Namesake

This week Clara got to meet her Great Grammy for the first time. She is named Clara Joanne after Grammy Joanne. It was a really precious time and I only pray that we'll have many more moments together!

With great grandpa

Four generations

Clarabelle

With Daddy...

With Mommy...

Can you tell which one of us is the photographer;)?

Camping

Last weekend we headed up to Luby Bay on Priest Lake for a little two-night camping excursion with some good friends from our home group at church. The weather was not the best for mid-August (cooler with just a few showers intermittently), but it didn't impact our time, really. We didn't spend our days on the beach like I had imagined when we booked our sites months ago, but we did have some great times relaxing around the campfire and enjoying good food and conversation. All of us ladies even got afternoon naps (who would have thought?!)

Clara was most definitely a happy camper. She was passed from person to person most of the weekend and was loved-on by all the older kiddos. She even slept over nine hours each night. I acknowledge the fact that this will be the easiest camping trip with a child that we will ever take. No muddy outfits for the Hook household just yet. I'm sure she'll make up for it next summer, though...

First REAL Date

We have left Clara a handful of times with family and friends. We've gone to coffee together and to dinner. We've run random errands or gone for runs at the lake. On several of these outings we have even left bottles just in case. On Friday night, though, we went on our first long date. We had dinner downtown and then went to the Fray concert.

It was all great until...we found out she was refusing the bottle. This was even after multiple "practice rounds" this week that all went perfectly. After reading a text from Jonathan's parents that she wasn't eating, we left the concert after the Fray had played two songs, ran frantically through the streets of Spokane to our car, and started heading up the south hill. I had visions of her screaming her head off and dying of hunger:)...Only then did we actually talk to Jonathan's parents and find out she was just fine (having consumed only one ounce - but she was content). So we turned around, sprinted (I'm not exaggerating) back and found out we had only missed three songs. Besides the fact that I was sweating profusely, everything turned out just fine. It may not have been the most relaxing night, but it was still very enjoyable - and definitely memorable:). Lesson learned: double-check before overreacting.

Here are a few pics I love from this past week. How can you really be too upset when you're coming home to this little face?

Sadness

We said goodbye to my sister and her husband...again. Since I graduated from college and moved to Colorado, we really haven't lived in the same place as Leah and Travis except for a few months here or there. Last summer we moved back home and they didn't leave for Uganda until September, so we spent about four months in the same place. Similarly, they returned from Uganda and spent another five-ish months here this summer.

Four/five months is the perfect amount of time to get connected and really used to the idea of them being here...only for them to turn around again and leave.

I don't know why it's been so hard each time to say goodbye. I have known all along of their plans. It's not as if we haven't lived apart before and there are plenty of people that live far away from their sisters.

Although it's somewhat better that they're on our continent this time, I know that this move is a bit more permanent. Not forever (I hope) but not just six months. Ugh. One would think I could be more mature/together about this, but I'm not.

This has become something like a "dear diary" entry, I think. Oh well...that's just how I'm feeling today. I miss my sister! We are purchasing our tickets for a Thanksgiving trip to Orange County, CA soon:).

Andrea Comes to Town

My good friend from college, Andrea, came up for a week from Colorado. She came to visit last summer (you may remember the 8-hour homemade skirts??) and could hardly believe that in the year since we've seen each other we bought a house and had a baby. A lot can change in one year! We spent just a few days in our ridiculously HOT house before heading up to the lake for a few days. Lately I've been wishing we lived at the lake the entire summer. There is nothing better than crisp and cool nights after hot days! I haven't felt the sensation of cold for a while (except when I stick my head in the freezer, which I've been doing a lot lately).

So, here is my time with Andrea (in pictures...). You can't really beat hiking, kayaking, boating, beach volleyball, huckleberry picking, swimming, reading and relaxing.

P.S. My dad has started this great tradition while we're at the lake. When Clara wakes up around 5:30 he takes her with him down to the lake for his morning quiet time/swimming ritual. That means I get to sleep until about 8. Yahoo!

P.P.S. The little champion has been sleeping 8 to 8 1/2 hours lately. It's glorious:).