22 months old! Yes, we missed a month :)

Karina has been enjoying summer to the fullest! We have been keeping busy and I can't believe its already mid August! We've been so busy we missed her first monthly picture! Bound to happen sometime :) So, you are not missing anything because there is no 21 month blog.

Since our last writing, we made a trip to the Boston area to celebrate Tim's parent's 35th wedding anniversary and spent a week near the Cape in Marion, MA. Although we left sunny Seattle to spend a week in the rain :) we had a great time. It worked out to see Marie's parent's and Rinus, Daniel and Emilija as well! In Seattle we have been exploring all the parks, water fountains and wading pools. With the extreme heat we found some great places with air conditioning to keep cool.

Karina's vocabulary is exploding! She has a new couple of words each day. She finally started saying "Bow-pa" (translation = Oupa) and we called him so she could tell him and of course she went mute :)

Karina with her Ya Ya, Far Far, Ouma and Oupa! What a luckly little girl :)

We celebrated Father's Day in Marion and had 5 fathers present! Dave/Far Far, Tim, Dan/Oupa, RP/Ralph and Rinus! Even with the rain, we enjoyed a bbq!

Oupa's little Red Sox Fan :) While we were on this trip, we taught Karina to clap when she hears Red Sox and boo when she hears the Yankees...and just yesterday she started to say Red Sox!

Ouma and Karina enjoy some quality time.

Bob, Daniel and Dan/Oupa try to work out the puzzle...

Daniel built a tower almost as tall as he is!

Cousins having fun together playing barrel of monkeys :)

Tim turned 32 while were there and we celebrated by going duckpin bowling. Here he is trying to teach Karina the finer points of the game.

Christie and Bob went clam digging with Meg (our wonderful hostess) and caught some fresh Cohog clams and which we used to make clam chowder from scratch that night for a celebratory dinner for Karin and Dave's anniversary. It was delicious!

Karina and TT (Tia ChrisTie) coming down the slide!

Ya Ya and Karina enjoying the sun on our boat cruise through the Cape Cod Canal.

Fashionista with Ya Ya's sunglasses

Playing the bubbles on our last day, of course the sun started to come out :)

Karina enjoying her first time in the bubble room at the Children's Museum in Boston with Tim and Oom Rinus.

Our backyard still needs a lot of work, but there is room for Karina's new
sprinkler ball to stay cool!

Karina loves to play dress up and wear all her different hats. This hat is too small for her and is for winter, but that didn't stop her from running around the house with it on her head one warm afternoon :)

We have a membership to the Woodland Park Zoo, so spend a lot of time there. One of Karina's favorite animals to see are the Gorillas. Here she is with the baby Gorilla, who is about her size :) She says "Hi Gla" and "Byebye Gla" every time we see them. Its very cute.

Tim and Karina enjoying the backyard. She loves her "Sassy" (translation = glasses).

Hanging out in her little pool. We had a week of temps in the 90s (even hit 100) so usually spent the morning in the wading pool and afternoon somewhere airconditioned. We slept in our basement, which luckily was a good 20 degrees cooler than upstairs.

Here she is in a local wading pool.

Karina loves to put hats on as I mentioned and likes it even more to stand in front of her mirror and crack herself up. Here she is modeling a crown from a princess party she went to.

I don't know how this position could be comfortable to sleep in.

Karina and her friend Alice driving in the car together. These two really make each other laugh which is so fun to see!

We took a trip down to Tacoma to see a friend who was in town from South Africa and Karina, Alice and Zahra became fast friends.

She is still a little hesitant on slides but is discovering how fun they can be.
Sorry for the loooooooong blog. We'll try to do smaller ones more frequently.

20 months old and enjoying the summer!

We're gaining on 2 years old! Karina has been having fun with her friends, playing in her new backyard and at the local water parks. Her favorite word is now "NO." She is entertaining us with her impression of a chicken however. We'll try to get that on film. Very exciting news is that she can finally stand up on her own from sitting!! For a kid who never crawled, this is a big feat (and has made everyone's life easier!). I couldn't decide on one picture this time, so the two above are my favorites :)

Karina's new (used) sand and water table. A better word for it is a mud table :) She loves it! Also notice the new fence and dirt area. The dirt area is where all the concrete used to be. Soon we will have grass!

The pigtails never get old. She still looks very cute! If you say the word cute in front of Karina now, she will put her finger in her cheek and make a dimple...

Mamma and Karina having fun with the camera.

Karina having fun with a balloon all dressed up for a birthday party.

Kind of enjoying her ice cream cone.

Enjoying dinner sitting in a big girl booster seat :) She's eating flank steak, israeli couscous and peas.

Trying to figure out how to play t-ball.

Running through the water fountain.

Alice and Karina on the slip and slide! Neither was too interested in slipping or sliding but the sprinklers on the side and pool at the end were a big hit.

We've also been doing a fair amount of grilling at our house and with friends. Karina definitely loves ribs!

19 months and a visit from Ya Ya and Far Far

Karina is 19 months old now. Soon we are going to have to stop counting in months :) Ya Ya and Far Far Ericson came to visit and actually had sunshine! I think they believe us now that we are surrounded by mountains :) The weather was beautiful and we had fun going to the Zoo, the Syttende Mai (aka Norwegian constitution day) Parade in Ballard and the Kubota Gardens among other things.

Karina loves the new penguin habitat at the Zoo. She also showed Ya Ya and Far Far the elephants, giraffes, gorillas and how much fun she has at the Zoomazium (an indoor playspace for kids at the Zoo).

Karina loves it when her Ya Ya and Far Far read her books.

Karina showing her love for Big Papi and the Red Sox! We went to the game on Friday night, unfortunately Ichiro had other plans for the Red Sox, but we shouldn't be surprised. The Sox never win when we are there in person.

Showing her Ballard pride at the parade on Sunday!

Entering the Kubota gardens. A beautiful public park in Seattle that has Japanese gardens.

Ya Ya and Far Far in the trees :)

The gardens were so beautiful. There were ponds, wooden bridges, stone bridges and gorgeous flowers and trees scattered through the 20 acre park.

Karina walking with Far Far and Ya Ya after a quick trip through Pike's Market before heading to the airport.