Random pics from our trip

I love this picture of our family, except for the fact that I have a cookie in my mouth. I'm always eating...sigh...
Kim loves me - even though I'm obnoxious when there's a camera around.
Here's the whole family. Chris, me, Kate, Mom (Joy), Kim (in front of Mom), Cindy, Hayden, Chad, and Hayleigh.
Once again, Daddy's little girl! (don't mind the messy bed...we're on vacation!) :)

Happy Birthday to Me!!

I got to celebrate my birthday with my family for the first time in a very long time. It was so much fun. I got lots of goodies: flip flops (2 pairs), a shirt, Olive Garden & Coldstone gift cards, candy, slippers, and the movie I am Legend. On top of that I got to spend the whole day with the people I love, which was the greatest gift of all!

Can I blow them all out in one breath? Hayden thinks so!

Ok, so I look a little bug-eyed in this picture. That's because my eyes were half-closed in the 5 others we took. I have a knack at blinking during pictures. It's a little joke between Chris and I.
How many people does it take to light the candles? Hey, there weren't that many! :)
Ok, so apparently there were a lot of candles. I couldn't blow them all out in one breath. Not only am I old, but I'm not going to get my wish this year either. That's ok though because I can't remember what my wish was...wow, I am getting old! :)
Grandma with the grandkids!
Happy birthday to me! One year older (and hopefully wiser, too)!

Family visits

On Sunday we went to Yakima to visit my extended family. My aunt Paula had a family BBQ for all of my mom's family at her house. There were tons of relatives there and it was so much fun. We had a great time eating, playing games, eating, laughing and eating some more. After that we went to my Uncle Verne's and Aunt Claira's house to visit them for a while. My cousin Jason and his family came over too. He has two crazy boys that never stop wrestling, running, and jumping off of everything in sight. It's so good to see family again. We don't get to see all of them nearly enough. Kate had never met them so it was also fun to show her off a bit! I have some pictures from the fun day, but I look funny in all of them so I'm not going to post them. Plus I'm not sure about how my relatives feel about being published on my blog. :)

Icicle River

Just outside of Leavenworth there is a beautiful river called Icicle River. We used to camp there when I was growing up. We had planned on going hiking after shopping in Leavenworth, but by the time we made it to the trailhead, we didn't have enough time. Plus Kate had finally fallen asleep in the truck. So Chris, Kim and I opted for a quick walk down the trail and across the river while my mom stayed behind to watch Kate. After we crossed the river, we spotted my mom on the other side and took her picture. It was so beautiful! There was a little bit of snow that we had fun playing in. It was just enough to make us really want to go for a nice long hike but we weren't prepared at all and we had to leave. We were sad, but we enjoyed the little time we were able to spend there!

Hi Mom!!

Leavenworth

For my birthday, we took a road trip to Leavenworth, WA. It's a cute little town in the mountains with lots of little German shops. One shop that I have to make sure we hit when we visit there is the hat shop. It's so fun to dig through all the piles and see what you can find. We always pick out a crazy hat for each person and get a picture. This is this year's pic.



Kate just chillin' in the restaurant in Leavenworth. She loves to bite on her spoons. Sometimes it's all we can do to get the spoon out of her mouth! Maybe she's teething again... I believe this is also her first time sitting in a high chair in a restaurant.
Back at the hat shop. Grandma picked this hat out and just had to buy it for Kate. In case you can't read it, it says "I love Grandma."

A Picnic and a Game of Camera Tag

On Thursday, we decided to take a trip to the Potholes State Park to have a picnic. It was the most beautiful day and we had a great time. We got to play on the kiddie toys and act like we were 5 again. It was a lot of fun.

Kate getting a feel for slides.

Kim, Chris and I had a blast climbing over all the "big toys" as I used to call them when I was little. Can you tell we're sisters? :)
This is the "you didn't dare take my picture, did you?" look. Kim and I had a blast playing camera tag with each other.

Kim in action.
This is Kate's first trip down a slide. We think she liked it...she didn't cry so that probably means she liked it, right? I think she didn't really know what was going on.
I love this picture. You can just tell Chris is enjoying himself so much.
Kate and Grandma decided to play it safe on the ground.

The T-berrys

Lots of our time in ML was spent with my sister's family. Kate got to meet her cousins for the first time! Hayleigh was very good and gentle with her. Hayden liked to try and poke her eyeballs out. Kate loved them both! She would just watch and stare at them like they were the most interesting things on earth. Here's some pictures.

Kate, Aunt Kimmi, Hayleigh & Hayden

Chad and Cindy
Kate, Hayleigh, Cindy & Hayden (I like Hayleigh's shirt: "It's my brother's fault")

Kate loves Aunt Cindy!
Isn't he a cutie!
Hayden spending a little down time with Daddy.
Goofy cousins!!
We love the Throneberry's! Miss you!

Welcome to Grandma Bakker's!

Our trip to Washington had an exciting start! Our flight from OKC left at 6:45am so we were up super early. It was a little crazy, but we got to the airport in time...barely, but it wasn't too bad considering we woke up at 4:30am. The flights were nice. Kate was awesome. Can I just say that we have the best baby ever?! She's so good. We flew in to Spokane, WA and from there it's a 1 1/2 hour drive to good old Moses Lake. About halfway to ML, I noticed a funny smell eminating from my daughter. I thought she was poopy, but after 6 hours of traveling I didn't want to have to pull over. I thought, "she's not fussy, she can wait 45 minutes." Well, when we finally got to my mom's house, I took her out of her carseat and she had poop all the way up her back and sides!! It was nasty! By the time we wrestled her out of her onesie, it was all over her hair and body. So, for Kate's first welcome to Grandma's house, she got a well-deserved bath! My poor sister, Kim, didn't get a proper hello until after the poopy fiasco. I'd like to know what she was thinking when we were all running around the house scrambling for towels, baby shampoo, and wipes.

Tags

We just got back from our trip to Washington. It was so great to see family! We had a great time. I have tons of pictures and stories that I'll post as soon as I get the pictures uploaded from our camera. In the meantime, I thought I'd show off this little blanket that I made for Kate. She is majorly obsessed with the tags on her toys. She could care less about the toy itself - she just wants the tags. The other day at church I saw a blanket that my friend had made for her son that had "tags" along the side of it made out of ribbon. I thought it was such a great idea so I decided to make one for Kate! She loves it! I think it's the best thing I've ever made her....come to think of it, it's the only thing I've ever made her!

She does really like it, I promise...see!

Thanks for the idea Bekah!