A Visit to Washington

The kids and I took a 2 week trip up to Washington on June 12th. Reese was going to be gone for a few weeks so we headed up to spend some time with friends and family. We stayed at my dad's for the first week, then we went to Crescent Bar with my family for a couple nights, Vance and Michele's for a couple nights, and then stayed at Reese's parents for a few nights. It was fun, busy, and to be honest, stressful! Estelle did not sleep well. By the end of the trip she was waking up at all hours of the night and sleeping in bed with me! I knew it would be hard, but Lane so loves going up there and I wanted to spend some time up there.

We got to be there for Amara's 5th birthday and Grandma Laura's birthday too. Lane loves being in the "country." He always gets all scraped up while we are up there, lots of outdoor playing.

I didn't get many pictures. I wish I had taken more, but Estelle in one hand and a camera in my other isn't always possible. I love this little girl to pieces, but man, she wears me out. She is so sweet, cuddly and smily, but she doesn't sleep well and she LOVES her mama. This makes for not too many breaks for me. I just have to keep remembering that this time doesn't last too long, and someday I will look back on it and miss these days.

The boys swimming in the creek by Vance and Michele's house.
Will, Merit, and Lane...I hardly saw Lane while we were there, he was busy playing outside with these boys.

There was a lot of baseball playing at Crescent Bar.

Brielle pushing Hazel in the swing.

Me and my sista's!
The three oldest boys. These boys have had so much fun over the years, they are 8, 7, and 6 and all are left handed (just a fun little fact!)
Estelle was all smiles, especially when she was being held and getting attention :)
Great Grandma Alma and Estelle.

We got to meet our newest cousin Abby. Estelle wanted to grab her. They are about 3 months apart.

We had a hot dog roast in Grandpa Jim's firepit one night. Lane decided to invent a cannon to shoot off of his patio that night, he so many big ideas!

Lane and his beloved Red Ryder BB gun. That night some one was cutting my dad's field, I loved hearing the tractor running late at night and the smell in the air. Those are things I miss about living in Washington.

We also got to spend a lot of time with my dear friends that have been my friends since middle school. We have 11 kids between us I think. These are just a few of the kids Emmy, Gabe, Estelle and Gracie.

Over the Years

Last week Thursday, Reese and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary. Normally, 10 years is a great milestone, but for me it felt like a huge accomplishment. Our marriage started out with Reese just finishing Marine Corps boot camp and me grieving the death of my mom just 2 months earlier. We were just 19 and we started out with some big "things" and it didn't stop there. We got married June 2, 2001 during peace time. Then came September 11th, we had no idea what that meant for Reese, for us. We went through an 11 month deployment to Japan and another 7 month deployment to Iraq while I was pregnant with Lane. From there we moved to Sumas, WA for three years before Reese went into the Navy. I must say that our marriage has been given many challenges. Being in the military is hard, the divorce rate is huge, especially in Reese's line of work. We have been separated a good part of the last 10 years. We joke that that is the reason we are still married :) We went through another deployment last year while I was pregnant with Estelle.

We have been blessed with three wonderful children. But the loss of Case has been so hard on us, on our family. We will forever be missing a part of our family.

I wanted to post pictures of us over the years. Mainly for me to have them all in one place, but also because I am proud to have reached this 10 year accomplishment together. The odds have been against us, but we have made it through and plan to continue.

