Harbor Day

We went with friends downtown for Harbor day today. Here is Daddy and Jade on the Hawaiian Chieftain. It looks a lot like the Lady Washington (the boat used in Pirates of the Caribbean) which was there as well...but we've already been on that boat.
Daddy and Jade going out on the dock towards a tugboat.
Next to an old looking boat:)

Family pic:)

Happy Jade and Dad, she likes the boats!
Here they are watching little model boats racing in a pool area.
Here is a full view of the Hawaiian Chieftain boat we went on.
fun afternoon!

Bubbles a picnic

We had a work picnic to attend last night. While talking with grown-ups is lots of fun, Jade found the bubbles a more exciting diversion. Here she and her friend are trying to pop the bubbles laying in the grass.
she got impatient wanting the bubbles to be blown faster
this is her all exciting, and trying to blow bubbles through her fingers
Here she is with Daddy saying it's time to "Eat".

Jade's Smiles

I just want to eat her up:) My goofy, little smiling girl!

Just a few cute pics from the beach

Jade in the water

Jade and Me

Grandma Mangione, Aunt Li and Jade

Digging in the sand

Just for fun

You Belong in New York City

You're the energetic, ambitious type. And only NYC is fast enough for you. Maybe you'll set yourself up with a killer career Or simply take in all the city has to offer.

What City Do You Belong In?

A short pic of Jade at the beach

Some Pics from MI

It's early in the morning and Jade is still sleeping. I noticed pics from our trip had already been downloaded to the computer, so I thought I would post just a few.

Our flight in went pretty well and Jade seems pretty happy and healthy. It is taking her awhile to warm up to a lot of the family, but she doesn't seem to have any problems playing with her Aunts. She really loves the piano. Here is Jo playing with her.

When I left for a short walk to the family garden Jade wasn't to happy about that. So she sat on Great Grandma's lap with her blankie.
Mom decided to make some wonderfully delicious homemade bread from scratch yesterday. She ground the wheat herself and everything. I, however, I'm very allergic to fresh ground flour (well, I sneeze like crazy) so Travis took me for a canoe ride around the pond to show me were all the turtles sun themselves while Mom ground wheat. Here I am pretending to paddle. I actually didn't paddle the whole time. Travis said he could do it better:)
Travis caught a turtle to show Jade. She liked poking it's head and watching the turtle push it's head in and out of it's shell.
"Where's the turtle?"
Before church on Sunday morning Grandpa Bechtle played piano and Jade joined him.
This is a Sunday morning pic with her Grandpa's

I'm leaving on a Jet plane

Jade and I are off tonight to go visit family for a week. So you probably won't see any posts for awhile!

A dramatized tale

Jade and I struck out on an adventure just thirty minutes ago.
Against rain and wind we fought hard on our bicycle.
Jade yelled in the background "hyahgaohanso" which in any language means "go faster mommy, faster!"
I peddled faster, the rain stung my eyes. Would we ever make it? How can we prevail?

Finally, our destination was made. Frantically we gathered our few belongings and ran into the store. "Quick Jade" I said "Grab it, it's the last one!" Jade responded "gabagabaga" which of course meant "I have it mommy". After laying down our golden coins to pay we once again got back on our bicycle and headed out into the open road

"We can make it!" I said "nothing can stop us!!". "Gagooo" said Jade (hurray!).

Once in our home we proudly laid down our prize. The very last Madden Football...09 for Daddy to play later this evening.

Here comes the bride

Jade and I will both be in my best friends wedding. And I don't mean the movie. My good friend from childhood is getting married the first weekend in September and Jade gets to be one of the flowergirls (I'm a bridesmaid) you have to go to my friends site to see the adorable flower girl dress she gets to wear!!!

Cute pictures from this weekend

This weekend Jade got to spend with friends since I had to work a home school conference and J was out of town for a work conference. So she played with fun, new toys, hung out with her little buddies and even got to go play at the zoo! Here are just a few of the cute pictures that were taken of her!
Don't you just love that little belly peaking out? :)
That little tongue sticking out is defiantly a "Bechtle" thing to do. Daddy does that whenever he's working on something:)
Busy with her toys

Our bike ride

Today Jade and I went to the gym for an hour, following the gym we went for a four mile bike ride to the Park. After the park we visited a friend for half an hour or so (who lived really close to the park) then we took our bike home. About half way home I felt some weight on my backpack (Oh, I forgot to draw in my pink back pack!) and turned around to see a little pink helmet hanging down and my daughters chubby little face peacefully sleeping. It was SO precious. Poor little Jadey had a big day out and about.

