Part one--Friday Harbor

We landed in Seattle but were not yet to Friday harbor, our main destination on the San Juan islands. Since it's an island we had to fly or ferry. I'm starting to think this surprise was not a surprise at all but a way for Omar to get me to do things I'd typicaly say no to cause I'm a scardy cat. He chose to get us to the island on a 6 passenger SEA PLANE!! Yes, we landed on water! It was okay, really, better than I expected. It was just the perfect altitude to appreciate the panoramic scenic views.

Our trip!

About a year ago Omar and I starting talking about taking a trip to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. We vaguely discussed locations and then one day he told me the location we would visit would be a surprise. I was shocked. Omar is not the surprising type but he kept true to his word and kept it a secret. I was flattered. Now our actual anniversary is not until next month but we celebrated early. The trip was absolutely incredible. I loved that it was a surprise. I eventually found out we would venture to Washington state a week prior to the trip so that I could pack appropriately, but Omar sweetly planned our itinerary too and the places we would stay. It was like opening one of those boxed presents with a box inside it, and then another box inside that one. Have I mentioned I loved that he did this! I have so many pictures and soo many memories of our time together without stress, without interuptions, with just each other just like the beginning. It was so nice and needed for both of us and I am so thankful. I will never forget this. There are so many pictures including some we took with a disposable waterproof camera on our whale watching kayak tour! They are not developed yet, but I'll post what I have and try not to post everything. It's so hard though...so many wonderful memories...I know, I know, I've said it. Okay I'll stop now. I should mention that without a baby to hold I took advantage and brought my DSLR, so some photos are just my attempt at learning to use my fairly new camera just scroll on.

A quick visit

Karina is 18 months

As they say, time flies. I can't believe Karina will be 2 within 6 short months. If I could describe my toddler these days I'd say she was a sleepy, go with the flow, eat anything kind of gal. She is still pretty laid back but has now learned to shriek to keep her sisters away if she wants. She went through a short phase with full on tantrums. I quickly learned to let them pass, and then she was ready to move on. Karina takes one nap during the day but I am positive she would prefer two and would take them if she didn't have two older sisters that I had to run around with. Thankfully, though she sleeps on the go and I can easily transfer her from the car to the stroller and she continues sleeping. Now that it is summer and I don't have to wake her from her nap to go pick up her sisters, she sleeps for hours and into dinner time sometimes only to go right back to bed 2 hours later! I started to worry about this but realized she was going through a growth spurt. Speaking of growth spurts Karina will likely take after my height. At her 18 month check-up she was in the 5th percentile for height and 10-25th percentile for weight. The other girls have always been in the 50th percentile for both weight and height. So we think Karina will be the little one. Karina loves music and has started moving and dancing anytime she hears music. She will literally be walking and suddenly stop in her tracks to dance if music comes on. She started walking at 16 months. She was thrilled about it and slowly gained her confidence over a two week period and now she wants to walk everywhere. Karina has a few words and is quickly picking up more. Some words she says are, Mama, Da for Daddy, te for tres, ten (spanish for here you go), hi, bye, I for I love you, bebe, Jay for Jake, up-um for zapatos, na for Elena and ete for leche. She also signs finished and milk. One of the things I love that is new to this new family dynamic, is the way her older sisters help Karina. I think that with Elena and Marisa they were so close in age and so young to actually help that I didn't experience the help quite like this. But they love their baby sister so much. They make her break out in balls of laughter, distract her when she's upset and literally take care of Karina as they did when I was laid up sick on day on the couch. I love, love seeing this growth and this new experience, it's definitely one of those proud parent moments that make me forget those hard days.

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