Darn Happy

Ski Day!

2012-01-24T20:56:00.000-08:00

Grammie Ellen is in town, so we decided to play hooky for the second half of today and take the girls up the mountain to ski. They've been asking for weeks, and it was a beautiful time to go - lots of fresh snow, but the roads are all clear!

Here is our intrepid duo, ready to hit the slope.

Up the magic carpet they go - they can't wait to get to do the chair lift on the other slopes, but for now we're just happy they've mastered this and no one fell off this year!

Elena showed really amazing agility and balance - she had such a blast and really tore it up down the hill.

Clara took a more cautious approach, but remembered everything about making "pizza" with her skis to stop that she learned last year.

And she remembered to do "french fries" to get going again!

Elena, speeding straight into the safety of Dad's arms.

Clara, really knocking it out of the park with her form on the magic carpet - she is going to be some racer one day!

A Clara skiing sandwich.

Sweet, happy Elena.

Even though she knew to do "pizza' on the hill, when she got all the way to the bottom this was Clara's preferred method of stopping - just sitting right down!

They were so proud of each other after they would get down the hill - it's not easy to hug a sister on skis, but they managed!

Right when we had decided we were done (and Elena had taken her skis off) Clara decided she needed just one more run. Elena told the rest of us to back off, and said she could help her sister back over to the lift.

So sweet to give a sister a helping hand!

And so sassy when praised about it!

A great last run for Clara:

And we were ready to head back in.

After turning in all the ski stuff we headed into Philipsburg, land of sweets. First stop was the Sweet Shoppe, to show Grammie Ellen what the fuss is all about.

Steve let each girl pick out TEN candies!

Then we hopped across the street to Doe Brothers, home of awesome milkshakes and site of a picture you may remember taken there of the girls years ago.

A recreation from today:

They just keep growing up!

We all shared a chocolate milkshake.

It's nice to have so many sweet opportunities nearby. And when we got home the girls went straight to bed - all that fun drains them, apparently!

Slowing of the snow

2012-01-20T21:53:00.000-08:00

So, after two days of non-stop snow we awoke today to blue skies! It was still difficult to drive anywhere (even with our four-wheel-drive truck) so we spent a lot of time at home again. We made our snow family, and refined our at-home sledding hill.

That was really an awesome experience - can spring arrive now??

Snow Day!

2012-01-20T07:31:00.000-08:00

We awoke to mountains of snow on Thursday, and to cancelled school. So after a good interval of pancake-eating and Madeline-watching we headed outside to start the shoveling (and playing!). Clara tries to tackle a mound to the side of the driveway:

While Elena is stellar at helping to clean off the car:

Steve played a fun game called: "Cover the Clara!"

When the driveway was finally clear the girls had a little sledding hill to play on.

It's the first time they've ever been able to sled at home, on their flat yard. It's also the first time they've ever seen snow like this - we were wishing for them to have a day where the snow seemed as tall as they were so they'd have this in their memory banks, and we're glad it happened!

Although the girls seemed content eating snow...

...the rest of us outside wanted something more substantial. We had been visiting and helping neighbors as we all shoveled together, and decided to have a snowed-in potluck lunch at our house. It was so much fun! We don't see a lot of one another in these cold months, and even though cleaning up snow has its downsides socializing is a nice upside.

This last picture is from the day before (Wednesday) when it was snowing so heavily by mid-morning that we already all knew it would probably be a snow day the next day. Partly to ward of saddness at not seeing each other the next day, we hosted a playdate at our house for the girls' favorite friend, Talan, and his sister, Griffin. The kids has a blast, and that fun will have to hold them through. School got cancelled for Friday, too, so no one will get together again until at least Monday!

Sweet faces

2012-01-19T21:14:00.000-08:00

Four quick snapshots of a few cute faces. Clara, taunting us and wearing Christina's boots:

Elena, over-exposed, but somehow giving us a glimpse of what she'll look like at 14:

Clara, singing the book "Get Along Little Cowboy" to us (She LOVES this book!):

Elena cuddling her dad while he gets a little rest:

The cuteness - it abounds!

Sit right down, my sweet birthday girl!

2012-01-19T20:33:00.000-08:00

So, the title of this post is a quote from Clara. Between the sweet things she and Elena said all day, and the wonderful way Steve treated her all day, Christina had the best birthday ever! The day before Elena had said: "Mom, I know what you want for your birthday! I'm going to let you sleep!" And she did - Christina awoke at her own leisurely pace to a doll lovingly placed beside her, and a sweet family ready to spoil her. She was showered with gifts and cards, taken out to lunch, then whisked to a spa for the afternoon. When we got back to Nana and G-Daddy's the girls hot-tubbed and hung out with Christina laughing while Steve grilled up an amazing dinner.

Grillmaster Steve and Nana Rose.

After dinner Clara and Elena helped Steve finish frosting the coconut cake they made.

And then the helpers came to help Mom blow out the candles.

Um, or hinder....tough to tell.

It was such a wonderful day!

Welcome, 2012!

2012-01-04T16:37:00.000-08:00

To welcome in 2012 we were treated to G-Daddy's fireworks. He wowed the girls with smoke bombs (they kept waiting for them to be loud, but they don't make any noise!).

He also let off these things that jump around and change color (and which DO make noise).

On New Year's Day we went back to a favorite park in Gilbert that has a fun playland. At first Elena rode the little ferris wheel:

She cracked herself right up:

And then Clara asked to go on the big ferris wheel in her own car - she was thrilled!

Elena followed suit in her own car:

Then they took a couple rounds on their old standby favorite - the carousel:

They also practiced their driving skills:

Watch out for them in a few years!

Elena's cat, Whiskers, played at hiding from Elena:

And then Clara took a ride on the baby ferris wheel, and got head high-fived by G-Daddy:

Then it was off to Sonic! (America's drive-in) - it turns out Christina and Steve are bigger fans than Clara and Elena, but they still had fun.

On January second G-Daddy had arranged a fun horse-drawn carriage ride for the girls, but the man with the horses sadly had his house flooded by his hot water heater, so we switched gears and took the girls to Encanto park. This is a third-generation park - Steve went here as a child and so did his parents!

Both girls had bumped up a bracket from when we went two years ago, so they got to ride some new rides!

They started off in bumper boats, a favorite from last time.

Then they moved on to the dragon roller coaster - things started out this exuberant:

And you can see Elena here having a great time, but Clara started frowning, then crying.

We got the ride halted, and she hopped off never to ride again. (Elena, however, took another spin around and LOVED it!).

Clara led the charge over to the planes, and both girls had a great time. They started off riding together, then would split into different planes and call or whistle to eachother throughout the ride!

Taking a turn on the motorcycles:

And also the baby carousel:

We're having a blast winding up our last bit of time here in Arizona - the girls love it, but have also both started asking for their own beds and toys, and are at the same time eager to get home. It's been such a fantastic time in the sun, though!

Sweet spots

2012-01-04T09:01:00.000-08:00

Our pace has slowed down a little bit, but we continue to have a great time in Arizona. We went back to our favorite Phoenix candy shoppe from last year, Smeeks. They had yarn bombed a tree outside!

It's too bad the flash ruined this - it says "A sweet little place for sweet little folks." The girls each got to pick four things (because they are four years old) from the store - we were there for a good 40 minutes with them swapping, re-thinking, evaluating their choices until they got to four, but they did a great job.

One of Christina's picks, in honor of her father's old favorite candy bar. (And even though she's turning 35 in one day, she did not pick 35 things - restraint, a quality gained with age!).

Then we headed out to a little place our friends had clued us in to, America's Taco. There the girls fell in love with horchata, and Christina fell in love with a pork quesadilla with grilled pineapple (YUM!).

Cutie pie, waiting for a quesadilla.

After this we went to the Science center again, at the girls' request. They loved so much about that spot - we wish we had something so science focused in Montana! On the drive home the girls each got to choose one candy to eat, and they picked ring pops. Or tried to - here is poor Clara, having fallen asleep eating hers!

The next day we took them back to the art museum, and had a special lunch with Nana Rose! It was fancy and fun.

They had kids packs that each girl got to sign out, and it led them to do different things in the museum. Here, Clara asked Christina to take a picture of her with her pencil behind her ear - she was being an investigator looking for all her clues!

There was a children's exhibit based on a school in Mexico that taught children how to represent the world around them by learning a series of shapes/patterns to draw. Clara and Elena had fun at the easels trying this out:

Then they got to try the skills out on some pottery!

Investigating where the people went in this sculpture:

Back in the room that is dark except for hundreds of strings of lights, this was the favorite exhibit the girls remember from last year and the one they asked for as soon as we walked in the door. It was fun to be obliterated in a field of fireflies again, and this time instead of taking a straight shot we used the lights to light paint a field of hearts.

The most fun part of the discovery packs was the girls playing "teacher" to Steve and Christina - here they are teaching Steve something about shapes in paintings.

In the gift shop Elena relived baby-hood by completely enjoying this tag book.

And no visit would be complete without seeing the big dinosaur in the cage out front!

We stopped by Nana Rose's office and she showed us some pictures of the girls that she has had up there that she shows everyone who walks in - it was so funny to see these!

They are even featured on her mouse pad!

