spokane

last week we spent 5 nights in spokane. we stayed with tyler's mom - beba - as riley calls her and visited with lots of family & some friends. we completely enjoyed the 80 degree weather and had some park, beach and boat time. tyler worked during the week and played in hoopfest on saturday. a few pictures from our trip below...

playing on the beach at lake coeur d'alene

on tyler's uncles boat

riley & bjorn - cousins

breakfast at grandma & grandpa's house - this picture is proof that tyler's grandpa CAN in fact cook, as he made us breakfast which included jumbo prawns cooked in white wine

riley & bjorn in the garden

hoopfest

riley insisted on taking off her shirt - she was too hot i guess???

we had a nice trip - but it is good to be home. riley started a summer ballet class this week and will do swim lessons next week for 2 weeks. we are so happy summer is here and look forward to lots of sunny days.

29 weeks

today marks 29 weeks for me, which means i am in my last trimester already. it is really hard to believe that in just 10 or 11 weeks this little girl (completely un-named with few ideas at this point...) will make her entrance. i have started to get a few things ready - we re-arranged rileys room as well as ours to make room for a rocking chair, bassinet and changing table. i've organized all of riley's old clothes by size and really can't think of much else i need to get done. the second kid is so much easier - not many items to collect. we are gearing up for 2 kids in our small home, which at this point feels like it will work, but i guess we will have to wait and see until she, along with all that baby gear arrive.

for the last month i have been exhausted, so i was happy to find out that my blood work showed i am anemic during this pregnancy. the iron has been really affective and i'm also being more conscious about eating meat. otherwise, i feel great. just growing, as you can see below.

and here's a picture of my funny little gal today playing with her playdough. she, of course, decided to dress up with headband and all after quiet time today. awesome.

fathers day

we spent the day together as a family - making breakfast, taking a walk, working outside & in the yard and ended with going out for a yummy treat. happy father's day to an awesome papa to (soon-to-be) two daughters!

and of course we always think about tyler's dad on this day....we miss you dave.

friends

we have been busy around here this last week with two different sets of friends staying the night. first we had saben and annika for 1 night while their parents are traveling through spain. it was interesting having 3 kids sleep in our 900 sq foot house...but it worked out and everyone amazingly slept great. i had the kids for not quite 24 hours and i was exhausted after dressing, feeding, cleaning and shuffling 3 kids in and out of carseats. i was even crazy enough to let them talk me into walking to the store in the rain first thing in the morning because a request for cereal was put out there, followed by an "i want mommy and daddy"....i was suckered into feeling bad and therefore ditched my plan of making pancakes and negotiated with 3 children under the age of 5 in the cereal aisle. everyone was happy post cereal - especially me because it's not something we normally eat so felt like a yummy treat!

annika, riley & saben - getting ready to leave for saben's preschool

annika & riley reading to e/o at the library

our next visitors were all the way from michigan...our good friends kristen & cora. they were in WA for a visit to several friends so they spent two nights with us. we spent the couple days lounging around, playing outside & at the park and laughing at our funny toddlers. kristen and i are both due with girls within days of e/o in september. we love you girls and thank you again for visiting us!

cora gave riley her very own "baby sasha" - a doll of cora's riley has been in love with since the day she saw her. riley was thrilled to open the gift and has not put her down since.

lots of naked sun time

tyler has been gone all week in Idaho for work, so i am ready to have him home tomorrow night and enjoy a mellow weekend. we are starting to re-arrange our bedroom to make more space for a few pieces of baby furniture that will need a home in our room...rocking chair, changing table/dresser...i have become very creative with my limited space!

i am now 6 1/2 months pregnant and still feeling good. i've been a bit more tired lately and my belly is just getting bigger and bigger. i will take another picture and post it soon. speaking of pictures, i promise to post pictures from our maui trip soon. the amount of pictures i have to choose from is too overwhelming so i've just been ignoring it...happy wednesday!

henry turns two

last wednesday may 26 my sweet nephew henry turned two. the saturday before his birthday martha had a party for him at one of henry's favorite parks. besides for the usual park play, food and presents, they had a firefighter friend stop by the party with his fire truck and crew. the kids were excited, but none of them were brave enough to sit in the truck or wear the helmet. i think the adults were more interested in asking questions, especially my 90 year-old engineering grandpa!

riley and henry - the best of friends!

uncle drew & nana

the firemen said martha could be the may calendar girl - haha!

uncle drew & henry

the birthday boy

~~~ we love you henry ~~~

my 30th

last monday may 24th i turned 30. i always like to turn my birthday into a week-long celebration, so i started the saturday night before with an impromptu dinner with claire and erin in seattle. we dined at this lovely restaurant and finished with dessert across the street at the kingfish cafe and ate the most divine piece of chocolate cake! it was fun to get out for a nice dinner with some girlfriends and eat yummy food - a rare treat!

the next day my family had lunch on alki at cactus and wandered across the street afterwards for some beach, cupcake and present time.

riley decided to dress up in this adorable outfit on my bday - as well as wear her birthday crown. tyler took me to dinner that night, just the two of us. (don't mind the iphone pics...)

last thursday we had another celebration with some friends here in bellingham at the temple bar. we had appetizers, drinks and dessert from the mount bakery. it was a great party and again so nice to get out kid-free and talk to friends.

i'm thankful for all the great friends and family i have - it made me thoroughly enjoy all my celebrations. it feels good to be 30!