What we do

Sunday evening walk on the beach

Beach time

Gotta keep this fair skinned baby in the shade, covered in sun screen, and fully covered!

The Zoo. Even though the picture doesn't show it, Taft LOVED the zoo. Every animal he would say "(Whatever animal it was) Yaaaay!!!" 

Taft learned a new trick

Intern Year: Spokane in Review

We arrived to Spokane June 11th and exactly one year to the day was the day I left Spokane. Here's what we did during our year in the Inland Northwest:

In June we celebrated Father's Day and got mystery note  and flowers from "Taft", visited Bowl and Pitcher, went to Hoopfest, went on bike rides around Lake Couer d'Alene, and camped at Glacier National Park.

In July I was at the height of my pregnancy all-day sickness. I missed 4th of July festivities but Seth and Taft went to Riverfront Park to participate. Later in July Taft and I went to Utah while Seth worked a very busy rotation. 

In August we went to Sandpoint, ID and just hung out. I think Seth was on nights during this month so we played outside a lot during the day while Seth was sleeping. 

In September our first visitors!! Gram and Pop Herway came to town! We had a great time showing them around our new town. It was too short of a visit but we still loved having them. Later in the month we went to Seattle and Vancouver, BC.

In October the Dan and Lara Herways came to visit during their kids' fall break. We love these guys.

In November it was fuh-reeeeeezzzing and it dumped tons and tons of snow. The Bluth (even Pete!!) family came to town for Thanksgiving. We loved it. 

{can't find a picture}

In December we of course celebrated Christmas, our first as our little family of three and counted down until New Year's Eve when Little Lukie arrived!! My mom came to help out with the baby. 

In January Lanx came to help with the baby and after she left, we remained hermits because of the new baby and the fact that the weather was mis-er-a-ble. That is until we went to Utah for a couple weeks only to be cut short because our little baby got sick. :(

In February we went to Driggs, ID with Seth's brothers minus Steve who's serving a mission.

In March we stayed indoors a LOT and went to the children's museum a LOT. We celebrated T-man's birthday. And stayed inside more.

In April we were ready to pull our hair out because the weather was NOT getting better. Things got better though when Tates came to visit us for her Spring Break. 

May was spent in Utah while Seth did a rotation there and Pete got hitched!

June...peace out Spokane!

Overall, we really enjoyed our year in Spokane. The people are so so nice, it's beautiful, the summer totally rocks, but the winter is loooooong. Real long. 

Family picture in front of the apartment...my eyes are closed...dang.

The Transitional Year Kiddos (Taft found something more exciting)

The Transistional Year Residents

The Spouses

P.S. This took me forever so you should leave a comment.

You guys...it's really awesome here, like reeeeaaally. This past week the song from "Annie" keeps popping in my head, the one when she firsts gets to Mr. Warbucks mansion and it's like, "I think I'm gonna like it here..."

We arrived last Wednesday and it still looks like a tornado hit our apartment but it's slowly coming together. We hadn't seen the apartment (not even pictures) before we moved in so I was really anxious to see it. Good news, it isn't a dump! It's dated but has everything we need and everything about the neighborhood is great, not the mention the beach that we can easily walk to.

I'll do my best not to rub it in your faces but right now it's still very exciting to be living here. As I was driving over the bridge from San Diego to Coronado I could see Coronado in all it's sunny, palm tree, beach loving glory and started "Woo-hoo"-ing and screaming to Luke "We LIVE here Lukie!! We live here!!" He was super pumped as well. (Taft was riding in the moving truck with Seth)

I'll update with pictures soon but for now just know we made it and we love it.

Five Months for Luke and an Update on Taft

Stats (as of yesterday)

Weight 15 lbs.  (50%)

Height 26.5" (75%)

Head 17.5 (75%)

Lukie Pookie Lukulele is five months already! He's moved up another size in clothes and is showing no signs of slowing down. He is such a smiley boy and so far has been a very easy baby. He still hasn't decided to sleep through the night without eating, but I'm hoping once he starts solids he'll be able to make the transition. He's become quite a squirmer and gets pretty far by scooting along his head, back, and bum. He always manages to get himself wedged into the corner of his crib every night. He has finally rolled onto his stomach from his back. He likes to put everything in his mouth and definitely seems like he's ready for some real food. He's as sweet as sweet can be and smells so yummy. No teeth yet but still a big drooler. Loves, loves, loves bathtime, thinks Taft is funny, and is great at going with the flow. He usually takes two good naps during the day with one cat nap sometime else during the day. 