They greeted everyone, got cookies, and then we headed back to "the Arizona House" to lay low. Busy, busy, busy - we're stocking up on all the things we miss while we're in Montana, and hoarding memories to get us through the rest of this long winter!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-28T08:37:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve the girls went to a party with Nana and G-Daddy (and no parents!), welcomed Grammie Ellen and Uncle Scott to the house, had a lovely dinner, and then got into their new Christmas pajamas. Since they ask for hot chocolate all the time we thought these were fitting holiday pajamas.

We had decided that the girls would each open three presents before bed, and Nana picked the ones that would be best to open and put them before the girls.

They loved all of their gifts - here are some exuberant thank-you hugs for G-Daddy and Nana.

But after they had opened their three gifts they got concerned that the adults hadn't opened any, and wanted to give out the gifts to everyone else. It was so sweet that they weren't asking for more gifts, and just wanted to give to others, that we let them stay up for the adult portion of Christmas Eve and we all opened our gifts together.

They left out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer and then went straight to sleep. In the morning, Santa had arrived, leaving a note and more presents.

The stocking-opening was festive, the girls appreciated all of their new items, and we all had a nice time watching them, sipping coffee, and playing together.

Doctor dress-up sets from the stockings:

Pedicure set from Uncle Scott.

Elena with her new tag reader and tag book - she is loving "reading" her own books with this.

And Clara is, too:

Then we worked our way out of pajamas and into Christmas clothes.

Nana showed them a huge nutcracker she got at work - they thought it was a glittery, fantastic toy.

And then, the surprise of looking inside! Treats, treats, and more treats.

We went over to see Nana Rose's family at Nanny's house, and had a fantastic time with family all around. This is the "Rose" picture - Nana Rose, Aunt Rose, and Elena Ashley Rose.

At one point we found the girls hiding behind the sofa eating cookies - they hadn't eaten much actual food all day, so we re-directed the to some ham, veggies, and water before we let them back at the treats.

Here they are with cousin Rachel, who is their favorite! She helped them find all of their presents under the tree at this house and let them start opening.

New Christmas view masters! And of slides, and several other sweet gifts, too.

Such lucky little girls to be surrounded by so many people who adore them. On the way home, driving through the desert in the sunset, Elena took this picture of Clara and a little bit of Christina in a Christmas glow.

And that about sums up the feeling of the day. We hope you had a Merry Christmas, too!

Antics and anticipation

2011-12-27T20:32:00.000-08:00

We've been having such a nice time in Arizona, soaking up the sun and company and getting ready for Christmas. Nana Rose wanted to give cookies to her neighbors, so we set to work to make eight dozen for her (thank goodness the girls are experienced in this area already!).

Nana and G-Daddy reciprocated by taking us on a nighttime train ride at a park, where we had candycanes and hot chocolate and rode around under the stars. (In this shot of Clara you can just see her shimmery "tinsel" that we had put it in her hair at the kid's salon for the holidays).

Elena on the train ride, looking where we're heading (and sporting a little tinsel shimmer herself) with Steve beside her and Nana and G-Daddy just a seat behind.

Because it was so dark out the pictures are wonky, but still oddly pretty!

Warp speed - now we're rolling!

Through the tunnel!

After the train ride G-Daddy coached the girls on their horse riding skills. Then, since it was so late, it was off to bed.

The next day both girls indulged in their daily Arizona pasttime - hot-tubbing! They want to go in the "hot pool" as often as possible, which we have decided is once a day.

Dreamy, relaxed girls...

On this day, they were pretending they were dolphins, which seemed to involve grooming themselves with their "fins."

It also involved being fed dolphin-fish-flakes (potato chips) by anyone who came by!

We put together one of the presents this year from Santa (somehow this is getting posted out of order, but pretend we've already shown you Christmas for a moment). Elena and Christina tried doing it themselves, but Christina did assembly from inside the house, which resulted in her being unable to get out! Elena had to rescue her by dragging over a chair she could use to climb out the top. After that G-Daddy got involved, and we have the entire house assembled and ready to decorate another day.

Even before it was decorated it was fun to have parties inside it. At one point Elena brought the girls' favorite Arizona doll (a cpr practice doll Rose has had for 20 years, called Resuci-baby, now called Big Baby a la Toy Story 3) out to "play." She asked permission to take a picture of Baby playing in the house "cause she's so happy there." When we saw this was her shot we were grateful that pictures are no longer developed on film - we'd hate to see the people at CVS have to report us for abandoning a clearly-neglected baby like this, no matter how "happy" she is!

The Zoo!

2011-12-23T21:57:00.001-08:00

Clara and Elena went to the zoo with us once, when we were in Oregon and they were babies. We were looking for something to do to keep us all occupied for a stretch of time, and they mostly slept in a stroller while we walked around. We had passes to the Phoenix Zoo, and the girls were very excited about heading out.

One of the very fun things about the day as how much they loved the map of the zoo. Clara liked pretending she was Dora, consulting the map and rolling it up to stick in her "backpack" (sweatshirt hood). But soon both girls got very good at navigating with it. The animals are illustrated as well as written in, so they could tell where we were and how to get where we wanted to go.

Our first stop was the giraffes. When we got there it was about to be feeding time, and the ticket-taker told us the most worthwhile add-on to the zoo experience was feeding the giraffes. We decided to go for it, taking the perfect timing as a sign.

It was SO much fun! There is a big platform built up, and the zookeepers ring a bell and the giraffes, knowing snacks are in order, come gracefully strolling over. They so gently use their L-O-N-G tongues and take the lettuce and pellets right out of your hand.

They are really such beautiful animals. We thought so before, but it seems even more noticeable now that we've been up close and personal with them.

For Christina and Steve this was the high point of the zoo (though the rest was really fun, too).

We liked how the animals got to live together in habitats - in with the giraffes were some ostriches and gazelles.

NOT in with them, but nearby, was a tiger. Here Elena is coaching Clara on how to call the tiger over, which she repeatedly tried with a series of growls, to no avail. Both girls did say: "Pooh pooh!" (not in a potty-talk way, but in the Madeline way: "And to the tiger at the zoo, Madline just said Pooh pooh!").

The rhino had absolutely zero interest in us, but it was fun to watch him eating his hay, apparently happily.

The zoo high-point for Clara and Elena was seeing the camels, and getting to ride one! (Christina was a little less thrilled about this - it's more fun to pay to give animals a treat than to make them work - but in fairness this camel didn't seem distressed, there were several to rotate through this chore, and everyone seemed very respectful to the camel).

Lunch time was a hit, what with the fact that it included hot dogs AND cheetos AND a rice krispie treat AND their own screw-cap bottles of milk. Little girls in heaven:

We visited for quite a while with the orangutans - they are incredible creatures, and seemed very interactive. One came over near the window to Clara and Elena, pulled up a mat, laid down, and stared at them. We also had fun posing with the orangutan statue.

Elena's shot!

We stopped in to see the elephant, and the girls were convinced it was Kayla (from the second Curious George movie). It was across the habitat when we first got there.

But then it came right up to the edge to see us, and to stick out its trunk!

We were at the zoo for four hours, and our girls were pretty much the only ones their age there not in a stroller. They walked their little legs off (without complaint) and so when they asked for cotton candy as we were heading to the exit it was a treat to us to get to say yes to them.

It was a wonderful adventure - it's so nice to do things together now without having to worry about diapers, special foods, frequent meltdowns, etc. They stayed in great spirits, and sang Christmas carols as we drove home.

Life won't always be this easy-going, but we're very, VERY grateful for this period of time where it so often is!

Excursions

2011-12-23T21:57:00.000-08:00

For some reason we skip the camera for some of my favorite little moments (going to Dunkin' Donuts, playing with Nana Rose and G-Daddy at the house) but we often have it for some of our excursions, so we'll show you a bit of that. There are passes you can sign out at the libraries here that let you in free to area activities, and Nana and G-Daddy collected several for us. We used them to go to the Children's Museum, and then the next day to go to the Arizona Science Center.

Here's Elena turning a magnetic wheel and turning on the fan and lights to her left.

In this section they focused on mechanics, and here we found that even if you are very strong, you're not going to be on the winning end of this tug-of-war if your end of the rope is closest to the fulcrum.

Elena could pull her own weight entirely up this pole while using a pulley!

Steve exhibits that you can lie on a bed of nails, providing that all the nails are simultaneously supporting your body at the same level and dispersing your weight around.

Elena had to touch and make sure the nails had retracted before Steve got up!

Both girls said that their favorite thing at the entire museum was this "turn-y guy" that let them witness centripetal force.

Climbing (but we can't really remember what this taught us - something to do with your weight and gravity).

We're also not sure what we learned from this particular display, but if you went behind a screen the "balls" (light beams) would collect about you in really cool ways!

This was one of Christina's favorite displays - the little pins that let you make an imprint of your hand represented the way that information/images can be displayed with high resolution, and the one made up of large screws illustrated low resolution - low tech but cool!

In the "body" room there were all kinds of anatomical lessons - the favorite was this one about the nose and sneezing. Steve and Elena did it first, and Elena freaked out but then found it cool upon reflection, and came to get Christina to show her "sumfin really cool!" and Christina then freaked out and upon reflection showed it to Clara! It's hard to describe why it would really surprise you so much - you are supposed to throw balls in the nose (representing foreign bodies/irritants) and then without any warning at all, a huge blast of wind blows in your face, blows the balls with a great deal of force right at you, and makes a super loud noise! It seems like you should anticipate that, and I think we all did, but it just seems like it will be on a smaller scale than it ends up being!

