Some Funny stories

Oliver climbed into the high chair the other day. I kept asking him if he wanted me to take him out and he said no, so I kept washing the dishes. Eventually it was quiet over where he was so I looked at him and there he was asleep.

Iliana thought it was hillarious for me to put glasses on her.

Oliver is learning his ABC's. This is the best video we've gotten of him. Unfortunately it shows him pushing his sister over so she will stop playing with the toy.

Nolan and I have decided that our children are survivors. Today gave me more proof of that. While I was in my room getting dressed, my children were up to their usual mischief. When I came out, the fridge door was open and Iliana was sitting on the floor with a tupperware container of leftovers, the lid off and she was happily eating. Unfortunately I did not get a picture.

The other day, Nolan was singing to Oliver as he was changing his diaper. Oliver told him, "daddy, no singing." We had a really good laugh about that one.

San Francisco Zoo and Beach trip

We went to the San Francisco zoo for Oliver's 2nd birthday. I know this was back in May, but I promised myself I would get around to writing about it. Oliver loves animals so we decided that his gift would be to go to the San Francisco zoo since they have a lot more animals than our zoo here. And you can't go to San Francisco without going to the beach! We invited my family to come with us and so we had a very large group with us. The first animals we saw were giraffes and the kids loved it! One of the best parts of the day was when Oliver walked by the gift shop, saw the stuffed animals, grabbed one, then walked out and said "thank you!" Dad got to see 2 American Bald Eagles and that just about made his day. They also had a train for the kids to ride and they loved it! Oliver just about jumped out of Mom's arms in order to get on. As we went through the tunnel bubbles came out. One of the really cool animals was the rhino. We got to see him play with a ball, and it showed what a really powerful animal a rhino is.

After the zoo we went to the beach. It was so cold! Whoever decided that California had warm sunny beaches was clearly wrong. But as least we got our feet wet, which for me is a requirement if you ever visit a beach. Oliver did like the ocean, but Iliana stayed in the car with Nolan.

Iliana: 1 year old

Iliana is now 1 year old. Here's her stats from her doctor appointment:

Weight: 22lb 11.3 oz. (73.89%)

Height: 2' 6.5" (87.43%)

Head circumference: 18.27" (83.44%)

She can say:

bottle

dog

mom

duck

bye

She's walking more than crawling now, but still falls a lot. She loves bath time, and won't sit still for anything except to eat. She loves to be held, but only if the person holding her is standing up. She is great at throwing tantrums, and climbing on everything.

Date with Oliver

Yesterday I went on a Mother/Son date with Oliver. He is a member of the Caboose club with the California Railroad museum and so once a year he gets an invitation to their ice cream social which was yesterday. Luckily Nolan's schedule just changed to where he gets Saturdays off so he could stay home with Iliana. So we left and drove to Old sac. We managed to find a car that pulling out of a metered parking spot (which wind up being cheaper than a garage) that was really close to where the train ride was, which also happened to be right in front of a peruvian shop. As I looked over at the shop I saw a sign that said that they sold Inca Kola there, which is something that Nolan loved from his mission. I got really excited, and decided to get him some while we were there. So we wondered over to the tent, got our train tickets and stickers. While we wandered we saw people dressed up in olde timie costumes and they were totally in character. Some were marchers of the women's suffrage movement, some were anti-slavery speach makers, there was actually a guy wearing a barrel with suspenders. We got our ice creams, and walked around some more while we waited for our train. We stopped to listen to some singers which Oliver really liked, bought the Inca Kolas, and then when Oliver saw the car, he got really sad because he thought we were going to go home. I told him we weren't going home yet, and we made our way to the line for the train. Since we had a lot of time and no one else was in line yet, we walked over to the Delta King and looked at the river, and then went back over to the train. While we waited I called Nolan to tell him that I bought him a surprise because I couldn't stand to wait, but I didn't tell him what it was. I was so excited. The train came and as always Oliver was so excited to go on the choochoo. We got to go on the outside car, so Oliver got to stand up and walk around. By the time we got to the end of the line, he was done. They switched the engine to the other end, and he was so tired, so he just curled up on my lap.

Last time with Emily

One of my best friends, Emily is moving next week, all the way across the country. She has lived in the Sacramento area her whole life and has never been to the capitol, so as our last outing with our kids we went downtown.


Apparently it's Carl's Jr. 70th anniversary and so they were giving away free burgers. There was a super long line, and not worth waiting for with 3 young kids.

We love our kids.

