Mother's Day Weekend in the Methow Valley

We spent a beautiful weekend in the Methow Valley - with perfect weather, an amazing house/property where we stayed (called the hop hop house by Leana), and a scenic and challenging trail marathon (that Jeff I split up half and half).

I understand the allure of trail running now - in exchange for the pounding asphalt, you get to run along hiking trails, which means you get some impressive views and scenery as well as big hills!  I ran past lakes, fields of sunflowers, and at the top had a great view of the snow capped cascades.  But still the best view may have been the finish line: Jeff waiting with Juju in the ergo and Leana running towards me with an oreo in her outstretched hand and a big smile on her face.

 This was a giant king sized bed porch swing!

Juju - 7 Months Old!, Leana 2.75!

Juju celebrated his 7 month birthday in the Methow Valley this past weekend (more on that in another post soon). This month was marked by some efforts at "sleep training", as encouraged by our doctor. Juju goes to bed at 7pm and was regularly waking between 3 and 4 for a quick feeding. A few weeks into our sleep training and he is doing pretty well, mostly making it anywhere from 5-7am. Traveling threw things off a bit, as well at teething...but I can just barely see his first two teeth coming through!

Leana also celebrated her 2.75 year birthday and boy is she is excited to "grow up" and be three like many of her friends. Ever since birthday party season started up she has been talking about "me grow up, me three, blue cake, blue hat". So we'll see if she still has the same requests when it gets closer to her birthday. She also has rediscovered her love of bugs as the weather has gotten warm enough that they are all back out again, and her current obsessions also include Goldilocks and the 3 Bears and the 3 Little Pigs (but she mostly loves the Big Bad Wolf). It is so fun to watch her as she really gets into "imaginative play" and goes off to the 3 Bears House (our new plastic playhouse in the backyard) to eat some porridge and say hi to the bears.

Leana counting to ten (for the archives, this is from Easter weekend)

Spring is in the Air

The sun has started to shine around here, which means new activities to enjoy!

Ever since I told Leana she had to wear a helmet in order to ride a bike (which she is not happy about), she points out every single person we ever see not wearing one, including people on the streets or in books. I never realized how many people don't wear helmets and how often in children's books the characters do not either. Talk about setting a bad example!

Can you see the look of pure joy on Leana's face?