Wheelchair races (Clara won this round, Elena won a round against Steve).

As we were leaving the museum there was this cool telescope - although it lets you see out just like a normal telescope, there is a camera capturing the image of your eye and it is displayed above on a screen in a similar telescope - it was so fun to play with! Here's Clara's eye:

Elena's eye:

Steve's eye:

Christina's eye:

And then sweet (and backed up) Steve and Elena:

When we got home we made a gingerbread train Nana got for the girls - it teetered and tottered but didn't fall down!

We wrapped up the day with a boat ride around the lakes surrounding Rose and Steve's house to see the lights.

It was a really busy day, but so very fun, and we all slept hard afterwards! Vacation is good for that (both fun and sleep).

On the road again...for the holidays!

2011-12-22T18:48:00.000-08:00

Our traveling family is at it again - we're hitting the road this Christmas season to stay with Nana and G-Daddy in Arizona. Last year Elena really missed Big Bunny while she was away, so this year we decided to take a picture of her with all of her favorite animals she wasn't bringing with her.

And, although Clara isn't particularly tied to any specific animal she wanted to get in on the photo op, too.

Our packing job for three weeks away - we were pretty proud of ourselves! We all carried on one of these bags and were set for the trip. Clara really liked the fact that our bags made "stairs" going up from smallest to largest.

Traveling with the girls was a piece of cake this trip. They carried their own bags, they packed by themselves (mostly - Christina would say: "Pick three pairs of pants you like and put them in the bag" and she'd watch to see that they did it, but otherwise the girls were pretty autonomous), they were relatively self-entertaining on the flight, and they stayed in a good mood the whole time. It was a little rough traveling when they were really little, but it's worth it to have seasoned travelers by age four!

When we got to Arizona the first afternoon we unpacked and hung out with Nana and enjoyed the warmth. But since then we've jumped right in to getting out on the town. We've met up with friends, gone to the children's museum, to Urban Cookies (yum!), and yes, back to the trampoline center!

Both girls were pretty euphoric - they've been asking to go back for a full year!

Jump, jump, jump - man, did they have fun.

And they were not the only ones. Steve had a fantastic time jumping his heart out, and thrilling the girls by bouncing them around.

He even went on the big, blow-up slides with them!

Clara, tickling the belly of the humongous alligator that sits atop the slide.

Although they mostly slid and bounced separately, they really got into solidarity at one point and went everywhere hand in hand.

Though not always side-by-side!

Family pile-up!

Christmas Cookie Party

2011-12-18T20:18:00.000-08:00

This weekend was our annual neighborhood cookie-making party! We had such a good time at our friend Linda's house, and Clara and Elena had more fun than ever. Though they've been going every year since they were babies, there were many years where they just watched and ate dough.

This year they helped mix colors into the dough (and had dye on their hands for days).

They made all kinds of creations - they were very serious about their task!

Some beautiful creations:

And a fuzzy picture taken by Linda, but much appreciated. At one point the girls and Christina headed out of the kitchen to cuddle up and read Polar Express - they are at a very snuggly stage where they want to be close all the time, and it's awesome!

Gingerbread houses at school

2011-12-18T19:47:00.000-08:00

On the last day of school before holiday break the parents got invited to join the kids at preschool to make gingerbread houses. It was so much fun! Elena and Clara were very industrious, and have been showing off their houses (and pulling off candy to give) to anyone who walks in the door. We just love their preschool.

Family Christmas

2011-12-12T20:35:00.000-08:00

When the girls were born we started a tradition of having "Family Christmas" a few weeks before December 25th.

Our actual Christmas Day celebrations have luckily always included dear family around us, but celebrating with just the four of us in our little family beforehand gives us a fun tradition and also means that we don't haul the presents we've bought for each other around the country.

The night before the girls went straight to sleep. We told them Santa would come early to bring one special present for them, and they were really excited.

That present was booster seats! Both girls are officially out of car seats and they couldn't be happier. In fact, after they opened toys and clothes and other exciting gifts we asked them what they liked the best, and both of them said without hesitation: "Our booster seats!"

They were pretty excited for the other gifts, too. And not just receiving them - they were really anticipating other people opening the gifts they had each carefully chosen. They used their reading skills to sort out the gifts by their tags and make a pile for each of us.

Clara LOVED the rolling backpack that Elena picked out for her, and can't wait to take it on the plane to Arizona.

A sweet sister thank you.

Opening the music/jewelry boxes we bought for them.

And here's Elena with the gift that Clara bought her - a make up set. Now, when we were getting these in the store Clara showed it to Christina and she thought the make up was pretend, like it was painted in there. But no, it turns out the make up is applicable, and boy does Elena love to apply it!

Both to herself and to her sister!

Clara has some fun with a duck call that Steve opened from Grandpa and Grandma Mary - who knew that would be fun for everyone?

We will miss celebrating with our family in the east, and can't wait to celebrate with our family in the west, but it sure is fun to start Christmas early!

Christmas Tree Mission 2011

2011-12-05T21:13:00.000-08:00

This was our weekend to go cut down our tree! We started as we always do, at Trixie's saloon in Ovando, MT. This year Steve taught the girls to play pool while we waited for lunch.

Clara was afraid the initial 'break' would be too noisy! She got over that pretty quickly, and was hitting the balls as enthusiastically as she could.

We like to highlight a little of the Trixie's decor each year - here is a representative wall.

What's that charming framed saying, you ask?

After lunch we did something new this year. Instead of heading to the forest service land to get our tree, we went to a friend-of-a-friend's ranch that is right on the same road. We loaded the girls in the "sleigh" and took off.

The horses on this ranch roam freely about the forest area, as it adjoins their pasture. We were thrilled that they would let us hang out with them!

Of course, no one was more thrilled than Elena, our horse whisperer.

Can you tell that she is in her element?

She attracted quite a crowd - we think the horses could tell she was a kindred spirit.

Clara got her share of petting in too, but from up above thanks to Steve. The horses just seemed a littel tall to her!

After some blissful horse petting we headed back further into the woods to find out tree.

Go, Daddy horse!

Go, Elena horse!

Narrowing down our search...

Found it! Okay, from here it doesn't look like much. But we cleared out the bottom of this tree and it was such a beauty on top!

Definitely our best tree specimens ever! We so love getting trees that have grown naturally - they may not look dense, but they are gorgeous.

After the hard work of getting a tree was done, it was snow angel time!

Stare at the rising moon time.

Slide on your bottom instead of a sled time!

Say one more goodbye to the horses on our way out of the pasture time.

Then it was into the warm house for our annual cookies and cocoa post-tree-cutting party.

Linda never forgets the "white trees" - whipped cream all up the little ones' fingers!

We snuggled in front of the fire, heard tales from the ranch and a rich life, and read aloud 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.

What a beautiful day! More pictures of our tree to come soon.

Celebrate good times!

2011-12-05T20:11:00.000-08:00

We've been busy, and have to catch up on our posting! While Nana Rose and G-Daddy were here for Thanksgiving we celebrated Rose's birthday. Clara wanted to make the cake all by herself (Nana's favorite carrot cake) and to our pride and astonishment she did do the whole thing, from scratch. She got out every ingredient we told her, found the correct measurement for every ingredient, stirred it together, and voila - a cake! Elena joined in on the fun by making the frosting by herself - so here is Nana with her granddaughter-made cake!

Thank you kisses and the opportunity to help blow out the candles made it all worthwhile!

G-Daddy got lots of attention, too - both girls really adored playing with him, sitting with him, and getting to hear their special song from him again.

We were bummed out the day Nana and G-Daddy had to leave, so we cheered ourselves up by going ice skating. We had taken the girls once last year and Steve held them up around the rink (while Christina watched from the sidelines with her sprained ankle). This year, though, all four of us took to the ice, and within an hour both girls asked us to let them go by themselves. It was amazing to see them skate across the ice on their own!

It was so exciting, in fact, that we had to run right out and buy them (secondhand) skates. Soon the free rink will open up and we plan to be up there all winter. These last shots are of the girls and some of their favorite stuffed animals of the moment. They have really gotten into role plays with them, and, happily, playing more with one another!

Thanksgiving

2011-11-26T20:56:00.000-08:00

In this house we LOVE Thanksgiving! We did our usual doughnuts and Macy's Day Parade in our pajamas, then we kicked it into gear and got dressed up for the day. Clara and Elena were pretty happy with their new clothes, and VERY happy with each other.

Posing all matchy-matchy (their idea, not ours!)

Steve set up a fire pit outside, and we invited everyone over early to hang out as we cooked the day away.

Caryn, checking to make sure the boiling potatoes are not burning up the microwave (a sad occurrence from two years back).

Herb chopping, chatting, and a bit of drinking.

Nana Rose and Steve hanging out at the fire pit - it was unseasonably warm and we really enjoyed having a bit of room to spread out.

Christina at the kids table, handing out crayons and activity sheets while the prep continued downstairs.

These place settings were originally meant for last year, as an activity Christina made for the girls' preschool party. That party got snowed out last year, and this year only half the kids we planned for made these, so we had plenty left over to preschool-up our own little gathering.

Caryn continues on with the potatoes -ricing the life out of them gives them a very nice consistency!

Two out of the three Steves at our gathering, hanging in the kitchen.

