When Daycare’s Away...

Our wonder-woman daycare provider, Jamie, powered through 9 months of Eila-care all whilst creating a new tiny-human in her belly.  At the end of May, that beautiful baby girl was issued an eviction notice from the womb, and Jamie started a much deserved maternity leave break from her tiny charges.  

We are so lucky to have amazing support systems all around us to help with Eila-care while the scholar came to a conclusion.  

The wise Wilhoits ventured South for a few days at the start of Jamie’s due-date week so we weren’t waiting for the emergency “come and get her ‘cause baby’s coming” phone call from daycare.  

Eila shows Opa her musical skills.

Opa and his littlest ladies!

She even learned a new trick with Oma and Opa!

The moment her own school year ended, NomiAnn hopped on a plane from Omaha to come to our rescue for the final five weeks of Puyallup’s year.  It takes a special woman to get off of a pre-dawn flight, drive Adam to work, and then take Eila and the car home all on her own, just to get back in the car and drive up to see her daughter’s students sing at choir contest all on the first day she’s in town!  We tried to reward her with a Memorial Day trip to the beautiful town of Westport. 

Road trips are really just Andrus-women excuses for well-deserved car naps. 

Such beautiful weather to start the summer season!

Thankfully, the next day brought out the sun and the smiles for beach time fun. 

Back on the home front, Eila and NomiAnn shared many adventures together while mom and dad were off at work.  Sometimes they even let us tag along!

Mmmm - corn dogs.  Nothing but the finest culinary delicacies for our kiddo. 

Adam has had a summer-long goal to get Eila a “scoot” balance bike.  I think this one might be a bit too big for her little legs.  

NomiAnn was sure to bring Eila to Aylen as often as she could, either to help out with class parties or just show off the cuteness that is my mini-me.

As if keeping our little-one out of trouble, doing our laundry, and finishing a myriad of projects around our home, mom often fixed delicious dinners while we were at work.  On beautiful days, all food tastes better al fresco. 

NomiAnn made valiant efforts to get Eila interested in our local splash pad - but her aversion to water in her face makes  spray toys less than ideal.  We’ll keep trying!

One of my favorite parts of having NomiAnn around is being a kid again and asking my mommy to do things like braid and curl my hair.  And then I remember she mostly did my hair in the 80s...:)

Curly Sue is concert...ready?

NomiAnn is always happiest when she is near the water - whether that be the Puget Sound or simply a pool.  Since we’re in such close proximity to her favorite things, we made sure to include a few water-loving field trips.

It’s not a trip to the NW without a ferry ride!  We took this one to Vashon Island.

This little ballerina is ready for her YMCA swim time.  NomiAnn made huge strides with Eila in her quest to become more comfortable in the swimming pool. 

Tacoma’s Owen’s Beach is always a local favorite.  The pod of seals was a particularly cool addition to the adventure.  

Once school was FINALLY out, NomiAnn, Eila, and I finally braved our way to downtown Seattle for Eila’s first visit to Pike’s Market and all of our first visit to the Seattle Great Wheel.  Taking great advantage of a gorgeous day and the extremely generous VIP Great Wheel package given to us by the Stimsons for Christmas, we all really enjoyed our experience.

Eila wasn’s sure whether she should look up or down.

Ever her daddy’s girl, she was most interested in whichever buttons she could push.

Is this safe?

 No worries, baby girl!  We got you!  If you get nervous, just pet the pig!

Pikes Pig!