Grand Coulee Dam

I left out part of our Eastern Washington trip because I was going to make it it's own special post and then I totally forgot!

Some of our good friends moved away to Wisconsin a few years ago and I have only seen them once in that time. They recently moved back to Idaho, which isn't Washington, but it's closer! They moved right after the birth of their first son and had another little guy while they were gone so I was pretty excited to see them. They also hadn't met Cohen yet so we were glad to finally get to see each other's families.

The Gagliardi's hadn't been in Idaho long, but when I found out we were going to be closer than we'd been in years, we decided to meet up. Grand Coulee Dam was literally the only thing between us and them. It was a 2 hour drive for each of us but so worth it.

We met up at the Dam and quickly decided that it was cool to see but that our kids probably wouldn't be interested in taking the tour. We settled for a picnic lunch at a nearby park. The kids played and had a fun time while we caught up in between chasing kids, picking rocks out of mouths, and pushing swings. The sprinklers came on partway through our visit and Jonathan and Danny (their Danny) loved playing in them, clothes and all. I took very few pictures as you can tell.

I like to joke with Bryan and Tiffany that they named their kids after us. Jonathan is the girl version of Jana and Danny, well that's self explanatory.

It was so good to see them again even though our time was too short. The kids were worn out and we headed back our separate ways. We are really excited to get to go camping with them when they come to Washington in a few weeks!

Spectacle Lake

Friday morning we set off for Eastern WA bright and early. Cohen was a champ on the 5ish hour drive and we only had to stop a few times. The drive was beautiful and I even stayed awake for most of it, which is rare for me. I did nod off once only to have Danny wake me up and ask me where we were, to which I responded that I had been sleeping and had no clue.

We arrived to the lake and checked into our rooms. We had been to Spectacle Lake on vacation once when I was younger. As we pulled in it still looked pretty much exactly the same. We unloaded our stuff and pulled open to curtain and there was the lake. Such a perfect view right out our window.

Saturday morning we woke up to rain. Since we couldn't play on the lake we decided to go for a little hike.

On Sunday we woke up quite excited. A few years ago our good friends up and moved far, far away all the way to Wisconsin. They recently moved back to Idaho and so we made plans to meet up at the Grand Coulee Dam. More coming on that later. 

The men fully enjoyed the local fishing. Every morning and evening they would head off in the boat and stay out for a few hours. They caught a slew of fish and fried some up for a few meals and had plenty left for the freezer. Meanwhile, the women folk stayed inside planning the renovations to the Spectacle Lake resort while working on a puzzle.

 

 {First taste of fish}

 {Doing dishes, sweeping, and watching the baby...}

{While Gramma does crossword puzzles...}

 {And Danny drinks his morning coffee}

We had planned on staying until Wednesday, but by Tuesday we were growing weary of the rain and sad about the lack of sun we had been promised. It was getting hard to keep Cohen entertained in doors out of his regular habitat and he was growing restless. We decided to pack up and head home. Cohen was a champ on the ride home, he slept for most of it. Whenever he would start to fuss I would just hand another toy or piece of food over to him and he was happy again. 

We had a lot of fun, but I think Cohen was happy to be home. He crawled all around the house and would get a huge smile on his face whenever he found one of his toys.

 

15 Weeks

People have been asking for belly pictures, so here are a couple from vacation (or at least that you can see I have a belly haha). I guess I should get better about taking these from here on out!

Babies at the Beach

Maui!

We are back from vacation and it was SO nice to see the sun! Tiffany, one of our friends just graduated from UW (congrats Tiff!!) so we went on a little celebration trip with three other couples. We stayed in a villa at the Westin and it was really nice! There were BBQs there so the boys went to town and did the majority of our lunch and dinner cooking...ribs, cheeseburgers, kabobs and more! My Dr would be proud of how much I ate while we were gone. Danny took a picture of us on the plane and when I looked at it I realized that I now officially have a little belly that might be noticeable to other people.

 
 We spent our first few days sunbathing on the beach. The boys had a good time snorkeling and even saw a sea turtle! I mostly stayed on the beach or in the pool as I am not fond of sea creatures of any kind. I did try snorkeling once for a few minutes but then a fish got too close to me and I didn't go in again!

We spent one night on a sunset dinner cruise and another night at a luau that had really good food! We also got to be a part of a proposal, congratulations Steven and Bridget!! We got to hide out and watch the proposal and take pictures from our spots on the beach. We are so happy for you guys!
It was a great trip and hopefully in another 25 years or so we can go again :)

The proposal!

And the Answer is....

...BOYS! (Well, the Dr is 70% sure at least!) We had another ultrasound this week and they got a little peak and he says "outdoor plumbing" it is. This is what they thought they saw last week at our appointment too. I thought it would have been fun to have girls but I was pretty sure it would be boys since we are a pretty boy heavy family at least on my side. I have 3 brothers and one sister and our boys will make 5 boys and 1 girl for grandkids! My niece, the lone girl, really wanted girl cousins but I guess she will have to keep waiting :)

Ready to go! (yes that is Russell's tail...he was helping us pack!)

 Our bags are all packed and we are almost all ready for our trip to Maui! We are very excited to see the sun and have some time to relax with our friends. We plan on fully enjoying this trip since it will be our last one for the next...20 years?