For the last year or so they have always really enjoyed watching out the front window on Friday mornings when the garbage truck comes by. It’s big and noisy and has a giant claw that reaches out to pick up the trash can and then dump it into the back of the truck. They seem to look forward to it all week long! But a few weeks ago they were out walking down the sidewalk with my Mom on Friday morning, and apparently when the big noisy garbage truck came by THAT close, it scared them a bit and they cried all the way home. Since then, they’ve definitely been a bit more skittish about loud noises… So last week, the girls and I were out raking up the leaves on our front lawn. They were having a wonderful time jumping on the piles of leaves and kicking them around… But then a big noisy truck drove by, and for some reason it spooked Elizabeth — so she ran over to me whining and crying, “Daddy hug! Daddy hug!” She was standing right next to my leg, and I had my hands full with the rake, so I just said “It’s OK Sweetie, you can hug my leg!”  That didn’t seem to be good enough. “Daddy hug!  Daddy hug!” she repeated. By this point, the truck was already disappearing down the street. “Just hug my leg, honey!” And then, still in her pathetic little whiny voice, “No, hug tummy!  HUG TUMMY!” I suppose I was a tiny bit reluctant at first because I don’t want them to get all clingy, but how could I refuse that? They both got tummy hugs, and I have to admit those are my favorite kind too. Another fun thing has been that at bedtime lately, as Janet and I each hold one of the girls before we sing Rock-a-bye Baby and tuck them in, they almost always ask “Family hug?” And then, “More family hug?” Yeah, it might just be a ploy to prolong the going to bed process, but how can you say no to that?

This morning I overheard each of the girls apparently talking to the little toy she was playing with, saying “Jesus loves me.” And they seem to be at least somewhat aware of the approach of Christmas, because when they saw a decorative picture of wrapped presents, they both said things like “Open presents?”  I replied, “Yes, soon it will be Christmas time and you can open up some presents. Do you remember doing that last year?” And it was Carolyn who said, “Nana and Papa’s house!” I’m not sure if she really remembers that from a year ago, or if Janet has recently talked with them about what’s in store. In any case, I’m sure it’s going to be a lot of fun this year!

Now, here are some pictures!

Story Time with Nana

Helping Mommy make pancakes

Helping EAT the pancakes!

Story Time with Daddy

Watching Caillou (a freakishly bald 4 year old) on the TV

We’ve been glad for the many days of fine weather this Fall. If it’s sunny and warm enough, the girls and I often head out to Dublin to visit with Janet during her lunch break. Usually we just drive to a local park and let the girls run around for a while, and everyone has a good time. The next three pictures are from one such visit.

Elizabeth climbs atop her throne

Carolyn's proud to be sitting on the BIG chair!

Swinging and smiling

The girls recently had an opportunity to try on their Christmas dresses!

We're very, very blessed!

Running!

"Cleaning" the sand off the play structure platform

Happy girl!

Pretty in pink

Four hands are better than two!

In addition to diligently “cleaning” the sand off of the play structure platforms, they also had a great time picking up handfuls of small dried leaves that had collected inside the sand area, and then tossing them out onto the sidewalk.

Bye bye, leaves!

They stuck with this for a while, and actually cleared out a surprising number of leaves.

Carolyn winding up for the pitch...

Hey Elizabeth, there's something on your shoulder...

Happy Halloween from Winnie the Pooh & Tigger Too!

Pounce!

Do you have a smackerel of honey?

Here's some honey!

Bouncin's what Tiggers do best!

We also made a trip to Joan’s Farm & Pumpkin Patch again this year. The girls love being outside anyway, and they certainly had fun running around and exploring. And yes, they pretty much ran everywhere. After all, why would anyone walk when running is an option?

Do you have any idea how hard it was to get BOTH of them to sit still at the same time and look anywhere near the camera?

Fun family outing

It's heavy, but she's strong.

Lift with your legs!

Of course, there was more than just pumpkins to explore.  Like sticks,

Stick!

and rocks,

How many rocks can I balance on top?

and leaves,

TWO leaves!

and animals,

What's this?

and dirt!

It's okay if you brush it off.

And the pumpkins were fun too.

Carolyn & the Pumpkins

Elizabeth & the Pumpkins

A little help from Mommy

After a fun-filled day it was time to head home.

All in all a fun trip. Special thanks to Nana and Papa for joining us. Two active little girls, four adults, two still cameras and one video camera. Yep, that’s what it took to capture some of the moments to share with you.