The third Steve goofs off upstairs while we get everyone sitting down with drinks to finally eat!

The kids, ready to say grace and get on with our meal!

And Steve arrives with the turkey he has artfully carved.

We skip the whole eating bit (who is taking pictures of that anyway?) and hop in again for part of our dessert table. The games in the left are the ones we broke out afterwards. It was such a fun day and night that we didn't even realize that it was past 8:00pm and that many of our guests had been there since 11:00am!

Both girls were asleep before we even left the room from tucking them in, and that gave us one more thing to be grateful for, on top of the multitude of others. We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, too!

Thanksgiving Eve

2011-11-26T20:48:00.000-08:00

We were pretty busy with preparations on the day before Thanksgiving, but in between getting Nana and G-Daddy at the airport and getting into the heavy cooking the girls took a little break in the leaves.

Of course, their fun-loving dad was ready to jump into the fray with them, even though he had just spent the last two hours raking leaves.

And, in other news, Elena was helping Christina prep cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie, and was looking for some new cooking related jobs. She asked if she was ready to use a real knife, and it seemed like the moment to try (she's done a lot of cutting with more dull knives, and she was only cutting butter). She was SO very proud!

She completely got the idea of keeping her fingers back, she was meticulous in her cutting, and she loved every minute of cutting that stick of butter!

Grammie Ellen's visit

2011-11-26T19:00:00.000-08:00

We were so happy to have Grammie Ellen out for a pre-Thanksgiving visit! The girls showed off many skills while she was here. Elena focused on building elaborate structures for her dolls/animals (it's hard to see here, but there was a sleeping compartment for each doll, a play compartment for their accompanying stuffed animal, and then sheltered boxes for all the small horses).

Clara focused on showing off her silly side - she has turned into such a clown lately!

She would hide in the cushions, then pop out with the most delighted look on her face.

Grammie took her turn delighting the girls by buying them the game "Operation" and getting Steve to show them how to play. They love it!

Bzzzzzz!!!

She got one!

There were also plenty of snuggles.

(After looking at the picture above Christina thought it looked pretty familiar - and then realized we had THIS picture of Grammie Ellen and Clara from their first holidays together four years ago!):

Grammie watched the girls tend to many tasks - Elena trying to heal her animals was a frequent one (not sure why Ellen seems a bit dubious here!).

It snowed again while Grammie was here, so Clara took the opportunity to show her how she can snap up her own snowpants.

The visit was much too short, but we soaked up every minute. We love you, Grammie Ellen!

Snow day

2011-11-13T19:42:00.000-08:00

We had our first snowfall that stuck last weekend, but Christina was out of town and missed it. The girls and Steve had chocolate chip waffles and donned their snowpants, but by the time Christina got home it was gone. So when it snowed again this weekend and we woke up to a little white on the ground we were sure to capture it in some pictures.

Clara and Elena were excited to catch snowflakes on their tongues - even though it was more like snow pellets at the point when they were trying it!

Then we set to work using almost all of the snow in our yard to make up a snowman.

He was a quirky fellow, to be sure, but they were so very excited about him.

Excited, and proud!

We warmed up afterwards with some hot chocolates at our favorite coffee shop.

That's a pretty sweet Sunday morning!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T06:51:00.000-07:00

This is the first year we have made the girls' Halloween costumes on our own. They wanted to be cats, and we had masks and ears and tails already so we thought it would be easy. Then the school sent home a note that the girls couldn't have any loose parts to their costumes, so we made outfits that included collars, tails, and paws. We cheated by having them wear their ears (headbands are part of hair grooming, not accessories to costumes, right?) and instead of their masks we painted their faces.

They have definitely had better face painting jobs, but not by a non-professional at 7am! Mom did her best.

All in all, the costumes fit the criteria of warm, fun, and kid-approved - so we were happy!

The whole preschool class came to Christina and Steve's offices to sing Five Little Pumpkins and bring us decorated pumpkins - even though you can't see our girls in this picture, you get the idea of how fun that was for all of us on the hallway - people were coming out of the woodwork to hear this little treat!

We did low-key trick or treating this year by taking the girls out with a friend for pizza first, and then just walking down the street from the restaurant to trick-or-treat. Within just a few houses they had their buckets full and we had visited with many sweet people. We came back to our neighborhood, where we almost never have trick or treaters, so that we could visit two of our neighbors. To our surprise we saw a huge group of little trick-or-treaters a block from our house! The girls were thrilled to go grab our candy bucket and wait for them outside of our house.

They got the hugest kick out of of saying to all the kids "Take as much as you like!" They repeated it over and over and we considered ourselves very lucky that we'd gotten home in time for this. That ten minute period was the only trick or treating action our house saw all night!

Lake House

2011-11-01T06:16:00.000-07:00

Friends of ours who had twins four months ago invited us up to their lake house for the weekend. Yes, you read that right - while we were barely functioning at that stage, they are doing a tremendously wonderful job managing all the needs in their family, PLUS hosting 11 other people for the weekend!

The weekend was beautiful, relaxing, and so very fun for all of us. Clara and Elena had no problem at all adapting to lake life, and played/slept/entertained themselves so well for the most part.

Steve taught them how to skip stones off the dock - they were very eager learners.

They were also very eager explorers - they invented several games between them and their friend Annie - one involved three large sticks tied together that they carried around - we're still not totally sure what that game was about.

And, there was a hottub (or, as the girls call it, hot pool!). They got us in there every opportunity they had, and although it was pretty cold on the way in and out, it was amazing while you were sitting in there, looking at snow on the mountain and enjoying happy children.

Our intrepid Kevin and Steve worked on getting us a fire each night - of course marshmallows were enjoyed in the earlier parts of the evening, and then it was a great spot for the adults to talk until the wee hours.

The nearby town of Polson was also really fun to explore - they had a great playground that Clara and Elena really enjoyed with Annie. We think they were horses most of the time, although there was also chasing of a grumpy old troll.

This is how we all felt when it was time to leave...

...but we had to acknowledge that we were just so lucky to have gotten the experience to go in the first place. Thanks, Meg and Ed (and babies Lucy and Amelia, who are conspicuously absent because we're not sure they are allowed on the internet yet!).

A walk in the woods

2011-10-20T19:48:00.000-07:00

There's a little park in town that has a trail behind it out through the woods. The girls were a little nervous of it at first because they asked Christina what the signs said and she answered honestly that they say that bears are present in those woods. They got over it when I told them the solution to that was making lots of noise! Now they like to go there with their "horses" to take them on a "trail ride."

It was a beautiful day, and we had so much fun! Both girls were feeling in a picture-taking mood, which made for some lovely shots of them together.

It even turned out that the girls wanted to be photographers themselves, so they took turn taking pictures of Christina and whichever girl was not being photographer - awesome!

A few more of their cuteness, which just keeps getting more and more adorable!

First Benson's of the Season

2011-10-13T19:07:00.000-07:00

Every year we go to Benson's Farm to get our pumpkins. Last year we went several times, and we're carrying on that tradition by beginning our visits already. Our dear friends Kate and Annie took us on an outing there and sweetly bought us pumpkins and mums. Although we look forward to going back as a family with Steve this was a perfect fall outing with our friends!

Good Night

2011-10-10T17:41:00.000-07:00

Tonight while we were getting ready for bed, Clara very loosely paraphrased Madeline and exclaimed:

"We brush our teeth, we brush our bread, and most of all we brush our head."

Such a silly rhymer!

Rolling, rolling, rolling....

2011-10-07T21:08:00.000-07:00

What could these two be looking at?

What could amp them up like this?

What could cause such an outbreak of silliness?

It's the....ROLLER DERBY!

We had seen the roller derby girls at the Homecoming parade last week, and had always thought the idea of roller derbies was fun...so this Friday when they were having a derby in town we took the girls and headed over.

It was nearly impossible to photograph, because these women are FAST! Also, the lighting is ODD! Because they're going for drama on the center rink, not people getting good pictures from the balcony, we guess.

Still, we had a lot of fun watching. We started shouting out things like "LEAD JAMMER!" and as we left both Clara and Elena told us they were roller girls, and made us address them by saying things like "Thank you, roller girl." "Can I help you get into your seat, roller girl?" Eventually they started going so far as to say "Thank you, roller Mommy!" When we got home they had to practice being roller girls on the wood floors in their socks. Such a funny new set of vocab and play for us.

Rainy Day Ballet

2011-10-07T20:55:00.000-07:00

It has been very, very rainy here lately. We've had almost a week straight of solid rain. Luckily, Elena and Clara LOVE their raincoats, and always get lots of compliments on them, so we have our fun even if we can't do some of the outdoor things we'd planned.

On Thursdays the girls still have their dance class, which they enjoy so much more this year than they even did last year. They ask often if it is dance class day, and they rush in for every class.

We like the class because it is focused on creative movement more than it is on any steps or form, and the kids really just enjoy moving their bodies in new ways.

Elena and Clara are each teacher's pets. They each really love to be right near a teacher, and luckily there are three teachers in this class of about 8 kids. Good odds!

Elena gets a little air here as she flits across the room with Miss Lindsay.

Clara enjoys the skipping portion of the class with Miss Roxanne.

Clara illustrates how to go across the room low and slow.

And then she rushes out to jump and grab her scarf. It's easy to see how happy she is, and it's beautiful to see the girls enjoying something so much!

