Friends & Fireworks

After our cruise returned to Seattle, we took the train down to Portland to visit our friend Kelly.

Although Hazel is too young to remember when Kelly lived in Atlanta, she immediately took to Kelly like the good family friend she is.

In addition to being an all around wonderful person, Kelly won extra bonus points with Hazel for keeping us all plied with ice cream, chocolate, and doughnuts. If you ask either girl, they will tell you that Portland has AMAZING food. (Aaron and I agree.)

I've never gone out for 4th of July fireworks dressed like this, but it's a little cooler in the Pacific Northwest than the Southeast.

Kelly's condo is an easy walk to fireworks, but we were briefly delayed by this passing train.

We made it! Fireworks, bridges, river -- fun!

In case there was any doubt that Juniper is a truly champion sleeper, here she is, fast asleep against Kelly's legs, while the rest of us watch fireworks.

Taking the cute up to 11

Hazel is wary of strangers but very affectionate with the people she knows and loves. (On an unrelated note, somehow I'd never really noticed just how very small her nose is.)

Happy birthday, Hazel

Last Sunday was Hazel's first birthday. She had a fantastic day, though for her the birthday shenanigans were largely incidental.



Over breakfast, we opened a couple of presents that had come in the mail. Hazel was far more interested in her toast.



Those of you who know Hazel well are familiar with the scowl she gives to unfamiliar people. She wasn't quite scowling at the lit candle, but she was definitely a little suspicious of it.



With her public health mom, Hazel's "cupcake" was a sugar free pumpkin muffin sweetened with apple juice and frosted with cream cheese. At first, the muffin didn't seem to register as food. She played with it and smeared the cream cheese, but expressed no interest in eating it.



Once we broke the muffin into smaller pieces, however, she figured out what to do with it and fully enjoyed it. (The next morning at breakfast, when the muffins made their second appearance, she enthusiastically started signing food, food, food!)



Contrary to the photographic record, Hazel did not in fact spend her entire birthday in her high chair. After lunch, she got to play outside for a bit, which is one of her very favorite things to do.



And Kelly read her some birthday books from DeeDee. Reading is another favorite activity, right up there with eating dirt.



All in all, it was a good day.

Kelly's Birthday Party

Kelly's birthday party was last weekend (and a lot of fun)!


The party wasn't a surprise, but the band was.


"Girlyman" - one of Kelly's favorites. They were fantastic!



We picked up one of their CDs, some of the first new music we've picked up in a while.

Happy Birthday, Kelly!

To celebrate Kelly's 30th birthday, Jennifer went all out with a surprise birthday bash. The slideshow featuring all of Kelly's friends wishing her happy birthday was nothing compared to the main event: Jennifer arranged for Girly Man (one of Kelly's favorite bands) to play at the party. Photos of the actual event to come soon...