Grandma's visit wrap-up...and a parade!

Did you think I died?  We've been running in fifteen directions up here, enjoying the most spectacular summer weather ever (it's August now...and it was sunny and in the 70s all weekend!).  Since she turned one, Olivia's daycare is transitioning her to one nap per day, so it's really cut down on my free time during the weekends.  Anyway, enough with the excuses...I still have some good pictures to share from when Andy's parents visited last month! 

Andy's dad left after a way too short visit...but his mom stuck around and Olive really enjoyed having some extra grandma time! We did all sorts of fun things while she was here.  One day we went to Westchester Lagoon and watched Ripley swim.  Check out the stick Andy found to throw for him!

Ripley didn't care that it was enormous, he's a water dog through and through!

Good boy!

We played on the playground at Westchester, too.  Olive is really starting to enjoy going to playgrounds, so we've scoped out some really fun ones around Anchorage.  This one has some really fun toys that they never had when we were little!

Maybe a little safer if mom rides with you on the swing, kiddo...

Andy took her down the slide, and she wasn't a huge fan...it was kind of tall.

On July 1 (Olive's actual birthday!) we took a day trip to Seward to check out the SeaLife Center again.  As usual, it was a great trip!

I love the sea birds so much.

This one came right up on the railing.  It's always so tempting to reach out and touch them, but I feel like that's a good way to lose a finger.

Olive, a little more mobile than on our first visit, LOVED the salmon tanks (they have a series of tanks to take you through the life cycle of the salmon).  Since these tanks went right down to the ground, she had a great time standing (leaning) and saying hi to the fish.

And look!! WE caught Seward on a sunny day! It was so beautiful!

The pictures just can't do it justice.  The SeaLife Center is right on Resurrection Bay and the view is just breathtaking.  It's hard to believe this is just about two hours from Anchorage...it's totally different scenery!

Back inside, Olive had fun showing grandma the seal and sea lion viewing tanks.

They were really energetic when we went for our visit.  So fun to watch!

Back home in Anchorage, we had some other special visitors while Andy's mom was in town.  Look!

We were wondering why the tall grass was so flattened down behind the garden.  Looks like we found the culprits!

Obviously, they don't feel threatened by us being around.  Mama barely bothered to look at us while they spent DAYS in our yard.

I will never get tired of seeing this in my own backyard.

On the 4th, we headed downtown to watch the parade.  Unlike two years ago when we took my parents, the weather was pretty good.  There were so many people there!

Unfortunately we made the mistake of setting up by the end of the parade.  It takes a marching band a LONG time to walk several blocks.  I don't think the parade made it to us until 30 minutes after it started (literally across the park right in front of us...which was a huge tease) Next time we'll be near the start.

Waiting for the parade to come.  Ripley is bored out of his mind and Andy and his mom look a little punch drunk.  Olive has goldfish crackers, so she could care less about the parade.

Eventually the parade made its way to us, and we took Olive out of her stroller to watch.  She LOVED IT! I've never seen her focus her attention on something for so long.  I demand a weekly parade to entertain my toddler!

We saw Star, of course.  She's looking a little worn out with her summer coat.  Poor Star.

We saw an odd super-religious float about America, complete with a fist-shaking Patrick Henry.

Someone handed out flags and Olive thought it was just about the best thing ever.  Also, this picture is about as American as apple pie.  Love it.

She loved all the fun old trucks, cars, and horses.  It was so cool to watch the parade through her eyes!

This old truck had an organ on the back that played music.  It might be the single best thing Olive has ever seen in her life.

Not all of us loved the parade, though.  I wish I could say that I just happened to catch him doing this, but he was in this pose for a solid hour.  Poor Ripley.

So that was the visit...sorry it took me so long to post these pictures.  I've got some fun pics of a quick 26 hour trip I took to Portland and about a billion pictures of Olive just being cute to post, so look forward to those.  Hopefully I'll get them up before 2016.  Can you believe it's August already?!