Sugar Cookies

For some reason, I had been obsessed with the idea of making sugar cookies with Parker (with colorful icing and all). We found some cool cookie cutters--a dinosaur, fire truck, and lobster--and went to town. Parker is really into wanting to do everything himself lately, so he got a try at the rolling pin, cutters, and of course the icing. He gravitated to the black icing right away, and decorated each of his cookies with a huge swath of black! (It took me a little while to realize that I had to just let myself go and let him have fun, since that's what the activity was all about!) Yummy!

Happy Father's Day!

We had a super fun Father's Day in San Diego this year. Dee and Niki scouted out a perfect hang out spot on a little beach in the bay on Point Loma looking out at Shelter Island. Nate, Lisa, Alex, Kristina, Jim, Lanea, Diana, Grayson, Grandpa Don, and Andrew were all there, too, and we spent the whole day playing in the sand, splashing in the water, going for boat rides (Jared brought his boat and beached it right at our spot), and eating lots of food and cake (it was also Alex's 8th birthday!). After weeks of heavy June gloom, the sun came out all day and we had a gorgeous San Diego Sunday. Can't wait to do it again!!

Kiss Your Catch

Parker is seriously mastering his casting skills! He's going to be amazing by the time he's four. As soon as he gets on the boat, the first thing he wants to do is cast, and he just does it over and over and over. We went out for a quick boat ride while Uncle Ian was in town for Paige's graduation, and had some beautiful sunshine and warm weather. Jared caught a few small bass, and Parker isn't shy about checking them out. Be sure to release your catch after you kiss it!!

Golden Gate Adventure

While we were in Healdsburg visiting Mel and Em and their families, Mel's dad Michael took us out for a spin on the San Francisco Bay in his fishing boat. We were treated to a beautiful view of amazing houses along the bay and an upclose look at the Golden Gate Bridge. Parker loved the bumpy ride and the huge splashes from the wake off the back of the boat.

Making Beautiful Music Together

Here's a clip of Parker and Josie being adorable during our visit to Healdsburg last weekend. This was his first time playing a "real" piano, and he was pretty stoked...we're hoping he'll want to play an instrument someday. And Josie is the happiest, most loving, joyful little girl I've ever known! You can see Em in the background holding Mel's baby, Owen, who is 8 months old now.

Little Explorer

A huge Thank You to Grandpa Niki for putting this awesome jacket together for Parker with patches from all of our stops on our Great Alaskan Tour! Parker looks like such a cute outdoorsman in it, and we will be sure to keep adding patches from all of our future travels. I'll hopefully be putting some photos up here soon from our Alaskan cruise that we took a few weeks ago, stay tuned!

"I Made This!"

Parker is having fun learning about growing veggies in the garden...he especially likes the payoff of pulling a giant carrot up out of the soil! He's actually pretty willing to eat (or at least try) any vegetable that we pick fresh from the garden.