The other night, I went to check on Andrew before I went to bed and I found this:
The light in his room was on, books in his bed and Andrew sound asleep in the chair with a book, stuffed kitty and blanket. I love how you can tell he was reading to his kitty and his kitty peaking under his arm. What a cute little boy.
I had Activity Days for church today so Andrew went to the neighbors to play. They had some baby chicks hatch and Andrew wanted to go see them. Laurel, my neighbor, said he loved them and he kept saying baby chicks, baby chicks eating food, baby chicks drinking water. Andrew loves all animals. What a great experience he had playing with baby chicks.
Friday we celebrated our 5th anniversary. Yep, 5 years already! Time flies when we are having fun!
We decided to celebrate our anniversary at the Inn at the Lake in Newport Washington. We had such a great experience at a bed and breakfast on our first anniversary in CDA, Idaho, we wanted to do it again. Our 1st anniversary
We dropped Andrew off at Grandpa and Grandma Mertes’ house and we were off. We drove to Spokane and did a little shopping and then headed to Newport.
We stayed in the Mountain Suite room that took up the whole 3rd floor. No one else was staying there so we had the whole house to ourselves.
A view of our room and bathroom. The bathroom was the size of our room, it was huge!
Going downstairs. The main floor had one room, the living room and kitchen and dining room. The floor below that had 3 more rooms and a common area to watch movies and play games.
The main floor (view from the foyer of our room).
For dinner we went to Priest River and ate at the Hardwood grill. Very yummy food and a great atmosphere. I had steak and prawns and Aaron had ribs. Everything is cooked on fruit wood and very tasty. That area is known for their huckleberries so we had huckleberry lemonade with real huckleberries in it. The waitress brought us a free dessert of our choosing for our anniversary. We chose the fried cheesecake with huckleberry topping. We never had fried cheesecake and had to try it out. Pretty tasty.
In the morning, we walked on the patio. This is the view of Diamond Lake from the house. The porch goes down to the lake right to the dock. This would be such a fun place to come in the summer and play in the lake.
The couple who runs the bed and breakfast made an amazing breakfast! We started out with fresh fruit with whip cream and toasted coconut. They then brought out huckleberry stuffed french toast, hash browns and sausage links. They also had a sweet cookie bar with fresh fruit on the side.
After breakfast we checked out and headed back into Spokane to play. We went to Wonderland and it was amazing! I recommend everyone go! They have an outdoor mini golf course with windmills and everything. Aaron needed to stretch before we got started. Didn’t know we were so competitive when it comes to mini golf, did you?!
Inside there is a black light mini golf course. It was great! They even have goofy golf rules you can play if you don’t want to play regular golf…sing Christmas songs while putting, putt on your knees, use your arm and hand as a club, use the club upside down, golf with one eye closed, golf between your legs, use the club as a pool cue and stand above the hole and roll of the ball off your nose for a hole in one (as demonstrated by me) and other goofy rules.
Aaron loves making forts and is so happy Andrew is into making forts too. On a side note, Andrew is all about his dad. I love it! It use to be he only wanted me and not much with Aaron, but now all he wants is his dad and I am chopped liver. I don’t mind, I love that he wants to be just like his dad.
On Saturday, I threw a baby shower for a friend and we had all the chairs and bench in the living room. Well the bench seemed to be a good fort to play under. Aaron downloaded an app to his phone called kids doodle. Andrew loves practicing his letters and spelling words on dads phone. He is really into W and the number 8 lately and he looks for them everywhere we go. Walmart and Winco are his favorite.
Well that got the wheels turning in Aaron’s head and soon all the pillows were off both couches and a big fort was built in the living room, complete with an observatory on top.
Andrew looking out the observatory and me inside the fort.
Andrew is really getting into arts and crafts and comes home with the greatest art from his PS class. I wanted to display it for all to enjoy so I made a place for him to hang it.
The other week he came home with this. I thought, wow this is great but what I am suppose to do with it? We displayed it for a bit and then Aaron told me to take pictures of all his arts and crafts and we’ll make a book for him when he is older. I thought what a great idea. I still felt horrible throwing away such a masterpiece, but I also didn’t want to keep it around the house forever. Thank goodness for modern technology to preserve memories.
I had such a great birthday this year! Saturday we went bowling at Zeppos with my family. My mom reserved us a couple of lanes and we had a great time. She made chocolate covered strawberries and strawberry cheesecake! My favorite! We ordered some food, bowled, opened presents and ate cake. My mom bought me slippers so I can protect my toes while I clean the house. Kate and Tyler got me an apron, kitchen towels and a whisk that I wanted and Emily sewed me a cute table runner, all by herself. She was so proud. We all had so much fun and all commented on how we cant wait to do it again.
This is the first time Andrew has been bowling and he loved it! There was a lot of kids there so the ramps were all being used. I would put the ball on the floor and he would push it down the lane.
Of course, being a boy, the ball retriever was the most interesting. He would watch all the balls come up and then he would pick a ball out to bowl with. He was very methodical with his decision.
After a little bit, some families cleared out and we got a ramp. Andrew loved using it all by himself and the balls definitely went faster down the lane.
On my actual birthday I got spoiled by Aaron and Andrew. They woke up and made me waffles with strawberries and whip cream. Andrew and I went to PS and everyone wished me a happy birthday and gave me flowers and someone brought a cake. On Saturday my mom told me my other present was a whole day to myself. My mom and dad picked Andrew up from PS and Aaron and I went to Southfork (my favorite) for lunch. On your birthday they bring out a hot brownie and ice cream with a candle on top. So good! You have to go there for your birthday just for the free dessert (and the fries aren’t too bad either). Then I took Aaron back to work and headed to the mall. It was so nice to try on clothes and look at things I wanted to look at without keep track of a 2 1/2 year old. I bought me a couple things and then went grocery shopping and ran some errands. That evening, Aaron made me tacos for dinner (my favorite) and made me a homemade red velvet cake. He stayed up till after 11 making me this cake. What an amazing man!
When I was growing up I have always loved the show Full House. I have found memories of getting off the school bus, running into the house since Full House started at 3:30, grabbing a snack and watching it before doing my homework. I still love that show to this day. Well Aaron bought me all the seasons of Full House for my birthday! We stayed up late on my birthday watching and laughing to that show. We are now working through the seasons and it is fun to see how much Andrew loves watching them.
What a great birthday! Maybe 34 wont be so bad after all. I keep thinking, am I really growing up?! I guess I did the career thing for 10 years and then got married and now have a child, so I am a grown up, but I still feel like I should be in my 20’s. I think I will live by the thought-you are only as old as you feel.
Andrew got a tool bench for Christmas, but loves wearing his safety goggles around the house. He wears them quite often and I love it! He is really getting into the pretend stage and sometimes I think he has an imaginary friend. He will catch him talking to someone or playing with them, but he wont tell me who it is. He loves to play and use his imagination with all of his toys.
Yesterday, he was in his bed, we have a convertible crib that we turned into a toddler bed, by taking off the side rail, so it still has the railings on the back. He was laying on his stomach against the rails and had both his hands and feet on the rails and climbing up the back of the bed. I asked him what he was doing and he said “I’m Spiderman!” Where does he come up with this stuff?! I love watching kids use their imagination. He is so much fun and I am so grateful he is part of our family.
