Heat Wave

The weather here has been ridiculously hot this week. Yesterday it got up to 103F, breaking all sorts of records. I can't remember any time in the last 28 years that it has been over 100 degrees...or even that many days over 90. I know this may not sound very warm to some of you, but for a region where people don't have AC, it's pretty warm. Luckily yesterday we made it out of the house early to go over to my parent's house and play in the water. (BTW Lake Washington reached 79F yesterday. Pretty warm for such a large lake). We pretty much spent the whole day down at the lake because the house was too hot. However the day before, Hannah was sick so we didn't got anywhere (it's alittle embarrassing to have your kid throw up in random places...or so I imagine). So we stayed here the whole day at it was unbearably hot. Luckily Hannah is feeling better, so we are back at my parent's place. And even though the water is so warm it still feels GREAT!!

8 weeks

Today Peter went in for his 8 week check-up. He is doing great. He is 24 inches long (90th percentile). He has a 16.75 inch head circumference (95%). And he weighs 16lb 12oz (off the charts). I guess I kinda knew that when I started putting him in 3-6 month close at 6 weeks. Actually, Hannah only weighs about 28 lbs so he is over half her weight. I was alittle concerned that he weighs so stinkin much, but since I nurse him I can't be overfeeding him. Besides, I'm sure alot of that weight is in the large head. In other news, Peter has started to smile alot. All you have to do is talk to him (or at least that's all I have to do). He is also pretty alert and can see a couple feet out. All in all, he is a great baby; very chill and very cute and snuggly.

Yesterday we hung out with Josh, Celeste, & Kiefer. Kiefer is 9 days younger than Peter. Here's a picture of Caleb, Peter & Josh, Kiefer.

Here are the two cousins close up.

Sorry I don't have more pictures of Peter. But it's so true that the second child just doesn't get as many pictures as the first. With Hannah I took about 20 every day, and with Peter I hardly have any to post. I'll try to work on that.

Oh, here's a picture of Hannah measuring Peter.

Hannah is really good with Peter and always wants to cover him with a blanket or give him is paci if he is upset. She will also occasionally try to lift him up or take him out of his car seat. Besides that, she is great. She is going to be a really caring, protective, and slightly bossy older sister. :-D

Here's a pictures of Peter from a couple of days ago.

And here's a pictures of Hannah at about the same age.

Unbelievable!

So the other night I was driving down our street and a saw a guy walking his turtle...no joke! And it was a big turtle...about 14 in diameter shell. I had to double take as I drove by. And then because turtles aren't the fastest creatures on the block, I got to see him again when I was driving home. It was pretty crazy.

While I'm talking about crazy things, Caleb bought us a new vacuum. But this is Caleb, so he didn't just buy us any vacuum, he bought us the "cleaning solution" (as described by Caleb). See photos below...





You actually wear it like a backpack. Anyhow, Caleb saw the cleaning staff using it in the dorm and saw the results it produced and decided it was a must have. There was no way to convince him out of it so I just gave in. The good news is is that it works really well. Miranda vacuumed our whole house and we only had to plug it into two different outlets (because the cord is 50 feet long). Apparently it will last for a really long time, so I guess we can just consider it a good investment. Besides, I would hate for life to get boring around here. ;-)

River Rafting

Over the 4th of July weekend my family went up to my parents cabin on the Snohomish River. The weather was in the 70's and 80's, which was nice because the river was COLD! We had a great time hiking, river rafter, and just hanging out. Here are some (OK alot) of pictures.

Here's my family: My parents and my sisters and their husbands

The river at night

One of our favorite activities is to blow up air mattresses and float down the river. There are a couple rapids, but nothing super intense. Here's Colleen enjoying the ride.

Here we are celebrating Ben's birthday on the deck.

Caleb and I made him a really cool red, white and blue cake, since his birthday is so close to the 4th. We had red and white cake with a blue/black filling. It was super yummy, of course!

On the 4th we went hiking on the Iron Goat Trail. The Iron Goat Trail is an old railroad track that was made into a hike. My grandfather spent many years helping make it into a hikeable trail, so it is always a favorite hike for my family to do. He we all are in front of the red caboose.

Here I am sitting a bench dedicated to my grandfather.

It was a pretty steep hike. Luckily Caleb carried Hannah and Colleen carried Peter. It was my first real exercise after the surgery and it was pretty exhausting even without a baby. But it felt great to get out and hike around. Here I am at the top.

