A family member gets a facelift

Our precious doll-doll was really starting to show her age.

Her hair fell out.

As did all the stuffing in the feet.

She lost her "tail" (the tag on the back).

And slowly, from all the washing, her stuffing was getting lumpy and flat. Plus the washings were getting few and far between because we were worried she would just disintegrate in the wash. So on top of it, she was dirty and smelled bad.

Who wants a family member like that?

Not Blake. He started dropping hints about a month ago: "My hope for Chwistmas, my get a new doll-doll." "My dolly bwoken, dad, my need a new one."

I guess these weren't so much hints as a plea for help.

But where do you buy a doll that was sold in Toys R Us five years ago? Only on ebay.

So today Blake left this upstairs...


and came down to find this on the counter...
The comparison is really much sadder side by side. I certainly forgot how lovely dolly once was.

Coast

We headed out to Cannon Beach to enjoy some of the beautiful weather that finally arrived in Oregon. It's about time summer started. Usually my kids like to just play in the sand and maybe get their feet a little wet...

...this time, they decided to just go jump in the ocean. I wish we had come prepared. Next time, we bring swimsuits!


Aunt Bean and Uncle Wayne came along for the ride. This is how they started out playing frisbee. About six feet apart. Pathetic.

Eventually they moved far enough away from each other that they didn't fit in the same frame.


We enjoyed burying Carolyn to her neck in sand.
Blake helped.

Blake wanted to have a turn too. We didn't bury him to his neck because I was worried he would freak out. Instead, we just went up to his armpits. We took video after Blake got buried. His voice is so quiet that it is hard to hear, but you can get the jist of it by watching. Click here for cuteness.

This is just a quick preview of the video.We left the beach for lunch, and then headed down the coast to collect salt water taffy and Tillamook ice cream. We planned on stopping for dinner, but not a single person was hungry after a giant lunch, so we just headed home.

After the long, hot day, the kids fell asleep on the way home.

All of the kids.


Although taking pictures with a flash makes one of them smiles like this briefly before falling back asleep. I am glad she fell back asleep because we got to deal with post-nap grumpiness at home instead of in a car with miles to go.

We ended up feeding our kids instant breakfast shakes out of sippy cups in the bath as we cleaned them because we knew the meltdowns wouldn't hold off if we tried to feed them a meal at the table. We quickly put them both in bed before crashing onto the couch ourselves.

When cousins come to stay...

We build forts...


and all pile onto one bed.

We had my niece and nephew for a few days while their mom had a baby. Carolyn has been anticipating this for weeks...

Carolyn: When is Chandler coming for a sleepover?
Keren: I'm not sure. When his mom has the baby.
Carolyn: but whennnn is thaaaaaaat? I waaaaaaant hiiiiiiiiim to cooooooooome.

It got repetitive. Very quickly. But we had fun with them here. Now we can't wait for Carolyn to get over her second cold of the summer so we can go love and squish the new baby.

Before the sickness

In early July, we went to a swim park to celebrate my nephew's tenth birthday. Carolyn had so much fun running around with Chandler.




This is from a brief break where they refueled before jumping back in the pool.

Blake got out early asking for Jeremy to hold him. We skipped his nap in order to make it to the party, so we assumed he was just tired. But this was our first hint that Blake was sick. By the next morning, Blake was quite sick and I wasn't feeling well either. We spent most of the month of July with someone in our house battling this nasty cold that would not go away. It really put a cramp in our summer.

These were my last picture for a month. Apparently, I got super lazy with the camera.