I had to take a minute to jot down some things that we think are funny about Taft right now. 

1. When he's frustrated and trying to express something I remind him to "Use words" and sometimes he'll just say "words" instead of what he actually wants. 

2. He now loves Toy Story and will hop on the back of the stroller while I'm pushing Luke and say "Buzz Ah-errr!" (Buzz Lightyear)

3. His prayers are the best. He usual recounts the days activities: "Dank you play Lukie. Dank you Barney. Dank you play outside. Dank you birpday cake." 

4. Whenever he gets hurt he asks me to "kiss it betterrrr" and if you get hurt he'll ask you if you want him to "kiss it betterrrr". 

5. He still talks to Luke in a super high, sweet voice. 

6. Sometimes Seth will pretend Taft is a baby and Taft will become totally still, won't say a word, and acts what I guess he thinks a baby acts like-still and quiet.

7. He met his newest cousin Jayda (7 years old) when my brother got married last month and he talks about her on a very regular basis saying: "Jayda funny" which is code for he likes someone. 

8. Taft watched Finding Nemo somewhat recently and has become obsessed with finding him. Seth took Taft on a run the other day and Taft was stretching out his arm out of the stroller yelling, "Nehmo! Nehmo!" He asks me on a regular basis where "Nehmo" is.

9. He has a great imagination and can entertain himself very easily. One of his favorite things to do is pretend talk to people on the phone. His regulars as of late have been Nana, Annie (my parents neighbor), Jayda, Carissa (my brothers wife).

You kind of have to be there with all of these, but I didn't want to forget them.

Folklife Performers

So the majority of the performers look like they're from the late 19th, early 20th century, have been traveling the country on the railroad, are homeless, haven't showered in years, and probably don't own a toothbrush but they sure are talented.

I am so curious about this group of boys...where do they live? Who are their parents? How did they all meet? Do they all live in forest together? They remind me of Peter Pan's Lost Boys but grown up a little. Notice the guy in the back blowing into the jug. I think it's nice they made up an instrument for him.





These guys were my favorite. Seth thinks the girl playing the bucket and string looks like Robin Hood. Her biceps were insane!




Now this one....just watch. I love it.

Five Years Later and Folk Life is Still Living

Memorial Day weekend five years ago, Seth and I took our first vacation together as a dating couple. Kind of a big deal, because on vacations is when you find out if you like the person more or you realize they bug the living daylights out of you. Lucky for us we decided we liked each other more.

We were going to Seth's BFF's wedding in Seattle. We drove in Seth's little Corolla (which we still have and will probably have until it dies) with me in the front, Seth's roommate Jason Kim in the back, along with a former roommate and mission pal Ryan Simmons, and an ex-girlfriend* of Seth's (another story).

Jason Kim, Seth and Me, Seattle 2006

We stayed at Ryan Simmons' parents UH-MAZING home on Bainbridge Island. We had clam chowda on the pier, toured Seattle, got free food at PF Changs, went to Jerry's wedding, and stumbled upon a huge hippie/gypsy punk/woodland creature music festival called Folk Life.

Ryan's parents backyard on Bainbridge Island

This groovy guy asked me to folk dance. I did.

The day of Jerry and Jen's wedding (this is Folklife, not the wedding) hence Seth's tux.

My favorite picture of the trip. (That's Ryan in the sweater)

Fast forward to Memorial Day weekend 2011. It was Friday afternoon and as far as I was concerned Seth and I were going to go on date to a restaurant we'd been meaning to try and our friends were going to watch our boys that night. It was mid-afternoon Friday and Seth told me that a couple we know wanted to stop by and say goodbye since we're moving shortly. Seth went downstairs to let them into our apartment. When Seth came back to our apartment with the couple, it wasn't the couple but MY PARENTS! I was shocked and confused. The my mom said, "We're here to watch Taft while you guys take a weekend trip!" I looked at Seth in total disbelief because we never do surprises like this, but it was true. Seth had arranged for my parents to come watch Taft while Luke, Seth, and I went to Seattle for a 5 year anniversary celebration of that trip while we were dating. I couldn't believe my parents had driven 11 hours to come watch Taft and I couldn't believe Seth pulled this off without me knowing a single bit of it!

We took off late Friday afternoon. We rolled into Seattle and opted out of clam chowder this time and instead had some VERT tasty Japanese in what looked to be a questionable hole-in-the-wall restaurant, but it was SO GOOD. We took the ferry to Bainbridge to stay at the same place we stayed 5 year prior and got settled for the night. Saturday we took the ferry back to Seattle and spent the day at the Folklife Festival. The people watching at this event is THE best. The musicians are extremely talented and it's just a fun thing to be a part of.

