More Fun Firsts

Our first campout with Adelyn went so well that we decided to give round 2 a try just two weeks later at the next sign of good weather. We moved from just camping to giving her a tryout on solo hiking (not being carried).

There were quite a few times that she wanted to give up and ride on someone's shoulders, but we found little games to play along the way. Her two favorite distractions were finding the perfect fallen log to pose on for the camera, and racing Daddy. She is quite the competitive one, let me tell you...at one point she even ran right in front of him and cut him off so he wouldn't pass her!

A couple more weekends after that we were blessed with our first nephew, Ryder Grayson Bertels. He came about three weeks early, so I hope this little baby of ours follows suit! Here he is with his proud little mama.


And of course we had to get a cousin shot! Adelyn wasn't quite sure at first what to do with such a small baby.

While we were in Bellingham, the sun came out and Jake was taking Jadyn for a ride on the jet ski. I was quite surprised that Aaron felt Adelyn would be too sad watching Jadyn go and decided to take her out too. Personally I worried 2.5 was a little young for a first jet ski ride, but they made it back safe and sound, with Adelyn chanting to go faster.


Inspired by even more sunny weather...yes we do live for the summer here in the Pacific Northwest, we decided to head out to Tillicum Village on Blake Island. Aaron has been wanting to do this for a long time, so that was our Father's Day present.

For those who aren't around here, it is an Indian village boasting of its authentic Salmon bake buffet and native dancing and storytelling. For those who ARE around here and who haven't been, you aren't missing out. Maybe our expectations were too high, maybe we waiting too long to go, but we thought it was just OK.



Perhaps the most entertaining part of the day was Adelyn's reaction to the steamed clam appetizer that we were greeted with upon arrival. I was surprised that she wanted to try one and not surprised to realize that it didn't quite make it all the way down. I looked and realized she had it sitting in her cheek like a chipmunk for about 15 minutes! Can you see it in there?!

And the final first that we have for our show and tell today was Adelyn's first visit to Mt. Rainier. Saturday was such a perfect day that while we were out running errands, Aaron got the urge to head to the hills. Those are the kinds of urges that I don't fight one bit, so we packed up a quick picnic and headed up.

As I mentioned it was a gorgeous day...a Saturday on a holiday weekend at that, so we weren't the only ones with this brilliant idea. It was so crowded that the parking lot at Paradise was full. So we just scoped out the campgrounds for future reference, ate our picnic, and hopped on the trail to Carter Falls.

We made the mistake of showing Adelyn the backpack, and after that she wasn't really into the idea of hiking herself. Chasing chipmunks was the only way we could get her down. It was much hotter and steeper than we expected....poor Aaron! And yes, Adelyn dressed herself that day...ode to PINK!!

That's about all we have for now. Hopefully you feel adequately caught up on our recent lives. I even threw in a couple of pictures of my growing belly for those of you who get excited about that sort of thing.

Only six weeks to go!!!!!