Our family blog

One of my sister Rebecca's summer projects was to plan, shop for and prepare an entire meal for guests.  Luckily, the guests turned out to be Matthew, Ellie and me.  I was impressed that my mom let RJ do almost everything. Mom only helped a touch, mostly by driving RJ to the store and reminding her of the time and progress ("Dearest, get off MySpace and come put the lasagna in the oven...!").  Rebecca prepared a vegetable-laden, very tasty Minestrone, delicious Italian salad, lasagna (gluten-free of course) and brownies and spumoni for dessert.  The entire meal was perfectly themed right down to the Italian flag colors for table linen, not to mention that she and my mom were wearing colors of the same.  It was a very fun evening and Rebecca's first meal, made entirely by herself, was a big success.  She said she wants to make two more meals and I hope we can be her guinea pigs again:)

 

   

We returned last Sunday from our annual trip to Priest Lake, the 25th year of this camping expedition for the Henshaw family. And of course it was Ellie's first Priest Lake, one that has been eagerly anticipated by many of us.  She absolutely loved the water, the sand (walking, touching, eating) and cried when we took her out of her floaty in the lake.  She and Cade bonded more at the lake as they are becoming aware of each other now and are playing more together all the time.  Overall the experience of taking our 11-month old camping for a week (yes, we're crazy) was good.  She slept fairly well in a tent with thin vinyl walls, very loud morning chipmunks, log trucks barreling down the road at 3:30a and boisterous campfires each night.  The most challenging week of teething so far happened to coincide with this trip which was unfortunate but she was a trooper and popped through two upper teeth while there.  It wasn't the most carefree or relaxing year I've ever had at the lake but it was nevertheless wonderful to spend concentrated time with family, including Trin, Matt and Cade who came for the duration, sport our Priest Lake shirts everywhere, hang out with Matthew's cousin Michael for a week, eat way too much, play in the water, take walks, soak in the incredible views and stay up late chatting and laughing about all things, serious and silly, by the fire.  We are blessed with amazing family and the tradition that has been kept alive for the last 25 years is one to keep alive for another 25. 

Bob and Anne recently returned from a cruise to Alaska and brought Ellie back an Eskimo doll that Ellie unwrapped on Wednesday evening.  Grandpa picked it out just for her and she absolutely loved it.  It was made in Juneau and looks very authentic.  Ellie hasn't received a doll before and I think she was absolutely riveted by another little face. At first she was unsure what to think, she squirmed and giggled at the doll but then wanted to touch it, put parts of it in her mouth and hug it.  It was adorable.

 

 

On Friday after work, Matthew and I drove to the Bowl and Pitcher which is part of Spokane's Riverside State Park. Matthew and I had been to the park years ago when we first started dating and it was fun to see it again with our daughter.  The swinging bridge continued to worry me but Ellie zipped happily across it in her stroller.  We took her down to the river and put her feet in the cold Spokane River and she loved it.  So much in fact, she cried when we took her out.

    

 

This afternoon we drove over to see Cade, Aunt Trin and Uncle Matt and Ellie spent some time in Cade's wading pool.  Ellie has impressed us lately by being completely happy in some fairly chilly water.  Trin had just put new water from the hose into the pool so it wasn't the warmest but Ellie was nonplussed as she played happily with Cade's tugboats.  I assume this bodes well for Priest Lake next week.

 

  

One need only take a look at some of the pictures from this past weekend to know that we had a wonderful, relaxing retreat at my dad and Carol's beautiful house in Suncadia, just 80 miles east of Seattle.  I enjoyed a couple of days of work in Redmond and drove over with Dad and Carol to meet Matthew and Ellie on Thursday night.  We spent our days relaxing, walking, hunting golf balls, cooking and eating delicious food, roasting s'mores, introducing Ellie to the swimming pool and loving the time spent together.  We love being there so much and of course it makes it awesome when dad and Carol are so welcoming and warm.  They got to spend some time 1:1 with Ellie while Matthew and I biked some of the trails which of course was time well spent for them.  What a blessing and a treat these trips are - to get to see family and to do so in such a beautiful place.

On 7/7 at 7p we celebrated Trin's birthday by going out to dinner with she and Matt at Milford's Fish House, a seafood tradition in Spokane for decades.  We were told that people who "know seafood" go to Milford's, not Anthony's.  Matt & Trin had been years before but we had not and we enjoyed the classic and old wood interiors, great service and delicious food.  Bob and Anne weren't able to join us as they are cruising up to Alaska but did leave their gift (iPod accessories, yay!) for Trin and we will celebrate as a family upon their return next week.  The four of us had a great time together and it's always a good day when Trin can enjoy a crab leg that big, dipped in butter and sprinkled with salt, Matt can eat a huge steak with mushrooms, Matthew can try something new and have wasabi with an appetizer and Jen can feel like she can splurge a bit on cheesecake for dessert.  It is a birthday after all! 

Jen and I went 'round and 'round about what to do for the Fourth and decided in the end to stay put. We BBQ'ed on Friday with my parents and grandma and then tonight with Patty, John, and RJ. Below are a few patriotic pics from the past few days.

 

  

As many of you know, each year for the past 24 years my family has spent a week camping at Priest Lake, ID. Well, to celebrate our 25th year, Jen and I have decided to create some fun gear that our family can wear using a logo Jen designed. We can't wait.

 

 

 

Matthew, Ellie and I returned today from our first weekend spent at the Palmer House at Suncadia, otherwise known as my dad's and Carol's new house. We, along with my brother Matt, were the first overnight guests at the house and it was a blessing to spend the family time together.  We talked, ate delicious food, walked, biked on trails, golfed, napped, played pool, hot-tubbed and enjoyed each others' company and the incredible setting and scenery.  The weekend was the culmination of many dreams, wishes and time spent waiting for the house to be complete.  The drive is just over 3 hours for us from Spokane, making it a quicker road trip to see my family than all the way to Seattle.  We hope and plan to spend many more such weekends together at this beautiful home.

Ellie, Matthew and I celebrated our first Father's Day together yesterday and began the day by opening Matthew's present from us: a new espresso machine.  Kevin bought us our first machine 18 months ago and though I wasn't convinced we would learn to use it and actually use it often, we really did.  We used the heck out of that little machine and it was time for an upgrade.  Matthew is very happy with the new machine (he read the user manual on the way to church) which of course makes me very happy.  We went to church with my parents and then saw Bob and Anne at Trin's house that evening for a BBQ.  We enjoyed beautiful weather and a fun first Father's Day.

    

I recently finished a book titled The Fair and the Falls: Transforming an American Environment. The book chronicals how Spokane Falls became the city of Spokane in general and more specifically details the events and people that helped make the1974 worlds fair a reality. For someone who grew up in Spokane the book was full for fun detials and interesting facts about how the city came into its own and hosted a worlds fair. Spokane is still the smallest city to ever host a worlds fair and ironically its focus was the environment, albeit some what loosly by today's standards--an issue that was gaining national attention. Spokane had not been kind to its river but through a series of miricles the downtown core was reclamed from industry, most notible the railroads, and transformed into the worlds fair and later a city park, opera house, and convention center. 

 

 

My first year at Whitman Elementary comes to a close tomorrow. While the coaching job has not been exactly what I expected I feel blessed to be there. I have learned a lot by working in a Title I school and am thankful for that and many other opportunities for growth. Today was Field Day at Whitman. Students had 26 events to choose from and the weather even cooperated! I picked up Cade from daycare so he could have fun playing outside with the big kids.