Settling In

Well... we survived the move!

Shad is back in Spokane finishing up finals and classes, he has been there for a week and we still have ONE MORE WEEK to go! :( It's hard being without him, but he is so crazy busy with finals it's a good thing we are apart...maybe?! And thanks to the magic of Skype we get to see him daily!

We are almost all settled in here; still trying to move some rooms around. And it will take some getting used to being back home. I feel like I'm on vacation, it still hasn't sunk in that I am not going back to Spokane.

And just as we get settled in here, Owen and I have a Utah trip coming up! My best friend, Kambria, is getting married on Saturday!!! I am SO excited to go down and be a part of her big day! And its a bonus that we will also get to see some of Shad's family too! Hooray! Then the Saturday after that, May 14th, we will all travel back to Spokane because... Shad GRADUATES from Law School!!!! Whoop! I am just bursting with pride! So lots of new and exciting things coming our way! Its going to be a CRAZY couple of weeks! But at least we got the move out of the way!!! Phew!

Owen is sure enjoying his new diggs!

We have the "Owen-Suite," as my dad likes to call it. AKA my old room!

Its so big! Lots of room for mischief! :)

There are now stairs to climb up!

... more trouble coming our way!

The walking is SLOWLY coming along. He definitely can walk and stand on his own... he just is still too timid to venture out on his own. But he loves to walk back and forth between people (my mom and I)! I LOVE these little wobbly steps!

Whenever he is excited and has a new achievement, he loves to throw his arms up whenever we say "TOUCHDOWN!" (He will surely be ready for COUGAR football come Fall!)

And everything is better with Grandma around!

Owen gives my mom this cheesy little smirk every time she enters the room! He LOVES to play with her!

The move is still hard on this little guy... change always is. I'm not sure how much he understands, but he knows there was a major change and disruption. His naps have been affected, and I know that he misses his daddy. But everyday gets a little bit better... and feels more and more like home. :)

Packin' & Walkin'

We are packin' up! We move on Friday! I cannot believe it's here. Goodness, we have already started to say our goodbyes to the ward, and some dear friends. Its so sad. And packing is making me CRAZY!! I hate having such a messy house in such a disarray! I can't stand the unoragnized feeling. Yuck. Somedays I feel like this will NEVER get done, especially not by Friday! So. much. stuff. Did I mention that I HATE packing?

I think Owen is excited to move in with grandma and have 4 adults at his constant beck and call!

Also, yesterday, Owen finally got brave enough to take some MAJOR walking steps on his own!! Yay Owen!

He's cruising and running ALL over the house with his walker, so I KNEW he was capable of walking. Just needed the guts! :)

Our video camera was out of commission and I took some OK video with my phone. But he is so wobbly we constantly had to catch him, that the video is just ALL over the place. So here are my action shots! I had my portrait lens on, not so good for the "action" so these are blurry. But you get the idea...

Forward!!

Then back:
Forward again:
And back to daddy:

Sweet success!

I tried and tried to get Owen to walk again today, but he was just too afraid. I'm sure before I know it he will be all over the house! But... He still gets around pretty good:

Just because... this was tonight just before bed time. So cute!

Lake Chelan

Last weekend, conference weekend, Shad and I traveled over to Lake Chelan with two other couples from law school. Lake Chelan is north/central WA up by the Cascades (click here for the map/info). We rented out a condo for the weekend, stocked up on TONS of food for all of us, packed up our things and our little boys (yes, we ALL have boys!) and took the 3 hour drive over there. We had three familes: 6 adults, 5 kiddos. Shad and I mainly wanted to do this trip as a last hang out with our good friends here before we move in a couple weeks. Shad had a BIG project due on the Monday after, and he wanted to get it finished before we left, but no such luck. So he spent A LOT of time over the weekend working on that. And since I was still working on some sleep/nap training with Owen I wasn't willing to skip out on naps and such... meaning... we ended up spending lots of time indoors. But we had so much fun eating lots of food, staying up late, playing games, talking, and laughing! Come to think of it I really should have taken more pictures of us just hanging out in the NICE condo, because that is what most of the weekend consisted of. But here are some pics I got to document the weekend, the time we spent outdoors! :)

The view from our condo, walking out the front door:

The first day most of us walked down to the beach to take a look around. The boys loved "skipping" rocks and throwing other things into the water. (Landon & Elliot are twins)

Harrison:

Landon:

Elliot:

Brooks and Shelci (Parents to Landon and Elliot!):

The water was super low, because it is still so early in the spring, so the beach was full of shells:

Later the guys went out and took some evening pics:

The next day we scouted a hike we all wanted to do. Unfortuately, it turned out to be more of a drive to the top. But we all got out and explored anyway.

