Staying Home

Since returning from our vacation, we've actually been in and out a lot! When we are home, we've been taking it easy, doing fun stuff. Julia finally has had nice big chunks of time to work on this scrapbook. She got it for Christmas and has filled in many pages this summer.

Austin built a big train track before we left, and used his dinosaurs to play Dinosaur Train. It's a PBS show (probably for preschoolers!), but it gave him ideas to use with his toys. On our trip, Austin told me, Thomas is for babies. But I still like trains! He used Caroline's new birthday Kailan treehouse in this set up. So nice of her to share...

The kids have had countless popsicles. Caroline makes such a mess with them, but thinks she's one of the big kids! She does end up eating the whole thing--what doesn't drip away, that is. This time worked out good. The kids were going on the Slip 'n Slide anyway, so Caroline got rinsed off before coming in the house! That's the way to do it!

Oh, Caroline. That doesn't look comfortable... She didn't even notice...

The big kids had a water gun fight.

They saw this in the sky:

And started shooting at it! Sorry Farmers!

Grandma Alvina gave each of the big kids a craft kit. Austin made his up right away after vacation, into these race cars. He's also been busy, busy playing Legos.

Lauren's craft kit from Grandma Alvina was these flower fairies. She loves them! They are 6 different colors, and she gave them all names that match up with Tinkerbell and her friends. Like, this green one is Tinkerbell, and the purple one is Vidya.

Below: Lauren with a popsicle... Caroline with her bandaid and lollipop after her 2-yr appointment. She only got one shot (Hep A), and only quivered her lip. Brave girl! Lauren told me, before the check-up, "Caroline gets a shot, and I get a lollipop!" Which has been true in the past! LOL This time Caroline got a sucker too, as did all three big kids. Caroline was a stinker to be weighed, though, and refused to stand on the scale. She had to sit on the infant scale to be weighed! She's still our peanut: 24 lbs., and 33 inches, 20th and 40th percentiles, respectively.

Two Years Old

Caroline turned two July 10. We can hardly believe it! She is such a little girl now, with her own personality. We were traveling from OR to CA on the 10th, so these pictures were taken at our hotels: 1st in OR, leaving, and 2nd in CA, where we stayed for the night.


At two:

Caroline is a chatterbox. She calls herself "Mama's Baby". She speaks in phrases, sometimes in short, complete sentences--when the phrase happens to be a sentence. She knows the names of all the "basic" colors, but doesn't know which color is which color. ;)

Speaking of colors, she loves to color! She amuses herself for quite awhile sitting in her high chair coloring with crayons. She gets to use markers at Sunday School--just got moved from Nursery to the 2's class--and that is big stuff!

She is very affectionate, comes up and hugs my leg tight and says, "Mmmm...I love you too!", not in response to anything.

She is still picky with food. Likes blueberries, yogurt, Cheerios and milk, ham, pizza, cheese, crackers, pancakes.

She sleeps with her Birthday Kitty and Birthday Teddy every night, hugging them close.

Nurses morning and night. In the morning she comes into my room and says, "Milky...milky?..." Austin usually gets her out of her crib in the morning, as they still share a room. Sometimes she tells me, "Nurse the baby...", instead of "Milky". Except the baby's hardly a baby... Funny!

Likes to water flowers outside...often ends up watering the sidewalk or patio.

Loves swimming in big pools and playing in our little pool and on the slip 'n slide. Always wants to go outside when anyone else does. She runs off to her room and returns with a sweater, and says, "Got my setsirt!" or with her shoes (which may or may not match), "Got my sooes!"

Loves books, dollies, Lauren's Pet Shop, Pollies, and Barbies. Likes tea set and toy food and dishes.

Sucks her thumb, especially when tired or hungry. Or out of her comfort zone. Often goes to her class at church with her head bowed and thumb in her mouth, acting all bashful. But she's totally fine once we leave! At home she talks about a little girl in her class, maybe her friend? Who can know! But Caroline talks and sings about Tessa. So cute. :)

We went to the Old Spaghetti Factory on Caroline's birthday. She got a candle in her ice cream. And this time she did actually blow it out--not try to eat it!

She's growing up fast!

Gold Country, Vacation Part V

We started our long, long drive back to CA on July 9. It's 20 hours driving time alone! The car DVD player was worth every penny. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!! The first night we stayed in Roseburg, OR. The second night we stayed in Folsom, CA. That hotel was so nice--mainly I liked that it was so new! It even smelled new, had only been open 6 mos. We went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner, then swam in the pool till maybe 11? It was pretty late.

Sunday, July 11, we went to Gold Country, in Coloma. Marshall Gold Discovery State Park took up pretty much the whole town of Coloma. It was very interesting--lots of old buildings and things to see. However, it was extremely hot!! The kids were whiny and crabby and tired and uncooperative! Especially Lauren. Oh my, the fits she threw!

Austin by a saw mill


I don't think I've ever bought an Icee/Slurpee before. Seriously. I don't even like them that much. And prefer to eat my calories, not drink them. But it was *SO* hot, that we broke down and bought two large Icee's-- $3.50 each. And they were worth every penny. At least they got this stinker smiling again. But only temporarily... She was still tired, after all.


By one of the old cabins. Can you tell who was in a mood?! And Caroline looks like she's trying to escape the stroller...


The site where gold was first discovered in the American River.

We let our kids dig around in the river water/dirt for just a short, short time, as we needed to get going on our drive home. And we still had the museum to see.

They each grabbed a handful of river dirt. Which was really cool--you can actually see gold flecks in it. A museum volunteer told us geologists estimate 80% of the gold still to be in the area. Of course it's not easy to find big "chunks" anymore. ;) But visitors panning for gold still find it! You can see the bad mood was only getting worse...

