big girl, a new table and the bowl.

I recently took Nelly to her 2 year check-up. I know that I am a month late, but I didn't want her getting a bunch of immunizations when her body was already fighting something. And July just seemed like one sickness after another. I'm sooo glad that is over. Penelope is getting so big. She is 32 1/2 lbs and 36 1/2 inches tall (both about 95th%) (tall enough to go on Matterhorn at Disneyland).

We also just bought a new kitchen table. The table we have had I have had since college. So it's about 7 years old. It's been on it's way out for a while but I really did love it so I procrastinated buying another one. In the move before last when Russ and I moved into our apartment in Torrance one of the chairs was accidently dropped and was a little wobbily. The rod iron under the table and on another one of the cahirs had lost a couple of screws and so had been not as steady. And then the other day I was sitting in one of the chairs and the seat totally gave way under me. So it was time. We had one good chair in the whole bunch. But 7 years for a $300 table not so bad. Our new table is all pretty and shinny and new. It is pub style, rectangle shapped with 6 high seats. It's solid wood with the wood grain showing on top and the bottom a distressed black. And underneath there is all this storage. Which is really nice! Below is a picture.



We've been having some last minute summer fun over in these parts. We recently went to the Hollywood Bowl as a family. It was all of our first time. We went and saw three bands play Jazz and Big Band Music with our homegroup. (Instead of mid-week services at our church they have small groups that meet in people's homes. Our homegroup took August off and so there were a couple of fun activities we did instead. One of them was going to the Hollywood Bowl.) We really had a blast. I was so excitted about having a chance to go to the Hollywood Bowl that I didn't pay attention that it started at 8 pm. Penelope's bedtime is 7:30. But for the most part she did pretty well. We eventually got her to go to sleep. Plus it wasn't so crowded so there was room to move around a little bit. I really do love our homegroup. They are just so understanding when it comes to little kiddos and everyone is one big family helping each other out. We decided to take the shuttle there that left from Torrance so we didn't have to worry about driving in the traffic. We did go on a Wednesday, so there was the normal LA commuting traffic. We were a little worried about getting on the shuttle because they gave priority to people who had purchased shuttle tickets and I had waited too late to purchase tickets. But it ended up okay, we got on the second shuttle and had a fine time.

Here are some pictures of us on the shuttle.





And at the bowl.





Russell also got an opportunity with our homegroup to do a father/ child camping trip in one of the families back yard. It was a lot of fun for Penelope and him and they had really good bonding time.