Bellingham

We spent this past weekend in Bellingham with some of our best friends. It was a family affair with 7 adults and 4 kids (ages 1, 2, 3 & 6). WOW, it was LOUD! We got there Friday afternoon and checked into our hotel, then headed to Chris & Amy's for a yummy home cooked meal and some wii playing. Saturday consisted of swimming in the hotel pool, lunch at a really neat resort, pedicures for the moms and just hanging out. On Sunday we made cinnamon french toast for brunch, played at Amy's school (she's a 2nd grade teacher), and went out to dinner before heading for home late, so the kids could sleep all the way home. It was a late, long drive, but worth it! Thanks so much Chris & Amy for your hospitality. As always, we had a wonderful time with you. Love you guys!

Blake & the girls in the bath
Crazy big teeter totter.
Getting ready to swim
Blake lookin' cute
Chillin' on the rocking chairs
Fondue!

The one with no pictures

I haven't had a whole lot to blog about the past week. It's just been "business as usual" around here. We worked a lot last week, started pre-school, and Blake has started cutting some new teeth. Brian had a really busy week at work, working an hour or two over every night and even getting a "call out" page in the middle of his sleep one day. Don't those criminals know he's sleeping?!?!?

We are all glad to have Nani, Popi, Nana & Grandpa back in town from their vacation to Lake Tahoe. It was a long week not having you all around :)

I had a little oral surgery on Friday. Nothing serious, just removed a Mucocele that I had had for about 3 weeks. It didn't bother me at all pain wise, it just looked ugly when I talked! I have a few stitches in my lip, and can't eat a whole lot besides soup & ice cream (poor me!). It should be all healed up in about a week.

I got to go shopping with a friend today at the outlet mall, and some other friends came over for an impromptu dinner. Overall, it was a relaxing and fun weekend!

Hopefully I will have something fun to post this week. Until then...

Preschool!

Today was Avery's first day of preschool. She totally shocked us by just saying, "bye" when it was time for us to leave her there. She has been known to throw tantrums when being left at daycare, or left at swimming lessons, but today, she did awesome! She was so excited to go and after making Brian carry her into the classroom, she got down and went to find her name tag and trace the letters. When we left she was sitting on the big rug playing with the farm & animals. She didn't even care that we left! Here is our big preschooler in all her glory!



Although she did great, her moods today were really up & down, so I think it was a lot to handle. Hopefully it will be just the right amount of "school" for her at this age. She goes Mondays and Wednesdays for 2 1/2 hours. All-in-all, it was a great day, but we'll see what Wednesday brings...

Vacation

This year we used our timeshare to stay at the Eagle Crest Resort in Redmond, OR. Our friends, the Bachelder's, went with us for the first 1/2 of the week and then it was just the 4 of us for 2 more nights. Avery & Kendall had so much fun swimming and playing together. Lake Billy Chinook is about 45 minutes from Eagle Crest, so we took our boat with us for some end of the season adventures. We got Avery to jump off the back of the boat into the water for the first time and Brian even took her wake boarding! She is a dare devil to say the least. She loved every minute of it. When Brian was getting his wake board ready to take her, Avery says to him, "Dad, are you sure you're up for this?" She has had some great one-liners lately.

Blake didn't love his life jacket, but (as long as he was eating) was fairly happy on the boat most of the time. We also took our bikes and bike trailer to cruise the trails at our resort, and even went into Sun River for a day. The pools at the resort were great too, although, I don't think I got many pictures of that. Click here to see our entire album.

Blake & Lauren doing what they do best... eating cheerios!
Yogurt mouth!
Avery up on the wake board!



Avery & Kendall rockin' the side ponies!

Blake Turns One!

I can't believe our little baby is one year old already. Where did this year go? Blake's 1st birthday was last Sunday. We had a big BBQ for him at our house and I think he had a lot of fun. Thank you to everyone that made it over in the middle of your Labor Day weekend.

Blake now weighs 22 lbs. and is 31 inches long. That's a HUGE change from the little 8 lb., 19 inch baby that we brought home from the hospital 1 year ago!

He is beginning to use words more & more every day. His vocabulary now consists of about 10 "words". He says things that sound like: Mama, Dada, banana, "Avery", diaper, no, Popi, Nani/Nana, and ball. He knows what a duck, cat & cow say, but doesn't tell us consistantly. He is different than Avery in that he would much rather climb, destroy and conqure all physical activities, than learn language and read books. He also has never even looked at the TV. Even when we try to get him to watch a Baby Einstein movie, he could care less. I guess that's a good thing though.

Here are some photos from his big day.

The sports themed cupcakes that I made.
Opening presents
Yummy Cake!

And here is the link to his 12th month photoshow!

Avery goes fishing

Brian's friend Brent & daughter Grace took Brian & Avery fishing last Friday up to Lake Merwin. Avery & Grace thought it was pretty boring, until they caught a little land-locked salmon. All they wanted to do before that, was going swimming & tubing! They had a blast, and all Avery could say when they got home was, "cut it open Daddy, cut it open."

Our little fishy was full of eggs, but he tasted pretty good.