Brace Face!

         Isn't he adorable?!

We Be Road Trippin'

Here are some pictures and a little documentary from our road trip to Washington. We had a wonderful time and Clara Lynn did amazingly well in her car seat for hours on end. 

 It is a 45 minute ferry ride to Lopez Island. We spent a few minutes out on the deck but it was COLD (Clara's face/body says it all). The weather was cold for most of our time on the Island, so I am glad I had one pair of pants and a jacket that I bought at the thrift store.

 We hiked to Iceberg Point. It was a short little hike with a nice trail mostly enclosed in trees. Totally the stuff I LOVE. 

 We spent most evenings playing games and chatting with Grandma and Grandpa Cook

 This is Watmough Bay. My favorite place on Lopez Island aside from the property. There is a sweet hike on the side of the bay through the trees and the beach has soft sand and great skipping rocks! 

 Clara got some good layout time in the shade (no she wasn't sun bathing).

        This is the property that Josh's parents take care of in exchange for free rent. Well, this is only a part of it. The property is 33 acres in total. There are two large (like mansion size) cabins on the property, one small (2-bedroom) cabin and the house that the Cooks live in. The cabins are vacant most of the time. They are used for vacations by the family that owns them. 

The Cook Home :-)

This is the view from their living room. Soooo gorgeous! 

 The little cabin we stayed in for a few nights. 

Little cabin interior

My first time washing my hair with essential oils and my body with fruit stem cells. It's probably like 50 dollar shampoo and conditioner.

We went to the most amazing bakery EVER on Lopez. We had a raspberry filled pastry that was $5.75 and worth every penny!!

Explored some trails on the property in the Kubota and got stuck in a weedy area with lots of big holes in the ground. We had to put big rocks in the holes until we got ourselves out of there! Fun little adventure. 

 The Clayton's let us stay with them on our way up and back from Lopez Island. It was so fun to spend a short time with them on their stomping grounds! (Homemade salsa and pineapple ice-cream not pictured) (Gorgeous park on large blue lake also not pictured)

 We stopped in Seattle on our way home and spent a couple of hours with Daniel (Joshua's brother) and Lilith (Daniel's parrot). It was great! We wish we'd had more time there. It was such a wonderful trip! So much family time and beautiful sights. I am hoping to go to Lopez every summer now...especially if all of our babies are as good of travelers as Clara was.

Putting Tessa to bed just got a whole lot more complicated!

I was awfully surprised to see Tessa walk out of her bedroom early this morning. I wasn't quite sure how she would have gotten out of her crib. It wasn't long before we had her escape on camera! We have now taken off the front of Tessa's crib, and will keep her contained by locking her bedroom door. It's funny to think that the twins were just starting to walk around her age.

Clara Lynn's Blessing Day

Clara was blessed on Sunday, June 5th. Josh gave her a beautiful blessing and we had amazing food with friends and family after our meetings. I wish I had more pictures of everyone who was with us! Clara was so good for the whole event--not a peep out of her during her blessing and she was awake!

 

Four Generations!

A fun little video

SSSHHH... we're keeping it under-wraps for now!

Girl Party

Had a lovely couple of days with these cute girls! :) So glad Jenny has joined the Mom club.

Four Weeks Old

This little beauty is four weeks old today! I took this picture yesterday after getting her dressed up for church for the first time. Isn't she adorable? (The dress came from G'ma Webre and I think it has got to be pretty ancient but still so cute!)



At this stage of life Clara likes to sleep a lot, eat about every three hours, and poop about every three minutes. She's been bothered lately in the evenings with gas pains. She does not hardly spit up at all (except when she vomits occasionally). She has already discovered her tongue and she'll stick it out at us sometimes. We've noticed dimples when she smiles the right way and we enjoy all of the other many faces she pulls, especially her stink eye. We are working on protecting that cute little face from her fingernails, as she is always grabbing and scratching her face (she has an incredibly strong grip, too!). She weighs about 9.5 pounds. You can't see very well in this picture but she still has a good head of hair that stands straight up. I think she actually enjoyed her last bath. She didn't cry until we took her out to towel her off. She likes to be swaddled and sleeps for 4-5 hours at a time during the night. I usually only have to get up with her once (but sometimes she stays up for one to one and a half hours. She does like to be held when she is awake. She has a sweet, peaceful spirit and we are so blessed to have her in our home!

To sum it all up, we like her. We're going to keep her.