One last adventure...

 

We love camping - always have and always will - so as we planned our summer, we knew that a weekend of lake camping with dad, Robie and the girls in Prineville was a must! As summer unfolded, the best weekend for a trip to Central Oregon was Labor Day -- four weeks before the little miss was scheduled to arrive and of course, Maddie's annual trek to the lake to celebrate her birthday :)

We made our way to Bend on Friday, gathered up all of the camping gear Saturday morning, headed to Prineville and loaded the boat (a couple times!) to begin our adventure. The camp spot was perfect -- water on both sides, a great spot for tents, meals, hanging out and swimming!

A dog's dreamland... no leashes, no being left alone at home... Kenai was in HEAVEN (Rio and Winston tolerated him, which is about all we can ask for).

Thanks for being such excellent hosts! The camping meals this duo whips up would make any chef proud!!! The baby back ribs have become a camping tradition :)

Bob and I had one goal for the weekend... get Kenai (our water dog???) to become a swimmer. Who knew that teaching a lab to love the water would be such a challenge. Don't get me wrong, he has become a fan of the water (a slow process, but he likes it now) -- splashing in it, chasing other dogs in it, peeing in it (yes our dog is known for squatting and peeing as soon as he gets into the water - awesome!), etc., but swimming has been a bit of a challenge. Every once in awhile he will lose track of where he is and swim, but it is VERY rare and he never does it on purpose. Labor Day weekend goal #1 - make Kenai Michael Phelps!

We thought that us, in the water, would motivate our pup to take the plunge (pun fully intended)! Little did we know, gunshots would actually make our pup a water dog ;) Sunday night (yes after a full day without swimming for Kenai!), Bob and Chase's boyfriend, Anthony, decided to shoot a couple of handguns with a piece of wood in the water as a target. Kenai's natural (?) hunting instinct kicked in and he WANTED those logs out of the water! The boys took a break from shooting and sure enough, there Kenai went to retrieve the targets. After that, he was hooked! He still doesn't dive in gracefully - his entrance to the water is pretty funny to watch actually - but he swims nonetheless. In fact, he swims in Prineville and in Seattle, which has made walks at Green Lake even tougher now -- all he wants to do is swim!

Three dogs swimming - that means Kenai is one of them :) Yay!!!

Three layers of doggie ;) Talk about spoiled pups!

As I mentioned, Labor Day weekend is also a time to celebrate the youngest in our fam... Miss Maddie! She has had lake birthday celebrations since the fam moved to Bend many moons ago and we were so happy to take part in this VERY special one -- her 21st! Chasie wanted to make Maddie a necklace out of airplane booze bottles (the little mini ones), similar to what we made for her in Las Vegas almost 2 years ago. We picked up the booze, and a few other 21-er necessities, in Bend before heading to Prineville and made Maddie a "21 Fun" bucket complete with a dizzy bat, a koozie, glow necklaces for the big night out and her beautifully crafted necklace. Very fun!

The almost 21 year old being crowned with her necklace!

The weekend was just perfect - lots of sun, good food, laughs and of course water sports (for those of us that weren't 9 months pregnant!) Bob "retired" from wake boarding a couple of years ago after realizing that wake boarding typically equals a dislocated shoulder after every attempt to try anything beyond standing on the board behind the boat, but he is now working on his water skiing skills. Not too shabby for his 4th or 5th time behind the boat!

And as for me... I enjoyed every minute of our last adventure before baby. Some thought I was crazy to go camping 9 months pregnant, but it really was fun! Dad had several sleeping options for me to choose from (very cute how concerned he was about my sleep on the lake!) and I must say it wasn't much worse than sleeping at home. So glad we went camping and enjoyed a lake weekend before the baby arrives -- next summer... camping with an almost one year old. Sign me up!

And just to prove that I was actually there -- photo evidence of the big ol' belly on the lake! (Hoping no one loses their lunch!)

Spoiled...

The last weekend of August was a BIGGIE for us! Not only did we get to celebrate five years of marriage (woah!) surrounded by many of our family and friends, we also celebrated Baby K at a shower in honor of the little miss! The party truly was a group effort and we are so thankful to everyone that made it possible. It was so great to gather friends and family together to prepare for the arrival of Baby K (who for all you that have been asking, remains nameless - our short list of three names will be headed to the hospital with us where we will meet our daughter and choose the name that suits her best :))

August 25, 2007...

