Kisses for Daddy

Rosemary has learned to give hugs and kisses. Daddy tries to get as many out of her as he can get!

Cousins, Cousins, Every where!

(Rosemary and Michael Rose Aka: Rosie-Posie & Rosie)

It could be said that my (Jen's) family collects people. When I say family this includes my extended family. And when I say EXTENDED we really mean it. I am not only in touch with all of my first cousins on my mom's side, but seconds, twice removed, adopted, via marriage, yaddy- yaddy and so it goes. What Rory has learned upon being inducted to the Brown/Johnson side of things is that the word relative, is pretty relative if you catch my meaning. I am sure several people at each reunion could straighten everyone out as to the actual relation we are all to each other... but in general.... we are all just cousins.... in some way. And there are several families that have no actual blood relation that have become so completely grafted into the history of the family the younger generations do not know the difference.

(Top: Cecily and Zach, Bottom: Dash and Rosie-Posie)
All this has been said to preface the following statement.... We went to a family reunion at Foster Lake in Oregon and we saw a bunch of cousins. This reunion meets yearly and was instituted when all my cousins started having kids... it was christened "The Baby Camp Out." Because it is a great time to get together and enjoy all the babies, and let the babies play with their cousins.

(Left: Kiona, Right: The girls with Zach and Alexandria)

It was so fun to go, there are so many little ones for the girls to play with. They had a great time connecting with cousins. Our only regret was not getting there sooner. The girls were such a mess after the car ride that all day Saturday they pretty much napped or cried. By Sunday they were ready to go visiting... but everyone else left. It was pretty sad! But alas we did get to enjoy some time with everyone!

Click on this link to see a collection of pictures of The Baby Camp Out -- Those pictured in this post are just a small sample of all the cute cousins that attended, I didn't even get pics of all the kids CJ's age)

Surprise Auntie G!

On our way through Portland on our trip to the 'Baby Camp Out' we stopped into PDX to see Rory's sister Genesis. She is the GM of Stanfords-- a nice restraunt in the airport.
For the record the airport is the perfect rest stop for families of young children. They have nice bathrooms, easy changing areas, places to eat, and an in door play area. Never in a million years would I have thought of this!
It was totally fun to surprise Genesis, and we enjoyed a nice dinner at her restaurant.
The girls had a great time playing with Auntie G, and we all enjoyed the rest.

On the way home we definitely SHOULD HAVE made this stop again. From now on WE WILL just go ahead and stop there. On the way down it took 9 hours to drive to the reunion, but for the most part we had happy campers. With out our nice stop in the middle it took 11 hours! The drive was not fun at all, and we will do a lot of things differently the next time we think about taking a road trip with such small yet active passengers!

4th of July

The 4th of July was a very special day for us. Jen's sister and brother in law (Cara and Phil) came up from California for a visit. They rolled in the door on the 4th of July... just in time for the fun!

Darren and Phil put on quite a fireworks display. Cecily especially enjoyed them, and was quite the cheer leader for her uncles.
Grandma Becky (Phil's mom) and Anthony (Phil's nephew), Aunt Susan and Uncle Michael were all part of the celebration as well. We were very sad that Rory's mom Lillian could not make it to the party-- it would have made the day complete.
However, we had a wonderful time getting together and enjoyed a fun filled day!

Rosemary the Mischievous

Cruising around!

After learning to crawl she has been very, very busy. She decided to eat a crayon as pictured here... apparently the blue ones taste pretty good.

She also quickly discovered "her" cupboard. She gladly empties out the Tupperware for me.

Here she is feeling pretty cool up on her "bike."

I love you !

Our Cecily!

Cecily loves to dress up. She also enjoys playing in her play house.
She loves to accessorize as you can see!

Cecily loves to drink smoothies! Here she is enjoying a nice tall glass with her cup from
Aunt Ruth.
Discovering her Princess sleeping bag!
Just another Cecily moment~ She is feeding her baby with one of her eggs.
She lined this up all on her own.
She loves to read her magazines just like mommy! Here she is sitting in a little desk that was mine (Jen's) that my Uncle LeRoy made for me.
These are Cecily's favorite socks. Her 'Go Seahawks socks!' She wanted to wear them even when the weather was in the 90's. A true Washingtonian.... Got to wear socks with her sandles.