Back in Pasco

We have had an adventurous couple of days with my family this past weekend.  Erin and David came up from Utah, so we decided to go down to Pasco at the same time so we could all be together.  We did a lot of really fun things together; it is great being able to spend time with loved ones.  Even if it is only for a couple of days.

One day we went on a hike up Badger Mountain.  I don’t know if it was just bringing around a sixteen-month-old or if it was being pregnant, or the combination of the two, but that was a challenging hike.  My mom and Whitney and I went up the easy side, but I think it was just the long side of the mountain.  We definitely took breaks along the way to get some water and rest a minute.

Here we all chill on the top of the mountain.  It was a pretty view from up there, so we stopped for a picnic lunch before heading back down.  I figure I got the exercise that a pregnant woman needs to count for at least a couple of days.

We also did a lot of hanging out at home.  With all of us working together, we were able to finish a 1000 piece puzzle in just those couple of days.  It was nice to be able to play a bunch of games and talk while working on the puzzle and just relax to enjoy each other’s company.

Whitney has always loved dogs, but dogs have not always loved Whitney.  She is usually very nice to them, but she is a little exuberant and that scares the dogs away.  Zoey is my family’s dog and Whitney was always wanting to make friends with her, but Zoey didn’t like Whitney.  My mom came up with the idea of having Whitney give a piece of bacon to Zoey as a special treat and after that Zoey and Whitney got along fine.

Conner has this little tractor that you can sit on and push the gas pedal and it drives around.  One day he was being a nice uncle and he pushed the gas pedal and ran around the driveway with Whitney.  Every time he wanted to stop, Whitney kept signing ‘more’ and ‘more’, so I think poor Conner got pretty tired while Whitney was really happy.

This is only Whitney’s second time on a trampoline and she made us all a little nervous because she liked running close to the edge.  Thankfully, three of my siblings were also on the trampoline and they kept her from getting too close and falling off.  I don’t remember why we took her shirt off, but it came back on soon after getting back inside the house.

Will came to Pasco after work on Friday and then on Saturday we all went to Levy Landing for the day.  It is this great park which has a cool shady area with trees and BBQs, but also a beach area with a little lake for playing in.  We set up some camping chairs and Whitney decided she needed to try each one to see which she liked best.

Here Whitney and Will are on the beach and playing under the dragon.  It was a cool dragon decoration thing that appeared to be partially sticking out on the beach.

This is all three of us by the dragon with Whitney on its head.  She captured the dragon and saved the princess and all that good stuff.

The water was quite refreshing.  It was a little cool, but it didn’t start getting really cold until you moved farther away from the beach.  The bottom of the water was covered in mud.  So our feet got facials or footsials or something.  Whitney seemed to like the water for a little while, until she tripped into it one too many times and decided that she didn’t want the water on her face.

We stopped for a BBQ lunch and then there was a mud fight.

I didn’t participate because I didn’t have on good clothes and I knew Whitney didn’t want to be part of it.  But everyone looked like they were having fun.  And everyone got really muddy.

Whitney said goodbye to everyone on Sunday.  We had to get back to Cheney so Will could go to work and so Erin and David could catch their plane on Monday.  Whitney gave everyone some great hugs.  What a fun couple of days.

Picking Fruit

Today we went to Green Bluff Farmers right outside of Spokane to pick fruit.  We had some friends tell us about it last year, but we never took the chance to go.  It was almost an hour drive, so we won’t go back very often, but we all had a fun time.

This is  a picture of the farm and surrounding areas.  It is really pretty with the green trees and the mountains looming in the background.  It would be a nice place to sit and ponder for awhile or even take a short hike.

There was a funny little train just sitting on the grass outside of all the fields.  I think it is normally used to take people around the different fields for picking, but today it was just sitting there.  Whitney had to take a moment to examine it.

Whitney and I stand by this great big pumpkin.   I guess there is a big pumpkin patch in the fall and lots of people go to pick pumpkins every year.  So this fake pumpkin just stays standing all year to convince people to come back in the fall.

It is hard to tell from the picture, but this is us riding on the tractor to get to the strawberry field.  It was a really crowded ride, so we all squished together.  I think Whitney liked it bumping over the little hills and whatnot. 