The ferry to Bainbridge

Performers

A brick of fries

Bainbridge

We finished the evening having the same meal we did 5 years prior as well (at PF Changs) but this time it wasn't free. Darn.

It was so great to have a little weekend with my permanent boyfriend (and Lukie too). I told him this surprised earned A LOT of points that will last quite a while for him. :)

*Seth would probably dispute this claim that she was a "girlfriend" but they did date for a bit.

P.S. The only thing that would have made this trip better was is I was 20 lbs lighter like I was 5 years ago.

Luke Luke Luke

Aaaah! He is just so dang cute I can't even stand it.

(like the drool on Seth's thumb?)

Kathleen Karen Shaw Bluth

Toddler Kathleen

High School Kathleen

Obviously I've been scanning old photos today. It's so much fun to look back at old pictures. My mom had a birthday while we were in Utah. It was the day before my brother's wedding so we didn't do too much to celebrate. My mom is a great example of the kind of mom I want to be. She will do ANYTHING for her kids and not because she feels like she has to, but I think she really likes to. We give her a hard time sometimes reminiscing about her less-than-perfect moments (we think those moments are funny, she does not) but all my siblings agree that we wouldn't want anyone else for a mom.

Look at these cute boys...

Makes me excited for a few years from now when Taft and Luke are good buds.

Lukester is Four (and a half) Months Old

Another month of Luke's first year has flown by. Luke is getting close to rolling from his back to tummy but can already roll from his tummy to back. He recently discovered that sucking on his fingers makes a good substitute for a binky, it's usually his index and middle finger. He drools like crazy, I swear there should be teeth popping up, but his gums are still just as gummy as ever. He seems to be more interested in Taft and might even think Taft is funny sometimes. It's kind of hard to tell, but I think Luke might be a momma's boy which I think I deserve because Taft is definitely a daddy's boy. Luke hasn't decided he wants to sleep through the night yet, which surprisingly I'm okay with. Although, this week he's had some rough nights that involved several wake ups. I'm okay with one feeding in the middle of the night, but that's it. He usually goes down around 7:30 or 8:00 and isn't up for the day until around 8:00 the next morning. I think this kid might appreciate sleep more than his older brother. Luke is such a smiley boy and I still have to try really hard not to squeeze his cute little guts out. I think he looks like Seth so sometimes I call him Little Seth. I love having a baby in our home and I kind of wish there was a safe, healthy way to stunt his growth so he could be a baby forever.

Iron Girl Las Vegas

(I just wrote this post and it got deleted so I have to rewrite it. So annoying)

For starters, Seth is doing a rotation in Utah this month, so we're staying at my parents for 4 weeks. This past Friday we loaded up the car at my parents house and headed to Las Vegas where I did my first ever triathlon, the Iron Girl Las Vegas sprint triathlon.

The boys did pretty good on the way down but once we got into Vegas Luke started to lose it. We pulled up close to hotel, but passed it and had to turn around. Since Luke was acting like he was going to die, I decided to get out with him and get us checked in to the hotel. The doors were locked so I asked Seth to hit the unlock button on the key remote. He did and and our car completely shut down. We were able to get it out of the way of traffic and a nice guy stopped and tried to jump start it but it didn't do anything. I was starting to stress because A) car problems are always stressful, especially on vacation, especially the night before a race and B) I had to get to registration by 6:00 p.m. and it was 4:30 p.m. My friend Abbie was doing the race too so I called her to see if she had left to get to registration and luckily she hadn't left yet. I took the boys up to our hotel room while Seth lugged all of our stuff from about a block away. Luke was screaming, Taft had shut his fingers in the hotel room door so he was screaming, and I was stressed and had a very large headache and I started crying too. It was not a pretty sight. Abbie and her husband came to pick me and Luke up so we loaded up their car with our gear and bikes and took off for registration, while Seth and Taft were left to figure out the car problems. Abbie and I had 30 minutes to get to registration before it closed and it was about 30 minutes away. Luckily we got there just in time, got checked in, set up our bikes, and were good to go for the next morning. Meanwhile, Seth was on the phone with the tow truck place (who went to the wrong location), different mechanics trying to see who was open, the mechanic who installed the keyless system, and all the while trying to keep Taft entertained. The tow truck guy finally arrived but told Seth he was only allowed to take one person in his truck. After getting the guy to feel sorry for Seth, he agreed to let Seth and Taft ride in the car while it was being towed. The car was taken to an auto parts store and Seth was able to fix everything by changing out a blown fuse. Four dollars and a few hours later the disaster had been averted. By 8 o'clock we were all back as a family, none of us had eaten dinner, and miraculously Taft was still in a good mood. The day after all the drama Taft said, "Car broken, truck awesome".