Our state Fair...er...City Fair:)

I am having this HUGE urge to run to the movie store and rent "Our State Fair" I love that old musical. *sigh* However, I've made the guys in my house watch so many girlie movies lately I'm not sure if they would tolerate another one...and a musical no-less:) Hee, hee.

Anyway, the reason I'm wanting to watch the movie though, is because today my friend and I and our little kiddos went to the local Fair today!! It was so much fun. Only a few miles from my house so at around 11:30 I got ready, packed Jade and our things in my bike and we road off to meet our friends at the Fair.

The fair was lots of fun, they had all sorts of animals (cows, horses, sheep, goats, rabbits, cats, dogs, hogs, baby hogs, lamas and zebra donkeys called...Zadonks (or something like that). They had a petting zoo for the little ones, and shows for all ages. We even got to take a ride around the fair in a horse drawn carriage. Oh, they had bees there as well, so we got free little honey sticks to suck on.

Aside from the animals and fun things to look at, their also was super yummy Fair food (corn dogs, anyone?) and I had the biggest laugh watching Jade eat her very first snow cone (yes it got everywhere). Her little friend liked it as well and they made a huge mess together.

They had all sorts of rides for kids of all ages. Jade liked the Carousel best. We got the only horse on the Carousel that bounced and hopped while making its turns, so it was a very interesting ride.

As the day was winding down (and the kiddos started to get cranky) We all decided to end our adventure with a walk through the house of mirrors. Jade and her friend LOVED the house of mirrors (of course) while I found it a bit depressing, so I chose to look down at my daughter the whole time instead of around at myself *grin*. At the very end of the tour we had to take turns sliding down a big curvy slide to make our exit. Normally I have no problems sliding down huge slides with Jade on my lap. however, this time I some how managed to slip very oddly on my bottom and as we zoomed down the slide the very tip of my knee got plastic burned by the side of the slide. Waaa!! it hurts so bad. It took off a dime size section of very thin skin and turned a vibrant red.
Mostly I just felt like a dork, but it did hurt pretty bad as well. After that I was ready to call it a day. We did manage to take a trip to the petting zoo and the ice-cream stand before getting back on our bike and heading home. Ah, so fun. Everyone should have a little country, city or state fair to go to in the summer.

Authors Hour

Mt Rainer

This weekend we all went to Mt. Rainer with our good friends. Thankfully, they own a working camera so I actually have two pictures of the trip. And yes, there was snow on the hiking paths and yes, it is almost August:)

JB is showing Jade how to make snowballs here:)

I broke the camera and now I am sad

I broke the camera and now I am sad,
I want to cry with my mom and my dad,

I dropped it hard, on the floor last week
And now I'm ashamed and can hardly speak

What will I do without pictures to post?
I can't even think or dare to hope.

I'm lost in this world without pictures to take
My life will now end, what a tragic fate.

My friends and my family I'm sorry to say
But I have no more photos to post today

With prayers and some money I hope we can fix
My fabulous camera that took great pics

But if we can't fix it, I guess what I'll do
Is write happy poems from me to you:)

Jade can say "Momma"!

Jade has started to say "Momma" finally! So I had to get it on tape last night to prove she says it. Oh, and she also says "coco" all the time, which is adorable. Anyway here is a cute little movie of her talking.

Thursday's Mall fun!

Thursday we went to the mall with friends for some playing in the kid area and riding stationary cars near the glow-in-the-dark miniature golf course.

Jade had fun sliding down this little slide.
And here she is with her friend on her first little car ride, she wasn't sure what to think of it. Her friend loved it!
When I put her in the race car and deposited my quarters...and it began to move, this is what Jade did. Hee, hee, so cute. Guess she isn't quite ready for pretend race cars.

Swim suits and Apples

Twice this week Jade and I have gone to the local H.S. to go swimming in the big pool. So far Jade has loved it both times! Yesterday we met some friends at the pool and while I didn't get cute pics of them in the water, here they are in their cute swim suits together!
And here they are all dressed with Jade asking for the camera.
Tuesday we were at the park for a few hours meeting MOPS and church friends for "Mom's at the Park" days. Everyone brings snacks and we try to stay around for lunch. My daughter, however, believes in eating while playing. So she ate her snacks the whole time. Here she is eating her huge apple. She loves to eat her apples whole, with the skin still on it. I think she feels like a big girl:)