Our First Camping Trip!

This weekend we actually went camping for the first time as a family of four! The location we chose was the Vedauwoo Recreation Area, just west of Laramie, WY. We wanted a place that wouldn't get too cold at night plus had lots of area to explore with the girls. We met our friends Jen and Colby and their 3 1/2 year old twins Jordan and Connor. It couldn't have been a better weekend. It was in the 60's both days and didn't get terribly cold. We got up there about 3pm Friday afternoon and set up camp. The area is well-known for rock climbing, so there were tons of big boulders everywhere. That gave the kids lots of things to do. We had dinner and ate s'mores, then tried to go to sleep. Unfortunately, the sun doesn't fully set up here until after 9:30pm, so our girls didn't fall asleep until that time. Then they were up a lot, keeping us awake, in addition to the random gunshots we'd hear throughout the night. Hey, it's Wyoming. What do you expect. Then the sun rises about 5:00am out here, so that's about the time Elise was up. That made for a pretty long day with two tired 2 year olds! We did get to do a short hike in the morning before lunch before we headed back home. All in all, it was a very successful trip and I can't wait to go again.



Linnaea climbs a boulder near our picnic table.





You can see the camp sites were quite large with a lot of room to roam.





Elise tries the boulder and follows Daddy's directions of "using all fours."





More bouldering.





Elise on our first hike on Friday afternoon.





Linnaea and Mommy on the hike.





Elise and Mommy.





Linnaea throwing one of her MANY tantrums.





Elise helps Daddy start the camp fire.





Jordan and Elise chillin'.





If I can't stop laughing at this picture, doesn't it mean I'm a bad mother? Elise got nailed in the head by a log Daddy was carrying. It wasn't pretty. But don't worry--it was nothing a mini Hershey's bar couldn't cure!





Linnaea enjoys her first s'more. That was after her two roasted marshmallows, her two regular marshmallows, and a graham cracker.

Counting

This is how Linnaea counts:

"One, two, fwee, foa, fie, sick, nie, sick, nie...."

and she keeps going. I think "seven" throws her off because it has two syllables. If I ask her how many of something there are, it's always "Sick? Nie?"

I help them practice counting by looking at books and counting the items, then letting them say the last number. With Elise, it usually goes something like this:

Me: "One, two, three..."
Elise: "Six!"

or

Me: "One, two, three, four..."
Elise: "Six!"

Do you see a pattern here?

Also, we went to the doctor for their two year check up on Monday. Elise is 32 pounds and 36". That puts her in the 96th percentile for weight and the 95th for height. Linnaea is 26 1/2 pounds and 36 3/4". That puts her in the 50th percentile for weight and also 95th height. The doctor says they are doing very well, so hopefully we won't see him again for another year!

Our Second Birthday

We had lots of fun this week and are super excited about how nice the weather has been. Every morning we wake up to sunny skies, no wind, and warm temperatures. We usually get to do an outdoor activity, like the park, then the afternoon thunderstorms roll in during our nap. It usually doesn't actually rain much, it just gets windy and cool and the sky gets really dark.

On Thursday, we were invited to come visit a petting zoo that the high school FFA (Future Farmers of America) was putting on for the elementary school. They had two llamas, a colt, a mama cow with her baby, a few sheep with a baby, a few goats with a baby, and two rabbits. They did this in the parking lot next to the school buses, which was very exciting for Elise since she has a school bus obsession. Come to think of it she is obsessed with most modes of transportation: bicycles, big trucks, dump trucks, tractors, planes, motorcycles, boats, etc. Anyways, after visiting the animals we went to the park next door. A few minutes later we saw a sheep go sprinting through the school parking lot, followed by a few high school boys with ropes, followed by a few guys in pickup trucks. I think they chased that sheep all over Walden but I don't think they ever caught it because they all came back empty handed.

On Friday, we usually go to story hour at the library (or li-be-a as Elise calls it). We made cupcakes and brought them to share with all the kids there and they sang us happy birthday. Then we got to play in our sandbox, and after our nap we opened some presents.



As you may have guessed, Linnaea's favorite animals were the bunnies.







I still don't know why Elise was holding her hands over her mouth. All of a sudden she just clapped her hands over her mouth and wouldn't move them. The sheep were bleating really loudly, and I think maybe she wanted them to stop. I really don't know!





Her close up with the school bus...still with her hands over mouth.





...hands still on the mouth...





She never actually touched the cow.





This baby cow was so tired by the time we got there that afternoon. This was the only time we saw him move.





In our super cool galoshes from Grandma Sue and Grandpa Las.





Backpacks for day care next week...from Kitty and Papa.





And don't forget Cookie Monster, Elise's new best friend.





Chowing down on our first cupcake ever.





It appears that Cookie Monster is thinking about switching to cupcakes...





After cupcakes we drew went outside to do some sidewalk chalk.





After the library we played in the sandbox while Mommy made lunch (thank you so much for the sandbox Aunt Carolyn) with the sand toys from Grandma Sue and Grandpa Las.





Kevin left Elise alone for 5 minutes with Grandma Sue and Grandpa Las's birthday card. It had stickers from Madagascar in it. Like I said, it HAD stickers from Madagascar in it...

