10 years of wedded bliss

I have a few things to catch up on as far as blog posts go. So, I will start with our 10 year anniversary trip to Whistler. First, I would like to say that I am married to the greatest man. 10 years have gone by and I still think that I am the luckiest woman. We get to spend our years together trying to figure out life, marriage, parenting, and our own personal transformation. I am thankful that this life will be spent with someone that I respect, someone who can make me laugh, understands me, is willing to let me change, listens, encourages, and loves me. I am blessed. God knew what I needed and He gave me Pat. Props to my kick ass husband.

Pat and I headed out for a quick weekend trip to Whistler on July 9th while Kathy watched Lucia back at home. It was so nice to get away just Pat and I. We are not able to take much time away just the two of us so it was a total luxury even though it was only a few days. We arrived on Friday afternoon, hung around in the village and had dinner out watching the crazy partier people. On Saturday we went to our favorite breakfast place, Hot Buns for crepes and a cinnamon roll....so tasty! Then, after many trips of watching the downhill mountain biking with envy, we finally got to go ourselves! The downhill track is crazy to say the least. You take the same lift that you would in the winter time to ski but instead it is adapted to haul mountain bikes (and us) up the hill.
We rented full suspension (front and back) mountain bikes because our own bikes only have front suspension. You get plenty of protective gear to go along with the bikes. It was an 80+ degree day. We were crazy nasty by the time we were done. We biked for 6 hours with a lunch break in the middle and a short stop at the end of each run. We managed to do four runs with each one, including the lift, taking about an hour. By the time I got to the bottom of the hill after each run, my legs were so sore from holding myself up the whole time. You never really sit on the bike; you just hold on for dear life and hope you don't fly over the front of the bike....well, that was me anyway. It was so much fun. I would do it every weekend if we could afford it. I love being outside and working at something that fun. Here are some pictures of us on our bikes.



After the biking, we rushed to get as cleaned up as we could, then we took a different lift to the top of Whistler for a mountain top BBQ. It was so unbelievably beautiful. I love the mountains so much. I just wanted to stay up there to soak it all in. The air is so crisp and you can see forever into the mountains and the valley. I'll take that for an anniversary dinner any day over a fancy restaurant!

Heading up to the BBQ
Views from the top

Messing around on the gondola back to the village


On Sunday, we took the lift up to the top of Whistler again and then on the peak 2 peak gondola to Blackcomb. We were planning on taking a hike on Blackcomb but the trails were snowed in, so we hung out for a while and then headed back into the village.
We were able to grab lunch and one last beer before heading back to the real world. It was an awesome trip and an awesome way to celebrate 10 amazing years of marriage. I am so blessed to be married to a man that I love, respect, and genuinely want to spend my life and experiences with.

Cheers to 10 years of awesomeness!

Words coming FAST

Wow, Lucy baby is most definitely learning to talk and it is happening so quickly. I love that I can completely see her soaking up information, watching what we do, imitating, and trying out new words. She is a smart kid for sure. The other day, she was standing up in the pantry barking like a dog and saying "dooa"- her word for dog. She just kept doing it over and over again. I didn't think too much of it at first because she LOVES dogs and, hilariously, barks all of the time. I finally went to get her and discovered that she had located a tiny 1-in by 1-in picture of a dog on a cereal box. It was so cute. Now she is constantly trying to get to the pantry to bark at the dog. I love that kid! The video below is from the morning after she found the dog. I'll try to post a video of her saying all of her new words, but here is the list for now and the video includes "dooa"- her version of dog.



"dooa"- dog
"baw"- ball
"craca"- cracker (she is particularly good at this one given that it results in her getting more empty calorie food)
"wawa"- water
"sew"- shoe
"side"- outside
"daa"- done
"ca"- car
"baba"- bottle
"hiyo"- hello

and mama and dada of course...

4th of July Weekend

We had a pretty chill and enjoyable 4th of July weekend. On Saturday, Lucy and I hung out while Pat took the day and went up to Mt. Rainer for a photo adventure. We've started giving each other more time away individually which has been awesome for both of us. It helps to have a balance of family time, couple time, and individual time. On Sunday, we had some friends over for a BBQ. It was great to be able to hang out with Ian, Lauren, and Eden. Eden was especially cute with her sparklers. She is honestly the sweetest little 6 year old. Love that kid. On Monday, Pat, Lucia, and I went for an afternoon hike on the Lake 22 trail. Unfortunately we didn't quite make it to the top because it was getting a bit late for Lucia. Lu did love every minute of it though. She has never been that dirty. She was completely caked in mud by the time we got back to the car. She loves to play in the dirt with her rocks, sticks, and "flowers" (some sort of weed that she finds). The cutest was when Pat taught her how to blow a dandelion head. She was quite amazed and now she tries to blow those little clover flowers thinking it is the same thing.

