Olympic Penninsula

Our friend Rachel has Wednesday and Thursday off from work, so she kindly agreed to join me in a little jaunt to the Olympic Penninsula this week on those days. A mid-week getaway is excellent, and nice to be over there in such peace and quiet. It is an amazing place.
Preview of some of our fun - day one found us in alpine snow (the girl enjoyed wearing her gear and eating snow, and golly was the world just so incredibly beautiful). The boy hung out in his bjorn, but generally seemed to enjoy the ride. Day two found us on the wild and windy pacific beaches (where the girl mostly collected rocks and built a variety of different sand structures).

The girl wanted to take her dad to a baseball game for his birthday, so we did. Boy, was she excited - moose hat, baseball team shirt, dad... everything was perfect. (We lost the game, but had nice seats and a beautiful day to watch it happen.)

The girl also got to meet her idolized moose - the one she has admired from afar for half of her life. He was a bit bigger than she had imagined, so she was a tiny bit shy, but, also giddy with excitement.

And happy birthday to Josh, who i hope enjoyed basking in some spring sun with his kids.

The girl, she loves animals, and has been very into climbing lately.

Spring was springy today, and we found a nice new playground. The boy had his first go at a real swing, while the girl just enjoyed being an old pro.

spring friday afternoon

hatching at the zoo

progress report

Today the boy is four months old. Four months! At his appointment on Monday he was declared robust and healthy, measuring up to 16lbs11oz, and 26.25". (Surprisingly, to me, this is only 90 and 92nd %. The girl was comparatively larger, as she was always at 99% for height, and i think still up around 90 for weight at that age, but, i guess gender differences speak up - the boy is a hearty little guy.) No concerns from doctor. This week he also started rolling over (from tummy to back), and is getting awfully good at sitting and standing, with only a little balance help.

The girl has put on a pound in the past two months, which is also encouraging. Plus, the other day she climbed up the tall slide at the zoo, which is a task that has been frustrating her for months now. She has been quite into climbing recently, and is getting better at reaching and stretching, and courage. It is good to see. She continues to be interested in reading, and has started 'reading' key words in stories. I do not think she quite gets the phonics idea, though, so it will probably be a while before this translates into recognition of words in places she has not memorized.

[Recent spate of timely posts brought to you by Photobucket. Anyone know of a better way to edit blogger posts, though?]

When the girls are 18, i think we might have a whole slew of them in this basic arrangement. It is a nice idea. They've come a long way in the past 1.7 years.

I'm not sure whether it was crazy or not, but we had 5 kids at our house tonight to dye easter eggs. It was actually lots of fun. 48 eggs died, loads of pasta eaten, no permanent damage to the house. The girl started in about ten am wondering when her friends were coming over, so its always fun to be able to get a house full of 'em.

Eggs came out well, too:





Zak shows off two missing teeth.


Almost Matthew smiling.