Tessa's milestones

Between 3 and 4 months old, Tessa found her toes, learned to roll over, started scooting and eating "solids"! That was a busy month for our little girl!

The birthday

My knight in wet clothes

I wasn't going to blog about my birthday. There was really nothing to blog about. It was just another day. My plans? Wash the dishes, do the laundry, clean the house, wash the car, "and if I got really ambitious, make myself a birthday cake," as I told anyone who inquired about my plans that morning. Really exciting, I know!

Then Thad came home early from work and changed everything around. He brought me 2 dozen gorgeous roses, king crab legs that he made and shelled for me for dinner that were to die for, and a fabulous red velvet cake (my new favorite)! Then he took me to PF Changs for a fancy lunch, then HE washed the car, and we watched a movie together. He also sang a very special birthday song to me.

Thanks Thad, for officially being the BEST husband in the WHOLE world, bar none!

And just in case anybody is wondering, I am counting down from 30 to avoid ever being "a day over 30", so I officially turned 29!

Vampire Diaries

packing up for our trip. did I forget anything? swimsuit? check. Siena's doll? check. Baby? check.

The posh little village of Seabrook

We went to the coast this weekend to celebrate my birthday. We stayed in B&B in a little coastal town called Pacific Beach. We left really early in the morning, around 5:30, and got there around 12 or 1. Too bad the weather was so cold, overcast and foggy. We weren't able to spend too much time on the beach. But we got to talk to Paul and Mim, the owners of the B&B. I took the girls on a little ride down the coast to the tiny village of Seabrook, this new posh town, where we found a great playground for Siena, in 53 degree weather. Brrr!
Thad's been on the look-out for some "Asian fit" sunglasses that would fit his Asian-sized head for a little while now. He did some research and found out that Oakley has a line of Asian fit sunglasses, so we did some more research, found an Oakley outlet store in Marysville, north of Seattle. To get there from Pacific Beach, we could go back the way we came and through Seattle, and hit Seattle traffic, which could delay us an hour or more, or we could go the same distance, but north and around by the beach, which would happen to take us through Forks. Thad was so excited when he found out we would be driving through Forks! ;)
The town itself was small, and I'm sure could have once been described as charming, but now inundated with tourist from the Twilight madness, is now a complete tourist trap- super corny, kitschy, and tacky. Pretty much what we expected, in short.
On the way there, we tried to take a "short-cut" through an Indian reservation (hey! The GPS told us to go through there!), and ended up going through some seriously scary terrain, through an dirt road that was rutted out with overgrown fauna threatening to devour us, huge mud puddles, and a WAY scary bridge, that was just 2 slabs of metal placed above a river. We kept going until we saw a van that had got stuck in the mud and slid off the path, with orange tape tied around the side mirror, across the road to the nearest tree, and a couple of huge logs that had fallen across the road behind it. End of the trail. We turned back, having gone 16 miles round-trip, which took us close to 2 hours. Not a great 2 hours, but definitely memorable.
We stopped at Ruby Beach after we got back on the main road. It was one of the absolute coolest beaches I have ever been to! It had the coolest rock formations. Not much sand, but perfect skipping stones littered the beach. Apparently at low tide, it has some of the best tide pools around. Unfotunately, we were there at the wrong time of day to see that. But the beach was still pretty awesome, again, despite the cold, foggy weather.
After taking a ferry back to the "mainland" of WA, we headed up to the Marysville Oakley store, where we found out that you have to order the special "Asian fit" sunglasses online. Bummer!
So we drove down to Seattle, and spent the night with our friends Jen and Rahul, or "hulio", as Siena calls him.We had a great time, eating AMAZING seafood at a Puerto Rican restaurant, "La Isla", and hit up H&M.
Thad did all the driving, what a trooper! The girls did pretty well most of the time, despite getting sick of their car seats after hours of being strapped down. Now we need a vacation from our vacation!

Coeur D'Alene/Spokane

Yesterday we took a day-trip to Spokane, about a 2 hr drive, and then went to Coeur D'Alene as well. We REALLY like the area! It's beautiful, with the mountains that Thad loves, with beautiful pine trees, which I love, and all 4 seasons, without too much rain, which we both appreciate! We are looking into internship possibilities for Thad there next summer, so we'll see. And we absolutely LOVED Coeur D'Alene! It was gorgeous. It feels like more of a resort town, but trendy, funky, and somehow still down-to-earth. The best part? Lake Coeur D'Alene, right downtown! It is absolutely beautiful! With dense pine trees all around the edges, except for the beach area right down town that everyone plays on. There's even a little tide and waves that come on shore. It was hard getting Siena to leave! Another bonus: right by the beach, there is a fabulous big part where they happened to be holding a childrens fair as we were passing through, and gave Siena a free lunch!
Then we checked out Spokane. We thought it would be about an hour drive from Coeur D'Alene, but it was really only about 20 minutes. We went to a park there, where we caught the Skyride tram over Spokane Falls. This was a bit of a let down, considering the ride was $15, only about 250 yards long, and lasted about 20 minutes, mostly because of the long stops letting people on and off. Also, I guess any waterfall after seeing Iguassu is a bit of a letdown, but we enjoyed ourselves all the same, with a huge dragonblood flavored shave ice (Thad's favorite).
We also found the Garbage Goat, a goat sculpture with a vacuum attached to the mouth that sucks up all the garbage you put in there. Honestly, the vacuum kinda freaked Siena out, but it was a fun idea! Then we checked out Gonzaga University (I wanted to write Gorgonzola for some reason...), and headed home. We are already planning a trip back to the area to check out more of Spokane, and enjoy more of Coeur D'Alene as well. We can really see ourselves living there someday!

holy strawberry!

