Father's Day Kayaking

TT has had a vision of the whole family kayaking together for, well, a long time. Father's day we finally made his dream a reality! We got two inflatable kayaks (for easier transport & storage). We headed out to Elkhorn Slough and set out. It was a beautiful day with lots of wildlife. We saw otters, sea lions, pelicans, seals and more! It was a hard paddle back, but worth it. Happy Father's Day, TT!

Camping

A historic moment took place this weekend. Our very first camping trip with 4 of us. In order to make this work, we had to get a new tent and an air mattress (I insisted on the latter). I would say it was successful. The boys had a really good time and were only slightly crazy. We had sandwiches for lunch, foil packets for dinner, smores (a lot of smores) for dessert and then bacon, eggs, toast & coffee for breakfast. We even got our own personal talk from the park ranger when we were the only ones to show up.

Catching Air

We were lucky enough to have Grandma & Grandpa T visit us over Memorial Day. We had a very nice time picking strawberries, paddle boating, flying a kite, and more. If only summer would come and it would get above 70 degrees!

There were really no strawberries at the patch due to the unseasonable rain we've been having recently. Since there wasn't much to pick (and what there was, DT promptly ate), we had to find other ways to entertain ourselves.





Not bad at all!

We even managed a nice family photo in the front yard with our Memorial Day flag.


More picture of our nice weekend can be found here.

3 Year Old

DT had his birthday last month. Lucky boy had cake twice! An ice cream cake with the family and then a tower of cupcakes at his party. Somehow we didn't take too many pictures either day, but everyone had a good time!



(never mind my gigantic arm! just trying to keep the candles lit!)

Mother's Day

The boys gave me some nice presents for Mother's Day.

DT painted this frame and drew a picture of a "silly mommy."


LT had a made a scroll painting and two great cards. This one was especially fun!


The biggest boy gave me a gift certificate for the spa. Woohoo! Now to find time to go there and relax.

Egg Hunt

It's been a busy time for us. Sunday we went to Monterey for our (second) annual egg hunt there, third annual on the beach (Pismo with cousing JT the first time!). Thursday was DT's 3rd birthday. He stood up on the bed that morning and announced, " I am a Giant, Giant boy." And he is. Saturday we had a party for DT to celebrate!

So I can't catch us up with everything at once, but here are some memories from the beach.

Off hunting

A quite satisfied hunter. He has requested that next year his eggs be more hidden as this year was "too easy"


Here is where I announce we are still missing some eggs and we need to hunt some more

But will someone, or something, find them first?

A cautious hunter

Cataloging their spoils

A quite satisfactory family picture. You may see this again in the Christmas card!


We even managed to catch the Easter bunny at lunch. The boys were actually quite enamoured with him, while I was more on the frightened side.


We finished up with a trip to the aquarium. Always something to see there! The octopus is my favorite and put on a nice show this time.

Happy Spring to all!

Happiest Place on Earth

Since it has been a week and a half since we've been back from our vacation, I guess we should be sufficiently recovered enough to blog about it. Since I am not a professional mom-blogger, I was unable to cut back from 15 pictures to the best 1 or 2. Oh well!

We drove down to Disneyland where we were met by Grandma & Grandpa for 3 days at Disneyland! We had a very nice time. DT's favorite ride was the enormous ferris wheel that he went on with G&G and LT's favorite this time was the Grizzly Rapids. I would vote for Tower of Terror. :D

Let's see... the kids were very excited about the trip!



Grandma & Grandpa had a relaxing moment on Tom Sawyer's island


DT got to meet his favorite, Lightning McQueen


Can you spy anyone on this raft?


Maybe this boy can spy someone?


LT worked up his courage to ride on Big Thunder Mountain. Just once, though.


Is this a good look for us? Toy Story Maina was a hit with everyone.


Someone got tired!


Watch out, crazy driver!


Grandma & DT enjoyed the carousel


I was one of those moms who buys their kids bubble guns, thereby making all other kids whine to their moms for bubble guns. But they were really fun!



One last eye spy!


And an attempt at a family picture before we had to say good bye! Thanks Grandma & Grandpa for going with us!

Note

This is from a few months back, right after Christmas I think, but too good not to share. I have a video from 2 weeks back that I haven't uploaded yet... Ack! A backlog of things to post. :)

Yay!

It was an exciting day yesterday. You'll have to click through for the video, but I promise it's worth it!

DT had fun yesterday, too... Splashin'

We took along the video camera yesterday, but alas! it was out of battery when we went to fire it up. Thank goodness for cellphones these days!

Work Day

We had a cleaning day in the backyard. The helpers were put to work. So many things that could be cleaned!





I must say they did a reasonable job. We need to take advantage of this willing labor while we can. LT even requested we have cleaning day every Sunday!

Monterey