Happy Father's Day Ryan

We had a very nice Father's Day around the Skene household. Ryan got to sleep in, play golf, and have Qdoba for dinner. And he also got some very nice gifts from his Mom and Isla. Not too bad for a first Father's Day I think.

Happy Father's Day to one of the best (and most handsome) guys I know! You are a wonderful father to Isla. Other girls should be so lucky to have a guy like you in their lives. I love you!

Here are some of my favorite father/daughter picks over the last nine months:

Ironman #2

For the second year in a row my cousin Wayne participated in the Boise Ironman competition. He brought his cheering section (Doneen, Ilea, Chloe, and Maia) along with him and Ryan and I had the pleasure of hosting them! It was so exciting for Isla to have her cousins here and to play with them.

I picked up Isla from daycare on Friday and she had a cool new hair style:

It was a perfect look when she played Rock Band with her cousins:

Ryan was excited to play Rock Band with the girls again

I felt so bad that it poured the entire time during the Ironman. We hardly ever have days like that in Boise! Wayne did really well considering the conditions and beat his time from last year by seven minutes!! Here we are at the race downtown cheering on Wayne and getting soaked:

Isla in her stroller looking less than thrilled:

Wayne after the race looking a little dazed. I would be too after all of that racing:
Congratulations to Wayne on finishing a tough race. We loved having you and your family here and can't wait to see you again!

Brand New Baby Girl

We finally went to see the ENT specialist about Isla's constant ear infections and the doctor pretty much decided before she even looked in Isla's ears that it was time for tubes. Since Isla has a family history of tubes (I had them when I was a baby), she got her first ear infection before she was six months old, and none of the antibiotics worked it made her a perfect candidate for tubes.

The surgery went very smoothly. Isla was back in my arms about 15 minutes after they took her into the OR. The doctor said that her ears were especially bad and it made me feel so horrible that she had been in so much pain. The change in Isla was almost instantaneous. She wasn't fussy, or grabbing at her ears. She was happy and playing like a normal 8 month old should. Even her caretakers at day care noticed the change right away. They said she is like a new baby girl, which makes me so happy yet breaks my heart at the same time. I don't know why we didn't do this surgery earlier. It could have saved us a lot of sleepless nights, but most importantly our baby girl would have felt a lot better.

Another interesting thing I learned is that before Isla got the tubes in she had a double ear infection, which, the doctor said, probably gave Isla a hearing loss of 40%. This makes total sense and it probably explains her loud "talking". Since the surgery her "talking" has definitely not been as loud.

Here are some updated pictures of our much happier little girl:

Girls Weekend

Last weekend my wonderful and very understanding husband watched Isla as I flew over to Seattle to hang out with my college girlfriends. My friend Christina was in town from Bali (she teaches yoga at a very nice resort there) and all of us girls had not been together in almost three years!! We had so much fun catching up. We celebrated Christina's and Holly's 30th birthday's, got a very special and personal yoga class from Christina, went wedding dress shopping with Sara and then spent Saturday night in downtown Seattle clubbing with the all the 19 to 22 year-olds. We all officially felt very old, but had a great time nevertheless. It was so great being with my girls and catching up!

Celebrating Holly & Christina's birthday:

Wedding dress shopping with Sara:

Drinks on the deck at Joey's in downtown Seattle:

Getting ready (aka drinking and talking) in the hotel room before dinner:

At dinner (Mexican food and margaritas - yum!):

Late night shots:

Bellingham

For Memorial Day weekend we ventured over to my hometown of Bellingham, WA. My sister Anna and her boyfriend, Robert, came along too, so it was sort of a mini family reunion. The weather was absolutely beautiful and it was Ski to Sea weekend so there were a lot of people around town. We finally got to see the land that my parents are going to build on. It is right on Bellingham Bay and the view is stunning. We also went for a walk to the park with Isla, taught Ryan and Robert how to play pickleball and took Isla swimming in a pool for her first time. I forgot how much I love pickleball - I think I may just have to bring the game to Idaho! Here are some shots of the pickleballers:

Ryan kept on using his tennis swing to hit the ball - it was priceless. He soon got the hang of the pickleball swing and volley:

Anna hitting the ball past my Dad (a first!):We were so excited to get Isla in the pool to see if she would like the water. Well she didn't absolutely love it, but she didn't hate it either:

This was pretty much the face she had the whole time:

We did get somewhat of a smile out of her:

My poor baby also got another ear infection on the trip to Bellingham. She was feeling so horrible that she actually slept in my arms. She never does this.

Overall it was a great weekend with family!