bye bye baby

hello, dallin.

nine years old

summer girl is nine years old today. 

here's what sister afton has to say about the companion she's known all her life:

"summer is kind and pretty. she likes to share. i like to play legos with her and sometimes we play doobie and weeo (it's a game we made up). weeo is what doobie calls his sister, who is emi. and doobie has a pet frog named froggers. one of summer's favorite colors is seafoam green. summer is a good artist. summer's favorite food is pizza bites. i think her favorite book is harry potter. we like to talk about stuff at night. i love my sister."

summer is easy to love. she is happy and upbeat (even when she wakes up in the morning!), she is obedient and caring to others. she laughs when you're laughing and hugs you when you need it. as far as ringleaders go, this crazy crew of ours couldn't have asked for a better one.

happy birthday to our girl with the sunny name and the sunny smile and the sunny heart who just so happens to take her eggs sunny side up :) 

there's waldo

hi, friends! 

my name is waldo.

i'm just setting off on a worldwide hike.

 

you can come too.

all you have to do is come find me.

wow! what a search!

notes:

*dallin had the best day EVER trick or treating downtown. he was nonstop chattering to everyone we met and kept chirping, "look! it's star wars! hi star wars!" "look! it's a princess! hi princess!" "look it's batman! hi batman!" "look! it's a baby! hi baby!" (to all the real babies out there).

*we were amused by how often our gaggle was used as a landmark for fellow trick or treaters. phone call: "uh, yeah, we're outside the coffee shop. behind the waldos."

*we didn't anticipate how many times folks would say to us, "we found waldo!" or "waldo! we found you!" we obviously should have seen that coming but totally didn't. the kids were a bit surprised by all the attention. 

*my amazingly talented friend, melanie, crocheted all the waldo hats for me. she used to think her husband had the biggest head. until bryan.

*i found and ordered a vintage woof plush (waldo's dog) that was supposed to be the cherry on top for our costumes. it'll be here november 5th...

*i never want to see another can of red spray paint as long as i live.

*the wizard's name is whitebeard.

happy halloween!

jack o lantern

northwest pumpkin patch

we did, incidentally, pick *the* rainiest day in october to go pumpkin patching this year. which was also, like, the only day of the week the apple cider doughnuts were *not* being served (which cider doughnuts are pretty much the reason i go pumpkin patching).

so an all around parenting planning win, for sure.

we couldn't even go out and pluck our pumpkins straight from the field #likeaboss, and instead had to rummage through what had already been picked #likeregularpeople.

epic raining sigh.

BUT, turns out the wheeler kids don't care about stuff like good weather, apple cider doughnuts, and cutting pumpkins from vines. they had an awesome time anyway.

(actually, missing out on the doughnuts was a definite blow. nothing a little gourmet candy corn from the country store couldn't fix, but, still, a blow).

caleb goes camping

finally snuck along with his dad on a boy scout campout.

in the big leagues now.

part 4: ha long bay

the grand finale.

in a trip of many highlights, ha long bay, a cluster of intricate limestone islands off the coast of northern vietnam, was probably our favorite.

we booked a private junk boat tour for two days and one night through indochina junk. techically, we spent most of our time in bai tu long bay, which is a bit more off the beaten track than ha long bay proper.

an amazing view of the bay (but not our boat).

our boat.

our way cool and rather philosophical tour guide, an. 

stopping at a man made beach. getting ready to kayak!

emily relaxing.

bryan relaxing.

emily and bryan relaxing.

the chef onboard the boat (a really, really good chef) carved three giant food sculptures for us for dinner. this was just one; it's made from radishes. side note: we have never been fed so much food in our lives as we were fed on the boat. it took bryan two days to even feel hunger again (which, if you know bryan, is a tres big deal).

rowing out to visit the floating fishing village.

there are over 1,600 formations in ha long bay. 

this one is thought to resemble a man with a mustache.  

a part of the fishing village.

pearl farm in the background.

heading home.

tạm biệt, vietnam!

part 3: hội an and mỹ sơn

okay guys, i have it on good authority that vietnam will be a four part series, so just hold tight a little longer -- pictures of the adorable children will be back soon. 

for now: hội an and mỹ sơn.

the day we ventured away from the beach and spent touring around the area was, in fact, the hottest day of my life. at first we kind of thought we were just pacific northwesterners with no tolerance for heat, but when all the vietnamese people we ran into started complaining that it was really -- and unusually -- hot, we knew we weren't crazy.

hotness aside, we saw some way cool stuff.

first, mỹ sơn (pronounced more like "me son"). so the dominant external cultural influences in most of vietnam are chinese and buddhist. however, from the second to the nineteenth centuries, there were a collection of cham kingdoms that extended from south to central vietnam. in mỹ sơn, these people built a complex of temples dedicated to the worship, most prominently, of the hindu god shiva. eight groups of seventy-one standing monuments exist. it's really an amazing sight to behold in the middle of the jungle.

we were a little alarmed that we could get so close to the structures. 

then on to hoi an. bryan really wanted to get an amazing three piece suit made for him by the famous tailors in hoi an (and just like the guys did on top gear), but unfortunately, we didn't have enough time. 

this is the only covered bridge in the world with an attached budhist temple. back in it's heyday, hoi an was an important trading hub. this bridge separated the japanese section of town from the rest. first constructed in the 1590s. 

inside the bridge and budhist temple. (emily's face glistening with heat.)

choco pie was on every alter we saw dedicated to ancestor worship. 

we brought home boxes of the famous treat for our kids (who loved every bite).

the notes in the cages are the names of ancestors. 

you can pay to have them bask in the haze of the temple incense.

lunch: a white rose (bánh bao bánh vạc - bông hồng trắng) 

anh huy was our driver from the airport to the hotel our first night in da nang. when bryan discovered that he didn't speak english, he promptly hired him to drive us around my son and hoi an.

back on the peninsula, with parts of da nang in the background.