Jumpoff Joe Camping

Another weekend of camping - another site close to home for us! This place is fantastic though. Its got a play area for the kids, which the loved! The lake is clean and warm. There's a cute little store that we got candy and ice cream for the kids at. And there are some really nice people there - some campers down the road from us, offered Jared and I the use of their paddle boats. So incredibly nice - we got some alone time out on the water - like a mini date. All and all - a great weekend.

Ryan is 5 Months Old

Ryan hit his 5 month mark on Friday! Hard to believe how quickly this is all going... He's still as handsome as ever. He's definately turning into a Mama's boy - I love that. He's started to sleep a bit through the night - not consistently though. We were doing really well sleeping from his 9 pm feeding until about 5:15 am and now he's waffling back and forth between needing a feeding at 4 or not. Its pretty obvious he's teething - bottom right k-9 is pushing hard. I am sure that's part of it. We also started some rice cereal a week ago. He's still not 100% sure about it, but he's eating about everything we're giving him. This week he'll get cereal at lunch and we're going to start some veggies in the evening.

Camping at Silver Lake

This weekend marked Ryan's first camping trip! And the first for Jared and I in a long time. We spent the weekend at a new site at Silver Lake - which is only 20 min from our house! Talk about a quick trip. But its so beautiful! After several weeks of 90+ degree temperatures and Friday's massive lightening storm we couldn't have asked for better weather. It was perfect about 75 degrees and cool last night. Ellie went fishing and caught fish after fish after fish. She also got to go boating on Matt's fishing boat.

TV Time with Daddy

A Visit to the Farm

Yesterday we made the trek to Touchet (Walla Walla) to visit Jared's Aunt Sherry! We haven't gotten down to visit her as much as I would like over the last couple years after moving from Seattle to Spokane, so I was pretty excited to go and so was Ellie. Friday night she talked about how she was going to ride the ponies. :) Saturday morning we were up early and on the road. When we arrived, we immediately saw the peacock which Ellie was intrigued by. She got to make the trip out to the chicken coup, which she LOVED. She said cock-a-doodle-doo a hundred times that day. She was a little overwhelmed by the puppies though - Sherry has several mastiffs that are much bigger than Ellie. Jared took Ellie down to the river and he caught her a little fish with his hands, which she loved. They also took a drive around the farm and saw the horses and the llamas. She loved the horses, especially the 'little one' which was actually a mini pony. She begged to go back before we left to see them. Sherry, Ryan and I had a nice morning chatting in the kitchen. Sherry made us a yummy quiche with super sweet Walla Walla onions and guyere cheese and a cheesecake with fresh fruit on the top for lunch. Sherry always makes the best food! We are so spoiled. We snapped a cute pic with Sherry, Jared and the kids.

Finally we headed home around 1 pm (early enough to beat the 110 degree forcast). On the way out to the main road, we saw a deer. Ellie shouted "A deer?!?! Shoot it with Daddy's gun". So funny - wonder where that came from.

Ryan's 4 Month Checkup

Ryan went to the doctor on the 5th for his 4 month check up. Boy oh boy is he a big boy! Our nurse was so surprised by his size as I carried him in his carseat to the room and she asked her co-worker how old she thought he was as we walked by - her response? 8 MONTHS! Not ok.... Fortunately, when I got him out of the car seat, the nurse said he looked more appropriately sized. His stats are: Weight - 15 lbs 1.2 oz (47%) Height - 26 inches (80%) Head Circumfrence - 17 cm (70%) I called Jared following the appointment to share this with him and he checked out the blog to see Ellie's stats around the same time. What he discovered was this. Weight - 14.5 lbs Height - 24 inches Head Circumfrence - 17 cm AT 9 MONTHS! That's right, Ryan has Ellie beat by 5 months in size. Oh the differences in kids!

Happy Independence Day!

We love 'Merica!

Mommy & Ellie time

For Mother's day, I wanted to spend some quality time with Ellie since we hadn't had much of it since Ryan was born. One of the local photographers was doing some 'mini' sessions that weekend in celebration and I decided that was one way we could spend some time together. I asked my mom to join us, since it was Mother's day and all and we ended up with some cute pics just the two of us, nana and Ellie and a 3 generation pics.

Gosh...We're Old.

This weekend we celebrated our 10 year class reunion and our 5th anniversary! For those who didn't know, Jared and I went to high school together and were in the same class - although we didn't start dating until college. So it makes it really nice to only have do one class reunion every ten years and none of that awkward I don't know any of your classmates stuff. All and all it was the worst reunion ever since there was only 25 classmates at dinner Saturday night and it was really not planned well. But we still had a good time and made the best of the weekend. Saturday night we ran into Jared's younger brother, Nick, at the bar. First time we have been to the bar with him since he turned 21 in April. Nick goes to school in Walla Walla and is working at a farm for the summer so its been tough to find time! The boys shared a shot of Fireball - yummy hot cinnamon!

Sunday before we left town we got the kids together to do some playing in the water! It was so nice and hot out - FINALLY! The boys are already well skilled at the slip and slide, while Ellie is still trying to figure it all out. But she loves the hose and being squirted - something the boys hate!

Ryan got to try out the exersaucer for the first time! He fits soooo much better at this age than Ellie did! His feet even touch the bottom!! Just needs a little extra support around the waist since he's so skinny!

Ellie crashed in the car on the way home as she usually does, but this time with her new toy, Hello Kitty. She went to the store with Nana to get doughnuts Sunday morning and saw this and said "I need to have this." and of course Nana obliged as most good Nanas do. :) Clearly this is becoming a trend at the store though, as Sunday night we went shopping and she picked up a pack of fudge sticks walked around to the cart and dropped them in saying "We need to get these" - didn't ask Jared or I at all. We are working on teaching her about asking before putting stuff in the cart.

Ryan is 4 Months

Another month has passed and Ryan is 4 months old. He's pretty silly these days developing his little personality. He's found his feet and loves to play with them. He also loves his big sister! He seriously lights up and smiles the biggest smile ever when he can hear her or see her. He's finally stopped spitting up massive amounts after each feeding! YEA for that! As for appearances - he's still sporting some baby blues and I don't think they are going any where! We also have a little blondie! His hair is coming in quite a bit and its all blonde peach fuzz. What to do with a little blonde boy?!?

One of the other newest tricks that Ryan has is putting his hands up clasped together above his head. It brought back memories of Ellie doing the same thing and I was able to find this picture! It amazed me how much they really do look alike at this age.