sunriver 2008

feeding the llama
brushing away the tickles he gave her hand
petting the pretty white horses
getting up close
walking the baby llama

playing mama-baby-alligator chase
ready to go in yet? contemplating the big pool in her big girl life vest
let's just stay in the little pool daddy, i don't need my life vest here
in fact, i don't need to wear any clothes at all!!!

coming atcha
her favorite place to snooze
splishy splashy little fish
let me drive!

this jumping face just cracks me up
my little mermaids
pulling up on the chair right before her hand slipped and she took a big digger into the chair and freaked out

fountains with daddy

chewing on apple soothes those swollen but not yet pierced through by teeth gums
bed head in the morning, my girl loves her some bacon!
bedhead from the side
this is Zielinski half of her genes
drumstick in the sun

We had such a great time in sunriver again this year....Jason says we are not going to go back because when we go on vacation our youngest learns how to pull herself up to standing and how to really crawl fluently and our oldest said her first fourteen word sentence. What would next year bring? Hopefully more wonderful memories of hiking, biking, swimming and lounging around (well, as much lounging as parents of small children can....). Truly, the BEST part of our trip was a visit to a llama farm. Typically they don't to tours but when I called and asked if we could come, the owner agreed and it went beyond well! Maddy loved the llamas and she was able to pet them, feed them, walk them and learn all about them. Her favorites were the female llamas (this was sooooo cute to hear her say: "Oh dat guy is a mama llama" when the owner pointed out a pregnant one to Maddy).

Horse Swing

Maddy got to try out the horse swing my Grandpa made for Brian and I when we were little. This swing is more than 30 years old, but still works wonderfully! I had a tearful moment when I saw Maddy climb aboard, it holds many warm and loving memories for me. It got a fresh coat of paint and will soon have a mane and tail made out of leather scraps from a local shoestore. Maddy says "Mine yike dat horsey swing. Dat horsey eat da grass! Dat horsey go high! Gid-dee-yap go horsey"

Corvallis/Newport weekend

Corvallis fountains
Corvallis fountains
cracking crab we bought in Newport
a little pampering for mama
extra special pampering for Grandpa!!

We spent two weekends ago down in Corvallis/Philomath, but took one night to go to Newport to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. Maddy stayed at my parents house while we went away and had a fabulous time. Grandpa got his first ever manicure, but he declined the pedicure despite rave reviews from her other customers (me: one toe is red nailed, one toe is pink nailed and will probably stay that way until it just wears off to be totally honest).

Wake Up, Daddy!

She spotted her prey and pounced!

Cutey McCuteypants

Crawling Fast and Pulling Up

7 months this past week and look at her go! She is SUPER mobile now and can't wait to figure out how to walk and keep up with big sister....

Smackdown!

Maddy was trying to button Karis' onesie, who saw the opportunity to grab Maddy's hair and pull HARD, then Maddy twisted around trying to break free but still clinging to her work of onesie-snapping, both of them laughing and squirming and just all arms and legs and giggles.

some light work around the house

Here is Maddy cleaning my parents' new deck, she started out fully clothed, but as the day wore on, she stripped down to panties and boots! Rock on!

Sherrie's Visit

one of my favorite family members finally got to meet the girls. Sherrie is my grandma's sister's daughter, but we'll just call her a cousin to keep it simple. She is an electrician and was down from Spokane to help work on my parents' new house. She is so fun! Maddy (and Karis too) loved getting to hang out with her...

No Camera!

A few of you have emailed wondering why the break in pictures.... no, my girls have not stopped being cute - our camera got broken! We keep meaning to buy a new one, but it just hasn't quite happened yet. I have been taking a lot of video lately, but don't know how to put that on here yet. But the videos are nice since they are both mobile now and it captures their antics so much more fully! I will try to learn how to get some of those up here too..... stay tune, hope to have a new camera in the next week, we want to try to find one that our current disks and plug ins are compatible with to save money - wish us luck!