Memorial Day Loooooong Weekend!

We are loving our 3 1/2 day weekend! Jason and I only worked from 8-12 on Friday, but childcare is open all day and Lily was sleeping anyway, sooo.... we snuck out to see X-Men! Going to a movie together is such a treat these days!

On Saturday, we headed to Mt. Vernon to visit our friends Geoff, Kim, and Baby W. They took us to their favorite pool. It's a private, saltwater, WARM pool at this crazy big house. It's indoor but has these great big windows to a beautiful view (and they also let in great natural light! hello pool pictures!!).

 After swimming, Lily loves to take a "warm up shower." This one had a shower poolside! Lily was in heaven!

 After the pool, we headed back to Geoff and Kim's the enjoy their backyard, BBQ, firepit, and new swing set! The sun even surprised us with a visit! Conveniently, it's also the perfect time to practice the backlighting class I've been taking. :)

 Tobee is almost the size of Lily, and she was pretty pissed the first time he snagged a chip right out of her hand. After she recovered, she realized that feeding Tobee was a pretty fun activity...chip after chip after chip....

Baby W is 1 now and will soon be running around with Lily!! Right now he's content to just stay put on a blanket in the grass. Between that and Lily loving sitting on the swing FOREVER, they were both contained and we could enjoy some lovely adult conversation!

   Here's a video of Geoff playing guitar around the campfire, and Lily screeching with delight on their swing.

We love having an extra day off! This morning Lily woke up at 5:15 asking for food, and when I woke up I found the two of them like this:

We also celebrated Papa's birthday! I failed to take any pictures, except this one of Cooper devouring Uncle Jason's ribs. Delish! Happy Birthday, Dad!

Location Scouting

I've been having fun this month meeting up with some local photographer mommas that I met through ClickinMoms. We are super excited to FINALLY have some nice weather, and one momma even took us out to show us her favorite shooting spot. There are so many fun places to shoot there, and WATER! It's super fun to all take pictures of each other's kids, and I get to watch how they shoot, pose, interact with the kiddos, etc. Then when we get home our little facebook group blows up with pictures and chatter from the outing! Here are some of my pictures from the first visit. This sweetie pie is another Lily, a 3 year old version!

 And our second visit...

Lexie at Alexis Merritt Photography took this one!

 And our third! KK is not a super willing subject, but she did have no problem with dirt, mud, and jumping into the grass. She loved wading into the creek (a little further than her boots allowed!). She's a good influence on our "must stay clean, I don't even want to walk on mud with my boots on" Lillian!

I can't wait to spend more time there as the weather warms up!

Birthday Trip to Chihuly Garden and Glass!

Mary took Rachel and I to see the Chihuly Garden and Glass today! We've decided it was so cool we need to go again at night....and in every season...and at sunset...you get the picture. We highly recommend it!

 Rachel spotted the nest in this yellow display...with a momma bird sitting on it! Too cool!

 Can you see us?? :)

Tulips 2014

Rare post by Jason:

Lily and I spent last weekend visiting our friends Geoff, Kim, and their son William for his 1st birthday party. Michal was under the weather and helping Rachel with her garage sale, so it was a Daddy Daughter day. Our friends live up in Mount Vernon and since timing + weather + tulips had not yet happened with the whole clan, Lily and I decided to stop by Tulip Town for the annual tulip pictures before it was too late!   Unfortunately my photography skills are not quite up to par with my wife's, but that didn't stop me or the other 12 zillion people from capturing family memories on our phones.  Here are our results: 

 We're here!!  Obligatory shot of the first tulips we saw in the parking lot.

 I wonder what's on the other side of this gate?

 Selfie!

 Lily practiced her new skill of "smiling" for the camera.  

It turns out my daughter is a ham.  A cute ham, but a ham nonetheless.

 See?

 I think I see a tractor over there, daddy.

 Tractor ride!!!

 There was a LOT of mud and puddles on our tractor ride.  Lily loved to look over the side and stare down while the tractor pulled us through lots of spots where I was sure we would get stuck and asked to push.  Fortunately we survived.  It's almost as if the driver had done this all before.

 

What you lookin' at?

I think I'm ready to go home, daddy.

Success!