How is California cooler than here?

It has been obscenely hot here for us Washingtonians with the temps reaching the 100's today. Luckily, we are escaping to the nice pleasant weather of Southern California. Yes, it is in the low 80's down there right now. I haven't written anything lately just because I haven't had the energy. Our house gets so hot. It was 89 last night and the night before last inside the house. With the temperatures only cooling down to around 68 at night, the coolest our house has been the last few days is 83. So, we finally retreated last night and sought refuge with Dan's parents in their air conditioning. Delaney got a good night's sleep before we leave and it was quite pleasant. Now, coming home and packing in an 85 degree house, not so much fun. I will have plenty of pictures to post when we get back. Dan will be meeting us down there later on. Hope you all stay cool!

We LOVE watermelon!

And that is all I have to say about that.

Happy Independence Day!

Happy 4th of July to all! We had a great day, although we could have done without the stuffy house. We woke up this morning and the temperature in the house got down to 77 degrees before it started rising again. As I sit here typing this and it is so very pleasant outside, I am sitting in an 84 degree house with no hopes of cooling it down soon. Ah, the joys of an old house. We went over to my cousins house for a BBQ with the fam this afternoon. Man, Delaney would live outside if we let her. She spent most of the evening walking in and out of the house and up and down the steps on their deck. Great food, visiting with family, and me defeating Sarah in our ping pong battle rounded out our afternoon. Here are some pics from our 4th, and we hope you all enjoyed yours. I know we are biased, but boy, she is cute.
Here she is in the morning making sure that all refreshments were in order.

This is what she spent a lot of time doing. Laying in the grass looking at the sky. Too bad it was too early to see any fireworks. Maybe next year she will make it until dark...

Me and my little girl.

This is her special 4th of July dress. Thanks to Grammie Charlene for picking it out. I think she really liked it.

Playing peek-a-boo in the blanket.

Daddy and Delaney playing

Watching the other kids try out some fireworks. She finally just sat down on the walkway.

Here she is trying her first fireworks. She is throwing some Pop-Its. I didn't think she would throw it hard enough to actually have it pop, but once again, she proved me wrong. She had such a blast with it and was so proud each time she got one to pop. Sometimes it took several throws, but she was persistent. Once again, I am so proud of how big and independant she is getting.

Significant injury #2 and some other stuff

Last Friday, I got a call from Delaney's daycare while I was at work. They told me that she bumped her head pretty good, that she was doing ok and I don't need to come get her, but they wanted me to be aware so I wasn't shocked when I got there and saw her forehead. I appreciate that they at least called to let me know, but part of me was just ready to leave work right then to go get her. I trusted their judgement if they said she was fine and went to pick her up in the afternoon. She had an almost 2 inch line across her forehead where she smacked it on the edge of their little table. I tried taking some pictures of it when we got home, but she was not in the mood and the pictures really don't do it justice because they don't show all the swelling she had. She is a tough cookie. As her daycare director put it, "God sure knew they needed tough little heads. Good thing He designed them that way". I concur.

So, here is one of the only pics I could get that showed the purple line. It was worse than it looks here. Not as bad as the fat lip, but still pretty gnarly that first day. Trust me.
Dan and I could hear pots and pans banging around one day and then some whining. This is what we walked out to discover. She opened the oven drawer, climbed in, and not only into the drawer, but she was inside a big pot. Then she realized she couldn't get out by herself. We laughed, got some pictures, and then rescued her. Hopefully, she will forgive us for the delay.

Delaney is very into books as of late. She will walk over with a book and demand to be picked up so you can read it with her. She has some peek-a-boo books that are pretty high on the list of cool right now.

There are some days where I am amazed and shocked by how big our little D is getting. Today was one of those days. She babbled with me the entire time at the grocery store this morning, she read some books and pointed out things I didn't know she even knew that well, played in the sprinklers for over an hour and then played really well all evening. But, after her bath, it is so warm that I pulled her hair back. Since it was wet, I was able to get most of it into a ponytail. My heart skipped a beat when I saw how much more like a little girl it made her look. She is just growing up too fast. I must put a stop to it...

P.S. - If you look close, you can still see the bruise on her forehead a week later.