Showered with Baby Love

These wonderful ladies threw Lilah and me the most beautiful and delicious baby shower.
And no they aren’t all pregnant as well.  They had this fun game where the women would blow up a balloon, put it under their shirt and try to make their “pregnant” belly the same size as mine.

 

Here are a few more of my friends and family who came to celebrate with me.

 

And here is some of the yummy food, I mentioned earlier. Rachel, Roy, and Shanda really out did themselves.
The food was absolutely scrumptious.  They made all sorts of sweet and savory brunch items along with some fresh fruit and cookies.
My Mom was sweet and made her famous almond poppy seed bread, which I had been craving for some time.

 

A few more “pregnant” friends.  Amy (on the left) won the game of matching her balloon belly to the same size as my belly.

 

The whole gang.

 

 

Thanks to Roy, Rachel and Shanda for throwing me such a sweet shower.
And thanks to all my friends and family for the adorable little girl clothes and for celebrating with me.

 

Family Photoshoot

It’s that time of the year again…
Family Picture Time.

One of our awesome home teachers studied photography at BYU and was a professional wedding photographer for a time.
He was kind enough to take our family pictures and a few maternity shots of me.

 

July 4th Celebrations

Before our visitors took off for home, they celebrated the 4th of July with us (on the night of the 3rd).
The kids has so much fun throwing Pop-Its and waving around their sparklers.
I’m so glad that we were able to spend some time with Ryan and Amanda and their sweet family.
It has been way too long!  Hopefully we’ll get to see them again before another 2 years go by.

 

 

On the 4th we had our own little celebration at the basketball court by our home.
We are lucky and live in an unincorporated county meaning we can shoot all sorts of fireworks up in the air!
So, the morning of the 4th we took McKay to the firework stand to pick out some of his favorite fireworks.
He chose smoke bombs, parachute men, racing turtles, and U.F.O. flyers. We also got some big ka-boom fireworks.
You know the ones that shoot up in the sky, like they do at big firework shows.  Yeah, we get to shoot off those!

This year I just took pictures of the things we did while still light outside and enjoyed the show at night.
And what a show it was.  Several families from the also had the idea to shoot off fireworks at the basketball court.
We saw over at least $1,000 of fireworks!  However, it was quite crowded and a little dangerous
(think roman candle set on the basketball court, falling over and shooting into the crowds of people).
Yes, next year we’ll do something different, but this year was great. 

Happy 4th of July!

 

Fun with Cousins . . .

While my brother and his family were in town we spent a day playing  around at Remlinger Farms.
Remlinger is a fun, little amusement park and farm geared towards younger kids

 

We spent the day in the park riding the train…

 

…rollercoaster…

 

…flying pumpkins…

…go carts…

…horses (plastic and living)…

…old fashioned cars…

…and canoes.

 

A quick little side note:  Reece was scared riding in the canoe, so Ashlynn grabbed that plastic duck to distract/entertain her.
What a great big sister.

We had such a fun and exhausting afternoon.  Just wish Adam could have been there with us.

Meeting Reece

We finally got to meet the newest addition to the Bishop family, my niece Reece.  The catch is she’s almost two years old!
We had heard so much about her from my parents that we couldn’t wait to meet this cute little firecracker.
She didn’t disappoint! She is the cutest spitfire with a kind little heart.  It was fun to meet you Reece.

While my brother and his family were in town we spent a lot of time at our neighborhood parks.
One of the kids’ favorite parks had a cool tunnel slide.  I was able to catch some fun pictures of the kids as they came out of the slide.

Here’s Reece…

 

Ryder is only 6 weeks younger then McKay.  He is the sweetest little boy with a smile to match.
McKay is always excited when we get to see Ryder.

 

Ashlynn is my first niece and she will always have a special place in my heart.  She is such a girly girl and will always pose for a picture.

 

Finally, here’s McKay.  I could never catch him coming out of the slide.  He was too fast!

 

Summer Vacation: Day Three

On our third and final day of vacation we planned on going to Oceanshore, WA for the Sand & Sawdust Festival.
We went a few years ago and really enjoyed it.  When we woke up in the morning it was a cold rainy day.
We decided we didn’t want to freeze at the beach so we switched things up a bit.
I must say… It’s fun being adults and getting to plan the vacation.

