Bunch of Paynes

In keeping with tradition, Ryan received his Father's Day book in the Daddy Bag! Rooke loves his dad. He talks about "Dada" all day long, things that every phone call is from his daddy, and says "HI Dada!" about fifty times after Ryan gets home from work. It's beautiful to watch my husband be an incredible father.

Rooke recently received a present as well. He was wearing his new shirt this afternoon while helping me play the guitar.

Here's a better look at the shirt . . .

In case you didn't get it from the t-shirt . . . we are blessed to be pregnant with Payne baby #2! I am due at the end of December. Yay!

We took Ryan's mom to Snoqualmie for a wonderful breakfast at Salish Lodge and then a little hike to see the falls.

He loved collecting the leaves and rocks

Rooke surprised us with how much walking and climbing he had the energy for.

He melts my heart with those blue eyes

Back at home . . . wearing only a diaper, Ryan bundled him up to stay warm!

We like having Grammy Deb here!

Rooke has been in grandparent heaven this month. After a visit from Kaye-K and Big Daddy, Grammy Deb is here for a week to play!

Breakfast at Pike Place Market

This video is from my mom's camera. Rooke thought it was funny to wear the hat over his eyes. Make sure to watch it a second time to see my dad's face! (no children were harmed in the making of this video)

Last week, we met James and Jessie at Carkeek Park to enjoy the nice weather on the beach. The boys had a great time digging and were thrilled that four trains passed by while we were there!

Rooke decided that brushing his hands together to get the sand off wasn't working, so he went for the lick-it-off approach.

Earlier this week, we met several friends at a farm for some toddler fun. James is leading some of the bunch to the turnips.

Rooke was not at all interested in the "pick-of-the-day": turnips. I can't blame him. Turnips?! Go here to see what I did with them.

Enough of this turnip stuff. Let's go check out the animals!

My son wouldn't have anything to do with a turnip, but will stick his fingers in an alpaca's mouth. Go figure.

And our most recent fun, friend outing was this morning. We met the Hurts at Madison Park!

Totally content to dig

Is he cute or what?!

I think he likes it . . .

My parents were able to squeeze in some time with us while they were in the U.S. for some training. What a treat!

We spent one afternoon on the beach at a local park. Rooke found this abandoned truck that made his day/week!

Doing a little shopping . . . Rooke was a great helper!

We went up to Canada to spend time with the McTaggarts, too. We certainly missed having my brother and his wife there, but it was still good to have so much family together at once!

One of Rooke's new words is "ice cream". I wonder why.

"This is my dad. He's super cool."

Big Daddy and his grand kids. I think Rooke was giving Evelynn a kiss and got tickled?! I love both of their faces.

Words can't describe how wonderful it is to spend an entire weekend with Ryan. No studying. No resumes. No spending Saturday at the school library. Just getting to hang out as a family.

We started Saturday with a trip to Ikea. You should have seen my face when Ryan made the suggestion. I love that place! Among a few other things, we came home with a new little train set for Rooke. He loves it!

After a nap, we headed downtown to the Chinese Arts & Culture Festival. It wasn't quite what we were expecting. Let's just say that the highlight of our twenty minutes there was this adult choir singing "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" from the Lion King. Seriously.

So we headed back outside to play in the water.

This was right before he let go of my hand and slipped. Good thing I had a bag of old onsies in the car for Good Will!

This view is just one of the many reasons I love living in Seattle.

Playing after church on Sunday. I was trying to fix the printer. Rooke was trying to pin-point all my blemishes.

He did a pretty good job.