A Day at the Beach

I took the girls to the Newport Aquarium on Sunday.  Hannah loved the animals.  Calla has always had an enthusiastic, but short attention span at each exhibit, while Hannah is becoming quite an observer.  She just looks, points, and smiles.  

The play area was almost as popular as the sea lions.  The girls climbed and laughed.

Hannah making friends with a turtle before getting on.  

Calla climbs right on.

I even got a rare picture of the two girls together, smiling.

We are in the monkey see monkey do phase.  Calla climbs, Hannah climbs.  Calla slides, Hannah slides.  

At the beach Calla was her usual enthusiastic self, running and diving on the sand.  She loves the back so much, I can't wait for San Diego this summer with the Shaff Family.

Hannah was a little more tentative.  But when she warmed up, she was ready to rumble!

Hannah ended up chasing Calla all over the beach trying to put sand on her head.  It was so funny and they had a great time!

A Video from the past

Calla's Uncle Steve made this video for her first birthday.  Scott's parent's just found it and sent it out again.  I am not sure if it ever got posted the first time around.  Enjoy!

Mother's Day Weekend

What a great weekend.  Scott was home all weekend and we had a great time hanging out as a family!  Saturday morning we hit the Corvallis Farmers Market and the downtown fountain was in full swing.  We brought the girls swimming suites (learned from last year) and they both had a blast.  Calla was her usual enthusiastic self, she does everything with such life it is inspiring.  

We also got to enjoy some first of the season strawberries.  We the girls ate up everything we bought.  YUM!  They should be very happy by the end of the summer when our 8 strawberry plants start producing.  

While everyone napped on Saturday I got our garden planted.  This is our first garden in the house.  We have been busy raising kids and have not had the time or energy to try a garden.  We are still doing a CSA this year, but we planted melons, squash, hot peppers, a few tomatoes, broccoli, and fennel.  It be a great addition to our CSA and I love teaching Calla and Hannah about planting and growing food.

Sunday was a great day at home!  It was hot, upper 80's, so we filled up the kiddy pool and turned on the sprinkler.  After a wonderful dinner of halibut we roasted marshmallows.  Calla's favorite part of the day.  Hannah has already eaten hers in this picture, and Calla is still savoring hers. Hannah needs to learn to be a little slower in her enjoyment of treats.     

A beautiful evening, in our beautiful yard, to end a very wonderful Mother's Day weekend!

Fun in the Sun!

The girls and I needed to get out of the house for a little while today.  So we decided on Frozen Yogurt (with sprinkles).  The girls had a blast with their little treats.  You can see from the picture below how intent they are in getting every drop from their bowls.  

After frozen yogurt we headed to Wild Cat Park.  It was a perfect afternoon for the park.  It is a great mix of big and little kid activities and both kids had a blast!  Call fell in love with this big red swing!

Hannah was also into the swing, and kept making OHH faces as I pushed her higher and higher. 

Hannah also loved the slide.  She was happy to just go up and down over and over again by herself.  At the end she decided she wanted to be like a big kid and climb up the slide.  She did not make it very far, but had a big smile!

The kids had a great time together all day and as always made me smile and laugh!

Friends and the Zoo

It was a girls day at the zoo!  Calla, Hannah and I met up with good friends Joy and Airlie for a day at the zoo.  We had a great time looking at the animals and the kids had a blast together! Next summer it will no longer be a girls outing as joy will be adding a little boy to her family in the Fall.  I guess we will let him join us:)

Hannah watching the Zebra.

 Joy and beautiful Airlie!  

 Watching more animals.  It was almost impossible to catch them all looking at us at the same time.  Maybe Joy caught a good photo.

Calla loves to play in this jeep that looks out on the cheeta habitat.  I am not sure if she even sees the animals sometime.  She had a great time driving all of the girls in the jeep.

 Lunch was a blast.  We hung out at the grassy area near the stage, after eating their lunches, including Calla trying to feed Airlie raspberries, and then Hannah trying to claim them all for herself.  After some food they were all full of energy and chased each around.

It was a great trip.  At the end Hannah was trying to "help" Airlie drink some water.  They were both laughing the whole time. 

We are all so lucky to have good friends in our lives.  Everyday I hear about people getting sick, losing their jobs and struggling.  I feel so lucky to have a great husband, wonderful, healthy girls, and very special friends.

Biking

I finally got some good pictures of Calla on her new bike today.  We went down to Willamette Park after dinner and she road down the path while the rest of us walked.  It was a great way to end a great weekend!

Summer has FINALLY Arrived!

This weekend was BEAUTIFUL and we had a wonderful time hanging out as a family.  We decided to get our strawberries in the ground today and Calla and Hannah we very excited and ready to work.  It was a great way to celebrate Earth Day!  We taught our kids about planting something in the ground that will give us food in the future.  We worked together to make out little spot of Earth a little better.   

Hannah used the wagon to carry some of the strawberries.

Calla brought her strawberries in the wheelbarrow she received from Grandma Cindy and Papa Rex for her birthday.  Hannah was excited to help unload!

Then Calla, Dad, and Hannah got to planting.  We planted 8 total and are excited to enjoy the fruits of our labor toward the end of summer.  The only fruit we have left to get in the ground is some raspberries, maybe next weekend!

Mom, with help from Hannah, brought in the sawdust to put on top of the plants.  

After all of the hard work it was time for FUN!  Because it was in the mid-80's today we broke out the Misters.  The girls had a great time getting wet and running around the yard together.  They were all smiles.