WHAT?! Now it’s MAY already?

Clearly, regularly updating the blog with fresh posts has not been one of our highest priorities lately. And as they say, time flies! It’s too bad that we haven’t been keeping up with more regular updates about the girls because as I’m sure you can imagine, as they’re approaching their 3rd birthday, it seems like every week there’s some fascinating new developmental milestone, or some charming new facet of their personalities. And yet, they’re the kind of moments that slip away almost as soon as they have passed, and sadly I don’t have much hope of remembering them in detail now. I’ll simply try to hit a few of the highlights from the past 5 months and let a huge bundle of pictures speak for the rest.

We spent Christmas here in Livermore and celebrated with a couple different sessions of opening presents. The girls were old enough this year to really get into the fun of tearing open the wrapping paper, so that was fun. And they understand at least a little bit about celebrating baby Jesus’ birthday. On Christmas Eve when tucking the girls into bed, the last thing Carolyn said before we shut the door was “Happy Birthday Jesus.” The next day when asked “What’s special about Christmas?” Elizabeth responded, “Give… presents… Jesus.”

Carolyn & Elizabeth in their Christmas dresses

Carolyn

Elizabeth (being slightly dramatic)

Merry Christmas!

Tearing into the loot!

After Christmas, we were very blessed once again to spend some time visiting with good friends at their cabin in Dorrington. We’ve joined them for a few days between Christmas and New Year’s almost every year for the last… Well, a long time. I was sorta looking forward to using our 4 wheel drive Pilot in the snow again, but as of December the winter had been ridiculously warm and dry. There was no snow! None. At all. So I never had to shovel the deck, but I have to say that it was actually rather disappointing. And although the girls didn’t get to do any sledding or make snow angels, we did have a couple nice walks around the neighborhood.

Dry streets!

"Little Drummer Boy" was a favorite Christmas carol

What a smile!

As much as we love the mountains, we also love vacationing at the beach. My grandma has a nice little cottage just a block from the beach in Cayucos, and somehow we had just never managed to get out there since the girls were born. And we’ve really missed it! So in February we finally made a point of taking them to see the ocean for the first time, and we all had a blast. We made it a nice long trip and stayed for a good five days, so there was plenty of time to walk on the beach with the girls, play in the sand, play in the water, do a bit of geocaching…

Biggest sandbox they've ever seen!

She had a blast flinging shovels full of sand into the air and letting it rain down all over her head. We didn't find it quite as exciting.

Look! I'm digging!

Cautiously approaching the waves...

Elizabeth & Mommy get their feet wet

Just strollin' down the Moonstone boardwalk, enjoying a breezy afternoon...

Easter was a lot of fun this year for some of the same reasons as Christmas — namely, the girls are old enough now that they “get it” and are able to participate a little bit more. Janet helped them dye their first easter eggs (which they enjoyed), they got to wear their pretty Easter dresses, and of course they got to do an Easter Egg Hunt. However, I must say that they were greatly distracted from finding all the Easter Eggs once they realized after the first few eggs that they had jelly beans and M&Ms inside. Next year I expect that such a discovery won’t distract them at all, and will merely cause them to redouble their efforts to find them all as quickly as possible.

Spring has arrived!

Something tells me she'd love one of those giant excercise balls

Look, a tiny flower!

Finally, here's a genuine Easter photo!

Carolyn's turn on the swing

Elizabeth's turn on the swing

Wait, who's turn is it now?

Another fun thing we’ve done in the last few months is take the girls to the Oakland Zoo. Janet got a Season Family Pass, and we’ve used it three times already. The girls have enjoyed seeing the various animals, and it has been fun engaging them in coversations about the things they have seen and done there. But alas, I don’t really have any good pictures of the girls at the zoo, so I’ll have to try to remedy that at some point.

Still, one thing about the zoo is that they have a small section of the park with a few different kiddie carnival rides, like a miniature train (which they love), a small roller coaster (which they’re brave enough to go on even though it makes them a little nervous), and a few little rides that just go around in circles. They were interested in the roller coaster because it was so noisy, and they actually went on it with us and they didn’t totally freak out (although Carolyn seemed a bit uncertain about it while the ride was in progress). Since they seemed to enjoy the ride attractions at the zoo, Janet also got a one day pass for a little kiddie amusement park in Concord called Pixieland. They’ve got the same little roller coaster, a miniature train, carousel, cars that drive around on a little track, airplanes, spinning teacups, etc. It was nice to be able to take them on those rides as many times as they wanted. Well, almost as many times as they wanted.

Gallopin' gals

Flyin' Aces

And here are just a few more miscellaneous pictures to close out the post:

We turned the fan on them and told them we were taking glamour shots.

Groovy tie dye!

We have also enjoyed a few visits to Uncle Mark and Auntie Annmarie's trampoline.