Quirks

Swimming is going really well. She can swim 15-20 ft unassisted after a little warm up. Coming up for air is our next hurdle. The biggest challenge is keeping enough sunscreen on that scar. It's not fair to keep her locked up in the summer time, but WOW is it a challenge to keep her face from getting sun in the AZ heat!

She has discovered name calling. Favorites that she has picked up on are fuzzball and idiot and sack-a-bony (which she has no idea that the actual phrase used in the cartoon is such a phony, but she thinks she's so bad by saying it, I don't have the heart to tell her she's got it all wrong!) She not understand how to discern sweet, affectionate nicknames from derogatory ones yet, however, so she has been getting mad at Geoff and I for using our usual nicknames. Here is a sample conversation:

  "Good night, chub-a-dub..."
"I'm not chub-a-dub. I am KATHERINE THE STROLLER BEAZER!!!!" (A name she has pronounced upon herself. You will recognize that she has adopted herself into her BFF's family.)
"Katherine, but you're a Bergeron.You're in our family.."
"It's my truth, Dad!!"

Her sleep schedule is all messed up due to our trip, so often I put her to bed around 8:30pm and just let her look at books until she falls asleep on her own... This is what we found one night...

We have been bothered lately with the amount of 3-yr-old attitude this child has been displaying lately so I have initiated a challenge everyday for her to show more love. No more telling people to go away. No more hitting people even playfully. No more telling stories with all the characters getting sick or killing or dying. No more telling me "Fine" when she capitulates to something she doesn't want to do. How can a child be so fun, so endearing, and so... aggravating at the same time?? I never thought it would be so hard to teach my child to be nice.

We have been watching Arrested Development lately (which is sometimes painful to watch and sometimes Laugh Out Loud funny). Geoff kept telling me he would look like one of the main characters of the show if he grew out his hair. So while we were on vacation he stopped shaving and sported a new look we proudly call "The Tobias"...

But we decided it made him look too much like a creepy Uncle Rico for a guy who works with the 11-yr-old scouts, so he shaved it off before church today.

Family Reunion at Sun River

 

The Jackson Family Reunion was held in Sun River, OR. My pictures are a poor representation of all the fun. I was not good at documenting this trip so I hope my family can supplement my lack of expertise. (You can't even tell we're in Oregon or that we're with all the family!)

Geoff, Katherine and I took a 6:30am flight that morning, so we left the house at 3:45am to get to the Gateway airport. We really like using the smaller airports - so much less congested and airport security isn't a headache.

It started last Sunday night with a round of games, good food and some family history trivia. It was so good to see Grandma Jackson there. She is 97 and is in amazingly good health. All of Uncle Russell's family was there and the Slaters were represented. We really missed Earl's family and hope they can join us next time.

Katherine was so excited to be with her cousins! The girls were inseparable when they were not fighting over who got to be with Nana & Papa. Pax just followed along, not at all thinking that he is any littler than the rest of them. If they could do it, he could do it! Such a happy kid!

 

 We celebrated the 4th of July with a round of contests, all the families mixing up. It was so good to catch up with everyone while we made a fool of ourselves!

 Natalie and Genet scored high points in our Minute to Win It competition as bobblehead champions - I have included the blackmailing video at the end of this post! They posed for a picture with Aunt Anne to express new found sympathy for dizziness... Aunt Anne is our miracle patient who is recovering from a recent stroke and had only been released from the hospital a few days before. 

 Geoff won his contest balancing 7 chocolate ding dongs on his head while I won my task of getting 8 cotton balls into a bucket only using my nose and vaseline! My team actually won the horse trivia section - who knew all the episodes of Horseland that Katherine has obsessed over would come in handy! Yes, we are a family of champions...

 Kim offered face painting for all the kids and quickly endeared herself as the favorite to all the younger cousins. They all sparkled with butterflies, rainbows, and horses and cried if anything got smudged.

 Could anything be more indicative of Katherine's personality??

 Tuesday, Natalie and I babysat the little ones while everyone else went on an amazing canoe ride. It was so nice to be able to come & relax in the afternoons, read and sleep and then go back for the bbq. Again, the food was delicious! Thank you Aunt Connie and everyone who helped her because it was wonderful!

Bennett was bitten by a dog as he ran to the dock where the canoes were. I couldn't believe it! Apparently, he had provoked the dog just by running and the dog caught the backside of his leg. Fortunately, it only bruised him, but it scared him really bad. That makes THREE dog bites in our immediate family in the past year. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE!?!

Wednesday, we actually got almost of 30 of us on a bike ride around the river. It was gorgeous and I wish I took pictures. The weather was to die for perfect! We got Katherine to practice on bike with training wheels for a while, but she really has a hard time pedaling so she just rode in a trailer... which she quickly renamed a princess coach!

 Wednesday night we celebrated Geoff and Genet's birthdays... The range of emotions in the picture captures it all - It is sheer chaos getting everyone to sit around the table at the same time, especially after a day of swimming and fun outside! We had an amazing salmon dinner with apple betty and homemade ice cream for dessert. We were so glad to be able to celebrate all together.

This is blackmail video I told you about earlier... It took those poor girls hours to recover! They were such good sports!

It was a wonderful trip. Katherine could hardly sleep because she couldn't stand the idea of missing anything. Consequently, by the last night she got sick with a fever and we were up all night before we traveled. But it was worth it! We caught up on our sleep the next night. We miss everyone and wish lived closer to continue the fun. I'm really looking forward to their visits this fall when the baby comes.