Humane Society

2011-10-07T20:34:00.000-07:00

Ever since Christina made up a camp for the girls this summer that involved going to visit the Humane Society Clara and Elena have been dedicated to this shelter. They go at least once a week. Most times they pet the cats, and give treats to the dogs, and generally socialize the animals a bit. Sometimes we bake treats to bring there.

They talk about it so much at school that their preschool teacher asked about it, and Christina went in to class to talk about what the other kids in class could do at the Humane Society (adopt, visit, donate, etc.) and then helped them all to make treats for the pets. These are pictures we took to share with their class at school, since Clara and Elena were the designated treat-deliverers.

The cats are generally very happy to see the girls, and love eating the tuna treats we make.

There is one whole room dedicated to kittens! The only get crumbs of the treats, but they are very enthusiastic.

The dog wing is LOUD!

Also, the dogs stay in kennels and we don't pet them there, so I don't think the visit is as much fun for them. We do throw them treats, which they always gobble up.

For them the treats aren't just for fun - they are a learning tool.

The learning seems to work pretty well - this pretty girl sat right down as soon as we asked her to.

Next Saturday the girls have their official training date, and then they are going to be real volunteers who will go with Christina to help change litter boxes, feed the animals their regular food, brush them, etc. We're also going to try taking more flattering pictures of the dogs and cats for the adoption website - it's a challenging photographic assignment, but should be fun!

Biker Chicks

2011-10-07T20:01:00.000-07:00

Steve has been helping the girls learn to ride their bikes over the past month or so. Now that it is cooler out and the girls can wear long sleeves/pants and the elbow/knee pads, they are much more confident with the occasional fall and have been having lots of fun practicing with Daddy.

Steve says on previous days both girls have been great at going on their own with a little help to start, but the day Christina came to watch only Clara was really into it. This is one of those things probably better suited to video than pictures, but here goes Clara!

She did that over and over again - she did great and was so proud. She's really close to just doing the whole thing by herself.

For whatever reason Elena chose this day to just goof off and be silly.

But she's even closer to doing it on her own, and seems to have some of the balance part down.

Steve is such a great Dad - he takes the training wheels off at the park, and then puts them on again every time so the girls can ride home by themselves. Thank goodness he's a skilled bike mechanic!

Homecoming 2011

2011-10-02T06:57:00.000-07:00

If you look back on the blog, we have a picture of the girls at every Homecoming parade since they were a few weeks old. Some years it's been snowing, some years (like this year) we were hot even without a coat on. You never know what the weather will be like, but we always have fun!

As we walked to the parade route we saw a man taking these pack mules through a routine (we're guessing so they wouldn't get restless as they waited to enter the parade). They were beautiful and we had to watch for quite a bit before we even got to the parade.

Once the parade got underway we pretty much only saw the back of the girls' heads for an hour and a half, because they were totally focused on the parade in front of them. So we took this opportunity before everything really got started to get at least one picture of each girl's face.

Okay - I guess we only caught Elena when the parade set-up was already pretty engaging. :)

We won't show all the floats, of course, but there were a few that went over very well. One was any float that had "cheer ladies" as Clara has dubbed them. Whenever we're at a football or basketball game she zeros right in on them - we wonder if it's a forecast of her future.

These people were advertising the Tweed Ride, which is a throw-back, olde-timey bike ride where everyone wears tweed and tools about town at a leisurely pace. Maybe one day we'll do this.

We don't know who sponsored this float, but the girls really liked the grizzly head eating the people!

Christina got really excited about this Brownie/Daisy float- next year the girls finally get to sign up to be Girl Scouts!

The Foresters are always an outgoing, crazy bunch. Their float is wacky but fun to see.

Look - almost another picture of both faces! Elena insisted on her cowgirl hat for most of the parade (with the elastic brim part pulled down - don't tell her it's not supposed to go that way!)

Whenever a band went by Clara had to cover her ears - but she also wanted to clap whenever they went by - this led to some difficult on her part figuring out what to do!

Clown car!

When the Hellgate Roller Girls came by Steve went to go urge the girls to pay attention- he has a vision of them being roller girls one day.

Clara decided she liked this kind of dog (pug) and told us she'll have 100 of them when she grows up!

And, we'll end with the most disturbing of the parade sights - the plasma center in town marched, and they have this big plasma walking around, which disturbs Steve and Christina to no end. Apparently that is not everyone's response, as you see by the girl below going in for a hug. That was not our girls, though - they said: "Look, a big candy!" which pretty much reflected how much they had gone candy-brained from all the candy passed out along the parade route.

Since they couldn't take him home they didn't care much about seeing him - but they did take home about ten pounds of candy, so we are set for what we'll give out on Halloween! Plus, it was a great time and a great tradition.

Bus Adventures!

2011-10-01T22:17:00.000-07:00

Clara and Elena have been bus travelers for about a year now, ever since Steve started taking them once and awhile on the bus that runs near our house. He would let them stop downtown and get some hot chocolate, then they would ride home. The other day Christina was with the girls downtown and they just really wanted to ride a bus, so we went and just go on the first bus we saw to ride its route (none of the routes are really longer than 45 minutes round trip!).

The girls liked it so much that we made a plan for Friday that we'd get on a new bus, go to a park we had never been to before, and ride home. Christina plotted out which bus went by a new park, got the schedules, and was feeling good. At 10:30 we got on the bus and headed out!

We got off easily at the park - so far so good! The girls ran down the few blocks from the busstop because they could see the park in the distance.

And it was definitely a very fun new park, full of things they hadn't played on before.

The thing with buses, though, is that you aren't on your own schedule. We knew we could stay at the park either 30 minutes or an hour and 30 minutes (but nothing in between). The girls said they wanted to stay a long time, so Christina planned for the longer trip. But right around 25 minutes into their playing they started to get whiny and fighting with one another, and it just seemed better to head home.

So Christina ran with them, trying to get to the busstop before the bus passed. We never saw the bus go past, but we must have missed it because after waiting 10 minute we were sure it wasn't going to pass. But running for the bus made us even more tired and more cranky! Luckily, there was a little cafe down the street. It wasn't quite as close down the street as Christina had hoped, but the girls were troupers and walked all the way down with her. When we got there, they said - "Whoo! We need lemonade!"

So we got some. Look how tired Elena was!! We got some quesadillas, too, so we could fortify ourselves for the rest of our adventure.

We went out to the busstop REALLY early this time (a new busstop, because we were now about a mile down the road!) and caught the bus without a problem. We rode it back to the transfer center, and all almost fell asleep by the time we got there.

Still, they were so proud! We finally got back around 1:00 - it was a fun, if unpredictable journey!

The only problem we really had was that we got back to our car to find a ticket. Our unexpected delay only cost us a $2 ticket, though - so overall, the trip was a success.

Bathing the babies

2011-10-01T21:53:00.000-07:00

An odd sight was seen at our house on Thursday.

The dolls floating about in the tub weren't some strange experiment or mistake, though. These are dolls the girls play with every day at their preschool, and we volunteered to take them home to wash them up over the weekend.

Besides the fun of washing things up (which they both always enjoy) they felt so special to get to take care of these dolls they usually have only a limited time with, and to have the dolls in their own home.

After washing them (and their clothes) Clara and Elena laid each doll out on a towel in the living room, and tucked them in to sleep.

It was a pretty fun activity, and it's nice to give something back to the preschool that is so good to our girls!

Green Thumbs

2011-09-25T18:39:00.000-07:00

We've been harvesting most of our end-of-season produce from the garden these last few weeks. We dug up all the potatos (lousy crop this year - only about a dozen!), most of the beets, and most of the tomatoes. Clara and Elena each harvested the last of their special crops they planted and watered this season.

Here's Clara, the Carrot Cultivator!

And Elena, with her Bountiful Broccoli! (this plant kept on producing and producing, even when it was half-pulled out of the ground. Amazing.)

We've made quadruple batches of marinara sauce, lots of pickled beets, and some great veggie juice combinations. This week we'll make the last of the basil into pesto and probably call it a year!

Laundry woes, or laundry wonderland

2011-09-14T20:34:00.000-07:00

Today our family headed off on a brand new adventure - off to the laundromat.

Our almost-new (only two year old!) washer had been squeaking, and we had generally ignored it, assuming that we had some time to figure out what was going on. Unfortunately, it turns out that what would have been a $70 repair had we done it when the squeaking started turned into a $700 repair when we let it go for a few weeks. Word to the wise - call a specialist at the first sound/sight of trouble with a major appliance! Steve and Christina wish they had, and thought of the downfall of our washer as a woe.

Clara and Elena, on the other hand, found it to be a wonderful new adventure as we headed off to a spot where we let them help do the laundry!

Everything about it was fun to them, from shoving in the clothes to putting in the detergent to shoving in the quarters. (It takes a lot more quarters than we remembered - man!).

What else made this laundromat trip a fantasy trip for the girls? This circa 1960's laundromat has a built-in ice cream parlor that we took full advantage of.

There was also an arcade area where the girls pretended to be crazy cab drivers in one of the games, and where Steve played pinball with them on another. And three loads of laundry got washed in 25 minutes, so that's definitely a plus! We may be headed to this adventure spot again, since the new washer won't arrive until the middle of next week (and we do a LOT of laundry!). It's always fun to find something new to do in this small town, even if it does come in the form of an inconvenient surprise!

Second first day?

