Tuesday, October 25, 2011

She's On the move!

So, in keeping with the "Let Them Be Little" idea...It's amazing to me how fast Kayleigh's growing up. I regret SOO SOO SOO much not having the tools I have now with her when Liam was little. Now he rarely wants  to be in a photo, and tells me daily that he "quits" when I pull out my camera. Or else he's photo bombing by jumping in with a goofy face in front of his sister...


But the last couple days have been big big days...the Bug has really started to get crawling down and is now scooting around the living room at will instead of scooting herself backwards under the couch and getting stuck.  So today, I decided to capture her just being the bug...


Finally, She decided to look at me and smile....

Of course, she found the  fact that I was lying on the floor extremely funny...

She wanted my camera strap...so decided to investigate...

Here she comes......

Oh, wait, whats THAT?

I'll go get that instead.....

Just had to crop in close...

All that crawling makes for a tired Bug Bug...

After a long day of go go go, this is what we get....is there ANYTHING more peaceful than a sleeping baby?

Monday, October 24, 2011

I Heart Faces Weekly Challege: Let Them Be Little



This is Kayleigh. Otherwise known as "Kayleigh Bug", "The Bug",  "Missy Bug", "Bug Bug" and other variations on "Bug". She is now 7 months old. Yesterday, she said Ma Ma clear as day for the first time. The day before she crawled across the living room. I love to watch this stage of infancy, everything is new, they are discovering their bodies and how to move them. They are learning language and relationships. It's the age of firsts.

What I DON'T like, is watching it go by so fast with my own kids. My son, is a 16 year old in a 6 year olds body (back seat driving and all), and it seems like yesterday I brought him home from the hospital. This little thing, she's my baby, I'm going to miss holding my sleeping baby. Her sweet snuffle of baby snoring in my ear as I try not to wake her as I lay her down.  I'll miss the complete joy she gets on her face when I simply say "Bug bUUUUUUg" in a silly way to her as I come into the room to get her up from a nap. I'm going to miss her wee cute noises in the background of my day. Pretty soon the word NO will come into her world. I'll be chasing a toddler instead of cuddling my baby.

There are TONS of other  cute little ones over at I Heart Faces...Check them out!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

OKTOBERFEST!


I grew up going to Leavenworth every year around this time. We had a family reunion every year. All the extended family would meet to celebrate birthdays all at once. (There were like 6 or 7 right around late Sept. early October) 

Leavenworth is this little town, nestled in the Cascade Mountain range that has a Bavarian theme. ALL the stores..even the Starbucks, the McDonalds and the Subway are in "Bavarian" style buildings. It's quite quaint. Now, if you have young children, it's a good destination for winter time, the main street of town has a large hill that beckons even the most fuddy duddy old guy to sled down it. It's beautiful all lit up in the snow for Christmas. And in the fall, for Oktoberfest, it's a brilliant display of fall colors everywhere. It's also very busy. And if you have issues with people drinking around you I'd advise not going there during the HEIGHT of the Oktoberfest festival. 

Allan has swapped over to a Canon 30D camera. (I'm just a SMIDGE green)  He's also gotten a nifty fifty to play with. This was our first real outing with the new camera. 

We ate at Uncle Uli's (great little place BTW) where Allan had the Bratwurst Burger...it basically replaces ground beef for ground bratwurst...and he said it was the best burger he's EVER had. It was also very kid friendly, long benches outside seating, but under a balcony so you stay dry on a rainy day. 

Allan and Liam passed the wait time (it was Saturday of a festival day and VERY busy) by playing thumb war and rock-paper-scissors, which Allan kept cheating with by adding in, Fire and Rain...a la Joey from "Friends." 


I did say it's beautiful. The lower right picture on this collage is from a spot where about 15 years ago was destroyed by a forest fire. The fire was on either side of the 2 lane highway into Leavenworth, and  before it was over the fire threatened the town itself. The beauty of the vibrant colors through the scorched land is breathtaking, believe me when I say the photo doesn't do it justice. It's amazing how much it's come in just the last few years much less the last 15! 

For a week, we had a dog, and he joined us on this outing. He was a sweet little thing. A mix of Cairn Terrier and Dachshund. But, alas, both Allan and I were terribly allergic.  Here you see again the recovery of the forest fire, and the Willkommen banners in the wee town. 


And NO post would be complete without kiddo collages...I gotta say, I may be biased but she's just too cute. Also, Allan upstaged me this time around with pictures of The Bug. All but two of these are Allan's, my favorite included, which is the top left. 



And of course, there's Liam. Who really doesn't like having his photo taken anymore :( But we still manage to get a few here and there.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Hurricane Ridge



So finally...new post!  YAy...

A couple weeks ago we headed over to the peninsula yet again....We tend to find a lot of fun stuff to do over there. This time we decided to do a impromptu camping trip...if you can call renting a KOA cabin for a night camping.

Our PLAN, was to get going DIRECTLY after Liam got out of school at 2:30. After all, a 3o minute ferry ride and an hour or so in the car and we should be able to be at the campground and hang out for a while, build a fire, make some smores etc. HOWEVER, one thing on top of another, and we ended up not getting to the cabin until 9:30.  The next morning, we went to a little diner in Sequim...and then coffee of course (we are Seattleites, born and converted after all). And off we headed to Port Angeles, and then up and into the mountains.

I haven't been to Hurricane Ridge for around 15 years, and things haven't changed much. Due to extreme heat, and my issues with my ankle we thought to do the 6 mile walk to the tiiiiiiiippy tippy top of the mountain. But ultimately we decided to do the smaller set of trails...to keep it fun and easy and be able to take  our time rather than have to RUSH through 6 miles.

Turns out our choice was a good one. Like a previous walk (that I will eventually add as well) that took us into the upper altitudes, after a little bit, Kayleigh just lost it. Between teething and that we're at the HOLD me ALL DAY stage,  she won't sleep in her buggy. But we managed to get a number of great photos to commemorate our crazy weekend.






Notice the picture here with the white in the background. Due to the area having an extra 10ft of snow this last year, and a cool summer there was snow over the trail and along the side of the mountain as well. (Of course, I didn't snap a picture of Allan pushing the buggy over a large pile of snow!)



















Keep an eye out...coming up is also, the Iron Goat Trail. Not to mention a number of just fun pictures of the kiddos etc to come.