Vacation to Lake Tahoe.

We were on the road by 6:30 in the morning.. We got there after getting lost a few times 14 hours later.. (lets just set the story striaght.. it was grandpa's fault.. we were almost in Reno to take HWY 80 when he tells us we past it.. I said No we did not.. that was not a HWY back there!! yes it was!! Fine.. so we turn around about 5 miles down to go back through contructions on the road to take HWY 80.. when we get there is reads EXIT ,,, EXIT 80.. which then detoured us for 5 more miles the opposite way!! Needless to say.. Granpa is not allowed to travel with us again!!)

The next morning bright and early we took a nice nature walk around the place we were staying at.

Stick girls. They did not get to drag the sticks home to oregon but they did get to bring home some HUGE pine cones.. I see some kind of craft for turkey day coming up!! :)

Before the Hike!!

This would be the little tea castle I talk about down below

The house people were touring. We did not tour it..

Picture time with Grandpa.. Kia finally woke up as we were heading up the mountain.. Todd had made it half way with her when we ran in to each other.

Lake Tahoe

Were there is water.. there is Eva.. after a very steep hike down the mountain. I let Eva try out the water. (behind us is a some house that people were touring through and on the island in front of us (you can see it in the below pics) the lady who owned the home made a little rock castle and they would go out there for tea.)

She is getting a little deeper.. Testing the waters.. by the way the water was freezing cold.

Ok.. so she was jumping and running at the same time.. you can see where this is going.. LOL

And in she went.. No towel.. No nothing to dry her off with.. The mile hike up the mountain dried her off.. :)

Lake Tahoe

The girls are mountain climbers!!

The last night we went to Reno.. Circus Circus.. The girls had a blast.. and so did Todd and I.. Circus Circus has their second floor just for kids.. That is why we went.. We needed to find somthing the girls would really be able to enjoy.. run around and scream and have fun.. And it was.. They had carnival games all over.. Eva won 3 stuffed animals in the first 5 minutes we were there. then in the middle of the floor they have a mini circus circle (that is all I can think of to call it.) the lights go low and then an announcer comes on and announced the next act.. we saw a trapeez lady do a show.. Then the best was the "Chinese Bike Acrobats" that is how they were introduced and I was thinking .. what on earth are theses six girls going to do on bikes.... and WOW they blew all our socks off.. It was awesome to watch.. They were doing all kinds of tricks.. the best one was one girl jumping from one shoulder to the next while in motion.. on two different bikes.. and doing a complete flip in the middle.. she missed the first time.. but thank god landed on her feet.. She made it the second and third time.. We only got to spend a few hours in Reno.. We should have spent the entire day! We drove down the stripe as we were leaving and saw all this cool stuff we would have liked to do.. They even had an outside iceskating rink. Maybe next time.

Todd is "KING of the Truck!"

Packing up to go home!! We had a 15 hour dive ahead of us.. And we made it all the way home to Lafayette that night!!

On our way out we stopped on the road and had to take a picture of the "forever" burning tourch.

Learning to write..

We have started to work with Eva on writing. She is doing great.. And yes.. That is her name on the first picture.. We just started the E this week..

She loves to write her A's a lot!!

It is amazing to me how fast she picks up on things when she puts her mind to them.

So we are off on vacation tomorrow.. We are pretty much packed and ready to go.. Eva has preschool tomorrow and then we are off. Wish us luck on our 14 hour drive!! :) In one day!! See you all when we get back.

Still some Summer left!

This will be the last week the girls get to use the pool. It is just getting to cold at night to keep it warm. The girls had a lot of fun this weekend swimming. They got to swim both Saturday and Sunday. They will get to swim again one very last time this afternoon when Kia wakes up from her nap. Kiara is swimming around all by herself with confidence now. Which is soo very nice.

Today will be the very last day for them to swim... Tonight... we start the draining process! I am sure they will be sad.. But I on the other hand will NOT be!! It takes a lot to keep a pool clean!! Next year we get a clorinator!!!

Eva's first day of Preschool

Eva has been very excited to go to Preschool for the past week. Yesterday was her first day. Todd stayed home so he could be with us when we took her to school and to take her out to lunch afterwards. I made Special pancakes with chocolate chips and M n M's in them for her first day. When we got to the preschool we met up with her friend Ian, who is also in the same class. She made the transition very well. She walked right in put her stuff away and then they all got to go to the gym area to start their day. We stayed for a few minutes then said our goodbyes.

After preschool we decided to take the girls out to lunch to Alf's place. Tina, Ian and Ainsley joined us. Something special for a special day! Alf's is known for Elvis the monkey.. Yes I said monkey.. He was very shy today though. He hide under his blanket most of the time. We ended up sitting outside and eating. It was such a beautiful day. When we got home both girls were worn out.. They went right to sleep.
What a great first day of Preschool. I can't believe my baby girl is going to school. Time goes by way to fast.

Eva's First Day of Preschool.

Go down to the bottom of the page and pause my blog music.. You need to hear the song playing with the Video I made!!

MOPS

The MOPS season is about to start. (Mothers of Preschoolers) and I have decided to be a table leader this year. I am very excited about getting to know other moms on a deeper level. One of our tasks as table leader was to come up with a table center piece and name for our table. Our theme this year is "Adventures in Mothering". It is a carnival/theme park theme. I did not go with the traditional colors, I needed it to be ALL me.. so what else.. but pink and brown. With the help of Tina (thanks Tina!) and her silouette machine (which I drool over all the time, it can cut anything you want.!) we cut out the tent, elephant and banner letters. I finally painted my box and put it all together yesterday while the girls were sleeping. Of course I had to add polka dots to make it complete. It came out pretty darn cute!! I am going to sew some kind of table runner to match. Oh, yes the my table name.. Todd said it fit me perfectly..hmmmm... Should I take that as a complement or a burn?? LOL .... I agree with him.. I think it does fit me perfectly!
I can't wait for MOPS to start!!

Oregon State Fair 2008

We went to the Oregon state fair on Sat. It was a blast.. Both girls had so much fun and we did too. Grandma came over to go with us. Kia had the best time with all the animals.. We saw the cows first and boy that is all she could say.. Cow..Cow... Then the goats were dogs for a bit. She was able to pet a mini pigmi goat.. it was very small. The owner took it out of the cage and let the girls pet it. Kia was not sure of the pigs. She touched them but then saw the face of one up close and she was out of there.

Eva was busy feeding all the goats she could.
We stopped at one exhibit and the girls were able to decorate their very own cookie..

We stopped and ate some lunch. Then it was off to the rides.. Poor Kia, she could only go on one of the rides. :( but Eva had a great time riding a few rides.
She went on this one all by herself..

Then Grandma and Eva went riding across the fairgrounds on the lift they have there. Kia, Todd and I met them on the other side.

Had to put this picture in..Her Unlce Larry will be so proud of her.. (he used to own a python. A very big python named Babe!) Dont worry I grabbed her hand right before she was able to touch the snakes head.. but she was able to touch the body of the snake several times.. This is actually an albino Python.

We ended the fair by seeing the miniature horses. All in all, we spent 6 hours at the fair and it was a great day.. NO!! melt downs. I was so very proud of the girls. Kia did not get a nap. I thought for sure she would just pass out in the truck. Nope.. not a chance, Grandma was back there and she was not going to miss a thing. We went through McD's and got dinner for Grandma and the girls, went home and Grandma said, "Go out". :) So Todd and I went out on a date!! The girls fell asleep at 7:30. I was very shocked they made it that long. Todd and I went out to dinner at Hotel Oregon and went to the movies. It was a WONDERFUL day!