After the hike, we went down the river a couple more time. It's about a 5 minute ride down the river. Below are Ben and and his friend Tommy braving it in the kiak.

I realize this might sound kind of dangerous, but it's really not.
Below is a picture of my mom.

Here I am hitting some rapids. I only fell off once. Luckily it's pretty shallow, so you just stand up and grab your air mattress and hop back on. Normally I don't fall, but I was waving at Caleb who was taking pictures. That's what you get for trying to look all professional. :-D

Here's Hannah playing with the pump. She had a great time blowing air on her body.

Here's Colleen directing the pump down her diaper. Hannah thought that was really funny and enjoyed it quite a bit.

Matt and Dad watching everything from the deck.

Mom and Hannah playing in the river. Hannah was really couragous by the end. She got her body wet up to her shoulders and she was also dipping her hair in the water. And let me tell you, this water was nowhere close to warm. This river comes from the snowy mountains by Steven's Pass. She is quite the Polar Bear. (she's really living up to the Fry name)

Here's Caleb. He traversed across the flowing waters out the big rock. He made it, although he did get alittle wet along the way. He had to stop at a smaller rock to drop off his wallet so it wouldn't get soaked. :-D

One of Hannah's favorite toys is the tripod. She carried the tripod around and would put it down every 30 seconds or so to take pictures of people. Here she is taking a pictures of Caleb taking a picture of her.

Before we left we had to deflate all the air mattresses. Hannah saw Matt, Colleen and Dad doing it so she decided to help out. She's a good little helper. :-D

Well, we had a great time. If any of you all come to visit us, we can take you up to the cabin. It's in a quaint little neighborhood (not really a town) with tons of great hikes a short distance away (and great skiing in the winter). I can't guarantee 80 degree weather, but I can guarantee a good time!!

Raccoons

The other day while Hannah and I were eating breakfast we saw some raccoons on our fence. At first we just saw two, but two more came along later. Hannah really wanted to go out and play with them, but I obviously told her NO. Here they are.

While the camera was out I took a picture of Peter. He has his 2 month appointment on MOnday and I will post more then....stay tuned.

Also while the camera was out I took some pictures of our place. This is our dining room.

Here's our living room.

And this is our guest bedroom. It's really nice! (hint, hint...). And hopefully by the time we have more visitors we'll have a place for the extra lamps.

Hug Family Reunion

A couple days after Caleb arrived in Seattle we headed down to Elgin OR for a big Hug family reunion. (Elgin is where Caleb's grandparents live and is about 30 minutes from La Grande) IT was tons of fun! It was the perfect mix of planned activities and time to just hang out and catch up. Several family members we had not seen since that last Hug family reunion, which was right before we got married 6 years ago. NOt only was it great to catch up with people, everyone loved holding Peter. This was great for me because Peter is not fussy about who is holding him...he just loves being held. Also, there were tons of kids around that Hannah could play with, so I had a surprising amount of free time.

The family members there were: Caleb's Grandparents, their 4 children & spouses, plus most of Caleb's cousin's and families.

The first day we all went to Wallowa Lake. The second day we went on a scenic train ride along the Wallowa river. The third day we got a tour of Hot Lake Springs. And the last day was a chill day. Here are some pictures.

Peter is the one wrapped in the towel.

Here we are by Wallowa Lake.

Here's Wallowa Lake

Here's our nephew Judah being cute

Here we are playing games at night. Luckily Peter is a pretty good game companion.

Here's the whole crowd...49 of us.

Here's Caleb's immediate family

This is a view from the train ride.

Here's Levi with the grandparents. :-D

Here we are on the train. We filled up a whole car.

This is back in Elgin where we ate all our meals

Here's Elizabeth with Peter

Here's Grandma and Grandpa Hug again. We celebrated their 65 wedding anniversary! That's alot of years!!

Here's Hannah playing with her cousins and Uncle Titus. She had alot of fun running around.

This is Hot Lake Springs. It smelled like Yellow Stone...as all hot springs do. Back in the day it was a huge tourist spot as well as a major hospital/healing center where people would come to absorb the healing minerals and such from the hot springs. It's since been run down and the owners now are working to make it a destination spot again. The husband is a famous bronze artist and he has some pretty amazing pieces of work. This is a view of the hot lake from the resort building.

Here's one of the bronze statues out front.