Rock is THREE!

Hard to believe it's that time of year again! Time for a cheeseball! This year it was made by Juju and Zuni and it was in the shape of a three because ROCK IS THREE YEARS OLD!

On September 18th, we celebrated Rock's third birthday by filling the Cooler of Dreams* and having a huge crowd of (mostly little) people over to play.

Thankfully, it was a beautiful sunny day so everyone could play a bunch of fun outdoor games (courtesy of Juju's church supply).
There was cornhole...

A balance beam...

Bocce ball...
Bocce ball on the balance beam...
and lots of chalk pictures (although no one else wrote their name quite as impressively as Sophie's print/cursive hybrid).

With games this kickin', it's no wonder Zuni flew in from London to be there.**
We were also really glad that Uncle Jason wore his orange-with-white-stripes shirt and aviator sunglasses so people would know he was related to Fix.

Rock requested a Lightning McQueen cake so he got one. Don't tell him that it was supposed to be much more impressive but I bailed on the impressive cake when I found out it was going to take me 4 hours to apply the icing.
He didn't seem to mind.

After the cake it was back outside to open a big stack of gifts.

Thankfully, Rock had a lot of helpers.
And thankfully there was a tent and some umbrellas for some of the adults to escape the heat. Zuni wasn't so lucky.

Happy Birthday Rock! You are such a fantastic little boy and we couldn't be prouder to be your parents. May God bless you richly in your third year of life -- I hope it's your best yet!
*I asked my dad to fill a "cooler of drinks." He thought I said "cooler of dreams." Thus, our cooler now has a name.
**Zuni actually came home for three weeks to do some consulting work and it happened to overlap with Rock's birthday. But she did in fact find the games to be "kickin'."

Fish Face

Louisa loves to suck her bottom lip. I think it's a part of the teething process. And I wonder how many posts I will put up regarding teething before Louisa actually starts teething.

Laughing Lou

Louisa has developed quite the infectious little giggle. Here Rock smothers her with a fireman's hat. Which you think would make her furious but apparently not.

Beach Fix

As I said in my last post, our final vacation of the Summer was to the Outer Banks of North Carolina with the Fix family.
This year, Nana and Auntie H and Uncle Jason and Papa John...
And Aunt Susi and Rock and Fix and Louisa...

And I were at the beach. We missed the Seattle Fixes (well, they are really Zerfosses but you know what I mean) but we had a nice week nonetheless. Unlike last year, we had a beautiful week of sunny warm weather. That is except for the last day (pictured above) where I am wearing both a hoodie and a baby to stay warm.
Whether being a lady in pink with Nana,
Being a lady in red with Aunt Susi,
Being held by her wind-blown Mommy,
Or lounging by her older bro, Louisa was quite the sun-bathing beauty. She seemed to enjoy the beach even more than she did during our trip two months ago.
We played a lot of bocce ball...

Which tuckered some people out.
As always the Fix creativity was in full display as Jason, Heather, Fix and Rock worked together to build this row of sand castles.
They were evenly spaced up the beach with enough room for the rescue vehicles to drive in between (see the tire tracks?) without causing damage.

Then we sat back and watched them battle the tide.

Of course we weren't on the beach for the whole trip. Jason rented some bikes and a kiddie bike seat so we could take trips around town.Someone's brain was so big we had to ride past the bike rental place again and get him an adult sized helmet.

We also went driving on the beach in Uncle Jason's car.

This rightfully made Rock a little concerned as Jason does not have 4 wheel drive and the water was quite high.
The beach house kitchen was less than spacious, but the food was more than good. We had several delicious meals that were wheat-free, corn-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, soy-free and garlic-free. Yay for allergy-prone families!

In addition to the meals, the soda was fantastic. Although Juju prefers Coca-Cola classic, Louisa is sorta following in her grandmother's footsteps as she loves to drink from (read: gnaw on) an empty Coke Zero can.
Someone also spent a lot of time doing puzzles.

Yeah I know Jason. Why would he want to spend so much time doing puzzles when there was a beautiful beach waiting outside?! Thanks again to all the other Fixes for helping to hold/wrangle/ love my children which made for such a lovely relaxing week at the beach.

Happy Birthday Fix!

This year we went to the beach with Fix's family from Sept. 5th- 11th. That meant we were in the Outer Banks for Fix's birthday. We went out to The Black Pelican to celebrate. Let me tell you folks -- it is a honor to be this man's wife. He makes my life SO much better on SO many levels. I don't know where or who I'd be without him. Thank you Lord for giving me a fabulous husband who is a thoughtful, caring father!

p.s. Rock was rather excited that he got to eat ROCK FISH!

Lisa & Nate

Labor Day weekend we were thrilled to attend the wedding of Lisa Habegger to Nate Kelly. Lisa and I have been friends for my entire life. She's one of the second generation from our Summer Fellowship Gathering so we've gone on vacation together almost every Summer of our entire lives. She's fantastic and so is her new hubby!
My dad and I sang "Great is Thy Faithfulness" during the ceremony so we took Louisa to the rehearsal(above).

While the beautiful bridesmaids and the newlywed couple took pictures after the ceremony,

I enjoyed hanging out with all these beautiful people (also from the Summer Fellowship Gathering).

Again, Marta is another friend from the Summer Fellowship Gathering. She and Louisa enjoyed having a chance to hang out again.

I know I'll blink and he'll be walking her down the aisle.

Rock loved the dino-shaped chicken nuggets, mac n' cheese, and applesauce. We adults were served a more sophisticated but equally delicious meal.

After we worked together to get Louisa's attention...

We got a decent family picture.
Speaking of decent family pictures, here's one of the bride, her sister (who is also her matron of honor and who is also carrying the bride's niece due in early October), and her brother Peter. Love them.
Don't look at my red flip-flops. I forgot my nice shoes. At least they are my nice flip-flops.
Post cake bashing.

Congrats to the new Mr. and Mrs. Kelly!