Lauren and I watching the sparklers

Lucy preparing for our hike by taking a quick break on the console table
Our hike to Lake 22...
Lucia in her element...the dirt!
Giving Mama kisses
Riding in style

Hiking with Friends

I am most definitely in love with the Northwest in the summer time. There is no better place to be. I love the cool sun and the fresh air of the mountains. I love how easy it is to drive a bit up the freeway and you are quickly out of the city, away from massive parking lots and stores. I love mountain lakes and the forests. I would hike every day if I could. Thankfully Pat and I share the passion and Lucy is loving it as well. She is a fearless baby and even tries to scale the large boulders in her path.

This past weekend, our friends Erin and Neil were visiting. As always, it is so good to spend time with them for so many different reasons. They stayed over Friday night and then we headed out for our day hike on Saturday morning. Erin and Neil are moving up to Calgary. It was so good to spend that time with them but a sad reminder that we will miss them very much. Lucy absolutely loves them both. It is stunning to watch them together. Lucy is a complete shy baby around everyone but Erin and Neil have completely won her over. Lucy doesn't care if I am around or not. Erin and Neil are just as "safe". We call Erin the baby whisperer. Somehow she is able to relate on Lucia's level and completely engage her. I love watching it. Erin will be the best mom someday and, of course, Neil an awesome dad too. Anyway, Erin taught Lucia how to high-5 on our hike and she absolutely loves doing it now.

So, back to the hike. We hiked up to Heather Lake which is a 4.6 mile hike up to and around the lake. It was a beautiful day with cloud cover in the morning and clearing while we were up at the lake. It is a nice quick hike to such a great spot. Lucy was too cute and a trooper. She fell asleep for nearly the whole trip down the trail. Love that cute face smashed up against the baby carrier! More hikes to come!

Starting out the hike in the woods. There were some seriously old trees on this hike. Unfortunately, a number of them were cut down some time ago.

Lucy climbing up rocks and me just trying to keep up so that she didn't topple over the edge.
View of the lake from up on the boulders.
The family.
Erin and Neil
Lucy leading Erin up the trail without us.
Lucy showing Erin everything in sight.

Saturday Hiking....my favorite!

I love love LOVE the outdoors. It makes my husband crazy, not because he doesn't love the outdoors, but because I go crazy if I can't get outside at the first hint of sun. I try to tone it down...honestly! Anyway, Pat did an awesome job of coming up with fun things for us to do this past sunny Saturday. We headed out to the Mt. Baker National Forest and went on a really easy hike up to the Ice Caves. It was easy but perfect because Lucy did great on the drive to the trail and then loved every moment of the hike. The mountains were beautiful and Lucia was so excited to be outside. She kept pointing at everything in sight and making her "OOOOOOOH" sound like I could reach up and pull the tree tops down for her to hold. It was great fun. It made me really excited for the trails up on the North Cascades to open up enough that we could hike them safely with a baby. Many more hikes to come this summer.

Buddies!

I am so thankful for our friends Lindsay, Trinidad, and Jackson. Jackson is only 4 weeks younger than Lucia, so it is so much fun to hang out and watch the two little people playing together. They are too cute. Here are a few pictures from the other day. Lindsay came over for a few hours before their naps. It was just one of those days where we were both bored out of our minds and had high energy toddlers to deal with. Better to join forces when that happens!

I only wish that I could have caught them dancing on camera. It was the greatest thing I have seen in a while. They were totally going for it with the dance moves. Too cute. Maybe next time I will be fast enough.

Words and Favorites

I realized that I haven't posted anything about Lucia's words. She has been saying mama and dada for quite some time now. She most definitely prefers to say dada though. My favorite is when she hears the garage door open at the end of the day, she looks at me with an excited smile, hollers "dada" and starts knee walking toward the door. She sits about 5 inches away from the door and waves her little baby hand until Pat walks in. Back to the words...she is starting to be able to say "doggie" and "ball" though not on command and they don't always sound quite right. She also says baba (bottle) and wawa (water).

As for favorites, she definitely goes through these really cute stages where she is stuck on one thing or another. Here are her favorites for this stage (14-15 months):

Lucia's favorite food...cheerios! Though that is rapidly changing post infection. The doctor said that her infection may have been present for quite some time effecting her appetite. In 2.5 months she did not gain a single ounce, in fact she lost 1 ounce. All of that to say that today her favorite foods included yogurt covered pretzels, fish crackers, chocolate pudding, peanut butter bread, and anything else high in fat that I could get into her little body! But...cheerios are still the long standing favorite.
Favorite toy...the wooden school bus from Craig and Renee. She pulls that thing along with her all over the house and heaves it up onto the coffee table and dining room chairs bashing it and the furniture along the way. I don't care though, it is too funny to watch her cart that thing around.

Favorite hide out...under the dining room table. This is her fortress. She loves to spend quite a bit of time under the table and she loves it even more when you join her. It is a different game each day. Some days we fight pirates and the table is our boat. Sometimes we are on a deserted island and outside of the table is the vast ocean. Okay, she might not get it yet but she'll appreciate my craziness someday. :)