I took this picture from the tractor, so we aren’t in the field yet.  But it was a crowded place because it was the first weekend for strawberry picking.  We were able to find plenty of strawberries though.  We are glad that we went in the early morning because by the time we were leaving, the farmers were turning people away because all the strawberries were gone.

Whitney did pretty good at staying on the paths between the strawberry plants.  We had to remind her a couple of times to not squish the berries in her hands or under her feet.  It got pretty warm, so I was grateful to be in shorts.  We made poor Whitney wear long sleeves though because we were worried about sunburn and bees.  Both of those were not a problem though, thank goodness.

Here is Will’s basket full of strawberries.  I had my own basket and we wandered up and down the field collecting strawberries and taking turns being in charge of Whitney.  (She tends to make picking strawberries harder).

After paying for our strawberries, we looked around a bit and got a picture of Will and Whitney in front of the “castle”.  We could have paid extra money and let Whitney explore the castle, but we decided not to do that.

So we had a great time getting strawberries.  We also picked a little rhubarb as well, but we aren’t quite sure what we want to do with it.  It has been a good day.

Happening in Cheney

Life in Cheney has been pretty normal.  We are going to do two blogposts today because there are too many pictures for just one.   And if you get bored, just read one today and one later.   Whitney had a friend over one day.  Courtney ended up babysitting another toddler in the ward whose mom felt sick; so little Jess, who is four months older that Whitney, was over for about six hours.  Whitney had a great time.

Here the two of them examine the toys.  They mostly did pretty good sharing.  Both of them being only children aren’t used to sharing with others.  But there was no major fights.

The two of them most have gotten pretty close while he was here because they give each other a “kiss”.  Oh…young love.  It wasn’t a real kiss because it ended up being chin against forehead, but it was cute and I was glad that I got it on camera.  I remember that I was extra tired by the end of the day.  Chasing after two toddlers who run in different directions is a lot of work.

Whitney loves going outside and picking up rocks.  There were a couple of days in a row last week that ended up being too cold and windy to go outside.  So Whitney has taken to going behind the curtain to look outside.  She will actually stay there for five or ten minutes just looking at the grass and things behind us.  This is Whitney’s shadow against the window.

We had to get a picture of Whitney’s bloomers.  Both Will and I noticed at the same time that the smiley face on Whitney’s bloomers were crooked.  We couldn’t just straighten it out either.  Then we noticed that Will had put Whitney’s legs into the wrong holes and the bloomers were literally on sideways.  So we had a good laugh and put them back on the right way.

This is Whitney’s ‘All Done’ handsign.  She also uses it for ‘All Gone’.  Like of we finish eating a food or if Whitney drops a toy and I ask her where it is, she will give that signal.  It is kind of funny.

On a nice warm day, we put Whitney in her coverall shorts.  She didn’t seem to mind them, but occasionally she remembered the straps on the sides and would try to pull at the buttons.  The only problem was the coveralls didn’t have snaps on the bottom and had to be taken all the way for every diaper change.  That’s a bit too much hassle for us laid back parents.

So Whitney likes the sunshine.  We try to go on walks three or four times a week.  I get more tired now that I am pregnant, so the walks aren't as long as they use to be.  Oh well.  At least we are gettting exercise.  Goodbye everyone.

Vancouver and back

This has been a very fun couple of days. We went to Vancouver to visit Ruth and Dana and their new son Magnus. Boy is he a little cutie and we were lucky to be able to meet him and be part of the baby blessing on Sunday. And he seems like a very happy little fellow. We took a whole ton of pictures, so don’t mind if there are a lot of pictures for this blogpost.

This is a picture of Whitney meeting her cousin. She really liked the baby and we had to make sure that she didn’t put too much pressure on him or poke his eyes. But Whitney did pretty good and usually just pointed to him and would say ‘baby’. It was so cute to watch Whitney give Magnus hugs and kisses.

Here Whitney and Magnus get a ride on their daddy’s shoulders. They both seemed to really love the experience. Whitney was the big girl on her dad’s shoulders and Magnus was too little to really have a baby fight, but it was fun watching them.



We got to do a lot of fun things on our trip. The first thing was to go the Japanese Garden in Portland.

It was just Will, Whitney, and I that went because Dana was at work and Ruth wanted to stay home with a fussy Magnus. It was a beautiful garden with lots of flowers and streams and it was just a very calm place. I could have stayed there and just read a book or written a book or just spend some time sitting. It was peaceful. Here are some pictures from the garden.

