How Cute Are We?

We got some new professionsl portraits done. I think they came out pretty well. See for yourself!

Carpenteria

We had our 2nd annual trip to Carpenteria. The girls loved being able to ride bikes around the circle where our tent was. We spent plenty of time at the beach. Mommy modelled for our mermaid sculpture. Claire added eyes and mouth. Emily collected sea grass for the hair.

March Mommies at Disneyland

Arwen and family were visiting Disneyland and invited Wendy and us to join them.

Jenn, Arwen, Noah and Wendy relaxing in the Disneyland Hotel pool.

Claire, Faith and Emily with Ariel in her grotto aka the hot tub.

Look Ma! No Tooth!

Since my camera is the old fashioned film type, I don't have instant access to my pictures like 99.9% of society. So sometimes our breaking news is a few weeks old...

On August 3, Emily came running into the kitchen holding a bloody thing in her hand and smiling a new smile. The tooth that had been wiggling for weeks had finally, with a little help from Daddy, come out! The tooth fairy visited our house for the first time that night bringing a note and 2 "Fairy Dollars" aka the new President Dollar coins. Her grown up tooth is coming in nicely already.

Ventura County Fair

Today Emily and Claire went to the Ventura County Fair with Grandma and Papa. They went on rides, saw animals, ate junk food and were completely spoiled! They even got to play at the beach for a little while on the way home.

Wisconsin, The Dells & Chicago

This year we decided to save money by flying into Chicago. By the time we added up the extra travel costs I think it was a wash. But we did have a great time visiting the Dells again and seeing John's brother and his family.

We spent about 2 weeks at the cabin. The weather was about as perfect as it can get. On a cooler day we went to Appa-lolly Ranch and took a trail ride. Emily was very excited that she was allowed to ride Iceman all by herself! She was especially happy that he listened to her when she gave him a command. Claire and Mommy doubled up on Zelda.

The girls spent lots of time with cousin, Joe. Mostly it was in the water but one night he invited us up to his cabin to make s'mores. While we were waiting for the coals, the kids fixed Joe's motorcycle.

Frogs were a theme this year. Emily and Malaya kept these two all afternoon. When it was time to release them, they were too traumatized to even hop away quickly.

Four cousins working on "Frog Kingdom" castle. They kept a royal family of frogs in fine style.

At the Polynesian Resort in the Wisconsin Dells, Mommy and Claire had fun riding tandem.

Emily is now a strong enough swimmer to be able to ride alone.

We rode the Empire Builder from the Dells to Union Station Chicago. It was a great way to travel.

In Chicago, we spent the day at Navy Pier. The girls and their cousins explored the Children's Museum and the rides. All of us rode the giant Ferris Wheel. It gave us a beautiful view of the Chicago skyline.

Us with the skyline:

Maui

After a year of planning and many more spent dreaming we were finally off to Maui, Hawaii this summer. We found a wonderful 1 bedroom condo in Ma'alaea that became our home base. Each day was an adventure discovering new things on the island. But the girls found the pool in our complex to be a treat after a long day of ooh-ing and aah-ing over the beautiful scenery.
We drove the infamous Road to Hana. While not an interstate by any means, it has been improved over the years and is at least smooth pavement all the way. We got as far as the Ohe'o Gulch aka the Seven Sacred Pools before making our return trip.

We found a really nice beach within walking distance of the condo. It was especially nice because it had a breakwater wall that stopped the waves from crashing into the girls. It felt like a safe place to sit and make sandcastles.

We went to a luau and ate traditional Hawaiian poi and roast pig. We drove to the top of Haleakela the volcano that created the island. Emily was disappointed not to see any flowing lava. We went for the ultimate tourist look by buying and wearing matching aloha shirts and dresses.

Emily was fascinated with the sarong dresses she saw everywhere and finally parted with some of her souvenir money to buy herself one.

We drove out to the very northern end of the island and found some lava pool that were filled with fish, crabs and people!

Claire got so comfortable in the water that she decided it was time to take off her floatie suit! Mostly she saw how fun it was to put on goggles and dive to the bottom of the pool and couldn't be left out.

One of our last and biggest activities was a snorkel cruise to Molokini Island. It is world famous for having crystal clear water and lots of fish to watch. Emily was able to snorkel after she got over an initial case of the deep water jitters. Claire floated on a boogie board that had a window in it so she could see fish that swam near the surface (and there were plenty of them!)