Almost Two!

Last weekend we took a mini-vacation down to Fort Collins, Loveland, and Denver. We got to play at lots of really good parks, eat yummy food, and visit our friends Mandy, Bob, and Declan and Keri, Satchmo, and Emma. Then Sunday we headed down to Denver and had our first trip to the zoo! We were pretty entertained for about an hour or so, but then we became more interested in the landscaping and rocks. Mommy and Daddy were so busy following us that we hardly got any pictures. I guess we'll just have to plan another visit...

If you are keeping track, we turn two on Friday, May 29! We are very excited to be reaching this milestone. A lot of opportunities open up when you reach such an age. For example: tricycles. Great-grandma Kovacs generously purchased two tricycles and two helmets for us for our big day. Yesterday we drove to Laramie to pick them up at Wal-mart. While there, we decided to visit the Wyoming Children's Museum, which turned out to be super cool because you can touch EVERYTHING there. They had big, real stuffed animals, a live white feret, and all sorts of hands-on exhibits. We also stopped to have lunch at a deli and Mommy and Daddy are realizing how much easier it is getting to go out to eat with us. How exciting!



We just bought a new tent for our upcoming summer camping trips and we had to test it out. Mommy and Daddy's 2-person tent just wasn't going to cut it. Now we have a nice 5-person tent and there is plenty of space for Taffy!





Check out the static!





Linnaea crammed herself into the cargo section of our stroller. I was quite amazed that she fit into such a tiny space.





This is in Old Town Square in Fort Collins. We were waiting for our sushi take-out and got to walk around and play on the animals.





Elise made friends with a big bear.





Their favorite exhibit was the penguin habitat. They had been looking forward to seeing the penguins, and they ended up being able to get really close to them.





"Dekker", Bob, and Mandy.





Trying out our new sleeping bags.





Elise is REALLY good at jumping.





At the Wyoming Children's Museum.





Elise really liked the bear.





We love sitting on our trikes but need lots of pedal practice.





This morning I gave Linnaea her first haircut. Doesn't her bob look adorable?

Applesauce?

Elise is talking SO much lately. I like to say that she talks so much that sooner or later the right thing comes out. And she really has been combining words left and right. She even combined 4 words this weekend! Her favorite subject to talk about is Daddy. Daddy work. Daddy home. Daddy drink. Daddy eat. Daddy done. Daddy blue car. Bye blue car! Bye Daddy blue car! The last was her recent 4 word combo. She also LOVES to do things by herself (put on shoes, clothes, buckle her car seat, etc) and then say "all by self!" which sounds a lot like "applesauce." At first I thought she had an unusual applesauce obsession. Linnaea likes to read books and pretend she's saying all the words right. She can combine 2 or 3 words, but she doesn't do it frequently. We don't know if it is laziness or if she knows she can do it so she's bored with it already.

For Mother's Day we decided to try a one mile hike. The first hike we tried, Ranger Lakes, was closed for tree removal. The second hike we tried, Beaver Lodge, had a flooded bridge so we could not access the trail. So we just played around a service road and looked for birds and squirrels and juniper berries. Then it started to snow, so we packed it in.

The weather has been really nice lately. Well, nice for North Park, Colorado. That means the temperatures are in the 50's and 60's, but it is windy EVERY SINGLE DAY. So sometimes this makes it feel pretty cold, but if the sun's out it's not so bad. Thursday we're driving down to Fort Collins to visit some friends, do some shopping, enjoy warm temperatures hopefully, and eat some good food (mmm....sushi!). Then Sunday morning we are going to head down to Denver and have our very first visit to the zoo. I am extremely excited and it is all I can think about. I've talked about it with the girls and they love to hear about the animals we will see, but I'm not sure they really understand yet. So be sure to check back next week for some great zoo pics.

Moose and Play Dough

We've been leaving Taffy's food on the floor more to try to teach the girls not to touch it. It hasn't been working very well.





I decided the girls were old enough to play with play dough, so we made a batch this week. Elise is a little scared of the mixer, so at first Linnaea was the only one brave enough to get close. We found a really good use for the old T-shirts Grandma Sue gave to Kevin and were too small for him: smocks! Of course, we can't do anything without our snow boots on.





Elise gets some courage and comes over to help.





Our first play dough. I accidentally dumped too much food coloring in it so it was red, not pink as originally intended.





The project would have been hugely successful had I not left the food coloring on the counter.





On Wednesday, Elise and Linnaea refused to take a nap. Around 4:oo, they crashed HARD into their easy chairs.





Today we took a field trip to the Moose Visitor Center at the Colorado State Forest State Park (yes, that is the name of the park and not a typo). It's about 20 minutes from us, straight into the mountains. They had lots of hands-on displays and a big moose made of barbed wire out front.





Daddy puts on the moose ears.





Elise gives them a try.





Learning about the environment.





Elise is a really good flipper.





Linnaea gets to touch fake moose poop.





There were a TON of birds and chipmunks at the bird feeders in back of the center. Elise gets a peek with the binoculars.





It was in the 30's and snowing a little bit.





Elise said,"Big moose!"