an all-American weekend.

 I've been saying this for a while but I think we should just make 4th of July the 1st Friday of July every year. Besides technically it's called Independence Day so it shouldn't matter if the day falls on the 4th or not.  It's so nice to have it on a Friday because you automatically get a 3 day weekend and can stay up late to watch fireworks!  Anyways…enough about that.

We headed up to the beach house for the weekend.  It's the perfect getaway to watch fireworks because you can sit on the deck and look out over the water to see a great show…and it's free! 

 We spent the weekend playing at the beach, going to the park, playing tag in the yard and going for lots of walks around the neighborhood.  Lucy got to spend some quality time with Grandpa Tom too.  He's been teaching her a few games on his IPad which she loves!

 Carter took a turn with the camera and I was actually really impressed with his skills.  He took both of these all by himself!

 We spent a whopping $4 on fireworks this year for the kids. 2 boxes of pop-its and a bag of those pull the string noisemakers.  The kids thought they were in fireworks heaven!

 We ended the night with some homemade apple pie (Carter's choice…until he realized he didn't like the crust) before staying up late to watch fireworks.  The kids finally went to sleep around 10:30 and of course were up bright at early at 6am….lucky me.

 The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing and finishing a few puzzles.  I was so proud of my 100 piece Toy Story puzzle I completed when the kids gave up after 2 minutes.  I never just sit and finish things like this so it was a big deal…until Matt made fun of me for making it a big deal.  Whatever, I was excited!

 And…the America's cutest cheerleader!  Happy 4th of July!!!

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#32.

 I just celebrated my 32nd birthday about 2 weeks ago.  32?!?  What? 

To celebrate Matt and I went on a weekend getaway, without the kids for a little adventure and alone time. It was timed perfectly with a wedding for one of my old college roommates. 

We started the weekend at my in-laws who graciously watched Lucy for us for 3 days while my parents took Carter to their house.  The kids loved having one-on-one time with their grandparents and it made it a bit less hectic to only watch one child.

I got to open my presents before we started the road trip!

 First stop was in Cashmere at Anjou Bakery for a delicious breakfast.  Homemade cinnamon and vanilla rolls.

 Then we were off to Leavenworth to go white water rafting!  I went rafting about 10 years ago in college but Matt had never been. We knew we wanted to do something fun to celebrate the day and after finding an amazing Groupon Deal we were sold!  Matt's mom was terrified we might die but I'm here writing this blog 2 weeks later, so needless to say we were fine.  :)
It was such a fun trip.  4 hours in the boat, lots of rapids and lots of cold water!  The guide knew it was my birthday so there were a couple times he steered the boat in my direction to get hit. On one of the last rapids we got a little too ambitious and stopped paddling too early which ended up causing our boat to tip over!  Matt and another girl fell out which made for a dramatic rescue but when it was all over we just laughed and moved on.  I would recommend rafting to anyone!  So.much.fun.

 In our boat was a guy who is a professional skydive instructor.  His 9-5 job is to jump out of planes!  He actually works not too far from our house and gave us his card so I'm thinking I might just have to go skydiving for my next birthday!!
After rafting we quickly changed and headed over to a local brewery for dinner.

 After dinner we got back on the road and headed to Yakima for the rest of the weekend (that's where the wedding was). On our way there we passed by the wind turbines in Ellensburg. I've never been so close to them before and didn't realize how huge they really are!  This picture really doesn't do it justice, they were crazy big!

 Since it was still my birthday and I hadn't had any birthday dessert yet (that cinnamon roll was just breakfast, right?) we ventured out for a casual Target trip to buy random things we didn't need and then DQ Blizzards. I'm never one to pass up ice cream but this was so big I couldn't even finish it.

 The next morning we slept in, found some breakfast and then I somehow convinced Matt we should get pedicures. He nervously agreed and luckily we found a place with a guy who spoke English and TV's that had the World Cup on.  The perfect first experience for him!

 Later that afternoon we drove out to the vineyards for some wine tasting.  Yakima has some beautiful wineries all within a few miles of each other. We went to 3 wineries, spoke with some of the wine makers and brought a delicious bottle home with us.

 Later that night it was time for Meagan's wedding!  Meagan and I lived together for 3 years in college and she is such a fun, smart, beautiful woman.  I couldn't be happier for her to have found her husband.  Such a great couple and loved spending the evening with my 2 best friends. Heather and Katy and I don't see each other as often as I'd like so having a few hours to catch up was just was I needed!  Love you girls!

