Waxing and Waning in Suburbia: Strawberry Festival, Father's Day and the 4th of July Oh my!

Where has all the time gone? I am still cleaning up from the 4th and it's already the 9th. I have been in a sort of photography funk. It's hard to explain, but alot of photographers go through it. I am not happy with the level I am at. I know what I need to do to get better, it's just hard finding the time and subjects to do so. Hopefully, once I get the downstairs cleaned up and set up as a working studio my spirits will lift. I am also going to reserve a corner for my oil painting. I feel more at ease when I have a painting in process.

The kids are getting so big. Morgan is turning into a little two year old temper flaring boy and Lily is turning into a smiley giggly pre-toddler. We are trying to make the most out of the nice weather and plan lots of fun events yet it is so hard for me to handle both kids out in the real world by myself. I know other people do it all the time yet I can't wrap my head around the schematics of it. I really need a baby wrap to carry Lily on me and that would help a bunch. Even going to the park seems impossible. Once I get there Morgan would want to run around and I couldn't leave Lily in her stroller and I couldn't carry her in my arms and help Morgan. I don't know...blah blah blah.

This is going to be the super post with several events crammed into one update. I will do better with it from here on out. I made a resolution to post at least once a week about our lives.

On Father's Day weekend there was the Strawberry Festival in Marysville. We went to the fair with my Mom and tried to see the kiddie parade, but missed it by one block! Grr. We walked all over Marysville though going from the carnival to the fair and then to State AVe for the parade. It was a lot of fun. This year I found out you can see the grand Fireworks show from the upstairs window through the trees which is pretty cool.

We got to the Fair and saw a kid train so here we are waiting for it to come back.

Here is Morgan on the train before it took off.

He looked pretty excited...

And here he is when it got back...not so excited anymore! Steve said the driver was crazy, so I think it was a bit much for the poor little guy. He gets sensory overloaded quickly.

We headed over the the carnival to play games and we bought Morgan a blow up Spongebob. Once we got it home Lily became obsessed with it. She gets so happy when she sees it.

Morgan got to play several games while we were there. Here he is at the duck game.

more ducks...

Steve helping him fish...

Victory!

This is Morgan looking over all his prizes. He doesn't look too impressed. =) We actually won quite a bit! My Mom did really good at skiball and won a ton of stuffed animals too. I think we walked out of their with 8 or so prizes.

Here we were waiting for the kiddie parade a block down from where it was happening. Sad.

Father's Day we were going to stay home and relax which is what Steve wanted to do on his day, but mid-morning we were inspired to go to the Mountains and hike Big Four as far as my back would let us. We were trying to catch up with Kathy and Fred who were also there, but it sounded like we just missed them! =( We had a really good time even though it was misting on and off. The one mistake was taking Lily in the umbrella stroller because Morgan decided it was his sole purpose to push that thing everywhere! Next time she is going in the Kelty pack. He was so enthralled in pushing the stroller he barely noticed where we were or what we were doing.

Father's Day:

Morgan was chasing Steve down the trail towards me so I could get a picture. It was raining though so I wansn't able to get in the spot I wanted.

This is pretty much how the rest of the hike went...(Morgan in charge of Lily)

Lily had it the hardest, y'know, being pushed around in a stroller scoping the pretty views. No effort required.

Steve and Morgan watching the fern float out the other side down the river.

It was a Team effort.

The 4th of July was fantastic. We went to Steve's sister's house for a BBQ with her fiance's family and ate some really yummy salmon and salad and desserts in the afternoon. Morgan and Lily were pretty enamored with the Kiddie pool so they wound up in their diapers in no time. I was so tired from lack of sleep I felt like I was in a daze most of the day which sucked. After the BBQ we came home to do our traditional annual fireworks show on the side street with the neighbors. This year my Brother and Sister-in-law came with my nephew along with my sister Kristine, my Mom, Tracie's Mom and a bunch of our friends. We got this really cool firepit for our backyard and we roasted hotdogs and marshmallows on sticks for dinner. It was perfect! Nothing beats a campfire or the smell of one for that matter. Once it got dark we lit up our tiki torches and moved the party to the side street and lit off a TON of fireworks. We got this GIANT peace lantern you light up and let it fill with heat until it floats up and away. It was so fun to watch.

Every year there seems to be a heart stopping moment and this year was no different. One of the mortars we let off didn't go all the way up in the air instead it got just above our heads and went off scaring the crap out of all of us as sparks of fire landed all over our party. Amazingly, while I was screaming and holding Lily under a blanket she didn't even flinch. =) Oh and we thought this year Morgan would stay up for the show, but right as we started he fell asleep in our friend Katrina's arms. I took pictures at Fred's, but never got the camera out when we got home, there was just too much going on to take pictures, which I regret now. Hopefully some one else got some. We all had a great time!

4th of July afternoon @ Fred's
Fred's other Sister-in-law Melissa made these yummy little Eagle treats. They are marshmallows dipped in chocolate and coconut on top of a oreo with a cashew nose. I had two; they were so good!