Lake Weekend

The lake + a long weekend + great weather + renting a boat + relaxing on the beach + eating good food + being together with family = heaven.

Here are just a few (well, a few more than a few) pictures of our wonderful weekend as a Hook family.

Papa and the girls

Cousins = best friends

Warning: a lot of boating pictures. First, the girls and their mamas (common denominator: smiling moms & less than impressed little girls)

Clara loved driving the boat with both Papa and Daddy

Gotta love boat hair

The perfect picnic spot: campground at Upper Priest Lake

On the way back through the thoroughfare connecting upper and lower Priest lake, we decided to attempt a mother-daughter tube ride (we went five miles per hour, mind you). It was definitely a success. Clara loved it.

My sweet niece, loving the boat ride

And everyone else loving it too...

Both girls napped on the trip back. Clara snuggled with her daddy.

I promised Anna that this picture wouldn't hit the blog, but it is just too cute. Sorry Anna. Do you see a mother/daughter resemblance or what? (and not just the bed head ;))

Playing on the swing set outside Hills after a lovely Sunday brunch.

It's a...

Baby! I know. I am lame. You may have been expecting a boy/girl revelation. We opted to be surprised again this time, so we won't know until sometime in November or December, when this little one makes his/her debut into the world. But we had to share a few pictures nonetheless. This little bean has been quite active these past few weeks. If I wake up at night, I sometimes have a hard time getting back to sleep, for all the acrobatics. But I'm not complaining. I really do love feeling a baby move inside. It's such a miracle!

Who knows? We may decide to find out the sex of baby #3 (when/if he/she comes along, Lord willing), but we loved the big moment when we discovered we had a Clara and not an Eli (and no - we probably won't use that name if we have a boy, thus the revelation). And since we are equally excited to have sisters or a girl/boy combo, it only makes sense that we'd choose the surprise again.

We just have to close our eyes through parts of one (hopefully) more ultrasound in three weeks. We get an extra little peak because I contracted fifths disease about a month ago. They're not too concerned, but just want to monitor the baby's growth. I suppose we have three weeks to change our minds ;).

Just one more picture: of a nice, big foot. Whether boy or girl, this one is sure to follow the family trend and have very large feet.

Reunion, Of the XL Variety

We got back this weekend from our family reunion at Priest Lake. This was not a "reunion" like the one we had last year, involving the eleven of us Vaughn kids. This was the entire extended family on my dad's side edition. That's two grandparents, four kids and their spouses, fourteen grandkids (+ ten spouses), and fourteen great grand kids. Every single family member made the trek. From Brasil, Mozambique, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Colorado, California, Oregon and Washington. It's quite the list, I know.

There were many times throughout the week when I marveled at just how much I love each and every one of my cousins (and aunts and uncles, etc). None of us grew up seeing each other all that much - yet we seem to pick up right where we left off. It is a huge blessing that we love being together, I know. It's pretty rare for forty-eight family members to get along so well. The week flew by, as time always seems to do when you spend time with people you love.

What did we do all week? Quite a lot of things. We swam, boated, fished, hiked and kayaked. We played huge games of volleyball, ultimate frisbee, soccer and wiffle ball. We napped and read and talked (a lot). We picked huckleberries, went shooting, and attempted to slack line over water. We played the family game, loaded questions, settlers of catan, clue, and poker late at night. We gathered round the camp fire to hear the story of grams and gramps. We had a lively family talent show, where Leah and I were, yet again, coerced into performing (same ol' Jennifer Knapp song from our high school talent show ten years ago). We had a lovely girls' breakfast out to Elkins. And we ate really well. It was a great week.

I think our combined picture count from the week may be somewhere in the thousands, but we haven't gotten copies from everyone quite yet. We only had our camera around some of the time, so here are a few from the Hook camera. Not comprehensive by any means, but maybe that is good. There are quite a few pictures to share despite.

Priest Lake. Is there any place on earth as lovely? (the answer is no)

Meal time: a large undertaking

Mini table for the toddlers

Sweet Kendyl, just five weeks older than Clara

Clara with cousin Jared (yes, she loved all the attention she could get)

How much weight can a Brazilian hammock hold?

And of course we slack lined - over water this time

Trav's awesome wipe out

Jumping in the water to daddy...only because her brave cousin McKinsey did it first

Freezing!

Relaxing by the beach

The Meisel fam, out on the paddle boat

Sweet Everett

The Claranator, pondering life

Uncle Trav slathering sunscreen

The eleven of us with grammy and grandpa (no whole group photo on our cam, sadly)

The nose pickers

The boys

And the girls too

All the great grand kids with their stuffed animals, gifts from their grammy and gramps

Girls' hike to Elkins for breakfast

And Jono and Clara's hike to the waterfall (nice work with the tri-pod, love)

These three girls are within eights weeks of one another - so fun!

Holly and Leah

And a final night time photo of the lake

And that is it. Whew! So many great pictures. And they don't begin to scratch the surface. I may add a few more when I get copies of all the other pictures. But then again this may be a long enough post already ;).

Yeah for family. And yeah for reunions!!

Eight

As of yesterday, I have officially been a married woman eight years. I did a little research, thinking I'd find the national marrying age to be about where I am now, twenty-eight. I was mistaken. 28.4 is the national average for a male but for females it's 26.5. If I followed the national average, I would be married just over a year and a half. Certainly not eight whole years.

I sometimes forget just how crazy it was that I got married at twenty. I mean, I am still head over heels for my husband. And I can hardly remember life without him. But the conversation about how long you have been married just doesn't come up every day, so I don't think about it often. For some reason it has come up a few times - with various random people - in the last week or so. And I've been reminded afresh that it both was a) kind of crazy, yet b) made total sense at the time and c) is the best decision I have ever made. Maybe I wouldn't recommend it for my brother (who is turning twenty in August), but for me it was beyond fabulous.

I am married to my best friend. My strongest ally. Someone who loves so many of the same things I love but has his own list of passions and interests. Someone who loves the Lord - and people well. Who is really good at what he does...and a long list of miscellaneous other things too. He is wise. He is kind. He is compassionate. He is a great dad. And he gives really great massages. I am one blessed woman!

We celebrated our anniversary in Spokane this year - for the first time in about six years. We're usually at the lake, like last year. So we enjoyed a dinner out at a fabulous place downtown and then headed up to a venue down the street for some live music, decaf, and delicious dessert. It was the perfect summer night, spent with the man I love.

And we just had to take a picture of our plates. Jono even boasted that his goat cheese stuffed chicken over cheddar grits with asparagus and prosciutto would make his top five meals of all-time. My Alaskan salmon wasn't too bad either. Yum.