An action packed weekend

We had 3 days of great weather over the holiday weekend and we crammed as much activity in as possible. We went to the splash pad, went for a hike, went swimming at the local pool and BBQ'd a bunch, including celebrating the 4th out at Zac & Kristen's with a BBQ. Finally starting to feel like summer around here!

Abby shares a birthday with the USA!

How did Ella get so lucky to have a friend like Abby?

Happy Birthday, America!

Tis the Season

The season for picking strawberries has arrived. It's late this year considering all the wet, cool weather we've had. We headed to Knapp's Farm up in Greenbluff on Friday afternoon and had fun picking - about 6-7 pounds! Luke got to ride in the backpack, and Ella actually did a great job of finding really good berries and carefully picking them too! So fun... I see a tradition coming on.

Knapp's Farmhouse

ready to head out to the fields

Ella with our flag - to mark where we stop picking

the boys obliging me a quick shot

you've got to try one of these! :)

our beautiful berries

Time for a mobility update

I talked for quite a while about how Luke was content just hanging out in one place and didn't seem interested in getting around. Well it's been a while since I've posted an update on that subject, and lets just say things have changed. Over the last few months he's gone from doing a military crawl/scoot to crawling and pulling himself up on everything! Our quiet, still baby is now into everything!

FROM THIS.....

TO THIS.....

Garden Tour - Free of Charge

I cannot wait!

So we are expecting..... and by that I mean the town of Spokane is expecting a Trader Joe's to arrive in the fall. Up here on the South Hill too. When I had one at my doorstep in Portland, I didn't go often enough. Now there will actually be one here in Spokane. We've known for quite a while about the store coming, but man I can't believe how excited I am about this store opening! Hurry! Hurry!

Green Thumbs

We've talked about it for the last couple of years, but this year we made it happen. We have a garden box in our backyard (assembled by Seth himself!) and this past weekend we filled it and planted. It's a raised bed as you can see below, smaller than we'd originally thought about, but since this is our first we decided not to get in over our heads. Seth's Mom, Margaret, got me an AeroGarden for Christmas this past year and it's amazing! We grew herbs in it for a few months and used those in the kitchen all the time. We decided to get the AeroGarden Garden Starter Set and see what we could get going for a garden this year. Some of the seedlings are a little on the small side (carrots, beets), but others are huge and look like they're ready to produce something (green beans)! We will see, and I will do my best to let you know if we have any success. Fingers crossed!

the dirt going in

taking a break for a picture before the next step begins

I didn't realize how hard it would be to see here, but Seth rigged some irrigation for our little garden box

family shot for the history books.... all the greenery on the corner is made up of the seedlings started in the AeroGarden

plants planted....now we wait

Denver

Over Memorial weekend we made a trip to Denver to visit the McKinstry side of the family and meet baby Silas for the first time. It was such a good time! We were able to see Oliver's place in Denver for the first time, where there also happened to be a street festival going on.... such a nice area (near Washington Park...sorry Ollie, I don't remember exactly what the name is for your part of town). We were also able to meet up with the Pedersons - Courtney, Jon, Harper and Lincoln. It's been a while since we've all seen each other, and we've each expanded our families by 1 since then, so it was great to catch up!

For most of our stay in CO we were Maia & Steve's place in Loveland, CO. It's so beautiful - seems like there's a gorgeous mountain backdrop everywhere you turn. We traveled to Boulder for a couple nights too so we could run the Bolder Boulder 10K. Yes, you read that correctly. Seth and I actually signed up for a run, and we didn't do too badly. Ollie, Maia, Steve, Seth and I all ran while Tim and Margaret watched the kids for us - they had it worse than we did for sure!

Luke and Ella seemed to be dealing with some kind of a bug on and off while we were away from home, so Luke especially wasn't always his normal self. Why oh why does that always happen when we travel?

Thanks to Maia, Steve & Silas, for all your hospitality. You went above and beyond to make us feel at home (actually a lot more comfortable and well fed than at home), and we appreciate it so much! Thanks to Ollie for showing us your neck of the woods and helping entertain the kids as always (napping with Luke :) ) And of course, thanks to Tim and Margaret for everything, especially acting as our taxi service, babysitting, gifts, food, drinks, etc, etc! It was so great to be all together for a few days. Hoping to see everyone again soon!

playtime with Grandpa

Ollie, Ella and I

Court and I

Luke & Lincoln

Harper & Ella


Bolder Boulder

Maia & Silas

Grandma with the kids

swimming at the hotel in Boulder

first shot of the 3 cousins

Seth with his nephew

Steve working his magic on the grill on our last night in CO