Our Littlest Matryoshkas

So I have started several posts and have obviously NOT finished them! Everything is going great I just haven’t had the itch to blog I guess. So here is what I am thinking. I want to post at least once a month and do a recap of the month with pictures and short stories so that I can have a journal of sorts for our family. I always have good intentions to journal and don’t. Since this blog was really set up to keep everyone informed about our adoption happenings I think we are going to create a new family blog!

I am going to keep this blog and link it to the new blog so you will be able to find us easily if you so choose too! And since I am fairly blog savvy now, I just may get the blog up and running this time without John's help. Maybe... Oh and sorry honey, I wont be using Windows next time. Blogger all the way.

See you soon on the new Huber Family Blog!

huberhandful.blogspot.com

John and went out for the day yesterday to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary. John said he had a few things planned and what we were doing was a surprise. First we had to farm out the kids to various grandparents. Garret went to John's parents, Hannah and Nathan went to my grandma's, and Alyssa and Julia stayed home with my mom. It has been REALLY HOT here that last few days and yesterday was the hottest day of all! It got well over 95 and we don’t have AC in this house. Needless to say I was worried that Julia would have a rough day being away from John and I for the first time and it being so hot. But thankfully she had a great day and was a happy little girl!

 1) Julia sippin some water on a hot day  2) Julia loves the pool!

Anyway once we finally left the house we headed for downtown Seattle. We parked and walked along the waterfront to find a place to have lunch. John kept looking at his watch and I knew something was up. We ate outside at Steamers. John had a fish and chips combo platter and I had clam chowder in a bread bowl. The breeze was blowing just enough to keep us cool. Shortly after finishing lunch we headed back to the car and drove near the Space Needle and down to Lake Union.

 John and I waiting for our lunch

My surprise was a cruise around the lake and then a site seeing flight around Seattle!

We had a wonderful relaxing time on the boat. The weather was just so beautiful it was nice to be out on the water! After the boat tour we headed next door to catch our little float plane. What a great experience that was! Landing on water seemed a bit wrong at first but I have to say it was a fast and smooth landing.

1) The Space Needle 2) Erica cruising on Lake Union 3) Going through the Ship Canal

 1,2) Seattle view from the plane 3) John and Erica in front of the float plane

Once we landed we still had about 3.5 hours left on our date and John had something else planned for us as well! We drove to a local market and picked up food for a picnic dinner. We then drove almost all the way to Mt. Rainer to a view spot and ate dinner and watched the sun set. The sky looked like it was on fire it was so red.

As we drove home I couldn’t help but to feel so blessed. God has given me a wonderful husband and five beautiful children. And of course he also gave me three loving grandparents that are always willing to spend time with their grandchildren!

Well I planned on blogging all last week but never sat down to do it. I always have good intentions and then get distracted or too lazy to do it!

John went back to work last Monday. I felt so bad for him; he really wanted to stay home with us longer. To top it off this is how his first day back went...

Shortly after arriving, his flip flop strap broke.

On the way home (he bike commutes most of the way, 30 miles each way) his tire went totally flat and he had to back track 2 miles to the nearest bike store.

He finally gets to his car and the back window is busted out.

Needless to say that when he finally got home at 7:30pm he was tired and irritated. Thankfully he had 5 kids to climb all over him and make him feel better! ;)

I can’t remember what we have done in the last two weeks but I know we have been having fun! The weather has been pretty nice and we have spent most of our time outside. Oh, as I think of the pictures I want to download I remember that we went to John's company picnic and we took a little day trip to a cute little town called Leavenworth. It is modeled after a Bavarian town in the mountains. The weather was fantastic so we played in the river for a while before leaving. Julia continues to be a crazy water girl and didn’t mind the chilly mountain water.

  (1)Julia playing in the sprinkler (2) Julia in car at John's Co picnic (3) Alyssa enjoying the food at the Co picnic (3) Hannah riding the kiddy train for Garret (4)Garret loved the kiddy train!

  (1) Nathan taking a water break (2) Daddy and Julia  (3)Julia dressed up for her first day at church (4) Julia being a stinker in her high chair

(1) Alyssa and Julia. Julia is wearing Build a Bear glasses! (2) The gang in Leavenworth Wa (3) Nathan and Alyssa window shopping

(1) Leavenworth (2)Julia and Mommy in the river

(1) Nathan, Garret and Hannah in the river (2) The kids and I in the river, Alyssa kept going down stream and avoiding the pics (3) the river view

Oh ya, another thing I just remembered! Today is our 14th wedding anniversary! :) We don’t have plans for tonight but we are going to go out for a few hours on Saturday to celebrate!

Other than taking it easy at home we have done a few little day trips. Last week we went to our favorite ocean city. Westport! We didn’t have our annual camping trip planned this year with our cousins but we were able to meet Derick and Ann and their two little ones at their campsite for the day. We had a great time and Julia did really well! She loved following all the kids around and doing what they were doing. She wasn’t sure of the sand at first and fussed when we set her in it but soon she realized that it was really fun to play in!

Julia went to see our pediatrician today for the first time. We have found out that she is not too fond of someone looking in her ears. Especially someone she doesn’t know! All my other kids LOVE to have their ears cleaned and sit perfectly still for the Dr. to look in them. I guess we were bound to get a wiggler sometime! Over all she did great and the Dr. was thrilled with how healthy she looked.

Her stats as of today are 21 lbs 8 oz! 31.5 inches tall (not so sure on this as she was wiggling quit a bit) and so her weight and head are at the 20% marker and her height is 50%! Here we were thinking she was short for her age. Now if we could just get her big brother Garret to hit the charts that high, we would be in great shape!