september in pictures

these first few are stragglers that didn't make it in with august. our neighborhood has an annual (this was our second year and we plan to continue the tradition) back-to-school potluck/movie night at the end of the summer. we had delicious food and then the kids watched frozen on the projector while the adults sat around and talked. we love our neighbors.

the pool closed on labor day and this was the friday before labor day. you can see that the clouds were ominous, but that didn't stop us from going and we had the pool to ourselves. looking at these pictures now makes me nostalgic for summer. 

this was labor day and the most crowded i saw the pool all summer. everyone was getting in their last kicks of summer before school started and the pool closed. we loved our summer of swimming. 

madeleine started first grade this year on the tuesday after labor day. these are all of permutations for the first day of school pictures.

madeleine and our neighbors, also in first grade.

the whole neighborhood heading to school: 

 the weekend after school started, my friend invited me and the girls to join her and her girls for a mother-daughter campout. madeleine was tired from the first week of school and wanted to stay home with randy and jonathan (i was a little surprised by this because she loves these friends, but she stuck to her guns and really didn't come. i guess the transition to full-day school took it out of her). so, diane and i headed out to the tolt macdonald campgrounds in carnation, about forty-five minutes away, for an overnight campout.

we got there and set up what little camp we set up, and then went and explored the tolt macdonald bridge and the snoqualmie river.

diane and i had a great time and i actually think it was good for me to have a little one-on-one experience with her. this is a picture of us in the tent in the morning, waiting for everyone else to wake up:

playing at st. edward's park with irina, a friend of madeleine's:

 playing the piano is serious business around here:

jonathan pretended to be a puppy a lot in september. he is terrified of dogs.

randy and i were on a date in mill creek and randy was taking a picture of me in front of this pretty wall when a guy rode by on a bike and volunteered to take a picture of the two of us. we were both thinking, "i really hope this guy doesn't try to take off with randy's brand new phone." he didn't, thankfully. 

and finally, a picture of diane asleep under her bed, of course.

the rest of august in pictures

well, the good news is, most of my pictures from august were in mccall or boise, which i already did a separate post for. other than that, we mostly just hung out at home or the pool. here are the few pictures i did take: 

madeleine lost her fourth tooth and now has a nifty little window in the front of her mouth.

 

diane still likes to fall asleep in amusing ways:
 

jonathan was running around like a pirate, but wouldn't hold still long enough for a clear picture: 

 

this was a saturday morning after getting a few things at a garage sale. jonathan loved the lifejacket i bought, and wouldn't take it off, and the kids were locked in the bathroom with the lights out (this one doesn't have a window, so it gets nice and dark) to try out the lightbright i also got. obviously, i had to turn the light on for the picture.

that's it!

mccall 2014

my posts always have lots of pictures, but i tend to take a lot of pictures in mccall, so prepare yourself.

my niece, calli, choreographed a dance for the little girls to do, so here they are practicing:

here's the actual dance:

jonathan saw randy and carsten out on the dock (which was a ways out) and wanted to join them, so he started swimming all on his own. he would have made it, but they came in to him a little.

i don't remember what jonathan was sad about, but calli was comforting him and it was really cute.

the one picture of me from the whole trip:

randy ran off the end of the dock and jumped in and jonathan ran right after him and looked like he was going to do it, too, but stopped right at the end.

all of the peck great grandchildren that were there:

getting some ice cream at ice cream alley:

after a week up in mccall, we ended up staying an extra week in boise. we did some swimming at randy's grandparent's neighborhood pool, which was great.

and spent lots of time with cousins. the kids were pretty goofy during these pictures.

randy did some repairs on his parents sprinkler system:

sno-cones:

and walking around the foothills learning center:

we had a great couple weeks in idaho and loved the time we got with family.