I bought a package of strawberries yesterday, not realized that a monster was packed inside!

special delivery

the best things come in small packages

San Juan Islands & Seattle

Last weekend we went to the San Juan Islands. I've wanted to go ever since I was about 12, and Melanie and Melissa York, "the York twins", moved into our ward. They had just moved from San Juan Island. Then when we got here, my friend Rita was telling us about a great trip she took with her husband to the islands. So I did a little research, and Anacortes, the little town with the ferry stop, was only 5 hrs away, just north of Seattle. The area itself was just beautiful! Amazing sunsets, with densely forested islands everywhere. We found Friday Harbor, the main town on San Juan island, to be super touristy, over-priced, and frankly, a bit kitchy. But the ferry ride over was nice and relaxing, with beautiful scenery in every direction. We didn't have enough time (or $$, let's be honest) to go to the other islands like Orca, and do the recommended whale watching tours.
On the way back, we drove through Whidbey island, through Deception Pass, this super high road bridge that spans a break in the island, with a really great view, that you can't really appreciate because you're so nervous going over this super high, narrow bridge. The drive through the island took around an hour. At the other end, we caught another ferry to take us back to the mainland, where we drove to Seattle and spent the next night with my good friend Jen. She took us to Pike's Place the next day, to a street fair and the most AMAZING bakery I've ever been to, called Bakery Nouveau. Apparently the chef there is the only American to have ever won this national French baking competition in Paris. I spent WAY too much money there (and let's not even talk about calories, ok?) I had to sample a bit of everything, with that kind of reputation, especially since we don't live too close, and I'm not one to miss out on things of a culinary nature. And let me tell you: I was NOT disappointed!
It was wonderful to see Jen again. We are hoping to make 1 more trip out there before we back our bags to head "home" back to Utah.

Tiny Tot Olympics

Siena and Dad practicing for the Tiny Tot Olympics. (She's standing on his hand. Kinda hard to see in the pic)









Kennewick is a pretty small town. Not a lot happens here, from what I gather. So when I hear about the tiny Tot Olympics for 2 to 6 year olds, I had to sign Siena up.

There was Ronald McDonald, a guy dressed up like a football (local HS), someone else dressed up like a dirt devil named Dusty (another local thing, I guess?), and McGruff the Crime Dog. I kept saying, "Siena, look at the dog!" She kept looking around for a dog an couldn't find it. Finally when I told her to look up, she saw the guy with the dog head and completely freaked! She screamed, ran behind my leg and started crying! I felt kinda bad, but it was also kinda funny...

She was probably the youngest kid there (out of @250). So some of the activities were a little beyond her abilities, and she had a REALLY hard time waiting in lines and following all of the rules. For example, there was a long line for the obstacle course, and there was a little slide at the end of it. Siena didn't care about the line or the obstacle course, but she was just going to go down that slide as many times as she could in between the other kids who were trying to go down to finish up their obstacle course! Her favorite activity? Cookie Decorating. She was just too impatient to get the frosting off before she had to try it though... Runner up? The bubble table.

Maybe if we're here next summer, she'll be a little older and be able to participate a bit better. We all had fun though! And Ronald McDonald even did a magic show at the end.

Lilith

I went to a huge concert July 3 and saw Cheryl Crow sing live! It was beyond AWESOME! The great thing was since it was at the Gorge, an outdoor amphitheater, we were able to bring the girls. We would have also heard Sarah McLachlan sing, but what I didn't realize was that this was a concert that lasted the entire day (2:30 to 10:30) and Sarah McLachlan was the very last one to sing. The girls did pretty great to hold out until Cheryl Crow was almost done, around 7. Since we got there an hour early, they held on for 5 and a half hours! That's pretty amazing for a 3 month old and a 2 year old!
But the best part of the concert? Meeting up with my best friend Sarah, who has been living in Krea for the past 2 years. Her husband Loren is from Seattle area, and they came to visit his family. She was able to duck away for a couple days to go to the concert with us and then came to visit us in Kennewick! We got to see Eclipse together, while Thad watched Siena (he's a total champion!).
Thad even got a picture of the awesome view of the Columbia river from the Gorge amphitheater.

Portland

We went to Portland a couple weeks ago to visit cousin Nathan. Thad was hoping to get a root canal. That part didn't work out, but they did file down some points on his molars that were causing him pain, and he says it's much better now.
My brother Danny lives in Northern Cali, and I don't get to see him much. I texted him, half joking, as we headed out to Portland (a 3+ hr drive for us), "Hey, you wanna meet me in Portland this weekend?" I got his reply the next morning: "I'm already here. Come find me." I thought he was joking! But when I called him, it turns out he had happened to fly into Portland that evening, hoping to catch a train to Sacramento with some buddies of his. Then he would fly back to McKinleyville (his home) from Sacramento. I LOVE his adventurous spirit!
And as it turns out, he flew to Fiji and New Zealand the next week!
Anyway, we got to hang out for a bit before he caught his train. It was REALLY great to see him even if it was just for an hour or two! And Siena LOVED playing with her cousins Adelei, Brielle and baby Elijah.

Siena's Prayers

Siena said her first prayer all by herself, impromptu, when I was sick a couple weeks ago. She sensed that something was wrong, and said her prayer: "Hev Fader, pease bess mama feel betta. Name Jesu Chist, Amen."

Then today, I started on the lunch prayer, but she just took off and said the whole thing on her own: "Hev Fader, Tank you...bessings. Pease bess [as she opens her eyes to see what on her tray for lunch] chicken, cashews, toast, bueberries. Name Jesu christ, amen."

I kinda wish I had known and could have video'ed them. So cute! But maybe that would be sacriligeous or something....