2011-09-06T14:50:00.000-07:00

Today was Elena and Clara's first day of school for the year, and their second first day of school ever. They were so proud of their new sneakers. Elena picked the capri jeans that Nana Rose and G-Daddy sent for her first day outfit. And Clara chose her necklace to be snazzy. They are old pros at the preschool now, and knew the routine even after three months away. When Christina came to pick them up, Clara introduced her to a boy named Bridgette (really Bridger) and Elena was running around happily with a new girl named Ellie.

Chico and Yellowstone

2011-09-05T21:17:00.000-07:00

Just when we got settled back in to town we took off again. This time, it was a Labor Day weekend getaway with friends down to Pray, MT to stay at Chico Hot Springs.

Christina and Steve had been several times before, but for Clara and Elena it was their first time. And how could we have guessed they'd love it? Well, there are two big things Chico has in its favor.

First, a stable full of these guys!

Even though you had to be six to do a trail ride, we spent quite a lot of time visiting with the horses. The first day we found that if we picked grass just out of the horses' reach, they'd be happy to come see us if we dropped it at their feet.

They also enjoyed the long stalks of wheat grass that Elena and Clara were happy to supply!

The second day there the girls gathered crab apples from the property (and also Elena's partially eaten apple from breakfast) and we asked if we could feed these to the horses. Not only was the answer yes, but they were given a free "local" ride (instead of a trail ride) where they got on one of the horses and were walked around near the stable area. That will work until we can all go ride together in two years!

The other main attraction that drew the girls to Chico? The pool!

The natural hot spring on the property is partially funneled into this pool, which is open all year round and is outdoors. The steam above is what it looks like when the hot spring collides with a 40 degree morning in Montana! The look below is of a girl who couldn't care less how cold it is outside as long as we'll let her swim.

It really is gorgeous there - we went in the pool several times each day, and it was always the first thing we did as soon as we woke up in the morning.

And it's even better with friends - it was fun to watch our friends get up each morning at each of the times that was "normal" for their family. And it was great to have many people to play with all the kids!

Here Clara is mid-direction for Elena. We played a version of "Red Light, Green Light" in the pool where we made up new "lights" to liven up the game. We had several different families we had never met before playing with us by the end! In case you want to join in at home, green light was go, red light was stop. Purple light was blowing bubbles in the water, black light was splashing with your hands. Pink light was ducking underwater, and orange light was a nonsense bit taken from a Dora episode where you say: Boom boom shake-a shake-a boom boom SWISH! You have to shake your bum when you do the shake-a parts, and jump out of the water when you do the swish part, just in case you really are striving for authenticity.

We could have spent the whole three days never leaving the resort, but on Sunday we decided to strike out to the very nearby Yellowstone National Park.

Waving wheat greets you as soon as you enter the park:

And so do herds of antelope!

We really enjoyed looking at all the different mineral deposits and structures created by all the water flowing through the park.

But our favorite was looking for animals. Here's Clara with her spotting scopes ready, and her map of the animals in front of her. We were keeping a checklist. Seven hours driving through the park can be a long time, but we didn't want the girls to turn on movies in the park and so we adapted a game the other kids in our group were playing. They were all spotting animals for money (a nickel for a buffalo, dime for antelopes, $20 for a bear, etc.) but a bigger motivation for the girls was candy, so Steve gave them candy amounts they could get for each animal. We never got to the tootsie pops (which we were giving out if we saw a bear, and were just as happy to have skipped!) but they did make their way through two rolls of smarties!

(A funny side story - we saw either a coyote and a wolf or a coyote and a fox, though not together. It was hard to tell from where we were in the car, but we knew with the height differences we saw two of those animals. We looked for a long time before we saw the coyote, and we don't think Elena and Clara ever really saw it. Steve told them it was there, but not moving much. We gave them candy and drove on. A very short time later, Elena pointed out the window and exclaimed, "Look, a coyote! I get a candy!" When we asked where the coyote was she said "Oh, he wasn't movin'. He was over there, though" and pointed in a general direction of the woods. Then Clara chimed in: "I see a coyote! Under that bridge!! I get a candy!" So, the coyote is now a mythical sort of beast in their minds, we suspect.

Steve and Clara - not looking at a coyote.

Each girl fell asleep for some portion of the trip through the park. Sadly, Elena slept right when we got to Christina's favorite part, the Artist's Paintpots. So this time just Steve and Clara went to see them, while Christina hung back, prodding poor Elena every few moments to see if she was ready yet. When you see the warnings as you head down, it almost makes you think Elena was right to skip it!

They are beautiful, though.

And Clara seemed to really enjoy her time on her own with Dad.

We were all awake when we got to Old Faithful, but sadly the faithful geyser had just gone off, so we had to wait an hour and a half to see it again. In that time Elena helped Steve set up the tripod so we could get a shot of us all together.

And Clara framed the geyser behind her beautifully with her ice cream cone.

Here we all are, before it erupted:

And thar she blows!

Trust Elena to make a dog friend anywhere she goes - here she cozied up to some college student and helped them take care of her puppy at Old Faithful.

On the trip out of the park we relented and let the girls watch a movie. Clara had the sun right in her window, and the resourceful girl pulled out her spoon she had apparently held on to from her ice cream earlier, and cupped it to her eye without a complaint.

The last thing we saw on our way out of the park was a herd of elk who had come down to get a drink and cool off in the Gardner river. Christina was driving, so Steve got this shot, which includes her nose, the railing of the bridge over the river, a little bit of elk, and the hilarious sight in the rearview mirror of all the people stopped on the side of the road to get a picture of this! We have seen a lot of elk in our days, and so pushed straight on to get to some dinner, but we hope the others got better shots than we did!

We've probably about pushed the girls to their limit now, and so we're going to stay home until Christmas. But it sure was a wonderful end to the summer!

Transformations

2011-09-02T18:35:00.000-07:00

First we have Elena and Clara, transformed into cats (Grammie Ellen bought them this face painting at the Farmer's Market, and the woman was pretty incredible as a make-up artist!).

Then we have the carrots Clara planted this spring transformed into a carrot-ginger soup for dinner, and the broccoli Elena planted turned into part of our stir-fry for dinner. It was fun to thank them for growing our dinner, even if they only liked it a little bit! (Both of them prefer their veggies fresh rather than cooked, and were proud to eat their own produce on their own terms).

Carnival Birthday Party

2011-08-27T21:01:00.000-07:00

This year for Clara and Elena's birthday we decided to make them up a carnival. We loaded it with some carnival classics (peanuts and popcorn) and although we hoped to serve pink lemonade the yellowjackets swarming around crushed that idea, so we served cucumber-mint water instead.

We had several different kinds of games set up.

We decorated all around the yard. You might remember that since the girls' second birthday we have bought these mylar number balloons - on both their second and third birthday, they flew away. Clara had a plan this year - she said: "We'll tie them, tape them, and staple them!" So we did.

Some of Steve's family was in town to help celebrate - here are Nana Rose and Grammie Ellen taking a break after helping with setup.

Our first games centered on balloons. First, we took long balloons and blew them up, then had each child release them to see how far/fast/high they would go. Steve gave out tickets that varied in number depending on how impressed he was.

Then we did the Balloon Bug Stomp. We pretended these water balloons were bugs, and we'd put several out on the lawn and give the kids five seconds to squash them. They got tickets roughly based on how many they popped.

We also had face painting!

Our friend Maeve was hired for the day to draw on the kids' faces, and she did a great job.

We had a ring toss - Clara got a little close (as did all the kids!) and thus stretched the title of "toss" a bit, but they had a good time.

In the duck pond there ducks who had numbers written on them - the object was to have them "catch" the two ducks in a net that had matching numbers.

All of our party guests were special, but the girls were especially happy to see that two of their kid-less friends, Rachel and Liz, took them up on their invitations to come to the party. Here's Elena with Rachel, the girls' first babysitter and now friend.

After playing the games and winning tickets, the kids turned the tickets in for goody boxes.

Even the adults had fun with these - who doesn't love animal crackers?

Or a clown nose?

Or love someone WHILE wearing a clown nose?

This is a shot of the girls as they wait for their cakes to be brought out.

And, here they go!

Dad helping blow out the candles.

Grammie Ellen decorated these cakes, and the bundt pan to make them was lent to us by a dear friend's mother. Clara cracked all 12 eggs it took to make these two cakes, and Elena stirred up all the bittersweet and dutch chocolate. They were a real community effort!

Later on in the party the dads brought out heavy-duty bike pumps and started blowing the balloons up as high as they could get, and shooting them off - all the kids clamored for them to do more, more more!

Towards the end of the party it got very, very windy. We joked that it was our party of Hurricane Irene, but the only casualty we were really worried about were the wildly flipping four balloons!

So we took them inside to safety, and we can now say we finally had a birthday party without the number balloon flying away. (We hedged our bets and bought TWO four balloons, so we can actually say that two of the number balloons we've ever purchased have made it!).

It was a wonderful day to celebrate the birth of two wonderful girls - we're grateful to all our friends and family who helped us celebrate, and missed everyone who couldn't be here!

Happy Birthday Pony Day!

2011-08-24T22:18:00.000-07:00

For the girls' fourth birthday we had a total horse/pony day - they love the equine more than anything else.

Christina sewed the girls saddles and bridles for their Rody horses, we bought them an antique tin barn with fences, animals, and hay, but the BIG thing we did was get them a half day at the pony farm.