After a bit of research we decided to go to Cape Disappointment State Park.  It turned out to be the right choice.
We had so much fun exploring the park.  The first place we stopped off at to explore was the North Head Lighthouse.
It’s one of the few lighthouses that you can go up to the top off the lighthouse and explore.  We were so excited to go inside!
We found out however that you have to be 7 years old or older to go up to the top!
Cape Disappointment really lived up to its name at this point of our trip.
Poor McKay was so disappointed that he couldn’t go to the top of the lighthouse.  He handled it well though,
much better than I did.  It’s hard to see your child hurt and disappointed and not be able to do anything about it.

We did have fun though, walking around the lighthouse and enjoying the view.
We even had a little bit of excitement when I tried to go off the trail up a little hill into a tree cave.
I wasn’t being very observant and I didn’t notice that the ground was slick and muddy.

I slipped and caught myself in a really awkward position.  The hill was so steep and slippery that I couldn’t plant my feet to shift my weight.
So, there I was 7 months pregnant sliding around in the mud.  Too bad I had the camera and Adam didn’t get a picture of that.

We drove around the park and saw some pretty views of the Pacific Ocean and the Columbia River,
and then we visited another lighthouse.  There was a little bit of a hike to get to the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse.
On our way we saw this cool little cove, called Dead Man’s Cove.
It was so pictorial, I could easily image a dingy full of pirates rowing to shore to bury their loot.

After a little more hiking we reached the lighthouse and we were greeted by a deer.
Once again the most exciting thing about visiting the lighthouse was not the lighthouse itself.
While enjoying the scenic view McKay mentioned he had to go to the bathroom.
We were miles from any bathrooms, but there was an older looking building near the lighthouse that would provide some coverage.
Adam took McKay over to a spot near the building to do his business.
Soon after McKay finished a woman coast guard member came out of the building.  Oops!
She didn’t say anything to us, so we just kept going about our business.

Before we headed home we had one more stop to make.
If you’re ever in Astoria, OR you just have to stop by the Goonie House.
Seeing the house brought back good childhood memories.
Adam and I wanted a picture of us together in front of the house so we handed the camera over to McKay.
I think we might have a new photographer in the family.

All in all we had a whirlwind three day vacation.  And I loved every minute of it.

 

Summer Vacation: Day Two

After spending a wonderful day at the zoo, we headed south to Tillamook!
When I was younger my family took a vacation all from California up the Oregon coast to Washington
and along the way we visited Tillamook.  I remember getting chocolate chip cookie dough and heath ice cream after the tour. 
Ever since living in Washington I’ve wanted to visit Tillamook and get that ice cream!
Both Adam and McKay are cheese crazy so we decided that we just had to make a trip to Tillamook.

After spending the night in Tillamook we head to the Tillamook Cheese Factory first thing.
The factory and town were much smaller than I remember, but the cheese and ice cream were better than ever.
We had a blast walking around the factory, taking funny pictures and drooling at all the cheese.

While looking down on the factory floor we saw workers cutting large blocks of cheese into loaves to sell.
To make a perfect loaf the workers had to cut off all the sides/edges of the large block.
They would toss all the cut sides into a large bin.  Adam was drooling over this bin and wanted to figure out how to get one.  He didn’t walk away with a bin full of cheese, but he did get to shop in the factory store.

 

McKay found this fun Tillamook van to play in at the entrance to the factory.
He loved it so much he had to buy a little van to bring home.  Thanks Grannie and PoPo for the spending money.

After stuffing our faces with cheese and ice cream at 10am in the morning we decided to work it off with an easy hike.
We got a little lost on the way, thanks to my navigating; we found the trailhead for Munson Creek Falls.
It was a fun, easy hike with a tree with giant roots and a view of a waterfall at the end.
Before heading off to our next destination we took some time to throw rocks in the creek.

Next stop…Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock.

For all you Goonies fans out there, Haystack Rock is the large rock in the opening scene where the Fratellis are fleeing the police on the beach.  It’s also the largest rock Mickey points out when lining up the rocks in holes on the coin that he found with the treasure map.

When we arrived at the beach it was quite cool and it began to rain, but we decided to stick it out and see if the weather would change.
After a bit the rain stopped and we got used to the cooler temperature.  I’m so glad we stayed, it’s such a cool beach.
The tide was out and we got to see some cool tide pools near Haystack rock.  We couldn’t have timed it any better,
because the tide came in soon after we finished exploring.  Once the tide came it we began running from the waves and drawing in the sand.

We ended day two of our vacation in Astoria, Oregon.  We had dinner at The Wet Dog Café.
It was delicious.  If you’re ever in Astoria go there for dinner.  I think they had over 30 different types of burgers.