Growing like a weed

Oh' my, this little girl just wants to get moving! It's one quick milestone after the next! She's still doing her modified crawl (we call it the 'Lieutenant Dan', anyone seen Forest Gump?) and is getting much faster. I thought crawling on all fours would be her next trick but much to my surprise, this is what I found after her morning nap! Yep, that is Sara standing up! She now pulls herself up! Yikes! Not sure if my reaction sealed the deal or if she was just very ready but now she is pulling herself up on everything! Her crib, baskets, chairs, anything that will support her and unfortunetly a few things that don't!! The best part is the banchee scream she does when she's standing. I'm sure it's to make sure everyone within a 10 mile radius will look. It works!

Just a cute pic!

The value of a dollar

Last week, after two surf lessons from his Daddy, Iain T. came home and announced he would like us to buy him a wetsuit. The water has been cold and I can completely understand why he wants it. What I didn't understand was how to teach a 6 year old that money doesn't grow on trees. He gets an allowance for chores around the house and has a bank account which he regularly makes deposits into. (If you haven't seen a child go to a bank teller and deposit $1.00, you must, it's adorable!!) But we still didn't feel he understood that sometimes you need to save for things you want. After a long talk, we told him we would pay 1/2 of the $60.00 wetsuit and he would need to earn the other 1/2. We told him he could not go into his piggy bank for the money, all $30 had to be earned by doing chores. Bless his little heart, that day Iain went and asked the neighbors if they had anything he could do to earn some money. He has since pulled weeds for us and a neighbor, and has a hamster sitting gig at another neighbors house next week! So far the wetsuit fund has $15.25 in it. We're not sure how long it will take to get the $30.00 but I think we have succeeded in teaching a very important lesson!

(He did stand up when he was surfing but I missed the picture. The best I can do is one right before he got up!)

Mommy, look what we found!

I've heard this statement many, many times. They've found bugs, trash, sticks, even animal poop! Sometimes I'm truly amazed at the treasures and other times I have to fake it. Either way, these treasures were new to us. Lobster heads!! There aren't many times in life when you can find multiple lobster heads, at least not around here! Lucky for us, we were also able to find the bodies. It was like a little anatomy lesson! They were carrying them around, lining them up and trying to figure out which head went with which body. Ewwww! The poor little creatures still had eyeballs! I had to turn them around, a little eerie having eyes on a head 'staring' at you! The boys loved it! I did however have to draw the line at bringing them home. No dead crustaceans here!! Can you say hand sanitizer??

Yosemite National Park

What a beautiful place! For those of you who have never been, I highly recommend a trip to Yosemite ! It is breathtaking!

Every summer (or almost every summer) we take a trip to June Lake. This year we decided to go a few days early and visit Yosemite on the way. I guess 'on the way' should be stated very loosely since it really isn't. It was more of a two day detour.

Our first stop in the park were the giant sequoias at Mariposa Grove. Darn those trees are huge! This is a picture of Iain, Sara and Iain T. in front of the roots of one of the fallen trees! Roots, just the roots, how's that for a big tree!?! This was also our first experience with a baby backpack, Sara loved it! Thanks Lori!

Next it was on to Half Dome and El Capitan. They are truly amazing to see. We saw Half Dome on Friday then ventured on to El Capitan on Saturday on our way out of the park. Just the experience of seeing them was humbling. They are absolutely massive! (Half Dome is on the right and El Capitan on the left)
There is so much more to see in Yosemite but we did hit the major points of interest. The boys were just as in awe as we were. It was a fantastic 'detour', one that we would love to do again!

Sean turns 4!

I know it's been awhile since I've posted, I apologize. These days have just been flying by, no time for computer fun. If it's not swimming lessons, it's work or pool time.

I have so much to share but first and foremost, we had another birthday. Seany turned 4!! We had a party for him at Pump it Up last week. He sure had a great time. For those of you who aren't familiar, it's a huge room filled with different types of 'bounce houses'. It was a blast for kids and adults!! Here's a picture of him enjoying a cupcake!

For his actual birthday we were in June Lake. We took the boys to Mammoth that morning and had quite a day! First we rode the gondola to the top of the mountain, 11,051 ft, yikes!! Then after a short hike we went back down to the main lodge and the boys rode a zip cord. It was so cute to watch! They were strapped into harnesses and had to climb up to a platform. They were then let go to 'zip'! After lunch we went back to the campground and had a nice dinner. Of course the day also involved cupcakes, a campfire and lots of presents! It was a great day to turn 4!!