GG and the Music Box

The kids and I took a trip to see Great Grandma this afternoon.

Stella loves her some GG.



There's a juke box in the lobby of her new building. You would've thought we'd found gold. On the Moon. In Elmo's World.

We'll apparently be going back real soon.

Really...It's Like Christmas.

Oh, July. You sun-drenched, traveling little mistress, you.

She's been good to us...this yearly half-way point. The amount of activities, birthdays, planes, hotel rooms, sunny days and visits with Mickey she's brought us are what Bolt would call "ri-dunk-u-lous." Gawd, I love to quote Bolt.

I'm just now sorting through the 985 pictures (yes, that number is correct - I'm a quantity over quality sorta girl) taken over the last few weeks and I've decided this... Mickey gets a whole post.

But not today.

Because we would have to talk Jedis. And Jedi training. And going up against Darth with the Jedi Master. Goodness. I could go on and on. And the pictures. Those fools are 400 of the 985 pics in my database.

Suffice to say Henry is an official youngling - and fought the dark side with impressive vigor.

I think right now I'll focus on the 110 pictures taken in the first three days of the month. When Stella turned two and...

We had a visit from one of our very favorite Texans on the planet.

And she brought a tu-tu from Texas for the girl.

And a microscope from Texas for the boy. Perfect gifts for these fools.

And then came time to celebrate 2.

2 years of living.

2 years of craziness.

Grandma and Grandpa Graves, GG, Bonnie and Beth stopped by to celebrate too...



Okay, so there may be a lot of Stella pics here...poor Henry.

Oh, no - that's right. The Jedi post is coming. Seriously. Four hundred photos of some serious Jedi action. It'll be ri-dunk-u-lous. (What up, Bolt!)

Until then, I'll celebrate with my own view of the two-year old girl.

And my favorite way to see her with her boy.

May the force be with you!

M-I-C...See Ya Real Soon.

So. We have a week and a half left until we head off to Disneyland.

And four days until Vicki comes to visit.

And two and half weeks until I go to Mexico.

All that to say...July will not suck.

But instead of looking forward, I'll look back. To some good fun that came without leaving the city limits.

One could say, good for the wallet. And good for the heart.

We were invited to Rosa's daugther's gradution party. We love Rosa like she was one of our own. And her daughter gradutated from the UW on a full ride scholarship with a 4.0 grade point average. She's now taking her law school entrance exams. She is Rosa and Jose's only child.

It was nice to be there...in this crowd of Argentinians, Bolivians and Americans to celebrate Michelle and her amazing accomplishments. You could feel Jose there, but there wasn't a blanket of sadness like there usually is. It was happy.

And Stella was just happy to be with her Rosa.

We also were lucky enough to enjoy a much-overdue dinner gathering with Matt and Michele and this wiley bunch of coyotes.

OH. And Michele brought over this beauty as a belated bday prezie. And to that I say...All's well that ends well.

Odd Yellow Globe.

June 12.

Dear Diary.

We saw an odd yellow globe in the sky today.

I hope we're not being attacked by alien forces.

We'll have to go outside and secure the area.

Okay.

Perimeter secure.

Let's go back inside. Kick back, read a book, hang out w/our old friend Elmo.

Happy Saturday.

39. And Scary.

Simply fantastic birthday today.

A birthday breakfast party.

A visit from my dad. That went like this.

I'm hanging out at my desk on the 16th floor of a hi-rise building in downtown Seattle. I get a call from reception, "Jennette - can you please come to the front desk." And there's my dad. With flowers and a present. And a whole bunch of peace and love in his face. Such a juxtaposition of my dad and my work and downtown Seattle and Othello - one of the sweetest surprises of my adult life.

Presents from Texas in the mail. Loved them.

A lovely dinner at Tutta Bella with my three favorite Sewards.

But let's talk about the scary part.

I got a new camera lens for my bday. That DRS - he sure comes through.

Okay - really now. Back to the scary part.

The lens allows you to really focus on your subject and blur your background. I practiced with some of my most glorious subjects - and the clarity and focus made most of them fabulous - but one of them pretty scary.

Not this one. This one is cute. And realistic. Not really smiling. But still hanging out for me while I take a picture.

Or this one. Not scary. Well it's kinda scary. But mostly because of the breakfast burrito in her teeth.

Not this one. Again, realistic. But not scary (most mornings).

Definitely not scary (until she stabbed me with a fork later on in the evening).

HERE it is.

Scary.

He looks like he's tyring to read my mind. And it's CLEAR to me that he's crazy. Is it the lens that gives me that clarity? Could be.

But his nose is ridiculously in focus. Right? I love this lens. I love clarity. And I love good, good days like this one.