Mother's Day

When Brent asked me what I wanted for Mother's Day, I couldn't really decide...

Then I heard it was going to be near 80 degrees this weekend, and then all I wanted to do was go camping.

So we quickly packed up the car, Ry, and some friends and headed an hour north to Granite Falls.

It was by far the best weekend of 2012.

 We learned Ryland thinks river mud is quite delicious

 fishing for the first time

 Our campsite had a great swing, Tony  helped me get some good momentum

 

 My next time on the swing I decided to jump off into the river - it was freezing in that water by the way.  

 I have been with Brent for nearly 9 years, and I've never seen him do anything like this.  He may have been heavily pressured by us all to try it, but we were so proud ;)

 

Too bad I didn't bring a swimsuit or extra dry clothes!

Best mother's day ever!

A day full of friends

 these 2 have some seriously funny personalities... right!?

Last Thursday I had 4 kiddos in and out of the house throughout the day.  

 Addie came over for the morning and Jacob was hanging out as well - so we did some art

 and ate some lunch!

then baby Amelia came to play and Ryland was a GREAT helper.  He got out all of his toys for her and kept rubbing her head saying "baby" - I've never seen him with a little baby before and it was downright precious.

Just wanted to share the cute photos.

The Hoh and Forks

 

 We stayed the night in Forks, which is a tiny fishermen town that has been taken over by Twilight - there was multiple establishments such as the one in the above photo.

 

 Thursday we drove to the Hoh Rainforest - I have never been before so I was super excited.

The Elk are fearless around there - I took this photo without a zoom lens...

 The Hoh looks like a different world - absolutely gorgeous.

 Ryland thought "Momo" lived in the water, we Momo-searched for awhile.

 This kid is quite the hiker.  We did a 1.5 mile loop and he kept up the whole time

 I love this photo - Ryland looks like a mini Brent to me lately, they even walk similarly

 my favorite boys!

 

 Ry loved to explore the holes through the trees - he called them 'houses'

 Ry routed out our hike for the day

 he really wanted to sit in this "house" - such a funny kid!

Olympic Peninsula - La Push and Rialto Beach

 For Brent's spring break, we went to the peninsula for a couple of days.  We love it there, but it involves a ferry ride and a few hours in the car, so we rarely go. 

 We made it to Rialto Beach just in time for Sunset - just the 3 of us + Shelby.

 The next pictures are from earlier in the day at the beach in La Push - if you read/watch the Twilight series, you know La Push as the place that Jacob lives.  We aren't really big Twilight fans - but wanted to visit La Push anyway :)

Ryland was SO hungry after playing on the beach - he cobbled down clam chowder, fried fish, indian fry bread, and smoked salmon for dinner.  We couldn't believe how much food he inhaled and neither could our waitress (who warned us we ordered too much food... we ate it all!)

First barbeque of 2012

 We love to barbeque. With our friends, complete with guitars for sing-a-longs and bonfires for marshmallow roasting.

We hosted the first of what we hope is many this weekend.  We had about 10 friends join us, Ry loves the attention (and gifts) he gets from all his childless aunts and uncles around here!  

He also loves roasted corn with lots and LOTS of butter.

 The weather was beautiful on Saturday - I'm so ready for it to be like this every day!

 Our friend Julie brought her camera and took lots of great shots of Ryland - he is quite the little model.

and the sing-a-longs lasted until midnight... sorry neighbors!  Fun fact: this is Russell - and he was my next door neighbor when I was 6 years old.  I think nearly everyone at our house this weekend is an Ephrata native - we just can't get away from these guys (not that we'd ever want to.)