August 25, 2012... what a difference five years make!

Such a cute idea - everyone (including folks that couldn't attend the party) filled out baby stats...
lots of early October, mid-8 pound baby predictions!
Thanks John and Sommer for such a great way to commemorate the little miss
(and for the GORGEOUS flowers throughout the party) :)

Beautiful poolside setting for the party on an AMAZING Seattle day!

Lots of helpers to open gifts :)

Bob really got into the fun ;)

Our gracious hosts - thanks for welcoming everyone into your home Uncle Jim and Debbie Jean :)

Dad manned the BBQ (of course!) - look at all that yummy salmon!

Even college friends got in on the fun! Ali handled invites like a champ (with a teeny baby of her own!) and Becko made SUPER cute frames with baby pictures. Thanks, ladies!



The Kehrlis put together a great bar and brought a YUMMY cake (perfect for my MAJOR sweet tooth!) Thanks Catherine for picking such a delicious treat.



Aspiring chef Maddie posing with the AWESOME table of food -
thanks Robie, Debra, Maddie and Chasie for the delicious food!



Two of three great-grandparents in attendance enjoying the sun!
(Bob's Grandma joined us to celebrate her 7th great grandchild too -
no photo evidence of that at the moment...)

Our new niece, Patrice, was a MAJOR highlight (as were all of the nieces and nephews) -
thanks for making the trek John & Sommer and Bill & Rhiana!

Such a fun way to prepare for our little girl - thanks everyone!

And if that wasn't enough celebrating... Earlier in August my awesome co-workers hosted an amazing lunchtime baby shower. We have one spoiled little girl already :)

Baby Month?

Well folks... its September. People keep asking me when I am due and for the longest time, the big day felt so far away, but as soon as August hit that September date didn't seem so distant. Now that we are officially in September, and our little miss could be joining us this month, it feels VERY close and we are so excited to meet her. I have a feeling she will be late -- afterall when have I ever been on time for anything -- but regardless of when she arrives, we are ready to meet her and welcome her into the world.

We are sneaking in one last adventure this weekend... camping with the family in Bend! A weekend of boating, eating and laughing seems like a perfect way to prepare to welcome our little miss. Here goes nothing ;) Wish me luck!

Here are a few pics from August 30th -- one month away from D-day ;)

One month to go...

One month - NO WAY!

Weekends at home...

After many weekends away, we are really appreciating our recent weekends at home! We have had visitors (Bob's parents came up the first weekend in August to redeem their Christmas gift from us -- a weekend in Seattle!), attended our second Sounders game (where the Sounders stomped on Landon Donovan, David Beckham and the rest of the LA Galaxy), attended a beautiful wedding (congrats Hillenbrands), attended a baby shower (congrats Annie and Kevin) and gotten a LOT of projects done around the house. 


Beautiful day in Seattle - taking advantage with lunch at Ray's Boathouse :)

More from Ray's Boathouse

Sounders vs. LA Galaxy

All smiles after the win (even if it was like 90 degrees, which for you non-Seattle folk... that is HOT around here!)

Congrats Lisa, Tyler and Conner!

This summer also brought about one of Bob's favorite things... the summer Olympics! For those of you that may not know, Bob has a slight obsession with the Olympics. Despite a nesting wife and prepping the house for a large group of Kehrli visitors, Bob made time to watch team USA compete in everything from swimming to track and fencing (he skipped the synchronized diving and rhythmic gymnastics ;)) He stayed up late and got up early - great training for when baby comes! (You all have my permission to remind him of his ability to operate on little sleep once the baby arrives...)

Bob's two weeks of Olympic viewing made for a very busy week last week as we prepared the house for visitors. Our preparation wasn't just a quick clean, but instead included the painting of a bathroom, painting of the nursery and the assembly of several pieces of furniture. Bob got going on projects as soon as we got home from work each night and delivered on all of his promises (nursery pics coming soon...PROMISE!)

And in case you think my belly isn't getting bigger for some strange reason, below is the photo evidence to prove it! Now into week 35 with new pictures coming soon...

Our new niece!