2003 was the year I got a digital camera, so the rest of the pictures start there :)

Twenty Nine Palms, June 2003
Joshua Tree National Park June 2003
Old Town San Diego, January 2004
Welcoming Reese home from Iraq, September 2004
A trip to San Diego for a Marine Corps memorial service April 2006. This was the trip that got Reese thinking about the Navy.
Alaska 2006
Alaska 2007
San Diego, after finishing Hell Week, April 2008
San Diego, July 4, 2008

Graduation 2009, pregnant with Case

December 2009

Welcoming Reese home from Iraq again, pregnant with Estelle, September 2010

April 2011

Disneyland

Over the weekend we made a last minute trip to Disneyland. We had one day left on our three day hoppers. We got our picture with Mickey and all Estelle wanted to do was grab his face!
We stayed at the Grand California Hotel. It was awesome! We have never splurged to stay at one of the resort hotels, but they had availability at the last minute and so we did it. The bonus was that they had our room ready at like 9 am when we arrived so we didn't have to wait until 3 pm to check in. We spent the morning in the parks and then around 2:00 pm we went and hung out at the pool. Lane loved the water slide and the pool was so warm. Estelle loves splashing in it.
We had gumbo for lunch and then we had Creole food for dinner at a cool restaurant in Downtown Disney.
Then next morning we got up early and did the Critter breakfast at the hotel. So we dined with Chip and Dale, and some other forest creatures. Estelle thought they were cool, not afraid at all, mainly she just wanted to grab them.

Lane and Dale had the same teeth!
The hotel was beautiful and I loved that it was so close to the parks and Downtown Disney. Lane really loved the bunk beds and was so excited to sleep on the top bunk.

Downtown Disney has a Lego store. They were building a giant R2-D2 out front so Lane built some pieces for it and got certificate.
We ended the trip with some awesome pizza and headed home, where we all took naps (except Lane he watched a movie) We love being so close to all these theme parks. Lane is one lucky kid, I didn't go to Disneyland until I was 17!

Fun Family Pictures!

Last month we got some family pictures taken by Andrea Gallagher Photography. If anyone knows my husband, you probably know that this is not his thing. Not to mention Mr. Hide From The Camera Lane! Andrea made it comfortable and just a little ways into it, Lane was laughing and smiling for her. I thought about waiting until Lane's front teeth grow in, but seriously, how cute is his toothless grin?

I had a couple reasons for doing family pictures. First, we hadn't had any taken with Estelle. I also wanted to get some pictures with the CASE tractor that Lane has. After Case died I wanted to put something at the cemetery other than a plant or flowers because he was buried in Washington and we are in California. As many of you know, Case is a brand of tractor so we went just a couple blocks away to Farmers Equipment (in Lynden) and bought two Case tractors, one for the cemetery and one for Lane. My friend Kristen who also lives in California but grew up in Washington, had a small Case tractor placed at Case's grave for his first birthday and gave a little one to Estelle too. So both Lane and Estelle have one in honor of Case. The last couple pictures have the tractor in them, to represent Case as a part of our family.

I love the way they turned out. Now is the hard part, trying to figure out what pictures I will enlarge and hang in our house! Here are just a few of my favorites. The sad part is that I coordinated all of our outfits around what Estelle was wearing. Gag me right!? This little girl is just too much fun!

6 months old!

Little Miss is over 6 months old now! She had her check up last week. She is doing awesome and she's a big girl at 18 lbs 4 oz. She is sitting really well now. The last couple days I have set her in front of a basket of toys and she has so much fun picking the toys out one by one.
This is her latest favorite position. She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth. She also has been getting into "downward facing dog" position (up on her hands and toes). Her little friend Lucy was doing this a while back and I thought it was so funny, now Estelle has taken to doing it too.
This week we got to do a diorama for homework. His class picked "A House for Hermit Crab" book and he picked a page and made a diorama of it. It was a fun project for this crafty mama to help him with :) The hermit crab was attached to a pipe cleaner and moved toward it's new shell!

Poor Lane has been sick the past 2 days. A fever that just won't go away. That's his only symptom, a fever and body aches. He has had to miss his zoo field trip and now tomorrow his last t-ball game and their pizza party. I am feeling really bad for him, he is such a tough little guy. We've watched lots of movies the last couple days. Tonight I made him pancakes that spelled his name. He thought it was great! My friend Kristen sent me a pancake pen (along with some other goodies) for my birthday, so I put it to good use tonight.