New Niece!

Okay, so she's not technically my niece, but my sister Heather's family got a German Shepherd puppy a month or so ago, and back in July Caed and I went for a visit. They've named her Brooklyn from where they all came from before moving to Bucks County, PA. This picture doesn't do her justice for how cute she is! We had a great time with her- we also decided to introduce Khaki to her as well for the first time for some completely overwhelming times! It all went well and we can't wait for another visit. Oh, and there are some pictures of the kids too. :)



Went went to this really cool wooden playground, turns out I didn't get a good shot of the whole thing- but we had a great time. Heather and I even played hide and seek with the kids and I made Heather crawl through some really small spots like we were 10 again! They had a really cool sand box area that was wet and gross- perfect for the kids to have a great time!




Olivia playing around with me:



Chantz giving mom a kiss:



Caed crawling through the small spaces and having a great time!





Chantz, Olivia and Caed. (Aden, the oldest was in California, so we don't have a picture with him!)



The cousins had a great time together.



Chantz loves to help and play with Caed:



Here is Chantz, just shy of 8 years! I remember the day he was born and waiting in the hospital waiting room for someone to come out and tell us we could see him. It was a VERY special day. Chantz was such a beautiful baby. Kik and I LOVED being there for the special arrival!

Early Friends

A few weeks ago I got together with some friends. Michelle and her two kids- Miles (who was getting over being sick) and Lucy and Stacey and her daughter Millie. We had a great time and the kids are so much fun to watch together. These are some of the shots I took trying to document these times...

I read in an article that one woman wrote that the families in her group were like an extension of her family since her family was scattered- I liked that thought- my family isn't here in DC with us, and these families are our extended families. We are so blessed with such wonderful families that we get to share our lives with.

Fourth of July

I have been meaning to post these for awhile now. I apparently didn't take many pictures from our trip to Myrtle Beach over the 4th of July, but we weren't there very long- this was Caed's first introduction to my dad's mom- Grandma Mary. He did really well this trip, and although he didn't enjoy the fireworks with us (Jon took him to bed) he loved being with family as always. Cousins and Aunts and Uncles and Grandma's and Nana's were all loving on him. We had a GREAT time. And he loves the beach, and unfortunately unlike his cousin Chantz, he doesn't mind the sand (sigh). We were reminded of a good "sandy baby" tip from Auntie Kik- remember the baby powder- it makes the sand come right off when you're ready to put baby in the car!



Auntie Kik and Ken





Family enjoying the beach:



Auntie Kik and Heather bringing Caed back from the water:



The fireworks and family gathering:

Family Photos

Here's the group of us campers!



The Pennington family: (Jeremy, Melanie, Elliot and 4 month old Auden)



Ginger again! (I always thought to call her Daisy first for some reason)




Chad and Nicole's kids, Kelly and Tyler:



The Anderson's and Peterson's (in front of the Anderson's cabin):




Dan, HL and us, in front of our cabin:



Baby Auden- the youngest of the group- Jeremy and Melanie travelled from Chicago to be there for the weekend before heading off to Denver:

More from the hike

Here are some more photos that I took on the hike- starting with a nice family photo:



The Anderson family- Nicole and daughter Kelly (Riley in the backpack) and husband Chad and son Tyler in the background. They took an adventurous route part of the way that was fun for the kids.



Proof that Jon hauled Caed up that "mountain":



Oh, asleep! Caed turned into such the flexible baby!



One of the views:

The forest was so different then East Coast ones! Can you tell that there is moss hanging from the trees?

Camping

This should be more appropriately titled "Kids in backpacks". When we were camping we all took a hike and the young ones fell asleep. The hike ended abruptly when there were a couple of bee stings in the group! We saw a small waterfall and it was nice to do something like that as a group. It was a really popular hike and as the day went on there were lots of people on the trail!

Jonathan and sleeping Caed:




Nicole and sleeping daughter Riley, the youngest kid of their three:



Jeremy and son Elliot (can you see the amazing curls?) the older of their two kids:



Jeremy's sister Jessica and her boxer Ginger (not Daisy!!):



Another of Dan and Heidi Lyn just for the fun of it:

Visiting Friends in Portland

After we landed in Seattle on Wednesday we had plans to take off and drive down to Portland to visit our friends. But once we landed and got to Heidi-Lyn and Dan's home we had second thoughts. So we travelled down to Portland to Brian and Christina's home on Thursday. It turned out to be a good call since Wednesday was a tough travel day!

Brian and Christina have a daughter Ruby who is 1 1/2 years old. She does a lot and Caed loved watching her. In fact, after leaving Ruby, he started giving us hugs when we asked as a new skill. We are really excited! But he learned lots and had fun learning to stick up for himself too! Brian and Christina are friends of ours from DC, Christina and I lead our Bible Study and Brian and Jon were in the same group too. They are also expecting Perron baby #2 in the next couple of weeks! We are really excited for them. We had a great time in Portland- we hung out very low key at their home, but it was wonderful.

Benefit to staying overnight at people's home: Baby falls asleep in his own bed, and parents can stay up and socialize without any worries!

Some photos of the kids when we were playing outside with the big bucket of water:



Playing together: (a feat not easily attained with two under two's!)




The Perron's at their home (still in PJ's on Friday morning!):







The two families:

Trip to Seattle

We thought it would be fun to make a trip to Seattle this year for a semi-regular camping trip that Jon and his former roommates from college make. It was a whirlwind trip, but we had a blast and Caed did really well!

Caed on the plane for his first time: (we had the only empty seat on the ride to Oakland from DC, but that was the only flight we had an extra seat, every other flight was filled to the gills!)




Eating dinner on Heidi-Lyn and Dan's patio we had a great view on Mt. Rainer



And the Olympic mountains on the other side:



The flowers at one of the doors on their home: (they live in the boat house for a property on the water with beautiful view of Puget sound)



Their kayaks sitting on the bulkhead:

This is the only photo I have of just HL and Dan, from our small hike with the roommates- so it's out of order, but I thought it was appropriate here, with pictures from our first day/ night in Seattle.