Portlandia

We are done with plane travel for a long time. Lee, Kara, and I are still recovering from our recent trip to Portland, OR for cousin Kim's wedding.

People told us that babies sleep on planes. No. No, no, no, no, no. They're wrong. Kara took the four hour plane ride to mean four hours of non-stop attention seeking, jumping, kicking, and playing. By the end of the ride, Lee and I were spent. Luckily, we sat next to wonderfully understanding passengers who also took turns entertaining our little monkey.

Even with all of the attention, I can't say Kara enjoyed the plane ride. Five minutes into it she was telling us "all done". This was repeated at least fifty more times throughout the flight.

But four hours of crazy to get out of Houston in the middle of summer isn't too bad. The temperature in Portland was in the 60's, and Kara got to meet her northern Fithian cousins for the first time. Here's a picture of the entire group outside of the Wet Dog Cafe. This is Lee's dad's side of the family.

We had quite a few little ones to watch after. Between jumping out of windows, sneaking out of hotel rooms (Kara and Riley learned to open doors), and keeping them from running in the street we had our hands full.

Kara is very excited about her coloring.

The boys in back are planning their escape.

Connor and Ben doing what boys do...throwing giant rocks.

Kara decided to walk into the river fully clothed.

Owen is doing his drum solo on the restaurant mirror.

The wedding was beautiful, and we had a wonderful time at the reception. The kids danced until exhaustion set in and fits were thrown. Kim was a stunning bride, and she was such a gracious host to all of us. Her husband Chris is so fortunate to have her.

We didn't get any good pictures of the bride and groom. So here is a picture of a picture!

Kara and Riley going to the reception together.

Kara is dancing with Papo.

Who is going to get B's fancy necklace?

Trouble.

Like I mentioned. We were pretty tired after this trip. Here is Kara the day we left.

PJ Day

Ahhhh, I am refreshed and ready to go again!

I have been craving a day without responsibility for some time, so yesterday we had a PJ day at the Fithian house. We didn't do much of anything. We wore mismatching pajamas, we cooked veggies from our garden, and we watched Harry Potter movies. The most notable event was when Lee and Kara went to check the mail. Totally low key.

Since using up our produce was a big part of the day, I wanted to show you a picture of our fruit and veggies. The eggplant, yellow tomatoes, and bell pepper came from our backyard. I'm really proud of our little garden this year. Lee has done a great job of keeping the weeds out, and Kara likes to water the plants. The other produce in the picture came from farms where they let you pick your own veggies and fruit. My grandparents picked the peaches and red tomatoes, but I picked the blueberries myself.

Suffice it to say, we had our five servings yesterday. So we were lazy, but in a healthy way.

Such a good dad!

Here's a big high five to my husband for his second Father's Day!

Lee really stepped up this past year. He led us well, he was a constant encouragement to me, and he became Kara's best friend. She asks for him about 20 times each day, and she gets so excited when he comes home.

We celebrated by playing frisbee golf after church.

Kara did my putting.

Hiking down the fairway.

Pretty nice form!

Daddy and Kara taking a chocolate milk break in the shade.

Happy Anniversay to Us!

Big news! Lee and I have been married for 4 years!

That honestly doesn't seem like enough time. Only 4 years? So much has happened...house, dogs, baby, new family members, losing family members, waves of spiritual growth and indifference, jobs, graduations. You can pack a lot of stuff into 4 years.

But next year will be quite the milestone. It's time to take out that 5 year plan that we made before we were married, and see how we're shaping up. I'm sure a few goals have changed due to circumstance or priorities, but I have a feeling that most of our general goals will still hold true. We won't know until we are able to find it. Four years is also plenty of time to lose stuff...

The May Series

This past month. So crazy. Fun. But crazy.

A lot has happened, and there are a ton of pictures to share.

We're going to back track a little, and hopefully we'll get back to the present day by the end of the week through a series of posts. For those who have asked us to post more often (shout out to Janet Mery!) this should satisfy for a while.

Starting off, on Mother's Day weekend we took a King family vacation to the San Antonio Hyatt Hill Country Resort and Sea World. We loved it!

The resort was incredibly kid friendly. In fact, I was surprised by the number of families with infants. Kara and Carson had fun playing together and with the grandparents. We went swimming, we roasted marshmallows, we didn't take naps...it was great.

One thing Lee and I noted about the resort, is that people say funny things when they don't think anyone is listening. Of course we wrote these down to share with everyone. Fair warning, hotel rooms are NOT soundproof, and some random person will share your comments in their blog. Here is what we overheard:

• "She's touching my peanuts!"
• "You guard my billfold and my teeth with your life. I can always get a new cell phone."
• "I'm a burrito!"
• "That's right! Mommy makes peepee too!"
• "Are you high again?"

And here are some pictures:

For the other part of our trip, Sea World, I can't say enough about how awesome that place is! They have an entire play area devoted to little kids. My parents took Kara and Carson to it while the rest of us rode the roller coasters. Actually, my sister went to the kiddie park as well because she isn't allowed on the rides in her fragile condition (third trimester preggers!). Anyways, we played hard in the morning, and just as it was getting hot we went to some shows and exhibits.

Playing at the kiddie park:

Kara's bathing suit matched the trainer's costume from one of the shows. They stopped us and asked if we wanted to take a picture and pet the sea lion. How lucky that we packed that bathing suit! And yes, the sea lion is smiling.

And a few more....

Morning Hair

Happy Easter!

HE IS RISEN INDEED! We hope you had a great Easter celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ!

Here are a few memories of our Easter travels to La Grange and Katy. It is so special to share this day with family.