Babies and pumpkins

To celebrate our dear friend Robyn's 30th birthday her husband Phil organized a reunion of our college roommates, along with all our new babies (and one on the way)! It was a very special time because although we've all seen each other in the past year, we haven't all seen each other all together at the same time since Krista & KJ's wedding in 2006! We kicked off the weekend with a visit to Robyn's favorite coffee shop for her favorite cinnamon rolls. While we ate, drank, and visited, the babies rolled around on the floor and stole each others binkies.

 Then we headed up to Greenbluff (of course, it's a sin not to when you are in Spokane in the fall!). You can imagine the laughter and squealing (by the parents mostly) as we posed our adorable children together in this fall scene.

 mom blogs and facebook profile pics are littered with babies & pumpkin pictures right now, I'm just adding to that today----it's irresistible!

 What's better than babies and pumpkins? Dinner at the Grandparents house! Thanks to Krista and Rebecca's parents, we were blessed to have both our group dinners hosted so that we could enjoy each others company and tend to the little ones. Of course, these Grandparents had ulterior motives of baby holding galore! Seemed like a good trade to me!

It was a fabulous weekend of catching up and baby lovin'. Thanks Robyn, for turning 30! And thanks Phil, for making Robyn's birthday wish come true for all of us!

We also had a surprise baby shower for Cora, but I don't have any great pictures of the event, so, more to come when I can snag a few cute pics from other peoples cameras :)

For Mom

Here's a little video of Kendall on her play mat...she just realized that she is the one making the toys move when she hits them, so now she does it all the time and giggles at them when they move or make noise. Of course when I started to record her doing this she toned down her enthusiasm...but this gives you an idea.

3 months old

I can't believe that 3 months have already gone by. Kendall continues to be such a fun baby! At 3 months old she weighs 9lbs and 12 oz. and just outgrew her newborn clothes. She comes up with cute new tricks to show me everyday (that I'm sure no other baby has ever done before!). I seriously can't believe how blessed we are. In the past month she has started to really giggle and react to us. She knows who her mommy and daddy are, and that warms our hearts! She has recently become very talkative--hmmm, no clue where that came from? She even likes to sing with her daddy! She can play by herself and be totally content for 30 or more minutes  when surrounded by her favorite friends the penguin, turtle, caterpillar, and the mirror (I'm actually eating a breakfast now, and occasionally get a few chores in!)! But, she loves it even more when Keith or I get down and play with her. She is obsessed with putting her hands in her mouth, and even tries to put them in while she's eating. Tummy time is becoming more enjoyable now with some increased arm and neck strength. and occasionally she'll even roll to her side (very advanced, or lopsided). Oh, and she regularly sleeps 7 or 8 hours at night---she is the nicest baby ever!!! Here are a few pictures of our beautiful, joyful, amazing little girl!

a little unsure of the bumbo just yet

brings new meaning to double fistin'

really anything near her mouth goes in it!

loving the October sunshine!

Last day in D.C.

Clark told us one of their favorite places in D.C. is the FREE zoo! Since we saw almost all the sights we could to see (including the Smithsonian American History Museum), and neither of us can remember the last time we went to a zoo, we decided that would be a cool place to check out.  And it was!

after we took the long metro ride and walk to the zoo, we fueled up at the Starbucks across the street and headed inside!

 Here are a few of the cool animals we saw:

 Sloth Bear

 Cheetah

 Pandas on lease from China

 red tailed panda---super cute!

 Elephants

 Gorillas

 Lions

 Apes

 Turtles

 Zebras

And quite possibly my favorite animal of the day: The Naked Mole Rats

 (if you haven't read Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed by Mo Willems you need to)

 On our way back to our hotel we stopped at Iwo Jima (to nurse!)

 View from Iwo Jima (very close to our hotel)

 Walking back to the Metro to catch a train to the airport. Are you impressed with our minimal luggage? What you see is everything we brought and Keith carried it all the whole time!

 Crying a little on the plane :( Sorry other passengers, 4 hours is too long of a plane ride for us!

Once she fell asleep she was amazing the whole trip back!

All in all it was a truly wonderful trip!  The wedding was so fun, the sight seeing was superb, the weather was fantastic (75-80 degrees and sunny the whole time!), and Kendall surpassed all our expectations! Someday we'll return so Kendall can actually remember it :)

Jon & Jenna Hudlow

In an adorable little chapel in Georgetown D.C. we witnessed the vows of Jenna and Jon!

 Husband & Wife!

 The reception was a dinner cruise around the city---Kendall was really excited about it :)

 I did say "was" excited!

The beautiful bride!

It was a very special day to be a part of, Thanks Jenna for including us!

Travel trooper

Turns out we like to celebrate Kendall's month birthdays with trips! We started out small, by driving about an hour north to Stoneridge for a week, right around her one month birthday. The next step up was a 7 hour drive to Longview and Portland, around her two month birthday. And just before her three month birthday, we took her to Washington D.C! I guess we need to consider crossing an ocean for her four month birthday! Boy, things are going to get really pricey at this rate!!!

The real reason for the D.C. trip was for a dear friend, and former Young Life girls, wedding---makes me feel super old that now two of my campaigner group girls are now married women! Sheesh! The funny thing is they are only a year younger than I was when I got married almost 5 years ago. The age gap is shrinking quickly.

After a few flights, a little crying through security, and a really long night, we arrived Friday afternoon and began our adventures in D.C. We figured we would not be able to do all the touristy things considering we had Kendall, however she proved to be an amazing traveler and we saw significantly more than we anticipated. We also decided to not rent a car and navigate the city via public transportation. And also thought this would be extra tricky with a little one, but it wasn't hard at all! Once we found and settled into our hotel we headed out to explore. Keith's friend Clark recently lived here and we called on him to tell us which things needed to be seen. He suggested the Lincoln Memorial and the WWII Memorial should be seen at night. Here is a picture capturing both, WOW!

 We decided after this night time trek that the stroller wasn't necessary. Kendall preferred to be carried in the front pack and the stroller takes up too much space on the metro. However, no stroller = no car seat = no last minute cab rides = plan ahead!

here is the view of the opposite direction with the Washington Monument in the background. I sure wish my camera took better night pictures!

 After an awkward night time nursing session on a bench just outside the WWII memorial we walked along the reflection pool to the Lincoln memorial.

The Washington Monument view from the Lincoln Memorial

And this is how Kendall enjoyed these sights. Asleep in the pack!

 the metro

 Family picnic under the shade of the Washington monument

 The White House

 We were invited in to sign a bill even! Thanks Barack & Michelle :)

 The future president

 The Capitol Building

 Korean War Memorial

 Lincoln in the day time

 oops

 Vietnam War Memorial

 Kendall continuing to enjoy all that D.C. had to offer!

Finally a little freedom from the pack!