It was just a wonderful garden. Inside, was even a zen garden. I guess these rock gardens were very popular in medieval times.





The next day was spent with Ruth and Dana and Magnus taking a tour of all the pretty sights in the gorge. I cannot believe what we miss when we just drive through quickly on the freeway and don’t get to see everything.



We went up to Crown Point and got to look out over the water.

I thought the fog over the water made it that much more beautiful.

This building is the visitor center for the point and we got to climb up to the ledge and see everything. You can see for miles from that far up the mountain. After seeing everything from up high, we traveled a little ways to go see a couple of waterfalls. I don’t remember all their names, but I am sure we could ask Dana and they would tell us.

This is first waterfall we saw. We got to get really close to this one and could feel the mist spraying off the bottom as the waterfall hit the small stream.

Here is the three of us standing by the waterfall. We also got to see the Maltnomah Falls. According to Dana, it is one of the biggest waterfalls in the Northwest area. It is 542 feet tall and simply magnificent.

It is amazingly tall. We got to walk up a little trail to be on the bridge to get closer to the falls. Unfortunately, people aren’t allowed to get to close because about 17 years previously there was a big rock slide and a huge boulder fell down, injuring people at a wedding shower. But we could still feel the mist as we stood on the bridge.

It is hard to tell because our camera doesn’t have the greatest zoom abilities, but this is us standing on the bridge. Dana ran down the trail to get some pictures of us on the bridge. We were at this waterfall for awhile just having a great time looking at it. But then we all got hungry and needed a late lunch.



After lunch we went to a fish hatchery/water treatment kind of center. Dana taught us all about salmon ladders

Which still seem a little cruel since you are making the fish swim upstream and I don’t think they really need to, but it is suppose to be more realistic. The great part was when you go inside the visitors center and get to see from behind glass windows the fish swimming by in the fish ladder.

Here Will shows Whitney the fish going by. The salmon must sort of travel together because there would be great clumps of them and then none would swim by the window for awhile. I learned that salmon really have a rough life.

So it was a really great couple of days. We all said our goodbyes to each other after sacrament meeting. I wish we could stay longer, but we will have to get back together soon.

Happenings in Cheney

There hasn’t been too much exciting happenings in Cheney. We like to go outside a lot now and for Memorial Day we hosted a BBQ for all the families in our ward who live around here. We had a good turn out too and it didn’t rain on us. So it ended up being successful. We just wanted to post some random pictures of the things we have been doing.

Whitney tried to put her hair tie into Will’s hair. It didn’t work out so well when she tried, but then Will gave her some help and got the tie to stay in. Naturally, I had to take some pictures to remember just how handsome Will looks with a hair tie in.

Will was just laying on the floor one day and Whitney came up to give him something. I think he took too long to accept the offering, so she just put it on him. After that, Whitney went around our apartment looking for more fun things to put on Will. Books, dolls, stuffed animals, nothing were left out. It was funny to watch the pile on Will’s stomach grow larger and larger until finally it just tipped over. Look out below!

Whitney has been getting bigger, so we took out another box of larger clothes that we received from Lissie and Gary (Courtney’s aunt and uncle). Here Whitney tries on her new ‘Daddy’s Girl’ shirt. Will liked that shirt and Whitney really does love her daddy.

We also found a couple new dresses in that box. Whitney looked all pretty in pink yesterday at church. It was finally nice enough weather that we could put her in short sleeves and just socks, no more tights. I like no more tights because those can be a pain to put on small children.

Whitney will probably yell at us in the future for putting up a picture of her without any clothes, but she is wearing a diaper. I cannot remember why she didn’t have anything on, either she was eating something messy or about to take a bath or maybe changing into pajamas. Anyway, she escaped without clothes and wanted to play with some toys instead. She is actually holding the ring box that held Will’s wedding band I bought.

I know we have done enough of the cheese, but this picture was too funny to pass up. This is how much Whitney loves her cheese. She wants to lick the container clean.

And here is our loving family. We tried to take our own picture of all of us after church while we were all dressed up nice. It only required like twenty pictures, but we got one with all of us smiling and looking at the camera. What an accomplishment. Thank goodness for digital cameras so we don’t have to print all the not so good pictures.