Girls Weekend!

After returning home from his trip to Idaho, Kyle repacked his bags and headed off to Orlando for a John Maxwell leadership training conference. This time, I didn't have to work at all so it was just me and the girls!

We had a great time together! We stayed up late and had nachos and watched a movie, we met up with their cousins and hiked/biked/ran the North Lake Whatcom Trail, we played at the Cornwall Splash Park and we even gave each other pedicures!

Playdate with our friend Cole

Haleigh and Shelby

Haleigh "doing Bible Study" with her baby and dog

Movie night!

My pedicure...Haleigh did my left foot and Annaliese did my right. Annaliese kept telling Haleigh that she was supposed to paint just the nail...not my whole toe! But they were both very proud of how it turned out!

At the splash park...Annaliese thought it was hilarious to stick her whole head in the water! And that's Mallory taking a drink:)

A week with Grandpa and Grandma

Last week Kyle went to Idaho to hang out with some guys and watch the solar eclipse. During the time frame he was gone, I was scheduled to work 5 12-hr days! Instead of trying to figure out babysitting during that time, we asked Grandpa and Grandma if they would come stay up here with us. And they said yes!

They flew in Thursday afternoon and Kyle was able to pick them up at the airport. We did an early birthday party for Lydia that evening (more on that later!) and then Kyle headed out Friday morning for Idaho. I worked Friday, Sunday, and Tuesday but decided to take Saturday off so that I could enjoy some time with them as well. Plus...that many days in a row can be a bit exhausting when you aren't used to three little girls! Let's be honest, it can be exhausting even when you are used to them!

Saturday we met up with the rest of my family for a hike around Squires Lake. I think everyone enjoyed the fresh air and all the kids did amazingly well! Afterwards, we headed over to Mom and Dad's house for pizza and a little more time together.

On Monday, the big event of the day was viewing the Solar Eclipse. Bellingham was supposed to be able to see 90% totality and we had a perfect view from our back porch! Grandpa and the girls made some viewing boxes the day before and I had also picked up a few cheap pairs of viewing glasses from the grocery store so we were all set! Haleigh didn't really care and spent the whole time dancing to YouTube videos! Annaliese wanted to stay inside because it was pretty warm out, but frequently came to check out how the sun was changing. It definitely got darker and significantly cooler for a short time! 

Thank you so much for coming! We loved every minute of having you here! 

Fun at the Fair

Last week was the Northwest Washington Fair in Lynden. We went Wednesday afternoon after Kyle got home from work. Grandma Tara came with us and we met up with Auntie Kim, Elias, Malachi and Mallory. We walked around looking at some of the animals and then grabbed some dinner. They had advertised horse jumping at the equestrian center and I was super excited to see it so we made sure to be in the right spot at the right time. Unfortunately they were running behind so we sat around eagerly waiting for half an hour...then it finally started and it was Dressage and not the jumping that I was expecting. I'm sure for those who understand dressage it would have been very interesting but it was a bit of a disappointment for us and we only stayed for the first person!

Not quite sure what's happening here...

From there we headed over to the rides. The kids each chose one ride to go one and they had so much fun! Their faces were amazing to watch and they all wanted to go on more than one ride!!

I had promised the girls that we could get dessert at the fair so we ended our evening with some ice cream! Kyle and I each had a Moowich (an ice cream sandwich made with chocolate chip cookies and vanilla ice cream) and the girls shared a huge bowl of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. It was way more ice cream than any of us needed...but we all finished it with no problem! 

Happy Anniversary to us!

Our anniversary is today, but Kyle is off celebrating with some of his groomsmen. He's out in Idaho viewing the solar eclipse with a group of friends...so we made sure to celebrate before he left!

We dropped the girls off with Grandpa and Grandma and headed out to hike the Pine and Cedar Lake trail. He had done it a few weeks prior the girls while I was working, but they hadn't made it all the way to the lake and he wanted to try it again. It was a pretty steep hike so I was super impressed that the girls had hiked as much as they did! It was perfect hiking weather, even a bit chilly with a few raindrops at times, but overall quite nice. We even ran a bit of it!

After our hike, we brought Shelby home and then went out to eat...I love sushi so when we go out to eat, we usually get sushi and today was no exception! After a leisurely late lunch/early dinner, we stopped at Fred Meyer (Kyle wanted to find a fidget spinner!) and then made our way back to my parents. It's always so nice to get to hang out with just the two of us. It's amazing how easy it is to have a conversation when you're not interrupted a million times!

Bayview State Park Family Camping Trip

We have tried to go camping each summer with my side of the family. Last year we went to Bayview State Park and it rained so hard we spent quite a bit of our time at the Children's Museum at the local mall, so we decided to give it another try this year. Everyone else had the same idea and the campground was packed but the weather was perfect and we had a great time! (This camping trip was actually the last weekend of July...it's just taken me awhile to get the pictures up on the blog! Thanks Ben for the majority of the pics!)

Things got off to a rough start when we realized that we had packed the wrong tent...we had our 5-man tent (that I didn't even know we owned!) instead of our 8-man tent. To call it a 5-man tent is a bit deceiving...there was no way that all 5 of us (plus Shelby!) were going to fit in it! Thankfully, Ben and and Kelsey have a huge tent, Thane and Kim had some extra space in their trailer and Mom and Dad didn't mind sleeping in the back of their Highlander. The end result was that Kyle, Lydia and Shelby slept in our tent while Annaliese, Haleigh and I slept in Kelsey's tent the first night and then Annaliese moved over to the trailer the second night. I'm pretty sure Mom and Dad probably had the best night of sleep out of us all!! 

We took turns cooking meals and when we weren't eating, we were busy hiking, biking, playing badminton or hanging out down by the water! Kyle and Annaliese biked more than 12 miles!

  

It is so fun to watch all of the kids play together and to listen in on their conversations! They love being with one another and it is so special that they have the opportunity to spend so much time together!