Mountain View Park

 We went to Cuestra Park in Mountain View to meet my friend and her kids.  It was the nicest park I have ever been to.  The kids and I went back there every few days for our whole stay in CA.

The kids are getting fast, it is hard to get photos of them looking at me- but there are lots of opportunities for photos of them running away :)

 Lilly loved this turtle, she climbed in it, she climbed on it, she rocked it, and stood up on the seat.

 Lilly is a pretty snugly kid and has taken to attack snuggles from behind.

California here we come

 The first few hours in the hotel the kids were so happy to play with the mirrored closet.

 My sunglasses are also always a huge hit.

 Tim managed to get a day (mostly) off and we went down to Santa Cruz.

 You can't go to the ocean and not play chase with the waves.

 Or eating some sand.

Busy Busy

Well, just after my last post Tim got sent to Sunnyvale for an emergency work trip and pretty much didn't come home until last weekend.  After a few weeks the kids and I packed up and went out there to be with him for three weeks.  I didn't bring my computer along so now I am way behind on the blog.  I will try to get some up in the next few days.

Here a few from Pop Pop, Nana, Aunt Beth and Uncle Jim's visit for Lilly's birthday

 Lilly was pretty happy about the cake :)

 This one is their yearly Dr. visit.  Two healthy kids :)

Happy Birthday Lilly

Lilly is one year old today. It is hard to believe that it has been a year already- it has gone by so fast.  The first year of change is so remarkable to think that a year ago she was just 8.5 pounds and totally dependent on us for everything.  And now she is walking (exclusively) and talking (a little) and able to communicate many of her needs and wants.  Someone told me that your first child never seems to grow up and your last child grows up way too fast.   Pictures to follow.

5 Years

Tim and I have been married for 5 years now.  Since we were going to be in Sequim for my cousins reception we had the opportunity to go to the farm we were married at.  Tim arranged for my Aunt Maureen, who married us, to come out and renew our vows.  Our plans were disrupted by some bees that were in our original wedding site, but luckily a trip to the tractor aided Mark's recovery from his first bee stings.

Sequim Trip

My cousin Kelsey tied the knot down in San Diego and had a reception in her home town of Sequim.  I flew from Spokane to Seattle with the kids while Lisa and Tim flew up from Denver to meet us.  It was cloudy, grey and cold in Seattle.  Umm, I know I spent the last 10 years telling everyone it doesn't really rain in Seattle like people say it does but I think I may be wrong.  It is usually beautiful weather for me- I was not prepared at all for 55 degrees in August.

Here we are on the Ferry.  Mark thought it was much too windy.  The second photo is from our trip home at the end of the weekend.

Lilly in her new car seat that Tim brought with him from Denver.  I can't begin to believe she is almost a year old.

So it is not the best photo, but it is one of the only ones I got of the bride and groom. Two little kids to chase leaves little time for taking photos.

It was too cold for Lilly to wear the pretty dress I brought for the wedding.

We stayed in the neighbors house- it was so big that we pushed the kids around in the stroller inside.  Lilly thought this was a great game and would walk up to the stroller and put her hands in the air and grunt until someone put her in and pushed her around.  She also liked pushing Mark around.  It is remarkable how quickly kids transition from crawling to walking.  Just a few weeks ago she had taken no more than a few steps and then one day she stopped crawling. 

Mark's Birthday

Wow- it is hard to believe that Mark is already 3.  It both feels like forever since he was born and like no time at all.  We had a great birthday party for him and Grandpa.  

Going for a birthday Scout ride.  It is pretty great to be in the woods with your own land where Mark can ride around without a car seat.

Grandma got the birthday boys matching shirts!  Don't they look great together?

We made a really yummy cake from a box with cream cheese and peanut butter frosting.  mmm, thinking about it now makes me what to go make another one.  Mark is REALLY into the Cars movie so the cake has a lightning Mcqueen for Mark and a Filmore (VW Bus) for Grandpa.

It was starting to get dark when we got to cake so this is a little fuzzy.

For comparison here he is a year ago.

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After dinner and cake we sat around the fire for awhile.  Grandpa Fred (long time neighbor and friend of the family) is helping Mark open his present from my folks.  He is so excited he can hardly stand it.

Cake, ice cream, a party, and a new tractor kept Mark up for a LONG time.  We got him all ready for bed and let him scoop and move around a bunch of hardware for an hour or two.z

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We took quite a few trips up the hill to see silver the horse.  Can you even believe that my mom will be 60 next year?

Being cute in the pool

We spent a lot of time at the beach so I have a lot of photos from our trips.  Here are a few from when Tim was up.  With and without sun effect.

'Mark got to play one of my favorite games from childhood.  Dig out a log, figure out how to get it in the water, push it around, float on it, and try to roll it around without falling off.

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My cousin in law, Sandra, played a block game with Lilly and Key.  They both loved it and continued to play it with each other.  The game was putting a block down the child's shirt.  Sandra played this game with Lilly on Friday night and on Sunday she still remembered it and would look at Sandra and then pull at her shirt.  The kids couldn't figure out how to play by themselves, but did try putting blocks on the others chests.  I was surprised that she remembered so long.

Every now and them Mark gets worn out and naps during the day.  This gives us cute photo ops, but it also means he won't be ready for bed until 11pm or later.  

Time with Grandpa.  It took a few days after the family reunion for Lilly to recover from all the people.  But, then she really bonded with Grandpa.  She had a special Grandpa squeal for him in the mornings.

Mark loves his Grandpa too.

Family Reunion

 We had a lovely family reunion in July at my folks house.

Here are some of my cousins.  

It is so fun to have so many of the next generation that are so close in age.  Both Lilly and Mark have a handful of cousins (second cousins?  First cousins once removed?) born within a few months.  The big boys were much too busy playing to get a photo with them all.

Gotta start them early- right Sheila? :)

Sitting in the shade and eating- two of the joys of vacation.

Happy kids in the pool.  My folks have a hot water hose tap so it was easy to make a nice pool for the kids to play in.  See Lilly's tongue- she spent much of the vacation teething, finally two came out on top and there are still four more sitting right at the gum line.

Mark is always on the move.  He hasn't been much of a climber but really spent a lot of time working on figuring out how to climb the fence.  I don't know how we made it through this visit without some big scrapes- but we did.