chris.reese.girls1.2.3.4

Chris and I had an anniversary two weeks ago. We celebrated our eight years of marriage on the 8th with a candlelight dinner with our little girls. Paige loved it, especially drinking out of fancy fluted glasses. But to really celebrate we made arrangements with Chris' parents (thank you, thank you, thank you) to take the girls for the weekend and we stayed home and played for two whole days. We took in dinner, movie, ice cream out with friends, a full round of golf, watched football, and went out to dinner and WICKED with my sis and her hubby. We even went to church sans kids (I got a new calling, which is an entirely different post). I think I managed four naps over the course of the weekend and I did not cook once. Can you say "awesome"! It literally was and I did not get hung up on missing the girls...especially when I got to sleep ALL the way through the night two nights in a row. Golfing...probably the best round of my life. I think the pain in my arm forces me to...

Paige has started preschool, two days each week for 2 1/2 hours. I was grateful for the orientation we had previous to her first day where she was able to play in the classroom for an hour and meet her teachers. It really helped to ease her nerves. All she could talk about was playing with the toy kitchen and the fact they have a tiny kids potty! It's hard to believe she's getting older, but I'm excited for her to have some structured classroom time. I'm grateful the teachers write on the board the things they did that day, otherwise I wouldn't know...Paige is pretty tight-lipped about the going-ons. Here she is ready to go with her lunchbox carrying her snack. I let her pick ANY lunchbox she wanted (Barbie, Princess, etc.) and wouldn't you know, she wanted the one that looks just like her daddy's! (Sidenote: During dinner the other night Paige says, "Mom, can you go somewhere so I can stay home alone with dad? He's my favorite." And no, ...

Brynn took her first steps at the end of August, but just over the last week, she is really starting to go...sometimes favoring walking over crawling. It's exciting, but scary...I'm not quite prepared for this type of mobility. She's so proud of herself...she giggles and smiles, knowing she's accomplishing a major milestone. And Paige has figured out how to hop, which is a difficult concept, and we are proud of her too. At the end of this next video you'll see Paige show off her new talent...because who can let their little sister steal the limelight???

This is for the grandmas...showing off Paige's progress in swim. She's continuing to improve and we are proud of her. She just started another session that will go through October. She's had a good run of the water this summer and fall. Enjoy!

Chris completed a milestone for 2009...running in the Hood to Coast relay. It's a 197-mile relay race for teams of twelve. It just so happened that Chris' team (sponsored by his work) had some open spots and he recruited my marathoning BIL, Trevor, to run with him. My brother, Bryce, also ran with a team from his work. My SIL, Becca and I braved the crazy crowds and decided to find the boys during each of their first legs. Surprisingly, we were successful and saw each of them. We spent most of the day in the car, but we had a blast! Chris and Trevor's team had some challenges....Trevor strained his achilles heel and after swapping his last two legs with Chris he was miraculously able to complete 3 legs (each person is assigned 3 legs)...and when I say miraculously that is not an exaggeration. Another member of their team ditched out on the day of the race (a big no-no), so Chris ended up running some extra miles to accommodate the lost team-member. All in all, Chris ran ...

We wanted to take advantage of every minute during our trip to Orcas for Chad and Val's wedding (see previous post) and enjoy the many sights and wonders of the island. The ferry is quite an issue when traveling, but I decided before we left that I would NOT be stressed about it...and I wasn't. Waiting in line for many hours to come home was fun and we made sure we enjoyed our time together as a family. At the top of Mt. Constitution...highest point on Orcas. It's beautiful...you can see EVERYTHING! Me and Dani. I miss her. She and Matthew have moved back to Utah (sniff sniff). We have such fun together and she brings such light and joy to the Apken family. I loved this last hurrah together. Chris and I at Cascade Falls; a super easy hike. We took Paige, Great-Grandma Apken, her friend, and Matthew and Dani. It was a fun jaunt. There are a ga-zillion hikes at Moran State Park. Wishing we had more time to enjoy them... Paige at the falls. Her personality is obvious in th...

Sounds tropical, huh? Well, it was on Orcas Island in the San Juans, which is certainly not tropical. Even still, we enjoyed a weekend trip for the wedding of Chris' cousin, Chad McNett to Val Hagen. We traveled with Chris' parents and brother/SIL, Matthew and Dani, It was a lovely occasion. I didn't have many photos of the bride and groom (okay, not any), but I have stolen a picture the mother of the groom sent me that was taken by the photographer, Tatiana Skye ( www.tatianaskye.com ) . As you can see...breathtaking! While waiting for the wedding party to take pics, Paige had full reign of the dance floor. No stage fright, whatsoever! More pics of our Orcas Island fun still to come....