Learning to climb trees

The girls have been showing more interest in climbing trees, especially our easily accessible mimosa tree.  Elsa is just tall enough to get up by herself now, and they spent a fair amount of time watching hummingbirds and playing in the branches with my sister.

Hummingbirds

The hummingbirds love our mimosa tree.  Frequently there may be 3 or 4 of them buzzing around the tree, chirping and fighting as drink from the flowers.  I was experimenting with my camera settings and managed to get a few good shots of them.

This one was before I zoomed in and focused- can you find it in the middle?

Here is the same shot cropped in:

And here is properly zoomed as close as I could get - the girls were in the tree at the time so the birds were not coming too close, and I was pretty thrilled to get these shots!

Sometimes you don't correct them...

because the "error" is just too cute!  I'm not sure where she came up with it, but Nora has decided that she can "read" her favorite t-shirt.  Since it is very cute (and also happens to be particularly affirming to me), I frequently ask her to "read" it for me.  Thankfully my sister caught it on video.

"I love my mama!"

Aunt Naomi

We all had such a good time when my sister visited for a week.  It was so sweet watching the girls getting to know her again, and they are already asking for her to return!  So come back soon, Aunt Naomi!

And they discovered a new favorite "hiding" spot for hide and seek!

Berries

While my sister was here we visited one of the few u-pick berry patches in our area for blueberries and raspberries.  Our cool spring and sudden early summer heat wave led to a less than plentiful crop, but we still found enough to fill a box of each before we wilted in the 100 degree dry heat.

I really want to like carrots!

Sometimes I wonder why I plant a vegetable garden, because vegetables are still challenging for me.  Especially carrots.  But they are so fun to grow, and look so pretty!  I really want to like them!

(But please don't tell my girls that I just wrote that.  I would like for them to trust me a little bit longer when I tell them how yummy and crunchy and sweet the carrots are.)

 Too bad flowers don't have much nutritional value.

Brothers

This post is a bit out of order because I forgot to include it earlier during our visit to southern Illinois for Carrie's wedding.  At first I was able to catch a nice photo of Joel and Andrew without them noticing,

but soon they caught on...

Vintage Portland

Our 4th wedding of the summer was in Portland, but our connection was through the family in Medford.  Micah and Daniel's wedding was a beautiful 1920's vintage celebration at the Old Church and the Crystal Ballroom, but I had my camera on the wrong settings and so I didn't capture hardly any of it!  We had a lovely time, and the girls did too, and again danced their feet off until it was well past bedtime.

The pictures that did turn out were the ones from the photo booth at the reception.  Enjoy! 

nap time at GG's

Cherry pie

Being at grandmas was a wonderful, simple week for the girls and I.  I enjoyed the nostalgic restfulness and funny childhood memories of trying to sleep in Grandma's curlers and getting to play with my mother's old toys.  I don't remember ever baking pie with my grandma, but my girls hopefully will.

  

Yes, it was very good.