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Hayley has been taking swim lessons for a couple weeks. Not that she can actually swim by herself yet, but she has made great progress in getting comfortable in the pool. She'll lay back and float (with assistance), go under water as asked, pull herself out of the pool (so cute to watch those little arm muscles hard at work) and jump in. She's doing great, we are so proud of her progress!

 Just before we left for our trip to visit my family in Kent, Hayley was playing with my new baby carrier, which was way too big for her and her baby. So I made her a sling from a scarf I had. She was so excited to carry around her baby just like I will carry around baby brother soon.

 While in Kent, my Grandma threw a family reunion at a Pirate themed place. Due to dates and weather, the whole extended family didn't come and we had to move location for part of the day but we still had fun.

 Waiting patiently at Red Robin afterwards for some dinner. 

We had a great week, we went to the Zoo one day (forgot my camera though-boo.)

Went to Ikea a few times and got the kids' dresser situation figured out, got some other fun stuff needed for the baby's room. And we got a new (to us) stroller/bike trailer, yay!

While Hayley and I were off having fun with family, Skyler was back in Pullman working for a few days and then went to a Basketball officials camp in Ellensburg. 

 Thought we would document both Alyssa and I being pregnant at the same time. I'm due at the end of this month, she at the end of August, with twins!

Mom and Dad's last picture of their three grandkid's before this number doubles :)

And one more of me and Grandma Forbes, she thought she was going to escape the camera :)

Bend Concert

At the end of our trip to Seaside, we went down to Bend, OR to see three of our favorite bands perform  together at an outdoor concert. It was awesome.

Blind Pilot opened first, they did great. 

The lead singer Israel, in the green jacket, is from Skyler's hometown.

Listen to one of my favorites here.

Next up, The Head and The Heart performed. 

SO GOOD. I hope they come out with some more music soon, they are great!

Check out some of their awesome tunes here.

Last up was The Shins! 

One of the first friends I made after moving to Portland almost 7 years ago, Clifford, introduced me to them and a whole bunch of other musicians that I've grown to love. This was one of my first favorites. 

Then after finishing school and moving a bunch of times, I moved back to Portland just as The Shins released their new album Wincing the Night Away. Skyler and I were still dating and he gifted me the album. A couple months later we got engaged, I got my first "real" job and moved again into the smallest studio Portland could offer, needless to say I have some very fond memories that tied to this album. Sleeping Lessons and Phantom Limb are a couple of my favorites. 

Just recently they came out with a brand new album, Port of Morrow. 

Simple Song has been really popular. 

We really enjoyed the concert and are so glad we could make it before this baby comes. 

To the Beach!

 After all the commotion of Graduation settled, we drove to Seaside to visit Skyler's family. 

Along the way we saw hundreds of acre's of rolling green Palouse hills. However, this one had two distinct patches of the brightest yellow plant growing. 

We're not sure what it was, but it was such a pretty sight.

 Columbia River Gorge in it's beauty.

While we were there, Skyler's brother's family was also there for a couple days, Hayley thorough;y enjoyed playing with her cousins.

 

Hayley, Tessa, Ashlyn

We also visited the Port of Play in Astoria, one of Hayley's favorites.

 While we were in Seaside, my parents were down south in Newport vacationing so one day we met in the middle at the Tillamook cheese factory. 

 It's always entertaining to watch the cheese go around, getting sliced, cut, and packaged.

 It's also always great to have a cone at the end :)

Mom/Dad/Hayley and Me

We found a sunny and somewhat warm day and headed to the beach,

Hayley kept yelling at me to stop taking pictures of her.

It was a beautiful day.

It was great spending time with family and just what we needed after a hard, last semester of School. 

To end our trip, we had tickets to see 3 of our favorite bands in Bend...more on that to come :)

End of School Celebrations!

Hayley finished her first year of P.S. I love you

(a sort of pre-preschool organization that meets once a week)

 Hayley and Teacher Amie

 We had a last hurrah of sorts for my girlfriends and I at Wingers.

 Sad to see them go, some are moving on from Pullman for good and some just for the summer.

 Good times to remember!

Left to Right:

Rachel Olson, Heather Lively, Marilou Woolstenhulme, Me, Erin Baum

Kate Clayton, Laurel Hansen, Marie Oyler, Brenna Kline, Samm Childs

Skyler Graduated!!!

It was such a fun weekend, my mom and Skyler's parent's came to stay with us for a few days. 

We visited the bears, went site seeing, ate at Cougar Country and Gambino's, at which Skyler announced he got a full time position in his department at work!

 WooHoo! So we wont have to move and besides no more school, our lives will remain much the same, comforting thought with a baby coming.

 We also celebrated Hayley's birthday again with grandparents, and Sunday night we had strawberry shortcakes to celebrate Joell's birthday! 

The Month of May was a flurry of events and emotions, it went by SO fast. 

We are so glad to be starting the next chapter of our lives here in Pullman amongst friends and relatively close to family.  

Chapters

Tomorrow we'll be finishing the "School" chapter of our lives.

 It's all we have known since we met each other back in 2006. 

It's been fun, hard, long, short, busy, slow, trying, patience building, financially trying, but most of all a blessing to have been able to grow together during a rough time of our lives.

 Even if it was for the first 6 years we've known each other. 

I'm so proud of you Skyler, Congratulations on getting your Masters!