Happy Birthday Daddy

Dan's birthday was the beginning of August. We celebrated with my family one day and with his family the next. The theme this year was football (the boys chose). :)

Every year we make a banner for daddy on his birthday. The footballs contain statements about daddy, including: "Daddy goes to work."- Molly. "I like to play soccer with daddy." - Thomas. "Daddy read me stories." - Katie. "Daddy is good at rough-housing." -Joshua

The Seahawk cake. I really wish I had had more time to actually decorate the cake. But alas, the girls chose not to nap so I didn't get to do the details. Sad. :(

 The inside of the cake.

Cousins-ish

Dan's family is super-duper close. All the cousins remain close, even into adulthood. So, we essentially just call the kids all cousins, even though they are something like 2nd cousins, or something like that.

Here's a picture of the cousins on the stairs at the river. Three sets of twins! Super fun!

Then, another cousin visited. Here's another cousin picture on the stairs. And then a picture of some of the group jumping off the dock into the water together.

Left to right: Misa (au pair), Antonia (9), Nicolai (6), Joshua (5)

Summer Faves

Here are a few random summer faves thus far:

Seattle to Portland (STP) 2011

Every year Dan and his dad, uncle and cousin all take part in a bicycle event called STP. They ride their bikes 200+ miles from Seattle to Portland in one day. It's too much at this point for me to take all kids to Seattle and travel to Portland, so we skipped the actual race route and met up in Portland for the race finish. So much fun! We were able to stop at parks and beaches along the way and the kids stayed in a hotel for the first time in their memory.

Hot tubs, bikes, and summer, oh my!

A favorite activity is always to go to grandma and grandpa's and ride bikes in the cul de sac and play in the hot tub. The children have become little fish and this summer Josh learned to ride without training wheels. And it's great cousin time too! Here are some favorites!

Sunny Days, Chasing the Clouds Away...

Beautiful summer days mean beautiful summer memories. We love to spend out days out on the river with Dan's family. The kids are gettting old enough that it's ALMOST easily do-able! Here are some favorite river pictures.

Happy (belated) 4th of July from the Domrese Family