I'd hoped the gold flecks would show up in the picture, but they don't. :(

My friend who used to live kind of near Coloma said it wouldn't be too hot near the river. Well, she was right--it was cooler by the water. But everywhere else in the little town was *HOT*! At least the museum was air-conditioned!

We would like to go back, and next time I think we should go gold-panning first. And we'll bring our own pans. The kids really wanted to do this, and we ran out of time. We should have done it first--it would have been cooler, and they would have liked playing in the water. The buildings were interesting to Brian and me, but only a few were open. Maybe b/c we went on a Sunday? Not sure. It was a neat trip, though!

Vacation, Part IV

July 6 we went with my mom and dad to Larrabee State Park in Bellingham. We'd planned to go to Snoqualmie Falls, but since we had to get our van tire fixed, that didn't work out, as it was a 2-2 1/2 drive away. Once the tire problem was solved, we all ate lunch at Dairy Queen. My kids like getting an ice cream treat included with their kids meals there! Austin and Julia got to ride in my dad's truck, and Austin especially was excited about that.

At Larrabee, we went on a short hike to a small, rocky beach. The kids liked climbing on the rocks.


Austin spent a lot of time searching for hermit crabs in the tide pools. He found many itty, bitty ones. Here's a little crab:

Checking out the rocks and water. Caroline wanted to be free, of course.

There were neat trees growing on the sides of the rocks! Their branches and some roots were all twisted and gnarled, hanging over the edge.

Lauren's stash of shells, rocks, and sea glass she collected:

After the beach we started on another hike, but it was too difficult for those of us wearing flip flops, and the littlest kids. :) We let them play on the playground near the parking area before we went home.

July 7 we went to visit my Grandpa Arlene and Grandpa Bill. They have a tire swing in their back yard that our kids like to play on. Their neighbor put it up in their tree for his grandkids. ;) My grandma always fixes us a nice lunch when we come to visit. Here are Austin and Lauren waiting for dessert: cookies and ice cream.

Julia and Austin both worked puzzles there.

My Grandpa showed us his trains, just for a short time. All the kids liked seeing them as always. :) Caroline showed Grandpa Bill food she was "cooking"--part of my grandma' Barbie play kitchen set. That I played with as a little girl. Before we left for our trip, Lauren told me she needed to bring her own Barbie doll since Grandma Arlene has that kitchen, but no dolls! And Lauren did! She set it all up and used her own doll with it.

July 8 we spent visiting lots of people. I saw my friend, Kristy. Brian took Austin to visit Luke, my cousin Andy's son. We all went to see my Grandpa Andy at the rest home. That night I went to a bridal shower for my cousin Matt's fiancee, Emily. I got to see lots of aunts and cousins there, which was fun. While I was there, Brian took the kids to the park with his brother Doug, and Holly, and all the cousins. They all had a good time, too, of course!

Caroline's Birthday Party, Vacation Part III

Since we were in Washington so close to Caroline's birthday, we had a party for her up there. Aunt Colleen and Uncle Marty let us use their house.

I made Caroline this butterfly cake. Auntie Colleen bought these balloons for the party.

We had Dominoes deliver pizza for dinner. After eating the kids went on a treasure hunt in the front yard. Aunt Kim and Aunt Colleen had hidden toy rings for the kids to find.

We had a Tinkerbell pinata. That was a hit (ha ha ha, get it?!)!

Though the birthday girl didn't know what to make of the pinata, the big kids knew exactly what they had to do! Aunt Colleen gave Caroline some scented bubbles as one of her gifts, and the kids blew those too.

Before the party our kids were checking out Uncle Marty and Aunt Colleen's DVDs and Rock Band instruments.

Second picture: Those two look pretty guilty! I think they had been getting into the M&Ms! ??? And is Annaliese giving Caroline [back?] her candy bag? Caught, anyway, whatever they were up to. ;)

Caroline had lots of eager helpers, come present time. She got lots of nice gifts, including: a doll stroller and baby doll with clothes, a Kailan treehouse set, a couple books, some bath scrubbies, play dough, crayons, coloring book, a ball, a teddy bear, and a sock kitty Aunt Colleen had made.

The party guests were: Grandpa Ivan and Grandma Sharon, Great-Grandma Arlene, Uncle Marty and Aunt Colleen, Uncle Scott and Aunt Kim, and Uncle Doug, Aunt Annette, Alyssa, Annika, and Annaliese. Since Grandma Alvina and Aunt Holly and Alexis were also visiting in WA, they came to the party too! We had quite a group!

Holly and I tried to get a picture of all the cousins together. Oh my, that was quite the undertaking. Alyssa told Holly and me, "I am not going to look at you!" And didn't, the whole photo session. Austin wanted to blow his noisemaker.

Julia and Alexis tried their best to keep the babies from running off.

The babies didn't like being restrained. The group (such as it was) unraveled quickly. LOL

Happy Birthday, dear Caroline...!

I had practiced blowing with Caroline. I don't know where she got the idea to open her mouth at the candles! She kind of ate the flame, and I think got a tiny bit burned! Not bad, but enough to look alarmed and say, "hot" afterwards!

Second picture is Caroline with the sock kitty Auntie Colleen made for her. She calls it "Birthday Kitty" and has been sleeping with it, and her new teddy bear from Aunt Annette, that she calls "Birthday Teddy", every night since! So cute!

After the cake, Uncle Marty played song requests and the kids danced the night away. Annaliese sat herself down in Caroline's new dolly stroller. Caroline spun around the dance floor plenty herself. We finally called it a night just after 11 (I think).