They got to learn how to take care of the ponies by brushing and combing them:

They learned how to clean their hooves with a pick:

They learned how to move safely around the ponies:

They picked out saddles and cinched them on:

And then they went off on an hour ride through the forest.

Steve and Christina hiked behind, on foot - that was a labor of love, because it was a HOT day! We ended up at an old forest service cabin in the woods.

They had such a wonderful time, and were so proud of themselves. There wasn't a better gift we could get for these two big girls!

We love Oregon

2011-08-24T21:54:00.000-07:00

As a family, our favorite state has got to be Oregon. We love Montana, we have great affinity for California and New York and Arizona and Massachusetts, but we are passionate about western Oregon. After Steve's triathlon in Portland, we got to have a bit of fun out there.

We went to some of the requisite downtown places in Portland, like the Pearl District (with a fantastic dinner at Oba and another at Habibi), and also Voodoo Donuts and Stumptown Coffee.

Voodoo Donuts is really funny to see - and this is the right age to take the girls, because some of their donut names (not to mention combinations!) are a little out there once they can pick up on innuendo (and outright hilarity).

On both our way into Portland and our way out we stopped at Hood River - we brought out our donut leftovers to Doppio, a wonderful coffeeshop.

We traveled a bit along the Fruit Loop and stopped at our very favorite farm:

We swung on swings, visited pigs and goats, ate drippy yummy peaches, and brought home a huge boxful of those and some blueberries.

We also visited the White House flower farm - we were saying how we wanted to have one of the girl's weddings there, and asked Elena if she'd like that. When she said no, we foisted our plan on the sleeping-at-the-time Clara, so we'll spring that plan on her at just the right time (probably when she's asking for money for her wedding!).

The rest of the ride home was LONG and we didn't get home until very late, but the girls were absolutely lovely about traveling around with us pretty non-stop these past two weeks, and we're so proud of them.

On the way home we watched a fire climbing a mountain right outside of Missoula - a beautiful but terrifying sight. Elena remembered a book from the library we got out about fires, and was quick to tell us that the animals would have run away, and after the fire new things will grow. The memory these girls have at this age is amazing!

Portland Triathlon

2011-08-24T21:33:00.000-07:00

Steve competed in his fourth triathlon last weekend, which was our reason for the Portland trip. It was held on the Willamette river and nearby parts of Portland, and when we got into town he took the girls down to check out the course and test it with him before the big day.

The morning of his race the girls donned their triathlon support team shirts, got their cowbells, and headed out to the water to watch him swim.

They made lots of friends on race day, especially several dogs! Here they are with one that they sat with during the swim portion of the race.

And here's Dad, coming out of the water and taking off his wet suit as he runs to the transition area.

Moments later, he's heading out on his bike portion...

...and just like that, looking so chipper, he's back again! We actually had kind of a tough wait during this part of the race - it's the longest part, it was hot, there wasn't any shade, and to pass the time the girls walked several dogs and took pictures mostly of people's bums (because that is their eye level). We will refrain from posting those here.

Finally, Steve sets out on his run.

And here he is heading for the finish line!

Done!

Time to savor the moment with his two biggest fans.

And he even let them snuggle up in his race shirt (thankfully, not the one he ran in, which as the girls will tell you, is "so shweaty!"

Here's to our triathlete!

Walla Walla Washington

2011-08-24T21:10:00.000-07:00

Our whirlwind summer adventures continued two days after we got home from Cyndie's wedding, when we traveled west again (this time by car). Our first stop was a location the girls LOVE to say, in its entirety - Walla Walla, Washington!

It's great because it's a mid-way break driving from Missoula to Portland, but also because it's a pretty fun little town. We visited the many statues downtown, then headed to Jacobi's for dinner - we got to eat in the train car!

Then we headed over to Brights candy shop for some sweets.

So many things to choose from!

In addition to candy, they both also picked cotton-candy-ice-cream-sundaes.

Look at those tongues!

We also hit up the farmer's market in town, buying 20 pounds of Walla Walla sweet onions.

And also yummy peaches...

...and delicious raspberries.

As we drove out of town, we made sure to take plenty of stops to do our stretches.

And then we headed down the river to Portland!

San Francisco Day 2

2011-08-16T20:48:00.000-07:00

Our last day in San Francisco Steve wanted to show the girls some fun of his own. Every time we talked about San Francisco they would try to say the name, remarking "That's a hard one!" Our favorite pronunciation was "Sampo Simpo."

So, first stop was the Tartine bakery, for double pain au chocolate - those croissants were amazing.

Then we went to the Fisherman's Wharf area to walk around. We found a spot new to all of us called Musee Mechanique; it is museum of coin-operated machines that you can play with.

We were hooked from the first one we tried! Christina couldn't stop laughing at this one - Elena wasn't so sure, but Clara liked it, too.

The woman above just bent over chortling. This one below featured four tap-dancing fellows.

Some were louder than others - we're not sure what Clara was reacting to here, but it was funny.

Elena, of course, loved the mechanical horse.

This arm wrestling guy was Clara's pick but man, was he tough! Even with both Christina and Clara working on it we couldn't best that guy.

While most were fun for all of us, some were, um, inappropriate for the younger set.

Then we toured the area around the wharf and Ghiardelli square.

We bought the girls mini cameras that look very much like Christina's. They adored them - they really just show images inside of five different San Francisco scenes, but the girls imagine they can capture all kinds of things, and were happily posing us for pictures and taking in various scenes.

Luckily, they still allowed us to take some pictures of our own.

We had lunch up in the financial district - Clara woke up from a car nap when we got there and was just delightful.

We were trying to find the spot we'd heard of for lunch, and were playing all around the tall buildings while we looked.

Finally, we found the food trucks! We'd heard these were a new, big thing in San Francisco, and they lived up to the hype. We had such amazing lunches - Steve had bbq, Christina had Filipino food, and the girls had a mix of several things.

It was right across from Chinatown, and we loved sitting in the middle of the city, soaking in the sights and taking a break in this little square.

After lunch it was time to take the car back and we went to our last hotel for the night. We had a 3:30am wakeup call to get us to our 6am flight, so we made the night an early one. We walked along the marina, then headed for dinner at 4:30.

Then we went back to the room, drew all the curtains tight, and tucked the girls into bed. We gave them cookies and milk, then we all lay down in our beds and watched Yogi the Bear. Clara and Steve fell asleep during the movie, with Elena and Christina following soon after.

The morning came early, but the girls were great on all the flights, and we got back home safe and sound. These girls are whole new people on our travels, and they are overall such a pleasure to be with!

San Francisco Day 1

2011-08-16T20:08:00.000-07:00

Aunt Cyndie and Uncle Russell were sweet enough to join us early the day after their wedding to show us some fun spots around California. First, they took us to their favorite breakfast place in Petaluma.

Uncle Russell defended himself valiantly while fencing with the table numbers.

Then, we followed them over the Golden Gate Bridge. Christina and Steve loved it!

Clara slept through it.

Elena watched Curious George through it, no matter how much we tried to pull her into the moment with us.

Then we went together with Grandma Elaine and Aunt Melissa to the Japanese Gardens in Golden Gate park.

Such goofy picture taking!

Ah, much nicer!

Then we headed off to have some dim sum. There was much conferring on what we should order.

Apparently all that conferring ended up with us ordering WAY too much food! But it was delicious.

After a stop at the Russian bakery for meringues, and a lovely walk around San Francisco, we parted ways with the rest of the family - that visit was far too short!

Auntie Cyndie's Wedding!

2011-08-16T19:46:00.000-07:00

To get to Auntie Cyndie's wedding this weekend, we landed in Oakland. We had dinner at a great place called Francesco's (which totally satiated Christina's need for some Italian-American cooking and decor, and which had the BEST spumoni we have ever had!) and then tried to drive to Santa Rosa. Unfortunately, we got a bit turned around and ended up at the naval base on Treasure Island. It had a great view of San Francisco (or would have without the fog).

We eventually got ourselves turned around, up to Santa Rosa, and the girls ecstatically jumped from hotel bed to hotel bed as we hung out with Grandma and Auntie Lissa. The next morning we met up with them and also with Christina's Uncle Everett and Aunt Linda for breakfast.

The rest of the day was wedding prep with a little bit of Farmer's Market for fresh peaches and In and Out Burger for a yummy lunch. Steve took the girls for the afternoon and Christina went to Calistoga with Melissa to decorate cakes for the wedding.

When the girls arrived at the wedding venue Clara was in great spirits, and looked just adorable.

She and Auntie Lissa took pictures of each other.

Elena was a little sleepy and took a few minutes to warm up, but she got in on the photo-taking action too, snapping this one of Clara and Christina.

The best of the three of us together that day - grumpy Elena and sunny Clara. Pretty soon things got way too fun for us to stop and take pictures, so this will have to serve for our memories!

The girls were great with Steve and Auntie Lissa during the ceremony. They didn't understand why Christina was up in the front, but aside from one "Boo!" from Clara, trying to get a reaction from Christina (and a surprised Boo, not a derogatory Boo!) they were really quiet. Christina tried hard to wait in a dignified manner, despite the funny girls.

Then, in came the couple!

Christina didn't have legal power to marry them, but she just spoke a few words and helped them move the ceremony along as they wanted to.

The moms took the wedding rings around to get "warmed" by everyone present.