Half Dome

Some of the highlights so far… They were very amused (at least initially) with a little jack in the box toy, where you turn the little crank to make the song play, until eventually a friendly looking pirate pops up out of the box. They also got a nice fuzzy rocking dog toy that they can ride on — that’s right, a dog, not a horse. They’re not quite big enough yet to climb up without help, but I’m sure it won’t be long. Even before it was fully unwrapped, they instantly responded to it like a giant stuffed animal, pressing their faces against its head and saying “Awwwww…” (Whenever they give hugs to a doll or stuffed animal, they always make that sound, presumably because it’s what they always hear other people say whenever they do something really cute like that.) Each of them also got their own little toy cell phones that flip open, complete with LED screens that light up and lots of beeping buttons that they can push. Since Daddy’s remote controls are off-limits, they’re quite fascinated by these. In fact, they were so intrigued by them that it was difficult to get them put them down in order to open other presents! It probably won’t be long before I want to take the batteries out of them… On the other hand, I guess this gives us some leverage, and now we can threaten to take away their cell phones if they start misbehaving.

Here are some photos:

Merry Christmas!

Carolyn was fascinated by the ornaments

Can you say photogenic?

Little cuties

What's in here?

POP goes the pirate!

Giggle Girl

Checking out a new puzzle

Elizabeth rides the doggy

Awwwww...

Next thing I know, she's gonna want a pony!

And now without further ado, here are some pictures of the girls in their Halloween costumes.

Bumble Bee Girl

You can't see it here, but she's got a stinger for a tail!

Leopard skin Liz!

Stalking her prey...

Pumpkin Party

It was a warm October day.  Warm enough, in fact, that I was glad we planned our visit in the morning.  It might have been too warm for the long sleeve shirts I had for the girls to wear if we had waited until the afternoon.

Carolyn & Elizabeth at the Pumpkin Patch

The girls enjoyed exploring everything they could get their hands on.

What's this?

All in all, a fun little family outing.  The beautiful sunshine is markedly different from today’s rain.

A family outing.

Carolyn & Daddy

Elizabeth & Mommy

Family

We didn’t get to go with the rest of the family on vacation last year, because Carolyn and Elizabeth were still so tiny, and it just didn’t seem like a good idea to travel at all. But I’m glad we could go this year, because it was a lot of fun having the girls with us. (Naturally, it also restricted our activities quite a bit, and we didn’t get to do all the things we might otherwise have done, but that’s OK.) One day, we took them on a walk in the stroller through Calaveras Big Trees State Park, and marveled at some really impressively enormous trees. This was a great place to visit because it was very close to the cabin and the whole trail was wide and smooth, which was perfect for our all-terrain stroller.

Little girls, big tree!

Another shot of an ancient giant posing with our tiny young ones. This one was so big that at some point (many decades ago) they cut a tunnel through the middle! The tree seems to be doing pretty well, all things considered.

We also spent a day at beautiful Lake Alpine. All the kids had fun swimming and playing in the water, while Dad and I hiked around the lake and found some geocaches, including a couple that were high up on some cliffs named Inspiration Point. Carolyn and Elizabeth spent a very short time splashing and playing in the chilly water, but since they still have hardly any body fat (and they’re just not used to cold water), they got unhappy rather quickly.

Dad & Mom out on one of the islands

Splish splash!

I also got to fulfill a dream I’ve had for many years, and took everyone to visit an amazing area where you can swim through a cave! (Technically, I guess it’s supposed to be called a natural bridge, but it sure looks like a cave, and frankly I just think that sounds a lot more cool.) It’s about 120 yards long, and there’s a bend in the middle so you can’t see all the way through to the other side, but it never gets entirely dark. I accidentally led everyone down the wrong (shortcut) trail on our way down to the river, so it was very steep, but we all arrived safely and everyone was suitably impressed with how cool the cave was. Janet and I spent some time playing with the girls in the water here too, and this time the girls were able to have a bit more fun. Perhaps the water was a little warmer.

This is the north end of the cave. It's fairly shallow at each end, but it's deep in the middle.

This is the south end of the cave. The ceiling starts out much lower here (that's about 7 feet high), but quickly rises as you progress further inside. This end has many spots where water constantly seeps through the rocks up above.

Towards the end of the week, I discovered that there was a “nearby” geocache that was over a month old but had never been found. That was too tempting to pass up, so Mark and I decided to go find it one evening after dinner. I said “nearby” with quotation marks because although it was only about 8 miles away as the crow flies, the twisting and winding nature of mountainous forest service roads meant that it was really going to be almost 30 miles, much of it unpaved. I carefully studied the possible routes in my GPS and on Google Maps, and it seemed that we’d have no problem getting there. But NO! One after another, our attempts at reaching our destination at Prather Meadow were denied by no less than three different locked gates and a couple roads that simply dead-ended (even though all our maps showed them going through and connecting). Sadly, I never did find that cache, even after making one more attempt the following morning with Dad. But we gave it a good shot, and despite the disappointment I thought it was a lot of fun driving around out on those quiet, seldom-used roads.

We didn't find the cache, but near dusk we did find some cool rocky cliffs overlooking a forested valley.