Summer Storm

In case you missed it, there was an amazing storm last night on the Palouse. We were lucky to be out in Troy when it hit so we had a wonderful view of it rolling in. I went a little trigger happy with the camera, but it was just too beautiful! Here are, what many will say, too many pictures of the storm. But I couldn't decide which ones to cut, so you get quite a few of the ones I took. I love the look of dark purple clouds over a glowing golden wheat field...

Little Pink Robe

Camping at Heyburn

We went up to Heyburn State Park last weekend for a little camping with the fam. Lots of fun was had by all and Bella has informed us that we ought to buy a boat. Interesting.

Beautiful Coeur d'Alene Lake


My eldest child walking precariously close to the edge of the dock, ready to fall in at any moment and drown (have I ever mentioned my irrational fear of water?)...


Little Eva hangin' out in the front pack...


Bella loving her camera...



Lovely fire...


Konked out kiddo...


Snuggles in the morning... (note the UW sweatshirt. Andrew paid dearly to get that hoodie - I think it was his penance for buying something from the "other" university).


The lengths to which you have to go to prepare food (and the mess made in the process) when camping seems to make it taste ten times better.



Darling little Eva snuggling Daddy in the early morning...

The Zoo

Andrew's Aunt Bridgette was very kind and went with the girls and I to Seattle for Andrew's last weekend before finishing up his summer quarter at UW. We drove over on Saturday and came back on Sunday, so it was a quick trip but well worth it. We took Saturday afternoon to take the girls to the Zoo which was a big hit. Here's the proof.


The first time Bella saw the hippos she called them "big piggies".

Sweet Little Sisters

For the Out-of-Towners...

I know a few of you specifically have requested pictures of my parents' yard, so here are a few. These pictures are about a month old, so some of the areas have been improved upon since then, but you'll get the general idea. This is also what occupied my time while the girls were napping during the six weeks that I lived with my parents. Between watering, mowing, hooking up sprinklers, pruning, and hauling rocks, bark, and gravel, my mom and I stayed quite busy. But now it is about 80% done and we can both take it easy for a while.

Here's the east side of the house...


The front of the house (south side)...


Bella's pet rock ("Baby") that she found in the yard..


The back (north side) of the house...


More north side of the house...


The little shade planting bed outside the dining room window out back...


The west side of the house where the driveway is...


And the front of the house yet again.

Relocating!

It looks like we made our final "house hunting" trip to Spokane yesterday! The girls and I have been going up every week since the end of July to look at houses and condos for us to rent for the next year, and yesterday we found an amazing old condo in a very convenient location, nicely remodeled, and at a good price. The owner is currently putting together a lease for us to sign which should be done by tomorrow, so nothing is final yet but we hope to make it final quite soon!

The building is 103 years old and was originally built as luxury apartments close to downtown so that people could live in a nice home but be close to everything downtown. It was later turned into a hotel with a French restaurant on the ground floor, and then about 15 years ago or so they converted it back to luxury condos. Here is a picture of the 3-story atrium style foyer:

It's a little over a mile from Andrew's campus, and conveniently right between Deaconess and Sacred Heart hospitals.

We are very excited at the prospect of living here and can't wait to sign the papers! God was kind and made it very clear to us that none of the other options would work and that this is where we are supposed to be. We hope to begin moving in around the first of September, so I will post some pictures then!