, looked at all the exhibits we could be patient enough to let Mom wander through, and gobbled down absolutely nothing good for us to eat - caramel apples dipped in peanuts, cotton candy, strawberry lemonade, fair scones with butter and raspberry jam. It was all delicious and well worth it. It would have been fun to go again, but next year will be soon enough I suppose.

!Be sure to check out the full day of pictures in the album on the right hand side of this page!




~A Day at the Museum~
A few weeks ago (okay, it's been about a month now...) we all hopped in the jeep and went on a little road trip down to Goldendale, WA. Goldendale is located on the Columbia River Gorge; the river separates Washington and Oregon. It was a really nice day for a drive - windy, rainy, I think we might have even seen a little hail. We were all pretty cosy until we arrived at the Maryhill Museum (our first destination). Our initial intentions were to just stick to the grounds, as there is plenty to keep any toddler busy (and it's free). Due to incliment weather and a tiny two-year-old bladder, however, we made our way into the museum for an impromtu cultural event. Jeremy took some pictures to share, and Cadence did really good to be quiet and not touch things. She got a great reward on the upper floor where a kids room is set up with hands-on playthings that correspond with the exhibits on other floors. Her favorite exhibit was of Loie Fuller. Mostly because there was a video playing of one of her dances.

Permanent Native American exhibit featuring beaded purses, shoes, clothes, and other various items

Photo of Native American woman painting on a hat

Hat similar to the one in the photo above

Eskimo parka made out of seal intestine sewed together to make a waterproof outerlayer

Another of the permanent exhibits, the International Chess Set display holds around 100 different sets from around the globe, and from various time periods

En route back to our vehicle after our tour, we stopped to gawk at a tail-less peacock. There were three, actually, that seemed strategically placed in the landscaping for visual congruity, and they were all sans tail feathers. Cadence really likes the peacock feathers at Grammy's house, so I'm sure she's still trying to figure out how those funny birds are connected to the feathers we see that share the same name.

See - no tail!

After a semi-short detour a few miles in the opposite direction from our next destination (our 'navigator' had us pointed east, but our car compass told us we were pointed west...) we arrived at our second destination, a replica of Stonehenge built as a WWI memorial. If possible, it was even more blustery on this bluff, and the poor vegetation seemed permanently bowed towards the ground. Inside the memorial, however, it was almost eerily calm. The way the structure was constructed seemed to forbid the wind from entering in its destructive state. However, this seemed to make the wind even more angry. And, lucky us, we happened to make our trip on the day of the 10th annual equinox poetry reading and earth celebration! About seven people tumbled out of an older Mercedes stationwagon and met up with several others who had arrived by minivan. One gentleman, sporting a flowing white beard, was clad in a fleece pullover and cut-off shorts, flip-flops, and was decorated with numerous strands of Marti-Gras beads. It was maybe 50 degrees out and the rain was coming down horizontally. To get things started, one man played a couple songs on guitar and sang, then another read a prayer to mother earth before jumping into more celebration. We decided to head out before much celebrating got underway, along with several others who were just there to visit the monument. They certainly did add a bit of color to an otherwise gloomy, late-summer day, although, it's not really the color we were looking for.

Posing within the monument

The wind really wanted to play in Cadence's hair

Just inside the protective rings of stone...

Oops - an elbow and her hair have crossed the magical boundary!

Okay, so this may look like just a silly picture Jeremy took of his Jeep in front of Stonehenge (it is) but if you look off the end of the front of the car, you can see a person framed by the entryway - that's the guy with the white beard ... I think you can click on the picture to enlarge it and see him better

From there we went on a wild-goose chase to locate a potty (seriously, you'd think people would allow a two-year-old to use the potty, but no - only paying customers allowed at the gas station, and the gift shop just 'didn't have one' (ya right)) and ended up at the state park where we got to see some wind surfers up close. From the museum and the monument we could see down to the river where several wind surfers were out, braving the elements. It was pretty cool. They say Goldendale is the wind surfing capitol of - well, I forget now whether it's the world or the U.S., but there were a lot of out of state plates at the park. Apparently, due to some geographical anomalies, it's just windy all the time there. The bridge to Oregon was closed, so we didn't go there, and decided instead to head into Goldendale for dinner before going home. We stopped at a nice Chinese restaurant (really the place was a little shabby, but the food was pretty decent). Goldendale was holding its 'community days', or something like that. There wasn't a whole lot going on, but they were showing some nice old cars, and as we were finishing dinner the lawnmower races started. Although it sounded like a lot of fun, we opted to skip the races and loaded up and headed home instead.

Although Goldendale proper wasn't much to write about, the museum, memorial, and park are just a few of the activities near there that really are fun. There's also an observatory open to the public. I hear its spectacular. I can't wait to try wind surfing!