 Meagan was stunning in her dress!

We ended the weekend with a trip to the local Farmer's Market the next day, delicious coffee and a quick stop at the outlets on the way home before meeting back up with the kids.  Probably one of the best birthdays I've had in many, many years! 

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strawberry picking!

It was a random Sunday in early June. We usually spend the morning rushing to get out the door for church but somehow this particular morning we were already dressed and ready to go at 7:30am, with an hour to spare! So, instead of going to church as a family and enjoying a sunny, lazy Sunday with no plans we decided to ditch that idea, change our clothes and drive up to Bellingham for a day of strawberry picking!

First we stopped off at Boulevard Park.  This is probably our absolute favorite place in Bellingham, maybe the whole world. It is one of the first parks both of us ever went to when we started at Western, spent countless hours "studying" with friends during Summer quarters, went on hundreds of walks over the years on the waterfront and even got engaged down at the dock.  Lots of amazing memories have been made at this park.  

 After letting the kids run around for a bit we drove up to Boxx Berry Farm to get picking! There are some really nice farms closer to our house but we really drive up for the delicious strawberry shortcake you can get in their farm store and the kids love the super old playground that is next to the fields. Besides, who needs a lazy Sunday when you can make it long and busy!?
Last year I took the kids by myself and it turned into one of the messiest trips we've ever had. I was happy to have Matt along this time to help pick more berries and be on the clean up crew once we were done.

 The kids got right to work picking eating the berries in the field.

In the end we picked about 27 pounds!

We spent the rest of the afternoon eating, playing and running into some old friends.  Such a fun day and now fresh berries in our freezer for the whole year!!

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Blue Sharks

Carter just finished up his first soccer season.  He was on the Blue Sharks and spent 6 weeks playing against other 4 year olds in crazy, hilarious, chaotic games. His coach did such a good job herding the kids around and keeping them entertained and somewhat focused during practices. After having a very rough start the first game (like refusing to go in…ever, ever, ever and having quite the meltdown) I was so incredibly proud of how much Carter improved.  He not only began listening to his coach, but he played well, ran fast and learned some basics of the game!  It was such a fun season and we can't wait to do it again next year. Plus we made a few new friends and now have play dates planned for the summer!

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the case of the missing spoon.

We have an amazing babysitter who gets to watch the kids when I work a few days a week. I really lucked out.  She is so patient, kind, loving and fun and the kids just adore going to her house to play with her kids.  They have turned more into family and we couldn't be more blessed.

One thing I love about Jessica (or Miss Jessica as the kids call her) is how she sends me little pictures or texts throughout the day to keep me in the loop.  I always know a text is a funny or good thing, but a phone call could be more serious.  So, naturally, I got a little concerned when I saw her calling my phone in the middle of a home visit last week at work.  Luckily I was finishing up my time with a new mom and checked my voicemail about 10 minutes later. She (calmly) said, "Don't worry, this isn't an emergency but I need you to call me back.  Right away. Like, right when you get this."  Hmmm…not an emergency, huh?

What happened was she gave Lucy a plastic (like picnic style plastic) spoon to use for her lunch that day since her normal spoons were dirty and they had been gone all weekend without time to do many dishes.  Not a huge deal.  Lucy is a calm, slow eater and I would never think twice about giving her a non-kid spoon. Welp, instead of just eating her lunch she decided to bite the spoon, break it and then tell everyone she swallowed the sharp, jagged part! When Jessica and the other kids couldn't find the missing piece anywhere, Lucy insisted she swallowed it.

So, after a quick phone call to cancel the rest of my appointments I drove to pick her up and headed to urgent care for an x-ray. And, quietly prayed she wouldn't need emergency stomach surgery after it tore up her insides (let's be honest, I think Jessica was praying harder than I was!)

This was the spoon.

 And this was my happy girl who was excited to have some alone time with me in the middle of the day while all the rest of the kids napped.

 I wasn't feeling too worried since she was so happy but knew we needed to double check her little tummy and intestines were all clear.

 After laying on the X-ray table with a stuffed monkey, making silly faces with the pediatrician and convincing the X-ray tech she needed not 1, but 3 princess stickers we waited about 10 minutes for an answer.

 And….she was all clear!  Who knows where the heck that missing spoon went but thank the Lord she didn't swallow it! So, naturally, she earned herself a big fat cookie.

Just another story I will want to remember 10 years from now!

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