Annual Traditions

The last couple weekends have been filled with some of our favorite summertime family traditions. The first being our annual Mickelson Family Reunion, which has successfully been occuring for 11 years now. This year we spent the weekend in a beach house in Lincoln City and had great fun. Tori had lots of fun playing with her 'cousins' Sam and Manuel, as well as running on the beach, eating a ton of food that Papa Jerry fixed, soaking in the hot tub, and running around on the deck. She also spent a good deal of time coloring with her Great Grandma Lois. Here's a slide show of parts of our fun weekend.

The second tradition that occured was the annual Mattos/Ratliff (aka Mat/Rat) trip to Seattle. We have been going for 4 years now, heading up north, staying with Mandy's dad and getting spoiled, attending a Mariners game, and generally having a fantastic weekend with our best friends. This is the girls' 3rd game, and they still do suprisingly well sitting through the whole game with little fussing. Tori was really interested during the first few innings, cheering on the Mariners, especially Ichiro (which sometimes comes out as Go Cheerio!), and getting into the applause when a play was made. Then she would turn to me and excitedly give me the play...Mariners hit the ball!

Phantom, Family, and Friends

It seems the Ratliff family has been a little busy over the last couple of weeks. For all our excitement and activity, I unfortunately don't have many pictures to share. But here's a recap of our end of summer fun.

Labor Day Weekend started our recent adventures. We were blessed by some dear friends who afforded us the opportunity to see The Phantom of the Opera while it was playing at Keller Auditorium. We purchased tickets to the Friday night show; Friday afternoon (after my first pre-natal appointment, and the chance to see the new baby) I drove Tori down to stay with Grammy and Grandpa for the weekend. She couldn't get out of the car fast enough, or run to Grandpa's waiting arms fast enough once we arrived. She is most definitely a Grandpa's girl and was thrilled to be able to spend time with them. After driving back home, I picked Ej up from work and we got ready to head downtown.

We had about an hour and half to spare before the performance started so we found a 'French Bistro' (Carafe -- not overly impressed) across the street to eat dinner at and then we walked around the area before heading into the Auditorium. It was an amazing performance, with great special effects and fabulous actors. The whole evening was such a treat for us; we had a great time.

Saturday night we headed back down to my folks place to spend the remainder of the weekend. Aunt Roxie and Unky Don were there. We had a lot of fun.

The girls spent the days canning peaches

Tori played (with toys, and with the camera), and had fun keeping track of Grandpa and Unky Don

And the boys built a new lawn game -- Ladder Golf -- for us all to enjoy

Over the next couple weeks we also got to watch the nephew, Andy, play 2 baseball games, which was a lot of fun. Tori enjoyed that as well. She was a real cheerleader on the sidelines; picking up phrases from the other fans (good hit, go Andy, nice catch); mimicking the catchers stance until the pitch was thrown and then standing up and clapping; running as fast as she could to greet Andy when he wasn't out on the field.

We also spent one glorious afternoon at the beach, enjoying the beautiful weather. At 90+ degrees in the valley we decided it was a perfect day to spend in Seaside. Tori, of course, had a great time playing and running. She thought the sand in her toes was great fun, and LOVED running in the waves again. I think she made it about waist deep this time, and spent a good hour running between Daddy, who was standing further out in the water, and Mommy as I stood in the edge of the waves.

A Message from Tori

In case you need a toddler translation for that, Tori is saying....I be big sister, I'm a cutie pie, and mama baby tummy.

I'm not quite sure where the cutie pie phrase and motions have come from, but more importantly, yes Tori is going to be a big sister. I am pregnant! About 12 weeks along (due March 20) and doing great. As much as she can understand, Tori seems to like the idea of being a big sister, and thinks she will have a baby brother. She also thinks that my visits to the doctor include a check of my belly button :)

A Blustery Day...

Perfect for going to the beach. Tori has been asking to go to the beach for a few days now, so we decided to drive to Tillamook this morning, trying to beat the rain. We drove into Barview Jetty, and got out of the car amid a light sprinkling of rain and headed to the beach. Tori was thrilled and had fun chasing Daddy in the sand.

She was fascinated by the waves coming in, and had great fun playing in the water with Daddy. She started out chasing the water as the tide went out,

then got a little more daring and walked through the small waves.

Pretty soon she and Daddy were knee deep in the water having a blast.

Unfortunately it was a pretty short play-time on the beach since the rain and wind picked up. I believe we have a beach-bum in the making.

This One's for Daddy

Two years gone by:

Snug as a Bug...

Yesterday during nap time I peeked in Tori's room to check on her. Much to my surprise, this is what I saw:

It's not uncommon for Tori to get out of bed and read her books for a while before she goes to sleep. Usually I can hear the pages rustling as she's flipping through looking at pictures. I didn't hear anything as I opened the door, and was starting to get a little alarmed. Then I looked in her chair:

This has never happened before. I'm assuming she just got too tired to climb out of her chair. I'm amazed that she can still fold her body in half like this. This wouldn't appear to be very comfortable to me, however, she was out like a light and barely wiggled when I moved her back into bed.

Busy Days

We've had quite a full couple of weeks lately. Last week Tori and I spent several days with my folks (aka grammy and pah) while Ej was working out of town. We spent a fair amount of time outside, which Tori loved. She helped weed the flower gardens and picked a few flowers, ran ragged through the grass, helped water the flowers and in the process watered herself, and had a fabulous time helping pick fresh green beans and potatoes. I think for every bean she picked and added to the bucket, she put at least one in her mouth. The potatoes weren't quite as interesting as the beans, but the dirt and worms sure were fun to play with. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of our fun outside, but we also spent a lot of time reading books, which remains a favorite pass-time. She didn't let Grandpa too far out of her site and when she couldn't see him she would call out for him and wait for a response. She even had to track him down when he went to work in the shop. We made several trips into the shop to watch, and help, Grandpa sand some wood. She was a little hesitant of the electric sander at first, but finally got brave and placed her hand on the top so she could 'help'. We've also been busy getting Tori's Grandma Leta (Ej's mom, aka momma rat) moved into town and settled. She arrived in the U-HAUL and was all unloaded by mid-afternoon Saturday. Then came the fun of unpacking boxes. Tori, helper that she is, joined right in. She helped unload the big utensils, and discovered that empty cupboards make fun toys too.

We've spent quite a bit of time in Grandma Leta's new house (apartment, but Tori calls it house) this week which Tori loves. Almost every time we leave the house she asks to go to see Grandma Leta. The apartment is next to the MAX line and Tori is fascinated with the trains. It doesn't matter where she is in the apartment; when the trains go by she's on a mad dash to the living room window to watch, and wave, at the choo-choos. Welcome home Momma Rat - here's to many more fun afternoons and evenings watching the trains :)