Happy 4th of July!

Similar to last year, we headed to my parent's beach house to enjoy the 4th of July holiday. This year was even better than last because daddy got to be there! We were also joined by one of my besties which made it even more fun!

this little guy could have played on the beach all day long

We had a blast eating tons of good food, drinking more than our fair share of cocktails and participating in the island parade! Little man even got to ride in a fire truck. Dream come true. While we had to drive back on the 4th because of work/school related commitments, there were fireworks Sunday evening as well, so we got to show little man what it's all about. 

boat rides are the best rides! 

Below are a few pictures from the past weekend! 

getting the wiggles out

snuggles are my favorite!

"neigh!" "neigh!" turning daddy into a horse

busy important work to do...collecting sticks!

papa time on the boat!

sunny afternoon adventures

these two might be new best friends

fireworks!!

and because this is real life, and it's not always sunshine and rainbows...our toddler meltdown on the ferry ride home. 

A Kitchen Update

Back in september, husband and i set out to do a little kitchen "update." We limited ourselves to $500 and a whole lot of creativity. We figured out that with $500, we could do the following:

trim out our cabinets

update the cabinet hardware

paint (walls and cabinets)

replace the backsplash 

Well, i am very happy to say that more than 6 months later, our little kitchen "update" is complete. It's not perfect, but it is vastly better than what it was before. I am so proud of kevin and all of his handiwork that went into this. He pretty much did it entirely by himself (I helped a little) and did it all while going to school full time and being full time daddy to our little man. 

Here are some before pictures: 

 photos were taken from zillow (since i forgot to take "before" photos) 

Appliances were definitely not in the budget this time around, but we had to get a new dishwasher when we first moved in last year. hopefully, we'll be able to update the oven/stove and refrigerator to stainless steal in the near future so all of our appliances match as well.

And here are the photos post-update!

 Photos taken from zillow...because we SOLD our house!! Woop! Woop! 

You can see that a little went a long way here. While we didn't have it in our budget to make drastic changes, I feel like these updates took our little kitchen from 1985 and brought it into the 21st century. Cheers to home improvement!

Two things we would have done had we stayed in the house. Switched out the light fixtures and painted the countertops.

California Adventures

Earlier in June the whole family headed down to San Jose to watch my baby brother graduate from Santa Clara University. It was most definitely a family affair full of lots of sun, fun and the sicky ickies.

We spent a few days in San Jose celebrating Griffin before heading up to Sonoma to really celebrate the graduate...any by really celebrate, I mean indulge in lots and lots of wine tasting ;0) .

The whole trip was tons of fun, with the one tiny exception of little man coming down with Hand, Foot, Mouth. We didn't let that damper our time to terribly though, and the hubby and I just took turns staying home with the unhappy little camper while the rest of the family headed out to explore Sonoma.

Pictures are below including a few from a quick stopover in San Francisco!

Father's Day 2016

A belated Happy Father's Day to all you dad's out there! We celebrated our favorite dad and pop pop in style...

We greeted Lincoln's dadda with breakfast in bed, Sunday morning (avocado toast topped with a poached egg and bacon!) after letting him sleep in (till 9 ha!). After that we all got up, got dressed and headed out for a little walk around the neighborhood before heading out on our Father's Day adventures.

L and I surprised the hubby with a day of brewery tasting on the bluff! Greenbluff, WA has a few little breweries that have opened in the past couple of years and we wanted to check them out. We went to Big Barn Brewing (my favorite!) and 238 Brewing company.

It was a pretty picture perfect day and the barn looked so quaint with the blue sky and rolling fields in the background. They also had 16 beers on tap to try, which made for a happy husband. 238 Brewing was the cutest tap house I have ever been to and with 8 of their own beers on tap and 4 rotating visiting breweries, they had lots of options to try out as well! I was DD so only had a few sips here and there, but what I tried was definitely delish!

After a fun day on the bluff, we headed back into town to get ready for a big family dinner to celebrate both Lincoln's dadda and mine, pop-pop! We picked up yummy Italian Sausages from Sonnderen's and grilled them with peppers and onions, corn on the cob and homemade potato salad. We topped dinner off with homemade peanut butter cup ice cream sandwiches and let the guys watch Game 7 of the NBA finals. While we were bummed that Golden State lost (not really...go Trailblazers!!) it was a pretty great day.

Life lately ...aka a photo dump!

Life has been crazy busy with school, a new job, and a variety of activities! Here's a quick photo dump of everything we've been up to over the past two months!

Date Night! We went and saw the Shook Twins at the Knitting Factory Easter evening. 

Lots and lots of park time with the crazy nice spring weather we've been having! 

We are learning all about the joys of stickers...lots and lots of stickers!

We met a pot belly pig (a ginormous one!) on one of our evening walks!

Park time in our jammies! 

Free ice cream cones from Ben & Jerry's for Free Cone Day!

Date night for husband's birthday! These are few and far between so we soak them up. 

The very best weekend coffee date!

More park fun!

In mid-April, I headed to New York and Boston for work. It was all work and very little play, but I managed to snap a few good shots while I was away. I miss this city every day!

It was a fun night at the legendary Comedy Cellar! We heard Jeff Ross practice roasting the Boston PD and it was everything!

Pretty spring colors on the Boston Common. 

Japanese Gardens with my two favorites. The park is our favorite. All day everyday. 

Play dates with our favorite friends! Morgan and Zeke!

Husband and I got to see the Newsies when the broadway production was in town. It was so good! And later that week we saw the whole cast at the big Red Wagon (below). Husband took their group photo for them. 

Is there anything more fun than slides with a toddler! Such joy!

Such a big little man!

A very fun evening with some of my favorite ladies (sans) babies and all for a good cause to raise money for our high school alma mater!

Little man has learned so much at our PE for Tots class at Spokane Gymnastics. This is the best for any of you who have little ones in the Spokane area!

And now you are officially caught up with all. the. things! 

Maybe next time it won't be a two months in between  a post ;)