The debut of my new glasses! They don't look half bad in this picture.

Oliver loved the bears.

Kaidan did not want to be in his stroller any more.

awww.

Lunchtime! With coupons of course.

Oliver tried to use chopsticks.

I'm going to miss you Emily.

Lake trip

For the past few summers we've gone to the lake to go swimming. This year we decided to go to Rancho Seco since it's warmer. The pictures aren't really in order.



Here's Oliver ready to go on a canoe for the first time.


Matthew's having so much fun.

Sam is having so much fun!

We loaded everything up in the canoes and canoed AALLLLL the way over to where those people are. Whew, it was quite the trip.

hmmmm, snack time!

So much fun!

Texas Trip part 2

The plan for that Wednesday was to go to the Houston Zoo. As we were on the freeway it became obvious that as the line for the zoo exit was already long, that maybe the zoo was not going to be the best idea. Then as we got off the freeway, and couldn't even get close to the zoo, we decided that maybe we should go somewhere else. So we wound up at the children's museum. Melissa, Oliver, Iliana, Rogan, and I wound up in the toddler area upstairs, while Rachel, Sarah, Roxy, and Roscoe wandered the rest. It was also crowded but but still fun. The toddler area had slides and mirrors, and cars, and blocks, and even a little area for the infants with bumpos. Then we went outside where they had a water area and the kids played in the water and got wet. On the way home, we stopped and got shaved ice again. The afternoon we relaxed and watched TV and Rachel made us barbecued pulled pork for dinner. Then we watched scary movies, since Rich doesn't like to watch them so Rachel likes to watch them when we're around.





Thursday was St. Patricks day. Rach and Rich do this holiday really big in their house, so I made sure my kids had their green on. Rachel bought really cute hats for Iliana and Rogie. That day we went to this awesome wild animal park where you ride on this tram and the animals come up to the tram and you can feed them. This was my favorite part of the trip. As soon as we pulled in, we had an animal come into the car! And it was my first time ever seeing a rhino (which was far away, but pretty awesome). I was a little nervous for Oliver since he was pretty scared of animals for a while before this, and I didn't know how he would react when they came up close. But for a while before the trip I was prepping him with animal books. He did pretty good and only got a little nervous. He threw the food to the animals though, instead of letting them eat from the bucket. The part he loved the most, however, was the free pony ride. As soon as he saw the ponies, he wanted to go on them. He calls horses "sit theres" or "yee haws" and they always say "yee haw" and that ride was the best thing ever! He was so sad when he had to get off. Then we went to the little petting zoo area that was right next to the giraffes. At one point Oliver tried to squish through the fence to get to the giraffes. Then we went to Chikfila for lunch, and the kids played in the playground more than they ate lunch. That afternoon we relaxed, played in the yard, and rested. One the afternoons, we skyped Anne, but I'm not sure which one. That afternoon, Mom came to Texas! She was staying for a month to care for the kids while Rachel worked, so her stay overlapped with ours. That night we went to the movies (we saw Red Riding Hood) at this theater where they serve you dinner while you watch the movie. Which is pretty awesome, and I wish they had one here. It was nice to spend with the girls without the kids. By the time we got home Rich had the kids all in bed!

Friday was our last day. I packed in the morning, and then we went to breakfast where they have giant food. Then we all got ready to go, said our goodbyes, and left for the airport. We said good bye to Rachel at the airport. We went through security, waited, boarded, flew (me in front, with Iliana, Melissa and Sarah behind with Oliver). Oliver had a lot of energy this flight, so he did a lot of jumping and kicking and not even Spongebob would keep him still. Then we got into the San Diego airport which has to be the lamest airport ever, where you have to go through security again after you land before you get to the next plane. So we got through security where there was a super long line, and we were a little worried that we wouldn't make it, but we didn't need to worry, since our plane was delayed and delayed, which then turned out very badly since it was delayed for a couple of hours. I spent the time chasing Oliver around the airport while he ran and ran,and tried to lift poles and said "heavy" and basically had a blast. I figured this would tire him out for the flight. Finally we got to board, and we were on our way home. I sat in front again, Oliver fell quickly asleep, Iliana fell asleep, and we had a quiet flight in the dark. As we flew into Sacramento we saw that it was raining, and raining hard. We landed, and went to get our luggage. Nolan surprised us there. I had to do a double take because he had shaved his beard and mustache. We went outside and it was cold and pouring! We were not dressed for this type of weather. It was so nice to be home and with my husband.