Lately...
Posted on | June 27, 2014 | 1 Comment
Lately we've been...
- Loving every minute of this newborn period (because 2 months is still considered newborn, right?)
- Preparing for my best childhood friend to come and also a visit to Washington, all in the month of July
- Eager for the Oregon Country Fair and hoping it isn't too much work with a 3 month old & a 2.5 year old (gulp)
- Enjoying the outdoors - we went on our first camping trip a week ago, and it brought in Juniper's 2 month birthday. Hazel didn't camp until 4 months, so this is a record indeed!
- Catching up on some Game of Thrones and True Blood at night with my boy. Have I mentioned how much I love him working day shift now? He accepted a day shift position just after J was born!
- Planning to go back to work, sometime in August
- Grateful for sleep! Hazel has started falling asleep on her own without anyone else in her room as of late. This might not sound like much to some, but she co-slept with us until February and has needed one of us in her room to fall asleep since then. Now she happily talks to her stuffed animals & sings herself to sleep - it's so adorable. Juniper is also a great sleep, sleeping 4-6 hour stretches at night. I'd better knock on wood for now.
And now for some photo's!
Cascade camp
Posted on | August 7, 2013 | 2 Comments
This summer, it's been good to us. We've had a good mix of working and play time, and Hazel has been in some form of water whether it's a lake, river, pool, sprinkler pretty much every single day since June. She's a true water baby.
At the end of July we visited a cascade lake for a quick camp and summer cool off!
Our view was simply amazing, & we were the only ones there.
Sweet girl fell down right after we arrived and skinned her chin! Ow!
No editing needed...
The stars (see below) were incredible. B & I stayed up late the first night playing trivia and talking, it was just what we needed.
The shot below is at midnight - that's the moon coming up to the left.
The next morning it was 80 degrees by 8 am, so we took a dip to try & escape the mosquitos! Did I mention they were horrible? They could care less about our citronella and lemongrass.
We actually moved camp a couple thousand feet less in elevation the following night, despite the killer view of our first site. But when you look at your child and see eight mosquitos feasting on her face, it gets old quickly.
A nice river camp.
I hope all of you are getting out & enjoying this lovely little world of ours like we are.
Dad's Day
Posted on | June 16, 2013 | 2 Comments
We celebrated father's day by spending the weekend fly fishing/camping on the North Umpqua, a river I've more than once blogged about (see here, here, & here). It's my husbands favorite destination, and his dad tagged along too. I even wet a fly, something I've barely done since Hazel was born.
Most days I feel like the luckiest gal on earth.
Thank you for being the best dad ever, my love! I think you were meant to procreate! ;)
Growing up
Posted on | June 4, 2013 | 3 Comments
Hazel has been learning in leaps and bounds lately! One of my many favorite things she does is when we ask her to smile. This has been her response as of late:
B calls it 'the sinister smile' ... the scrunched nose and eyebrows, it's not at all how she really smiles when she's happy.
Just makes you smile, right? You should see her "sad baby" ... :)
Umpqua goodness
Posted on | August 8, 2012 | 2 Comments
We just got back from spending a couple of days camping on the North Umpqua River. Let me tell you about this river - it is magical and just gorgeous. So so so blue, and the highway that follows it is called 'the highway of waterfalls' ... I've posted many photos on here in the past of waterfalls just from that river alone. B loves it for the fly fishing even more than the hiking. It's a river that allows artificial flies and catch and release only - great conservation, something B has always found important. So naturally we took Hazel there. Six months and already on her second camping trip, what a lucky lady.
The second day we drove about a half an hour up to Crater Lake National Park. We used to live very close to this park when we lived in the high desert, but we haven't been here in years. It was indeed time to take Hazel. It was the first time we used her little backpack. She loved it at first, but got nervous after a bit & ended up in the ergo. Closer to mama's milk, I suppose?
There is only one accessible spot to swim in the entire park. It's a little over a mile hike downhill and not many people venture down there. I went about five years ago with a friend and participated in some fantastic cliff jumping - I told B we must do this (while baby watches safely from shore, of course)! B was hesitant but once he saw kids doing it I think he felt obliged. It was so rejunvinating on such a hot, sunny day. Hazel got to enjoy some of the water as well, as you can see below.
We drove back to camp later that evening and hiked watson falls (the 2nd highest waterfall in OR!). Brad did a bit of fly fishing and caught a beautiful steelhead as well. It was pure bliss. We went home the next day (after some relaxing beach and swimming time) and Hazel slept soooo good. She always sleeps through the night after an outing like that.
I feel so grateful that despite our crazy schedules we're able to get out as a family every once in a while. I love our day to day life but trips like these fill up our souls even more!
What kind soul filling family outings do you like to do?
First camping trip:
Posted on | June 24, 2012 | 4 Comments
We were very fortunate this past weekend to have an unexpected day off on top of our one day off a pay period we already had. We quickly looked at the weather forecast and jumped at the chance to take baby Hazel on her first camping trip to the Umpqua River, B's favorite place in the world. I suited her up in her onesie made by a friend of mine with 'lil camper' written on it, which happened to be the perfect size.
Standing next to the fire pit when we got there, already having a blast.
Shortly after she went down for an afternoon nap.
Friends of ours joined us late, so Hazel happily stayed up past her bedtime watching the fire on momma's lap.
Who do you think got her the red wings hat?
Good morning! She slept so good next to momma all night and woke up with this look, a bit confused where we were.
I adore the picture below. She was actually looking past the mobile and up at the tree tops, smiling.
Papa and H waiting for mom to go hiking!
On our way to one of momma's favorite waterfalls!
Back at camp, just hanging out while we eat lunch.
Daddy went fishing so we ventured down river a bit, cooling off on this hot day. What you don't see if Hazel immediately cried when I touched her toes in the water (sooo cold!). Sorry H!
Snuggles from momma make it all better.
Back at camp for dinner, and the moquitos were out in full force. How awesome is this bug netting?
Popcorn by the fire with our wonderful friends!
Night night...
Hazel's morning nap while mom and dad packed up camp!
Asleep by 7 pm that night, slept for twelve hours, camping really took it out of her!
As you can see, we had an absolutely wonderful time. B got to go fly fishing a few times, which he certainly needed. Hazel slept great both nights (better than us, actually) and she seemed to truly enjoy being out in nature, constantly smiling and giggling. It was lovely to be with friends we hadn't seen in a while, and also to spend time together as a family (especially if you read my previous post!).
Can't wait for our next adventure.
Ps: Thank you for all of the comments on my previous post! It is refreshing to hear that others feel the same way and make it work as well. Thank you thank you thank you! Keep me updated if you find the secret to balancing it all ... :)
- April
- I am a RN & natural momma in the Pacific Northwest, married to a beautiful man I adore. Nature is my niche, animals get me. I read and I write, I hike and I love photography. Welcomed our daughter Hazel Annan earthside in February 2012 after three years of infertility & our second miracle daughter Juniper Louise in April 2014.
