Rejoice!

Francesca finally took our advice and tried her bike bike instead of her skoot bike and took off like a champ. She didn't want to ride it, until her sister said, "Okay - I'LL ride it!"

She LOVES it. I can't believe how fast she can ride. Here she is out on the beautiful country road in front of Granny's, vineyards in the background, riding like the wind. She had to have some bike gloves from the Palisade bike shop and that turned out to be a wise purchase because she doesn't hurt her hands when she crashes.



At last - we ripped out the kitchen carpet! I say we, but Andrew did the ripping, of the carpet, the prying of the two layers of linoleum and wood and the scraping of the last layer of linoleum the wood floor. What began as a floor remodel has evolved into a full-scale remodel, complete with new and additional lighting, doors, sink, faucet, OVEN (gas!), microwave hood, paint, scraped ceilings, lalala! The Sheetrock guys scraped and re-textured the ceilings throughout the house in two days. It looks so clean and beautiful. This is something that would've taken us WEEKS! I'm so excited!



Meanwhile, we've been staying up at Granny Yaya's house. We're sleeping under the stars in our pop-up camper and after two weeks, it hasn't lost the fun for the girls. Our old bedtime routine of bubbly bubble bath, followed by jammies, bedtime snack, teeth brushing, candle walk, story and lights out, has been replaced by: bath outside on the lawn in the swimming pool, jammies, toothbrushin', 4-wheeler ride with Granny, and a banana in bed in the pop-up camper for bedtime snack. Grandpa bought a backseat for the 4-wheeler that's like a couch seat. Its like a throne, perfectly built for two little girls - no less safe than a car seat. We're trying to get back some semblance of sanity and routine, but its challenging because Granny's house is like being on vacation. Hopefully we'll be in our house by Labor Day weekend. I'm not too jazzed about the idea of having a baby in our pop-up camper . . .