A weekend at the farm

A few weekends ago we house-sat for some good friends of ours who live out in the county on a farm. We took care of their goats, cow and dog and watched their amazing gardens grow. It was like a little vacation for us. It ended up being a (mostly) beautiful and sunny weekend, so we were able to run around on their property. Belle LOVED being outside so much and enjoyed visiting all the animals. I also had fun practicing taking tons of pictures with my new camera. We were able to relax a lot and read and eat fresh veggies from their garden. Thank you, Seibrings, for letting us enjoy your home for a weekend!

The goat kept looking at me like this. I really wonder what he was thinking.

And sometimes I wonder what Belle is thinking. Haha! At least it makes for some good photo opportunities!

And other times I know exactly what Trev is thinking. "I am a man wielding a knife! I cut my food right from the earth and down it whole!" Okay, so he didn't eat it whole, but he did enjoy cutting the zucchini and then we added it to a delicious salad for dinner. ;)

One of Belle's favorite things about being at their farm was this toy car. She probably spent a few hours over the course of the weekend driving this car around the carport. She would take her baby for rides and just drive, drive, drive!

Here are some pictures from around their place...

Thanks for the camera!

Thanks to my wonderful hubby and all my parents I got a new camera for my birthday! A Pentax SLR camera which I have been playing around with and learning about the past few weeks. On my birthday we did some drive-by shootings, of the picture taking variety. ;) I wasn't feeling that well so it was nice to be in the car most of the time. Here are some of the shots I got on our adventure...

These seagulls were chasing the eagle around. Maybe he stole the fish they were about to eat.

Then we drove by someone's house where there was just a deer hanging out in the yard and eating their flowers.

A big thank you to my family for my new camera... THANK YOU!!

We found a new walk

Trev & I recently heard about a new park in Whatcom County called Point Whitehorn Marine Reserve. You walk through the woods for about 3/4 of a mile and then head down to a very rocky beach. We played on the beach for a bit where we threw rocks in the water, waded just a little into the water and played baseball with rocks and wood we found on the beach.

Daddy & daughter tromping along the rocks

Belle & I went to Old Navy recently and while we were there I found her holding the mannequin's hand. I was cracking up! Who needs to walk around with mama when you can hold onto a mannequin's hand?

So this is the first belly shot I've posted. It's not because I haven't wanted to post one, I just don't think to take one. And you don't even see my face in this one! But who needs to see my face. I know what you're really interested in is seeing the belly. ;) So here it is at 30 weeks along. As of today I am 32 weeks and 2 days along but I don't have a picture from today. Less than 8 weeks to go until Baby Boy Mauss makes his arrival! Crazy! Now all we need to do is come up with a name. Hmmm. So many options.

Lake Padden

A few weeks ago we had some amazing weather, especially for mid-June in northwest Washington. We went to the lake a few times and I was reminded how much Annabelle loves the water. I think she could play for hours!

She was working really hard at transferring water from the lake to her bucket to the beach and then would do it all over again.

Oh, how cute. :)

Spokane

Over Memorial Day weekend we visited G'ma and G'pa in Spokane. We had a great weekend filled with delicious feasts (which included my favorite cranberry salad) and fun times. We spent a few hours at Riverfront Park...

Annabelle & I on the gondola ride over the falls

Spokane Falls

AB & G'pa looking over the bridge together

AB & Daddy on the ginormous Radio Flyer wagon... there is a slide at one end, which Belle went down a few times with dad but it was super hot so she didn't want to go by herself. I really wonder who it is that decides to have metal/aluminum slidesin parks. I mean, the sun hits it and it gets HOT! I'm a big fan of the plasctic slides, as is Belle.

At Riverfront Park they have this metal goat that eats garbage. No joke. We had brought some pieces of bread to feed the ducks but decided not to since there were signs posted all over the park saying not to feed the ducks. Haha! So we fed the bread to the metal goat instead! You just press a button and it sucks up garbage through its mouth. It was kind of loud so I thought Belle might be a bit scared of it but she loved it! She couldn't get enough of feeding it! She would even stick her hand and part of her arm up into its mouth. It was pretty entertaining to watch.

Action shot of Daddy & AB on the carousel.

Annabelle & their new cat Shelby. Shelby was quite the trooper with Belle around. AB was always interested in where Shelby was and what she was doing. Belle was trying to share her little piggy with Shelby here.

THanks to G'ma and G'pa for a wonderful weekend!

Girl's weekend!

Trev finished his finals for the semester this week and then was invited to a Men's Weekend at Malibu, a Young Life camp up in Canada. We were so excited that Trev would be able to have a few days of vacation with some great guys. So Belle and I have been having a delightful girl's weekend! Some good friends of ours helped me out by watching Belle on Thursday and Friday morning when I had to work and AB and I have spent the rest of the time together. We've gone to parks, visited the library, seen some friends and more! This morning we went out to Hovander Park. They have a few animals to look at, a small park, trails to walk and is right next to the river.

AB ran around with this little girl for at least 15 minutes. They would run and look at the geese, then run about 100 feet and look at the bunnies, then back to the geese, then bunnies, then they would mix it up and look a rooster or sit on a bunch... and then back and forth between the geese and bunnies again. It was pretty funny to watch.

When we first saw these pigs they were digging their snouts in the dirt. Apparently that took a lot out of them. Haha! I thought it was pretty funny that they were cuddling and its foot was in ist food. They're probably not grossed out by that. I mean, it can't be much worse then the dirt they were eating earlier. ;)

We can't wait to see daddy tomorrow, but we are having fun together in the meantime!