Owen LOVED hiking around and being strapped on our backs:

He had this little self satisfied smirk on his face the entire hike!

Harrison wasn't a big fan of the "hike":

This is Mason (Harrison's little brother), he was pretty chill the entire weekend! I just loved his little eyes peeking out at me!

The View:

Shad later decided along with Brooks and Shelci that he wanted to hike up to the tippy top (Where those two trees are in the back of this pic) It had a lot of up and down that you can't see in this picture. So I stayed behind with the others and Owen.

Here is the view from the tippy top:

We did end up having a good time despite traveling with a sleep deprived Owen (and mommy!) and Shad's looming project. It was fun to just getaway and enjoy the time with our friends. We are sure going to miss them!

Things I'll Miss...

Shad and I are getting ready to move at the end of the month... in 3 weeks to be exact!! AHHH! I am so not even ready for the move, but that is a whole other subject. We are moving over to the west side of WA, with my family for the summer while Shad takes the BAR exam and looks for a job in the Seattle area.We've always known that is where we wanted to end up living, and we feel pretty good about moving over there to try and find employment. However, it totally snuck up on me!! About a month ago is when I really realized that this is happening! Shad graduates MAY 14th, and he is done with school FOREVER! Crazy! So this last month I have been trying to think of things that I want to do here before we move, and it has really gotten me thinking about all the things that I will miss about this area. Even though I am stoked to be closer to family and finally able to move on and out with student life. It's sad to leave Spokane, something I never thought I'd say. It really does grow on ya!

Here are some things I will miss:

The Parks. Riverside Park is my FAVORITE park in this area. Its only about 20 minutes away, but you feel miles away from the city. I LOVE it. I am totally making Shad take me back here before we move!

Manito Park is another personal fav.

And Mirabeau Park, which is walking distance from us, and we love it!

The Lakes. There are SO many beautiful lakes in this area. Couer D'Alene is also so close by and very beautiful. I'm sure most of you can remember my deep love for Priest Lake. I REALLY wanted to fit in another trip up there before we move, but I doubt it will happen. :( Look at it, how can you not LOVE it there?!

Clean Water!

Spokane in general. I love the downtown riverfront park, the falls are so fun to walk around. Spokane is in interesting place sometimes. It's a big city with a smaller city feel. Sometimes its good, sometimes its bad. (But there are things that I will def. NOT miss about Spokane, like the fact that Shad's car was broken into twice in 6 months, the constant smoke smell that floods our apartment, the long winters, etc...)

The Falls downtown.

Memories. Owen was born here, and spent his first year here. Shad will always remember his years spent in Law school. We will always have deep connections to Spokane.

This is a bad picture, but this is the view from our apartment. The cream colored building with the red 'vh' near the left side of the picture is Valley Hospital. That is were Owen was born. Sometimes I look out the window and have fond memories of that CRAZY day just across the freeway!

The Law school:

THE WARD. We. Love. Our. Ward. Its going to be really hard to leave the ward members here. Going back to my home ward will be a nice transition because of the familiar faces, but we just don't want to let go. Shad and I are both in the youth (Laurel and Priest advisors) and we just LOVE being involved with that.

And of course, our dear friends. Shad and I have been lucky enough to meet so many good friends here. We've already had to say goodbye to a couple (*cough* Brooksbys & Greens *cough*) who've moved on from school sooner than us. But we still have many law school friends who are all going separate ways. And that is what we will miss MOST about Spokane.

On the upside: We really are excited to move over to Auburn. Closer to family, and I still have many high school friends over there. I love Western WA, and Seattle is one of my favorite places. I'm excited to explore more of the Northwest with Shad, and SO excited to move forward with life. :) Change is always sad and hard, but its also very welcome and exciting!