Ben, Em, Diana, and Helen

Sorry there’s not more text, but here’s a bunch of pics from our Bali adventures just so you all can see more of what we were up to for two weeks.  It was an amazing vacation, with great travel companions!

The girls took swim lessons this summer – a half hour every day for two weeks.  Both girls had a bit of a hard time putting their faces under, but after a few days of tears for Diana, she suddenly flipped a switch and started loving it.  Helen never got to that point, but she never complained about going, and blew bubbles like she was supposed to.

We had an East Coast vacation and visited friends in Rhode Island, and Uncle Chris and Aunt Karen in Burlington.  A quick stop at the Ben & Jerry’s factory on the way down to Brattleboro, and then back home for the first day of school.

Both girls had fun birthdays, and loved using Diana’s new bow and arrow set.  Now we just need to reconfigure the set up so that the archery range isn’t right in front of the slide….

A day trip up to Vancouver to see Chris and Karen again yielded these cute pics of the girls and the broze statues down on the shore.  What a fun day, capped off by an Indonesian meal.  The girls were on cloud nine!

Don’t miss the video on the bottom….

Now that the fogs have rolled in and it’s looking like summer is over here, it’s reminded me that I haven’t posted any pics of all the fun sun-filled times we had this summer.  We went out berry picking usually twice a week at least, and had quite a few visitors to the house, which made for fun times. I’ll give a little background for some of the pics, but will otherwise let them speak for themselves.

First of all, Easter.  Diana pretty much remembered how it worked, and the girls didn’t even come in to our room in the morning, but headed straight downstairs and started pigging out.  When we came down 5 minutes later, they both had chocolate drool ALL down their chins.  Helen loved her bunny, a lot!  The girls also found the patience and persistence to start doing puzzles, which has been fun for us.  It’s been interesting to see how they work on them; not at all like me, starting with edge pieces, and then working in.  They like to pick a dinosaur (or pony, or whatever), and build that first, then the next one, etc, until they have all the sections, and then put them together.  It’s an exercise in patience for all of us.  🙂

The end of the school year meant a field trip to the beach.  It was fun for the kids to be able to find big shells and sand dollars wherever they looked.  Helen kept up with the big kids quite well, and they were both soaked up to their armpits by the end.  The school also had a walk-a-thon fundraiser and participated in a parade at the end of the year.

Peas in the pod also arrived at the grocery store, and the girls would just plop down with a bag and be content for half an hour.  Good times for all.  We went to the annual Highland Games which were at the park in Ferndale – a huge even that drew participants from Seattle, Vancouver, and all points east.  The drumming and bagpiping was a bit loud for the girls, but they liked watching, and loved the dancing.

The girls also did dance camp this summer – ballet/tap, and they both loved it, Diana especially.

Coming up next, some videos, and then swimming lessons, and first day of school, etc.  See you all soon!

Got out the real camera to try to take some good pictures at swim lessons and realized I’d never downloaded pictures from June-August of last year.  That’s what using an iPhone camera does – makes you forget what a real camera is!  So here are some pics from a year ago!

So we went to San Diego and LegoLand for spring break in April, and I’m finally getting around to posting the pictures.  Looking back we had a really great time.  We found a wonderful hotel right next to Balboa Park, and had a wonderful day at the zoo.  The zoo was incredible, and the girls loved seeing a pygmy hippo, and lots of other aminals.  The park also had a carousel which was a first for both girls.  Diana loved it right away, and Helen switched from loving it to being quietly scared.  But she kept wanting to go back.

We spent a hot day in Old Town San Diego and had a fun time seeing some old stage coaches, and pretending we were in “the olden days,” even paning for gold. The Em dragged the family to the Hotel Del Coronado, where they filmed “Some Like it Hot.”  The girls had so much fun at the beach that even the grown ups got to relax a bit.

Then it was off to LegoLand.  We had decided to stay in the new (as in it opened 2 days before we got there) LegoLand hotel, which was the best decision of our lives.  The hotel was amazing!  It was very kid-focused, which made it so easy for us!  The girls loved meating the life-sized characters (which was a bit of a surprise since Diana had been a bit afraid of folks in costume before this).  They got to go on rides, and DIana got a LegoLand drivers’ license for completing their driving course.  A good time was had by all!  Hope you enjoy the pics.

Ok, in an effort to get us up to date, here’s the best of the best pictures since Christmas. It’s a large chunk of time, with a lot of pictures, but I will try to do them justice.

We moved into our new house two weeks before Christmas, and the girls settled in nicely and love their new playroom.  Grammy Louise was here to help us move in, and Uncle Matt came for the Christmas weekend, when we went sledding on Mount Baker. We also went to the “Ye Olde Tyme Christmas” at Ferndale’s Pioneer Park, where the girls did the whole “sitting on Santa’s lap” thing for the first time. Diana was pretty nervous, but when Helen saw that Santa was holding a candycane, she took off running for him. When she was finished, she got a little stocking with candy and stickers in it, which convinced D that it would be ok to go talk to Santa. She had a death-grip on Ben’s finger the whole time, but she did it!

