Mazama

Alex and Isabella decided that they wanted to get away for the weekend and invited their friends Braedyn, Mike and Talisha to a cabin in Mazama. The journey took us over the North Cascades Highway. At the top, the kids had to decipher the relief map and tell us where to go. This type of high technology is best left to the young.

The daddies snuck off for some backcountry skiing on Saturday and still managed to a tour of nearby Winthrop later that afternoon. The girls don't like horses up close, but since they love the idea of horses the old west theme in Winthrop was perfect. Sitting in a sidewalk saddle bouncing around is as good as it gets. Well perhaps their first ice cream cone is a little better. They still talk about that. "Cold daddy, cold" (as they ask for more).
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Shovel and Pail

The girls love their shovels and pails. In little-girl-speak "shobel" rings out energetically whenever the urge to dig strikes or somebody mentions the word "park". The local park hosts a playground covered in the girl's favorite medium--pea gravel. Gravel loads onto shovels, into pails, into pockets, into diapers, and into shoes. Eventually, we should have an entire park's worth of gravel transported back to their bedroom.

We visited the sound recently and dutifully brought "shobels" and pails for everybody. Elated at the endless sand they went right to work. Girls get hungry playing in the sand. So hungry that they didn't seem to mind too much if their cheese happened to fall into it every now and then. Remarkable, for girls who cry out "dirty" whenever they discover a speck of dirt on their hands.

Now that it's warmer than when we took these photos, the girls are happily enjoying our local beach and discovering the joys of wet sand. So many different textures to explore, and only one shovel.
 
 
 
 

Kris and Chad Visit

My twin sister Kris, her husband Chad and their darling daughter Sam were up visiting over the weekend. We tried the hard sell for them to move back to the area.

The girl's vocabulary is growing by several words a day now. Often verbally completing thoughts well enough, they can tell us all about what animals they saw at the zoo that day or inform us that they stubbed their toe after a running screaming arrival into our arms. We warned Kris and Chad to be careful with their words as anything they say can and will be used against them in a cute little girl voice. The words most ingrained from our Utah visit originated from Grady wagging his finger and commanding his dog, "No, no, no, Jelly". It was bound to happen, but now I get regular finger wagging with one of the girls telling me "No, no, no" whenever I apparently transgress an unknown boundary.

I'm unsure which of Kris and Chad's words are permanent fixtures in the synapses of the girl's brains, but observing that they already know and use words for the body's parts and functions it's all up hill from here.
 
 

Smiles

My sister said that this blog lacks pictures comprising smiles. I'm here to fix that. Let the smile epidemic spread.