Trip to Utah

On our recent trip to UT to visit my parents, we didn't have much planned, but we found plenty to do.  We visited the llamas next door.  

Helped with the sprinkler pipes

Picked daisies

Did some mending for my mom

Colored with Grandma

Made silly faces

Played the piano for Grandma

Mommy got a break and went out to dinner with her best friends, without kids.

Watched Grandpa fix the toys we broke.

Played in the pool, because it was hot, hot, hot while we were there.

Took turns "driving" the tractor

And waved to Grandma as we went by.

But the best part of the vacation was spending time with my parents.  It was a treasured visit.

We didn't get a lot of sleep on the trip, but Sophia often liked to pretend she was sleeping.

In 4 days of driving (2 each way), my girls slept a combined 2 1/2 hours in the car.  It was such a rarity, that I had to take a picture of it for proof.

The girls did surprisingly well, despite their lack of sleep, but they did start to get a bit loopy on the way home.  This video is of the girl's stuffed animals "talking" to each other.

Riding the Bus

We went on an adventure today.  One of Sophia's first words was "bus" and she always gets excited when she sees one . . . and calls every large vehicle a bus (Amelia did the same thing) . . . so I figured it was about time I took the girls on another bus adventure.  While we were waiting for the bus, Amelia kept telling me she wanted to go to the bus stop.  I guess standing by a bus sign wasn't what she had in mind ;)

Sophia was a little scared to ride on the bus at first.  When she finally let go of me and sat next to Amelia, this is what she looked like.  Amelia had no fear.  She would have stood up on the seat if I had let her.

Amelia told me that the bus was "wiggly" . . . I'm sure it's an adventure in itself to ride somewhere out of the carseat.  Sophia finally relaxed and then she wanted to look outside the window too.  But since I made her stay on her knees, I don't think she could see much more than the clouds and tops of trees.

From the transit center, we walked to the library, and since we got there a bit before it opened, we stopped to play with the "bears".

 And eat snacks at the picnic table.

The girls don't look very happy here - on our way home - but maybe it's because Amelia told me she wanted to ride the bus more and was sad that I told her we were riding it home.  Sophia has finally figured out how to wear her sunglasses the right way - doesn't she look so cute?

Amelia was happy when the people across from us got off the bus so that she could switch seats and hold onto the pole.  It's the simple things, right?

All in all, a successful bus trip . . . the girl's saved their melt-downs for our walk back to our house ;)  But even that resulted in 2 girls taking a nap, which meant I got a nap, so all's well that ends well ;)

Bikes & Hair

Just a few misc. videos  - the girls doing each other's hair and riding bikes in the garage.

Ready . . . Set . . .

I've spent the last few months getting things ready for our road trip to UT.  I've done as much as I have time and energy for, and I'm just hoping I have enough stuff and ideas to avoid too many melt-downs on our long drive.

First off is the "Are we there yet?" car tracker - the little car moves along the ribbon, away from home and toward the hotel.

The "I Spy" bags . . .

Coloring books with pictures and blank paper . . . along with new notepads and crayons.

Dollar Store toys - which will be handed out in brown paper bags, as needed along the way.

New movies, plus ones I've checked out at the library, plus cd's to sing along with.

I bought sheet pans at the Dollar Store (I'm not sure how good they'd be for baking on, but they'll be perfect for our road trip.) to use as trays and magnet boards.

I made matching games . . .

and paper dolls - one for Sophia . . . 

and one for Amelia.

And I bought new (gently used) books and subscribed the girls to the Friend magazine.

And last but not least, I bought sidewalk chalk and bubbles for rest stops.  I have plotted out rest stops - found city parks to play in - and planned enough time to run around, that hopefully getting back into the car won't be too painful.

And of course, I've planned all sorts of snacks - sweet, salty, chewy, crunchy, nutritious and not so much.  I'm exhausted - are we there yet?

First Hair Cut

Sophia got her first hair cut today.  I was going to take a "before" picture - but forgot.  I was also going to take my camera with me to the hair cut place - but I forgot.  I got such cute pictures of Amelia's first hair cut, and I really wanted similar ones for Sophia, but now I'll have to settle for just pictures of the "after" hair cut.  This picture makes me laugh - she was actually pointing at her eyes because the flash was going off to avoid red-eyes, but it looks like she's pointing at her new hair cut.  

Hands on Children's Museum

We went to the Hands on Children's Museum in Olympia this morning.  We got there a little bit before it opened, so we waited in the little city park just outside the museum - with a promise that we could play in the water after we were done in the museum.

We met our friends Jennifer and Rosalie there.  Rosalie is Amelia's friend and I knew I'd need some adult help if I was going to have fun at the museum.  Here is Rosalie and Amelia in the giant chair out front.

None of us had been there before, so we just started at the first exhibit and followed the fun.  We started out in the apple orchards and gardens picking produce.  Once Amelia discovered the baskets, she was in heaven - she put everything in them.

Sophia thought the weight scale at the produce section was cool.  I wish I had gotten a better picture, or better yet, a video, of her tossing the cantaloups into the scale.  She looked like she was shooting free-throws . . . and they all went in ;)

After we left that exhibit, we were on to the next one, but just then, the first bus load of field trippers showed up and with Amelia screaming that it was "too loud", we headed upstairs to the "under 4" exhibit.  There was a giant "oyster" with fun squishy balls . . .

 a few musical toys - which Amelia ran by and Sophia stopped to play with . . . 

And where was Amelia running too?  The painting wall - of course.  I never let her paint at home.  I don't even own paint; I know I couldn't stand the potential of a mess, let alone the actual mess.  Amelia and Rosalie painted a master piece and I didn't get stressed ;)

Sophia didn't want to paint.  She found this cool table filled with dried split peas, and had fun filling things and dumping them out.

Then we headed to the craft room.  I knew the girls would love to draw and create.  Amelia got her first chance to use scissors - and even though she insisted on holding them upside down, she did pretty good.

In the "Build It" room, the girls got a chance to drive a dump truck.  I wish I would have taken a picture of the cute little boy who was shoveling "rocks" so seriously and dumping them in the truck.

Apparently, by that point, I had taken too many pictures of Amelia, because she did NOT want another picture taken of her.

Tonight when I asked Sophia what her favorite part of the museum was, she signed "water".  That would have been my guess too.  She loved this water table where you could build a boat and float it down the water.  Sophia didn't need a boat, she was happy as could be just playing in the water - taking out the water blockades and moving things around.  

 Amelia thought it was fun too, but she eventually moved on to other things.

It's a good thing this exhibit was the last one we played at; I had to carry Sophia away so that we could leave.

Amelia had wanted to try the 2-story winding tunnel slide when we first got there, but it was about the same time as the field trippers showed up, and she was too overwhelmed by the noise and all the kids to try the slide.  However, right before we left, it wasn't too busy in that area and Amelia surprised me by not only going down it, but going down it on her own. 

And as promised, on our way to our car, I let the girls play in the the gentle, shallow, stream right next to the museum.  They had so much fun in that 5 minutes, I'm thinking of taking the girls back there just to play in the stream.  It's actually a small city park, right next to the museum, and it was perfect for Amelia and Sophia.

We just spent a little more than 2 hours there, but that was plenty for the girls.  We all had a great time and the only thing that would have made it better, is if I had packed a picnic lunch to eat by the stream when we were done.