Despite the traumatic events of the day before, I LOVED the race. I definitely want to make this an annual event for me. Best news of the race: I faced my fear of swimming in open water and risk getting eaten by a fish/shark/sea creature AND the icing on the cake was I didn't even come in dead last!! GO ME!! It was only a sprint so: 1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike, and 3.2 mile run, but it was still awesome. Seth was my "trainer" and cheerleader. He wrote up a training schedule for me and made sure I stuck to it. He was a huge help on my longer training days...training for something with a nursing baby can be pretty tricky. Seth made it to the race before the start with both boys in tow and was even able to keep Luke asleep until I finished. Luke will not take a bottle so I was really worried he'd be starving and would be screaming the whole time.

My friend Abbie (we worked at DCFS together) did freaking awesome and placed 2nd in our age group. I won't tell you my place because then you'll feel sorry for me. Abbie didn't even train for this race...but she's training for a marathon right now, is super fit, and just rocks. I wish I was like Abbie in like a million ways.

And because I know you want to see me in a wet suit and swim cap....

This picture doesn't really capture how blazing fast I was, and I'm not wearing white leggings, those are just my legs

Seth, the boys, and I stayed in Vegas for a few more days after the race and just swam and semi-relaxed. I say semi because how relaxed can you really be with a baby and a toddler?

The Condo That Could Have Been

Luke did fabulous on the plane ride. Taft and Luke both took their first flights at around 3 months old. 

Mid-April Little Luke and I took a trip to San Diego to begin the house-hunt. My mom met us there for a couple of days and it was great to have her along for opinions and help with Luke. On the second day of the search I found a fantastic, fantastic place: totally move-in ready, new carpet in bedrooms, hardwood floors in main living areas, washer/dryer, attached garage, only one shared wall, updated kitchen and bathrooms, 2 bed, 2 bath, close to Seth's work, and right across the street from the park. Practically perfect. I called Seth about it and we decided to make an offer. The morning I was leaving I signed the paperwork for the offer and right before leaving for the airport I decided to do a drive-by. 

I should mention that the first day we saw the place we noticed a bunch of homeless people at the park. The social worker side of me thought, "Homeless people are welcome at this park, they're just like you and me, but they live outside. Life has dealt them a bad hand, let's be compassionate and understanding." But the Mom side of me thought, "Homeless people are crazy, drug-abusing, alcoholics". The first day I tried to ignore the Mom side because I liked the place so much, plus the homeless people weren't by the playgroup so we'd be safe, right? 

Well, when I drove by the place the morning of my flight I noticed two police cars at the park. I decided to stop and ask them about the area. I told them we were thinking about buying a place right across the street and their answer was a big, fat, emphatic "DON'T DO IT". They validated my Mom thoughts by confirming that the majority of those homeless folks living at the park were in fact crazy, drug-abusers, alcoholics, and to top it off, prostitutes. Sweet. 

We were very bummed about it and realized we should put the house-buying plan on hold until we're more familiar with the areas we can afford and that are close to Seth's work. We had spent so much time looking at places online and were super discouraged when I got home. Our realtor told us that if we wanted to take our time looking, she'd rent an apartment that she owns to us, month to month, until we find a place. The great part is, it's on Coronado Island (or I guess technically it's a peninsula but either way it's awesome). We're thinking we might not want to move once we're there! 

Did you know that probably the main reason I picked our current apartment in Spokane is because I liked the kitchen cupboards and thought my dishes would look cute? I'm 100% serious. Isn't that the dumbest reason to pick an apartment? I picked cute cupboards over a washer/dryer, dishwasher, 2nd bathroom, and covered garage. The worst part, they don't even look that cute. I told Seth I was going to try really hard to place functionality above potential cute-ness during the house hunt. 

Here are some pictures of our Spokanian apartment. I never decorated because when we moved in I was sick as a dog being pregnant and then by the time I had energy we only had a few months left. So, it's boring, but here it is:

Note to self and others: Don't pick an apartment based solely on the cupboards

Note to self and others: carpet in a dining area is the dumbest idea ever if you have kids

Note to self and others: Light colored couches are also a terrible choice if you have little kids