The winter was long and grey, and we spent many days inside, but there were some birthday parties and funny games that kept us happy.  We took a tour of a classmate’s family farm, and both girls loved “driving” the tractor. We are now reaping the benefits of the farm as shareholders in a CSA; who would have thought the girls would love kale chips so much!

Easter was a big hit with the girls (naturally), and Diana seemed to remember what it was all about. It didn’t take Helen long to catch on, and the girls tore around the house gleefully. The girls both got dolls for Christmas, and hae been such good little mommas to them, changing diapers and carrying them around. Sometimes they need a break from the little ones though, so they play grannys and just sit in their rocking chairs and knit or sew.

Spring meant lots of playing out side and enjoying the sun (finally), and a trip to San Diego.  But that’s a tale for the next blog post.  Enjoy these pictures!

So a quick post with pictures from the Fall.  Diana started school in the Chickadee class, and loved all the trappings of school: backpack, lunchbox, etc.  Helen got so jealous that we had to get her a lunchbox and backpack too.  At least she’ll be ready for next year.  We did a lot of berry picking in the summer, and had a great day going apple picking in the fall.  The weather was amazing, as was the view of two little girls walking down rows of pumpkins with Mount Baker in the background.  Made us feel very happy.

On a later, rainier, colder day we went on a school field trip to the pumpkin patch so that we could pick out our pumpkins.  The girls picked the smallest pumpkins possible, and at first I was a little disappointed, and then I saw every other parent lugging their kids’ pumpkin, and was glad our girls had their sights set on realistic, manageable goals.  Wonder where they got that from? Diana was pretty grumpy for some reason, until the farmer brought out his tractor with a little train of barrel cars behind it.  The girls got to drive all around the patch, and LOVED it.

For Halloween I got one last use out of the ol’ bumblebee costume, and Helen was just as cute as a button.  Diana rocked her Princess Leia costume, and the grown ups all loved it.

We’ve been on several walks in the arboretum in Bellingham and the girls love running down the paths and climbing the rocks.  Several grandparents might have a hard time watching how intrepid they both are!

Diana also started ballet class, and fell in love with it.  She’s the shortest one in her class by about a foot, but between her gymnastis class and ballet, she’s gotten much more confident with doing physical activities, and never seems intimidated by her towering classmates.  Let’s hope that lasts.

We drove down to the Oregon coast for Thanksgiving, and while the 8 hour drive down wasn’t exactly easy, the girls did great overall, and we managed to get at least a good hour of listening to a symphony while the girls conducted with their new and exciting breadstick crackers.  They are so easy to please!  The girls loved running on the beach and looking at sea foam.  We also had a great trip to an aquarium where the girls got to touch all manner of anemone and urchin.  Slimy-good fun.

Enjoy the pictures.  I’ll work on getting through the winter next, so maybe by the end of the month we’ll be up to date!  🙂

So once we were all back in Washington together, we spent a long weekend in Seattle and caught up with old friends and went to the aquarium.  Once we got back to Bellingham, the girls and I got fully into the Washington-state thing, picking raspberries, going to Frontier Days parades, and partaking of the ocasional bouncy-house.

Diana went through a few, um phases when we moved into our new house. I think she was adjusting to a new place being called home, and had trouble sleeping. She started getting up a lot at night and sleeping in the hallway outside our bedroom….or the top of the stairs if we were still awake. We even moved a sheepskin rug into the hall it was happening so frequently, but it tailed off after a while once we settled in. Kids are strange.

She was very excited to start school in August, and didn’t look back.  Enjoy the pics.

After leaving Tembagapura, Ben headed off to start his new job (and find a car to buy, a house to rent, etc), and the girls and I headed to Vermont and Michigan for a little family vacation.  While in Vermont we got to see the Strolling of the Heifers parade, despite the rain and cold, and I took the girls to a performance of Russian orchestra music at the Latchis theater (The Firebird, Romeo & Juliet, and one other piece I’ve forgotten…).  They were very well behaved at the concert, and when they just couldn’t sit still any longer, we went out to the lobby and they danced to the music which we could still hear.

In MIchigan we met up with cousins from the Zak side, as well as Uncle Matt, and Grandma and Grandpa Z. There were six little girl cousins, and D and HK were both smitten by them and loved boating and swimming and playing together for a week.  Then we headed down to celebrate Great Grandma Webb’s birthday at the cottage with Ben’s cousins.  Diana was much less shy this time around and clung to “Brandron an Kendra”.  She also managed to make cousins dig a hole in the sand big enough for a car while doing very little of the work herself. She’s a little con artist.

We spent time in Ann Arbor with Grandma Mona and Grandpa Keith and Modjo.  Both girls were very tentative about the big barks and sniffs at first, but were soon good friends with Modjo. The girls had a great time at the Children’s Museum as well, with Diana already showing some geologist tendancies 🙂

A good trip was had by all, and both girls were champs on the short trip from Detroit to Bellingham, as (almost) always.