And, they're married!

Married, and exuberant!

Two sweetie nieces with their Auntie Cyndie.

We had lots of pictures taken - not sure how they'll come out with wiggle-worm girls in them, but with a few breaks (like this juice break with Grandma) they did great!

There was a bridge that went between the ceremony site and the reception site, and the girls were pretending to by "grumpy old trolls" from Dora the Explorer and not letting people pass. At one point, Lee (Cyndie's new father-in-law) wouldn't let THEM pass, and we called him the grumpy troll. He wanted them to give him a nickel to pass. They demanded a nickel for HIM to pass. He went to get a nickel and came back with a dollar for each girl, so that he could pass all night. This escalated into the girls selling place settings and favors to Lee and Uncle Everett, and making $10 that night!

Cyndie and Russell had a basket of flip flops anyone could take if they were were sick of wearing their heels. Christina took them up on the offer, and got a little ridiculed by Lee, who demanded a shot of his cowboy boots with her flip flops. (We're going to point him to the post before this one where we show how country we are, after all).

Steve and Clara, checking out the place settings and lavender name tags.

Christina and Melissa, on their 40th take of this particular picture (we were being so picky!).

Clara, happy about her dinner!

Toasts and speeches, from and for the wedded couple.

Okay, then we started getting really silly - there was a photobooth full of props and the fun in there started spilling out to the reception area, and we all started taking goofy photos!

The infamous Lee, after the girls convinced him to pay them $1 to GIVE them caramels!

Beautiful table, beautiful meal.

Elena, eating her caramels made by Uncle Russell.

Cutting the cakes Melissa worked so hard on (with a little help from her mom, Aunt Linda, and Christina).

And we left beneath a full moon... it was a fantastic night, and one of the best weddings we have ever been too! Congratulations, Cyndie and Russell!

The Fair

2011-08-10T22:37:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the fair, an annual tradition. This year, though, we made a stop beforehand and bought the girls cowboy boots. They were supposed to be birthday presents, but the fair is such a good place to wear boots and we were excited. The girls each picked out their own and LOVED them.

To get to the fair we took the bus - part of the fun, according to Elena and Clara, who thing riding the bus is entertainment.

They were showing us their stuff as we waited to board - apparently, the stuff they wanted to show was not their smiles.

Cowgirls!

When we got in, the girls set off together hand in hand - they've taken to making plans together like that sometimes, where they are with us but we can't really hear them.

First thing on the list - ride some rides! The flying planes were favored again this year...

As were the cars.

We popped in to the commercial display section for a minute to find a fair map, and had a great time with this forest organization. Tough Steve!

Every year there is at least one of the animals up for judging that catches our eye. This year it was more about the sign than the animal - what tough judging, and in the kid's category too! On top of the pen was a sign written by the child who'd raised this guy, telling us about his name, personality, and the fact that unfortunately he doesn't fit with the standard of perfection for the breed.

Of course we had to visit any horses in the area - this year it was miniature horses. We found our friends Kate, Kevin, and Annie over here too, and all three girls took a wagon ride together.

We thought Annie looked so fancy today - very much like the city girl who came to visit her country cousins!

Country cousins from a bygone era, perhaps - we loved the way they looked walking off together to explore the rest of the fair.

Annie had never ridden the rides at the fair, so Clara had her hop on a motorcycle with her, and they all loved the ride!

Don't you just love their faces here?

Crazy drivers - watch out, world!

It started pouring (another fair tradition) after the rides, so we grabbed some cotton candy and headed in to see some of the exhibits.

Clara is somehow not mesmerized by all of the produce, and sticks with her, um, slightly less healthy treat.

Another favorite sight of the day - 5 week old baby pigs!

Elena cow - kind of?

We meant to leave the cowgirl outfitting with the boots - but Christina was overcome when she saw the hat tent at the fair, and after trying some on the girls she just couldn't resist - they look fantastic as cowgirls, right? I think we have the future Miss Rodeo Montana on our hands.

Tough rodeo girls need their hydration.

And their chocolate-dipped bananas that they order themselves.

We worked off some of the day's treats with lots of walking, and then this funny bike that blows bubbles.

But the big workout came when the girls participated in the kid's rodeo! They were shy at first, but the looks on their faces as they got into it are priceless.

They even got official fair ribbons for being participants in the stick horse rodeo!

Waiting for our bus to get back to our car wasn't quite as fun as the trip in was, but these toughies hung in there.

Steve thinks Clara looks like Rosie the Riveter here. Christina thinks she looks more like she's joined an urban clan. And Clara just thought she looked like a pirate.

Both girls made it to the truck awake, but passed out as soon as they got there, and remained that way even as we carried them inside and physically tried to wake them by sitting them up on the couch. There was no waking them...making for a disappointingly long bedtime, but plenty of time for them to steep in their fair memories from this year.

Urban Clam Bake

2011-08-09T21:16:00.000-07:00

Tonight we hosted our second-ever-urban clambake. Since we don't have anywhere here to bake the clams (being, sadly, beachless) we use a smoker box and the grill and invite people over to dip lots of things in butter.

We also use it as one of the last times of the summer that we pull out the swimming pool - it certainly was a good time for the kids tonight!

Here's Kate shucking the corn, and Steve S. giving her a thumbs-up on a job well-done.

The first batch of food on the grill - linguica sausage and fingerling potatoes.

Annie happily gives Clara a ride while the grilling continues.

Sylvie shows us the boat she made today in preschool - sadly it came apart when it was floating in the pool, but it was fun nonetheless!

Elena has, for some reason, taken to playing with the umbrella. Luckily there was no actual rain tonight!

Steve manned the grill the whole time - his timing was perfect, and everything came out delicious.

Four girls, all lined up inside giving Christina drink orders for their dinner!

After potatoes, sausage, and corn have all cooked on the grill, the clams go on last.

This was during their chant: "Hungry kids! Hungry kids!" Poor, deprived things.

Steve gave them a quick lesson in eating clams. Our girls tried them, and didn't appreciate them quite as well as last year, but adventurous Elena ate several.

Then the adults sat down and dug in. If you've got friends about and some time left this summer, we strongly encourage you to have your own urban clam bake! Directions we use are here.

Happy Faces

2011-08-06T20:24:00.000-07:00

At a BBQ at our house tonight, I asked the kids for their "happy faces" - this is what I got:

And this is what I got when I checked in with grill-tender Steve:

And with Caryn and Charlie, the dynamic duo:

The look I got when I snuck up on Swashbuckling Clara:

And when I checked in inside with Hart and Kerrie:

And then under the table:

And suddenly up above me:

It was a happy night. Capped off with a "Busytown Mystery" for the kids while the grown-ups enjoyed a few drinks outside. Lovely!

Soakin' up the summertime

2011-08-03T17:34:00.000-07:00

We're gearing up for our last few weeks of summer here in Missoula, and enjoying time together and with friends. Tonight, while Christina and Steve were making dinner Clara and Elena did their own face paint. Check them out!

Elena was quite good at getting even her eyelids!

She said she was a cat, and requested I take a picture of her in this position. She even drew on a collar and "nametag" for herself!

This was Clara's pose of choice. We were especially impressed at how she got two perfect circles around her eyes (not that you can see them when she squinches up like this! Oh, as an aside, Clara has a new imaginary friend named Mr. Pinchy Skinchy, and I'm afraid if I forget to write about him here we'll forget about him. He often gets into trouble with Elena's imaginary friend, Doodah.)

We had fun last weekend going to our friend Annie's fourth birthday party - it was a beautiful garden party.

Hope you're having a good tail end of summer, too!

Aye, me mateys

2011-07-31T06:18:00.000-07:00

As soon as we were done making these pirate outfits, Clara turned to Elena and said "Aye, matey sister!" They have picked up some good pirate lingo from the kid's show "Backyardigans."

This week Elena and Clara went to their first solo camp - it was a half-day camp at the gymnastics studio where they'd go on their own from 9-12 and practice gymnastics. It had the theme "Treasure Quest" so we believe there were also activities on this theme. On the last day they were invited to dress as pirates and we got to come see a show!

When we got in, Clara shushed me when I tried to talk to her - she was supposed to be in line, and had to focus, apparently.

Elena was the first kid called to start the floor shoe. She did this great kick, then got shy and decided not to do anymore (we were bummed, but were pretty sure from later evidence that she had been rocking this stuff for the last week when there wasn't an audience).

Clara went out and kept giving funny, faux shy looks at everyone. She did every other thing on the floor show - two sets of kicks and then...

Forward roll!

Then we moved the show over the the trampoline - Clara showed us her routine of seat drop, table drop, jump! (this is the table drop portion).

At the end of the trampoline she was supposed to slide down this mat, but got last minute shyness jitters.

So she got a helping hand!

And then she finished off with the mini-balance beam.

Then came Elena - here's her seat drop portion.

And the jump portion - she looks like she's flying!

And finally, Elena high-stepping it on the mini-balance beam.

Then, it was time for the bow - very mixed success on this front!

Somebody sat it out.

What a wonderful show! We were so proud of them.

Into the Woods

2011-07-30T17:06:00.000-07:00

Scenes from a happy camping trip with friends up in Rock Creek. The brief report - the girls slept ALL NIGHT just fine in the tent, ate their weight in marshmallows and Pirate's Booty, and no one got sun-burned or bug-bitten. Success!