Abee Go Boom

So far in life, Abigail hasn't experienced too many big bumps or bruises. She's had her share, but not quite like these. In fact, two nights ago she fell out of her 'race car' (a big diaper box) & hit our coffee table, causing the smaller area of eccymosys near her lateral canthus on the temporal aspect of her oculus dexter (Melissa just called me a nerd ;-). Last night she simply crashed into our glider chair, thus creating the dinosaur egg above that same eye.

Thankfully, after getting loves from Mom for a few minutes, she almost looked proud of her battle scars ;-)

Sat @ NW Trek

Melis has had a 'girls day out' pencilled in on the calendar for over a month now. They went up to Trader Joe's in Tacoma, shopped for a while, and had a nice lunch. But it was a nice day, and not wanting it to go to waste, I packed up Abee & our stuff and set out for NW Trek.

The first thing we had to do, of course, was eat a juicy burger. Greasy might be a better word. Nothing short of dripping with lard. Poor Abigail is getting clogged arteries already at 1 year old. But she loved it! And the fries too ;-)

We took the stroller, but she wanted nothing to do with it. She was there to walk. And walk she did. She would hold my hand sometimes, but often shook her head 'NO' when I offered a finger. I suppose you have to work those calories off somehow.
Baldy.
Grandma Koning's favorite animal ;-). I don't think she'd mind me saying she was pretty bummed when they decided not to allow the hunt in Idaho this year for them.
Practicing what they learned in french class.
Shroom & fall colors.
Abee spent a good 5 minutes playing with this piece of moss and a few others near it.

This is as photogenic as the grizz wanted to be today. I never did see his head.

'Daddy, I'm a big girl now - watch me push the stroller. . .if I could just reach it.'
After an hour and a half walking around, making animal sounds, and climbing on benches, she started to get pretty tired. And tired girls don't follow directions very well. She didn't want to be held. She didn't want to ride in the stroller. She wanted to walk down the areas where small children aren't supposed to walk (must take after Mom that way, right?). I couldn't help but crack up when she kept pointing near the 'no' in this sign as I tried to coax her back to the main path. I think she understands that word far better than any 14 month old girl should.
We caught the Golden Eagle on our way out.

And finally. . .she gave in and rode. And slept most of the way home.

In other news, we were quite proud of Abee last night, as we visited Camp Quixote, a homeless camp that is fairly well organized, with a pretty interesting mission. It's not a destination for homeless people to stay at indefinitely, but something to help them for a short time as needed. Regardless of how one feels about homelessness, it's a reality, and we were there to make sure the residents got a warm meal and few extra smiles that night. Even though it was a bit dark, with some interesting faces around, Abee warmed up to the experience after a while. We pray God used her, even at this young age, to bring joy to the hearts of His children.

Speaking of bringing joy, that little girl has taught me a thing or two about my relationship with God. One of those little lessons is about our duty - our opportunity - to bring Joy to God. He doesn't need us. He doesn't need our obedience. He doesn't need us to be thrilled & enthralled with Him. But He wants us to. In the same way that kids bring joy to their parents, we have a great opportunity to bring Joy to our Creator who loves the dickens out of us not because of what we do. He loves us just because we're His kids. And that's all that matters.

Trick or Treat & Kennedy Creek

It's been a great autumn around here. The colors have been great! I overheard someone say this was due to a few early (& light) frosts, combined with a general lack of precip for the past month. Some old timers have said this is the best year for fall colors they can remember. We'll take it! So will Matty. We decided to take a quick trip to Kennedy Creek today to check out the November Chum Salmon run. And to check out the massive maple leaves. And to let The Mighty Matanuska run wild & run free - just the way a puppy should live.

Abigail has been fun lately. Sure, she has her moments, but it's fun to see her develop. For instance, this morning in the living room she handed the cracker box to Melis, saying 'dgish' - which has become her standard word for everything from 'what is this' to 'I want this.' Melissa told her to get a plate to put some one, so she walks confidently into the kitchen where I am, and starts looking in the tupperware cupboard, where she grabs a tupperware and brings it right back to Mom for her bowl of crackers. Kids learn so fast!But I digress. Here we all pose for a big-happy-family shot.

My three favorite girls!

Finally Abee gets let out of the backpack so she can run wild & run free too!

This area is about 15 minutes NW of our house, just off of Hwy 101. There's a thick web of old logging roads that go every different direction once you get back in there a ways. But we didn't go too far past the area best for viewing salmon. Supposedly, there are around 30,000 chum salmon that come up this small creek every year. I'm not sure how they all fit! This is still pretty early in the season, so we only saw a handful of them. Anyone care to make a puzzle out of this? Melissa was thinking of Halloween a month ago already. She saw this tiger costume in Costco and couldn't resist. For the last month, we've been asking Abee 'What sound does a tiger make?', to which she often replies 'Raaawwwwrrr!' (with varying degrees of ferocity).

Melis & I took her over to our neighbors house, where we visited for quite a while. We reminisced about Halloween three years ago, when Melis & I got access to our newly-purchased house. We spend the evening cleaning the floors, walls, & anything else that needed it. I seem to remember us both having sore backs for the next few days. Yeah for our house! She wasn't a big fan of the hood, but tolerated it for a few pictures.

She isn't always this happy when she's tired, but after a while, she'd just lay her head down on the couch or the floor for a bit and rest, before regaining her energy for a few more minutes.