Chehalis Trip

I've got some catching up to do. I've been working on Hunter's 12 month post (even though he's closer to being 13 months now.....) but this post was shorter and needed to get on here!

The beginning of June we went to Chehalis for TJ's grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. They had quite the little party with lots of friends and family - they are obviously very loved!

We flew out of Boise because we found a great deal on some flights. We were on a plane with propellors - a new experience for all of us! It was pretty loud. They had a little play table in the airport while we were waiting and Hunter had a great time playing.

 I love WA. So green and beautiful!

When we got there we went to the church to help decorate and get things ready.......and by that I mean we mostly played in the gym ;)

It was such a fun weekend with family! Hunter loved crawling through this tunnel being chased/playing hide and seek with his auntie Kaeli.

Hunter LOVED this rocking horse! He totally mastered rocking back and forth by himself.

TJ and Hunter with Grandpa Kershaw

TJ's dad is an EMT at the fire department, so Sunday evening we went over and toured the fire station. 

TJ, his dad, and cousin Landon went fishing one day.

Shelby and Hunter playing with Mima

TJ's baby

We took Hunter for his first 4 wheeler and motorcycle rides! He held his hands up in the air the whole time, loving it.

I rode the 4 wheeler :)

One night we went kayaking on the river with all the cousins and spouses/significant others. We loaded up the flatbed, and for some reason this just makes me laugh!

There were 10 of us and we had so much fun! TJ and I were in the double kayak.

Road block! Err.....river block? Haha. We had to slightly bushwhack our way past some of the trees that had fallen.

Hunter was a great helper with unpacking when we got back :)

We had such a great weekend with family! It really stinks we live so far away. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Kershaw for loving each other for 60 years so we could all get together to celebrate :)

Hunter's First Birthday

Tuesday was spent celebrating Hunter. He turned ONE!! We didn't have a huge party or do anything really that much out of the ordinary, but Hunter didn't seem to mind. I didn't feel so bad either because really, he had a happy day without all the hoopla I could have gone through. So in my books it is so much better to keep it low key for first birthdays. We told him happy birthday a million times and played all day doing what he wanted.

We got super fancy and decorated with some streamers :)

Hunter thought they were pretty awesome.

I let him play in the fridge to his heart's content - one of his favorites!

He got to eat 2 whole cheese sticks at lunch! As well as some of his other favorite foods.

He was pretty happy about it.

He had a blast opening his presents! He definitely got spoiled.

Though he loved his presents, the packaging was way more fun to play with!

TJ bbq'd some chicken for dinner - another of Hunter's favorites. Hunter loves to knock/bang on the window while Dad is outside :)

Then it was time for the cake! I made some sport cupcakes - basketball, tennis, baseball, golf, soccer.

We had both our families on video chat so they could watch Hunter smash his cupcake :)

It went a little something like this...

his face in this picture kills me!

He LOVED it!! He ate basically the entire cupcake, gleaning all the crumbs he could pick up with his fingers. He barely got any on the floor.

A prompt bath afterward was a perfect end to a perfect first birthday :)

We sure love this little man. He give us all the reason in the world to celebrate. Happy birthday, Hunter!!

4th of July

I love the 4th of July. It is easily one of my favorite holidays. I love this country and am so grateful for the freedoms I enjoy.

We had a pretty fun and relaxing day. We slept in a little bit, 

 made a delicious patriotic breakfast,

 (this is TJ's Canamerica friendship waffle :)), 

  then went out on a bike ride!

 Introducing: goggle girl! I have terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad allergies. People do a double-take more often than not, or laugh at me, or just look at me like I'm a weirdo. And honestly, I am. But I will take looking like a dork over itchy eyes ANY day! (you know you love it)

 Later in the evening we went over to our friend's the Barnards and had a bbq. Hunter had so much fun playing with this water balloon!! ....until it popped! His face was priceless.

We had a lot of water balloons, so Hunter got to play with some more :)

There were a few other kids there that were older than Hunter and they thought it was really fun to have a balloon with a tiny hole in it so they could "draw" on the sidewalk with the water, and spray other people. Hunter just thought it was fun to drink it :)

 He ate an entire popsicle and LOVED it!

He played with these otter pops until they were melted.

We kept Hunter up so he could watch the fireworks. Unfortunately the fireworks show got delayed for an hour because some people jumped in the river to try and swim out to an island in the middle to watch the fireworks. 2 of them survived, one drowned. Super sad. So that was a little bitter sweet.

We had some fireworks we lit off while we were waiting and there were some other people on our street that had some fountains that Hunter really liked watching. He fell asleep before the big show started and slept right through it.

 We love fireworks!!

This was on TJ's cupcake at work the day before the 4th :) We had a great holiday celebrating our wonderful country!