Skiing in June

Kent and his new friend Josh decided to go on a big day hike/ski up Dragontail Peak. Kent did the same trip last year. I'll post the photos now, but check back later for his detailed descriptions of their trip.

New Orleans Party

There are many reasons for a party... graduations, weddings, birthdays, margarita machines? Sure! The chaperons from the New Orleans jazz band trip brought back this huge margarita machine so we put it to good use last night.

Brooke got to know some new friends at the party including this funny garden gnome.

John LOVES babies... can you tell!?!

Everyone dressed up in their New Orleans clothing. Brooke modeled the onesie that Kent bought her at the House of Blues. Janet and John hosted this great dinner party.

Celebration of Summer

Kent finished his last day of teaching on Friday! To celebrate the end of the school year and the beginning of summer break we hosted a bbq at our house. It was a big success with seventeen people (including kids) showing up!

Kent did a great job with the meat.

Whitney, Jacob and Riley are such great friends. We are so blessed to have gotten to know them this year. What an adorable family!

Val and Caitlin are always laughing about something!


It was nice to have Karen, Dan and their daughter Eva join us. They are so spunky and fun!

Kent, Josh (Val's husband), Kerri, Val and Caitlin enjoying their dinner.

The babies enjoyed their meal picnic style with a blanket on the grass. Riley got her first taste of watermelon. This girl can eat! Brooke had some watermelon also but she likes to chew it, suck out the good stuff and spit the leftovers out. We're going to have to work on this!

Brooke was crawling after the big girls who enjoyed a game of kickball.

10 Months Old

Brooke is officially 10 month old today and active as ever! Last night she figured out that she was pretty darn good at walking. She was climbing every chair or drawer in sight, getting her balance, letting go with both hands and then venturing out into the center of the living room.

I don't want to give the impression that she is walking all the time. Her safe method of moving around the house is crawling which she does 90% of the time. It will be interesting to see what the percentage of crawling/walking will be when she is 11 month old!

Brooke and I went shopping in Wenatchee today. She fell asleep in the car seat on the way back so she finished her nap in the shade of our tree. How nice! She actually had both naps in the car seat today. She refused to sleep in the crib this morning so I decided to take her on a walk. I put her in the car seat and she instantly fell asleep! A quick change of plans and I got 45 minutes of yard work done!

Here's our cutie pie in all her pink glory! She's sporting a cute new baseball cap on her bald little head.

To Lake Chelan We Go!

On Wednesday Brooke, Caitlin and I drove up to Lake Chelan to visit my friend Sarah and her two boys Tristan (2 1/2 years) and Wade (15 months). We were very glad we got a chance to meet Sarah's friend Pam and daughter Dakota who is only a week and a half older than Brooke.

The first stop was story time at the library. All the kids there enjoyed the books, poems, movement, dancing and singing that was presented in a very upbeat and fast pace (perfect for this age!).

The favorite part of story time seemed to be rhythm band. This was the part Brooke was able to join in on. Most of the time she chewed her maraca, but once in a while she'd shake it like all the older boys and girls.

After story time we walked the short distance to the river and found a nice place for lunch. Sarah's fresh bread and mouthwatering brownies were the highlights of my lunch!


Sarah is such a wonderful mom to her darling boys! I'm not sure that she even got a chance to eat herself as she has a big job taking care of those two! There were a lot of cute moments but this one was so adorable. Wade was antsy and not happy about getting the brownie wiped off his hands and face but as soon as he saw my camera out he whipped out this grin with a sweet "cheese"!

Dakota and Brooke had fun "playing" with each other. They both became very interested in a wet wipe once they knew the other girl wanted it! Can you believe the coloring difference between these two!?! It was nice to see a 10 month old who was also small (Brooke was 5lb 13oz and Dakota was 5lb 7oz when born). Dakota is a beautiful cheerful girl.

Wade tried to take a walk in Caitlin's sandal. It was just a few sizes too big...

Tristan played nicely with Maisy and Maisy enjoyed the attention!

Before we walked back to the cars we took a little toe dip in the lake. It felt good to cool off but not warm enough to get these girls in! No problem for Tristan though, he went wading up to his armpits... brrr! Brooke really enjoyed the trip but at the end was so grouchy! Only once that I can remember has Brooke been upset like this when outside or somewhere new. The other time was in Mexico when we walked to the city square in the evening and the music was way too loud and scared her.

A few hours after we got home she was so upset that I could not get her to stop crying (this NEVER happens to me). For the last few days she has been very clingy and short tempered which is very unlike her (but I have enjoyed the extra snuggles!). Today I noticed that her upper tooth is very close to popping through the skin. I was wondering when tooth number three would show up. Poor girl; hopefully it'll break through soon!

A Day in the Life

Brooke LOVES her books! Her little thumbs open the pages and she examines the pictures.

We took a walk down to the river and went for a swing. She laughed and giggled the whole time.

She no longer stays in one spot for very long. You can see where she's been! After playing with a toy she'll crawl off and climb up to a standing position. At that point she'll cruise along the furniture or let go and walk about four or five steps.

She's very good at cruising around the living room with her push toy. The last few days she has begun to copy us very well. She has a few tricks that she will do "on cue" (when she wants to). She'll buzz her lips, clap, wave goodbye (both hands doing the "money" sign), tap her mouth when she says "ooooh" (like an Indian). It's so much fun! I'm pretty sure she can say "Moooo" when asked about what a cow says, but we're still working on that.

Friends

We were so happy to have our friends Jacob, Whitney and their sweet baby Riley over for a BBQ. We all had a great time talking, playing with the babies and having a great meal. The girls are only two months apart so they are very similar in size and lot of fun!

Riley is such a ham! When the camera comes out she has the sweetest tongue filled smile with the most beautiful light blues eyes that just light up her face. Lately you have to practically trick Brooke into giving us a smile for the camera, so all we got was this goofy grin from her. We tried putting both girls in the play pen but it didn't work very well because Brooke kept on "attacking" Riley! When did our sweet child become so aggressive!?! Brooke grabbed her arm and pulled her over to her, tried to grab her eyes, etc. so we had to be right there to supervise!

After dinner it was time for a short dip in the pool. Although the pool had been sitting in the sun all day, it felt cool to the touch. Brooke didn't mind the cold but Riley seemed to prefer bath water. Even though it didn't last long it was fun to see the adorable naked babies!

My belly is bigger than yours!

Splish Splash!

Proof of HAIR!

Random funny moment from last weekend: One of Kent's students saw us at the Memorial Day service and asked, "Have you picked out a name for her yet?"

Beautiful May Garden

This year I have been loving the chance to plant a vegetable garden. Now I'm watching the plants grow bigger and the weeds start to grow every day. The radishes are looking great! They are not my favorite vegetable, but they are so easy to grow!

I just love the pinks in the garden right now!

Someone (some'dog') was watching Brooke and I from the living room window.


Geraniums are planted in the apple barrels out front.

The entrance is beautiful with the overflowing flowers this time of year. I just love the look of an English garden!

Memorial Day 2009

Kent performed at the Memorial Day service at the Cashmere Cemetery this morning. We ran into our friends from Manson who have a 5 week old boy named Levi.

350 flags line the cemetery which creates a very patriotic feeling.

Blake, Sam, Joel, Andrew and Kent perform brass quintet music for the service.