Seven years

Well, it's been awhile since my last post. We are now in the Northwest for the rest of June and most of July. We've been having fun seeing family and friends. We just returned from the Edgefield (which is a McMenamin's hotel), where we were celebrating our 7th anniversary. Usually romantic anniversary getaways involve only two people, but Elisa joined us to help celebrate, and we all had a lot of fun together.

Elisa gave swimming a second go and enjoyed it much more than last time. They had the BEST pool there! They call it a freeform soaking pool. The water is really warm... almost as warm as a hot tub. And there are benches lining the sides of the pool, so there's plenty of room to sit. There are these big sculpture fountains in several different places in the pool, and also some that have flames on top. I think I could say it's my favorite pool ever.

We also enjoyed the gardens at McMenamins. They have some beautiful and unusual plants. Aren't the leaves on this one huge!

Elisa also had her first Columbia River Gorge experience. She saw Multnomah Falls (pictured above). We tried to hike up to Oneonta Falls... cuz we've always wanted to, but never done it. You have to hike through water for part of the way. And usually the deepest the water gets in the summer is thigh high. But the water was still too high. It would have been up to our stomach for part of the way. So we decided to wait until another time to hike it.

Overall, we had a great anniversary vacation. And I think Elisa enjoyed it too.

Leesi's first swim

Tonight was the city of Siloam's summer party. It was at the Aquatic Center here in town and Greg and I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to introduce Elisa to swimming. It was humid and warm, but the water was still cold. Elisa only got her legs in... and that was plenty. Here is her reaction:

But, even though we didn't swim. We all had a good time. Elisa was awfully cute in her swimsuit. We'll just have to wait for another day to try swimming.

English class

I tutor at the Dogwood Literacy Council each Wednesday morning. I used to do it twice a week, but then Elisa came along... and now all we can handle is once a week.

I love my class. I have three students: Thinh, Gladis, and Walter. They are so much fun. They really like Elisa too. I leave her at home with Greg any time I can. But most of the time I have to bring her... and they talk to her and hold her and try to get her to smile.

Today was my last class for the summer. I'm kind of sad about it because I'm not sure how I'm going to continue teaching in the fall. It's just getting harder and harder to take Elisa with me. It's right during her morning nap time, and sometimes she gets really fussy during class. When she starts crawling around I have no idea how I'll contain her. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Little Greg

Some pictures make me think, "Wow, she really does look like Greg!" Like this one:

What a big girl!

I teased Greg before he left and said that when he came back Elisa would be so much bigger... she'd be crawling and saying Momma and doing all sorts of new things.

Well, she may not be crawling yet, but she has gotten better at sitting in the last week. Here are a couple movies of her sitting. I'm posting both of them, even though they're a little redundant, because I know that Greg will enjoy watching as many videos as he can of his little girl.

Missing Greg

Yep, the title says it all.

Tonight I'm missing Greg.