Two weeks ago today, our third niece, Patrice Charlotte Kehrli, was born in Portland (much to the delight of her big sister Paige!) Now that we are in the NW, we finally got to see an extremely "fresh" Portland Kehrli (as Bob would say) - we met Patrice when she was just two days old! It was so fun to hold a new little baby and get a feel for what's to come our way. We loved meeting Patrice, seeing the joy on Bill and Rhiana's faces (seeing them with just one baby was NUTS!) and spending time with the rest of the family in Portland.

For now, the Kehrli grandchildren count is even - three boys and three girls, but come this fall, lucky number seven (our very own little miss) will skew those numbers once again - this time in favor of the girls :)

Getting some practice with a newborn...

Getting some practice with (and a "massage" from) some monkeys!

While we were in Portland we also got a new car! Kidding, but Bob did convince his dad to take him for a Porsche ride. In the 10+ years Bob and I have been together, I think this is the first time I have ever seen the Porsche out of the garage (and Bob in it!) although John does drive it once a week or so ;)

Looking good at 49 years young!

Our weekend adventure in Portland was topped off by a ride on the Columbia in the Kehrlis boat - the aptly named "claustrophobia." Bob took his first ride on this boat as a two week old baby and its been a great summertime treat ever since! Kenai was a bit unsure about the entire ordeal (the walk down the boat ramp, the heave onto the boat, the ride, etc.) UNTIL we got to a beach with a friend for him to play with! Our "water dog" loves the water - splashing, jumping and running...swimming, however is an entirely different story ;)

Staying put...

After a tour of airports, hotels and some great locales these past few months, we are finally staying put in the great NW for the foreseeable future (and I say that with a smile because its finally summer here -- 80+ this weekend!) Staying put, yes, but sitting around... NEVER!

Our first weekend at home came with fresh faces to our new place and we loved showing them our new digs! Our college friends (and housemates), the Kachmariks, drove over from Montana to spend a week with Dan's parents in Woodinville. Lucky for us, we got to see them not once, but twice! Dinner/drinks on Friday night were followed by breakfast at our house on Saturday morning with their cute boys in tow. And, as an added bonus Bob's college roommate, Mike, started his Alaskan cruise in Seattle the same weekend so we got to see him for all the fun too!

 
The following day we finally saw the Whitfields again after several months of talking about getting together. (Elizabeth Whitfield is our friend Chris' sister and we are lucky enough to live in the same area as she and her husband, Doug -- we have loved getting to know Elizabeth and Doug over the years and are excited to have them in Seattle.) We had a great BBQ dinner, caught up, sang songs with their daughter Sophie (she is hilarious) and met their newest addition, Ries. No pics to speak of for that event, but we took excellent mental pictures.

After weeks of looking, ordering and waiting, we finally started actually receiving pieces of the nursery! Bob picked up the dresser and crib, which is now slowly but surely making its way upstairs. The crib made it up just fine (once we removed it from the box, unassembled), but the dresser is another story. There was lots of measuring, repositioning, packaging removal, more measuring, more repositioning and finally, the consensus that there was no way to get it up our narrow staircase. Bob has been scheming ways to get the dresser in through our window (!) and there was even a question about moving the nursery downstairs (not happening). While we LOVE our home that was built in 1917, it doesn't always love our furniture choices. Who would have thought that a dresser for such a wee little thing could be such a hassle! (Thanks for the help and your patience, Tyler!)

The following weekend we continued our busy-ness in the NW! We spent a day at Bob's company picnic, met up with some LONG time Seattle friends (Alison Easter and Lisa Pillitteri) and headed to a BBQ at the Whitfields to celebrate Doug's most recent triathlon. It was great to spend time with everyone - especially since we got to meet Alison and Ben's little girl, Jaya! Alison and I have known each other since we were babies (she came and visited me in the hospital when I was born and she was two weeks and a day old!) - we went to grade school together (5th - 8th grade), spent summers together, went to high school together and even made our way to Santa Clara together. She is now in Brooklyn, married to a great guy and the mama to an almost one year old little girl. It was great to catch up after too much time away and she got to tell me all about being a mama as we prepare to welcome our own little girl this fall! So much fun.

Promise house pictures are coming... we want to actually have a few rooms to show that are put together :)