Almost caught up.

4th of July this year we had some of our favorite peeps come spend the week with us.  Jen and Jackson were wonderful enough to make a 2nd trip of the year and come keep us company while Justin was in Spokane working a few weeks before we were moving.  It was weird to be home on the 4th since we always travel somewhere and to have the house in boxes, Justin away it was all a bit different this year.  Needless to say them coming was a very welcomed distraction. :)

We took the kids to the parade in Blaine and it was a small town, fun time.  Kids got lots of candy, the weather was beautiful and we got to enjoy a new town for a day.  

Live music and plenty of entertainment from the dancers. ;)

We took the kids on some hikes around the neighborhood.

 Spent the day at Birch Bay and this is probably the 2nd time in our 6 1/2 years of living here that we have been here with nice weather.  Usually it's cold with the wind but not this day!

 Kids dug, and dug, and dug for clams and had a BLAST!!!

Haylee's fancy footwork.

Catching a little r&r in the sun.

Happy campers!

Took a city bus trip to the library.

We really had a fun week.  Thanks Jen & Jack, we always love your company and can't wait til next time. Love you!

The kids were quite the over achievers this summer with all the lemonade stands they were having.  I was super impressed with how much time and effort and MONEY they made!  People would give them 5 and 10 dollars just for being out there and being cute.

They are pretty cute I must say!

Justin finally made it back to us after almost a month of being gone. :(  The kids were SO excited on the day we got to go pick him up from the train.

Waiting

Haylee couldn't wait for him to actually get IN the station. ;)  She was missing her Daddy like crazy!

It was a good day!

:)

After the train it was off to the Dr for the ultrasound with the whole family.  We wanted them to be there to experience what it's like to watch the baby inside and see all of her moving parts.  We also thought having them there to find out the sex would be fun too.  When we got done and were heading to drop kids off with Nicole (my saving grace through this move) she had this all up when we drove up:

Such a fun idea and we were so excited after releasing the (pink) balloons we forgot action shots of the whole thing.  You get the idea though blue balloons released for boy and pink for girl, it was very fun. And very thoughtful.

The next day I followed this big yellow truck:

 360 miles to our new home in Spokane.

 
We decided to take a transfer position that was offered to Justin to get a new North Coast store up and running in Spokane.  We have always wanted to live over in this area and we felt like God was leading us this way and it just felt right.  We so far are loving the area, weather, school, house.  It's a lot of work that I think renting for 6 years has made us forget but it's well worth it to have something of our own.

It really is so great to have a back yard again too, that has been the place we have spend the most time for sure.

 

Trampoline, swing set

And above the swing set sits this amazing tree house! 

Down the street we have a city pool and park filled with these beautiful trees.  It really has been a great change for our family, we are very thankful this opportunity came up when it did.

Plus we now have the bonus of living 40 min from our favorite place ever.....the lake!

 This particular weekend we had lightening strike a big cotton wood tree that we had to get cleaned out.  It's nice though that we can now be around to help with that kind of stuff and be spending more than once or twice a year here.

 Messy job

A HUGE thank you to Mike and Bonnie as well for meeting us here and helping us unload the truck.  Don't know what we would have done without you. :)