Colin, Kelsey, Aberly, and Emalyn Price: End of July and start of August adventures

This summer has continued to fly by! August 8th already? Yes, yes it is.

Here is a photo and caption re-cap of the last (almost) month since I last blogged.

We had a great time re-connecting with friends. Aberly loved playing again with Gracie and Elliott (our neighbors, Gracie is on the right, Elliott not pictured) and getting to know Abbie (center) better. Abbie is the daughter of our renters. I spent time working in our yard to help out since our renters were expecting their 2nd at the beginning of August, and we also had a garage sale together. Aberly had lots of fun at Gracie and Elliott's combined birthday party in July and playing with all of the other kids there, and we joined a playgroup one week connected with church families. Timid at first, Aberly hung back with the new groups of kids, but quickly jumped in to join the fun.

Always thrilled to get out in beautiful Bend combined with Colin's love of good craft microbrews, we joined Papa Skip and Uncle Connor at the Fermentation Celebration in the Old Mill. The guys tried lots of great beers and Aberly and I wandered along, playing, shopping, and seeing people we knew. Colin also had the joy of attending the Oregon Brew Fest in Portland with his dad and brothers at the end of July. We also spent a fun time at the pool with Papa Skip, Angie, Kevin and Connor one evening and playing at his home. Aberly pretended the water tube was a snake and loved attacking her all of us with it. She is lucky to have such young at heart uncles who hammed it up for her when they got attacked by the snake.

There are some beautiful places to get out and hike around Bend so we headed out to Shevlin Park with Uncle Connor for a 6-mile hike loop. Aberly enjoyed hitching a ride with daddy most of the way. She got out a few times to walk but quickly got tired and wanted back in or on mommy's shoulders. We found a caterpillar at one of our rests by a creek and I got this sweet shot before we finished the loop.

Aberly loved playing with her GeeGee (Colin's mom) all summer. She helped Nancy work in the yard and do all sorts of jobs around the house, and pretty much was her shadow each day. Aberly especially loved riding in her bike seat (here she is with Colin) and going around the neighborhood with GeeGee, and drawing chalk together in the driveway. Here they are looking for fish in the pond by Aspen Hall.

Aberly is daddy's girl when it comes to dessert flavors. She will take berry any day over chocolate.

Aberly died and went to heaven when we bought her a bracelet to play in the bouncy area at a kid's area at a local festival. And she is a monkey! She climbed and wiggled her way through the giant blow up courses, passing many kids older than her. Her favorite one was the "one with the man" (there was an obstacle course with a strong man at the front). It had lots of climbing (picture above with block steps) and the big side at the end.

We spent time at local parks. This park had faux rocks for climbing which Aberly enjoyed quite a bit.

Our daughter has become a Dora the Explorer fanatic. GeeGee bought her these new jammies and she was thrilled. I asked her to give me a "big smile" and this is what I got. "CHEESE!!!!"

Aberly was a very lucky girl and got to see animals at my friend Kirstin's home. She was enchanted by the bunnies and after a nervous start, petted, brushed, and rode the pony. She also got to see a steer before we headed home.

After our Bend adventures, we headed over the pass and are now staying with my parents in Corvallis. They are now having the joy of being in Grandparent heaven and love playing with Aberly. Aberly loves helping her Papa and has been his shadow now. We've been playing ping-pong, hiking, playing Fisher Price (Andrew's and my old sets), running in the yard, went swimming, and headed to the county fair.