Snake Charmer

We spent Memorial Day weekend with Rob's family in Palo Alto for his sister's wedding. Don't worry, those pictures will be another post. As part of the festivities we hiked what the locals call "the dish". You basically walk a paved trail up to a huge satelite dish and work your way back down. It was a nice walk and one that we accomplished while holding or walking with at least one kid the whole time. The 3.5 mile "hike" took a long time with short little legs but it was nice to be outside in the mild temperatures. At the end Rob's dad found a gopher snake which became the attraction for many hikers. I was more than a little surprised when my 3 year old decided she would like to make friends with it. I personally like to live in ignorance of snakes but this girl jumped right in for a closer look. She is more like her dad everyday.

All I need to Know I Learned from Noggin

That's right. I have found out what an impression this channel and is in our household. This week we can thank those crazy souls who created Yo Gabba Gabba. I have not been a fan of this show and thought it was a little strange.

The other day I rushed to save Charlotte from the iron grip of a hug from her big sister (Elaine loves a little to aggressively sometimes) before she could get hurt. Elaine did not appreciate me extricating and getting her out of the way. She then yell "Yo Gabba say no pushing" at the top of her lungs. Of course I feel bad that she thinks I pushed(I didn't) her but mostly I thought it was funny. I have now been chastised by a 3 year old who learned this from a show I thought was weird and loud. She then informed me Yo Gabba says no hitting or biting, that you should eat your vegetables, if you are nice to everyone they will be nice to you along with so many more little lessons. Elaine can even sing the little songs that go along with them.

Maybe it really is like preschool on TV.
Maybe more people should watch it.
I'm just saying...

We Love This Girl

Sometimes too cute for words this little girl is now 18 months old. She doesn't say a lot but sure does make a lot of noise and gets herself into plenty of trouble

This Dora bike helmet is one of her favorite accessories.

She made this pile herself. How else can she see herself in the mirror.

The Road Less Traveled

The Destructive Duo strikes again. Apparently we needed a road down the middle of the floor to lead these two where they needed to go. It may look like Charlotte is the guilty party but that is only because she doesn't know to drop the evidence. Elaine still has more to teach her.

There is Color in Every Bite

Thank you Easter Bunny for bringing us Washable Markers. As you can see the idea of only coloring on paper is lost in our house. The good news: Charlotte felt the need to bite off the tip of each of the markers so they are all gone. Who does that?

Bottles, Blankets and Beautiful Dresses

What more does a little girl need?

And Then There Were Two

Chairs that is. For Easter Grandma Gail sent another chair. Since the girls have gotten too big to sit together in the red chair we added the blue one. They don't fight over who gets to sit in the blue chair as much as they did when it first arrived so that is good. Since Elaine is bigger she usually gets to the blue one first but Charlotte is smart. If Elaine happens to get up for even a second Charlotte will slip in behind her onto the chair and act like she had been sitting there the whole time. For a girls who is 18 months old this week she is pretty stealth.

This is Elaine's "I asked you to take a picture of me but I am acting annoyed" face. What a girl!

We Took a Little Trip

Let's just say that when many months ago I decided to go up to UT for the SLC Marathon I did not think it all the way through. First of all, I did not have time to train for the full 26.2 miles so ended up doing the half marathon instead. Second, my talk of travel arrangements with Rob went something like this Me: "I would really like you to drive with me because I don't know how I will manage both girls on an 11 hour drive by myself". Him: "I really don't want to go." Nice, I know. In the end my sister Jessica flew from SLC on a Tuesday and we packed the girls up the next day for what might be the longest day of our lives. Charlotte has never been a fan of the car and our traveling day was no exception. She cried almost the whole way and did not sleep for more than an hour. Add the fact that it snowed on an off from Flagstaff on up through all of UT and we thought it would never end. Jessica told me she would not ever volunteer to do that again but has since recanted, slightly. Anyway, we had fun staying with several different sisters, seeing family and of course running the 13.1 miles through my once home of Salt Lake. The run was not my fastest but probably the easiest run at that distance I have ever done. One neat thing was the man that won the men's marathon passed me at my mile 11 (crazy to think that he could run 24 miles in the time I ran 11, I know.) When he passed he was escorted by 2 police cars, 2 motorcycle officers and a military truck with a his time displayed. That is probably as close as I will ever get to a marathon winner so I tried to appreciate it. Anyway, these are a few pictures from our trip.

Megan, Jessica, Bridget and Charlotte. Charlotte is 3 weeks older than Bridget so as you can imagine the floor at my sister Kimberly's house was covered in toys.

Two cute girls!

The piano was definitely one of the favorite toys. Also, the loudest.

These two wasted no time at all getting into Megan's stuff while we stayed with her. Of course Megan thought that weekend would be a good one to move into a new apartment. I tried to stop these girls from unpacking everything that was ready to move.
My co captain for the drive home joined us from NYC. My friend Susan came to cheer on my 13 mile jog and was then forced to drive the 650 miles to Phoenix. Yes, that is the kind of friend I am. We decided that the ride home might go a bit more smoothly if we drove part of the way at the girl's bedtime. It helped but just made for 2 long days of driving. I don't know about the Phoenix-SLC road trip for a while.

We had a lot of fun with Susan. I don't know if she had fun with us but she was stuck for week and didn't complain out loud. Her number one goal while here was to leave with a little bit of a tan. That is not hard to accomplish in the springtime in AZ. We didn't do much but she made a very perfect comment about this. She said "I am used to just hanging out at your house not doing much." Considering we have been friends for 30 years and spent much time together from birth to 18 this is true.
My sister Emily came to spend a little time before Susan headed home and onto her next adventure. No picture would be complete at my house without Elaine acting up.