Kaylee is now officially a 2-wheeler biker. We took her training wheels off months ago, but she was not interested in trying. Jeff and I would both offer to hold her and push her, but we would make it the length of the driveway and she would be done.

Last week I guess she decided that she was big enough to do it on her own. With Kaylee it has to be her own idea. She taught herself to ride in a few days and now she is zooming around the cul de sac. She loves riding her 2-wheeler. Also notice that Kaylee is wearing a dress. She loves dresses and wears one almost every day, but in the summer it is not the best idea. I have bought her a few pairs of shorts to go under the dresses. It is funny because my mom tells me that I insisted on wearing a dress every day to Kindergarten.

Grizzly Family Dash

Kaylee, Claire, Taylor

Ryan pre-race. He ran with the 2nd-3rd grade group

Our elementary school did a fun run before the end of school. I was on the PTA committee and got to help in the planning and details of the event. It was a great experience for the kids and they have all asked if we are going to do it again next year. At the end of their individual races they said they wished they could do it again. It was a fun event.
Pre race. Kaylee and Taylor were in the preschool category.

Kaylee took second place in her age group behind Hannah (27). Hannah is one of her good friends from preschool.

Taylor loved every minute of her race. She didn't care that she was one of the last ones (she is a few years younger than most of them). To appreciate the full joy on her face click on the next few pics to make them bigger. I love the expression on her face.





This was the family run. Jeff said that Taylor ran almost the whole way. I was manning the turn around corner and taking pics.

Family fun!

I love to golf! It is something that I would love to do for the rest of my life. Jeff is also a big fan of the sport. So of course we are hoping that our kids will love it too. This year Ryan has really started hitting the ball well and playing almost all the holes when we go. Kaylee love to drive and putt and it getting pretty good at hitting the ball. Taylor loves to ride in the golf cart and eat the snacks that I pack to keep her occupied. She also loves to gather sticks along the course to throw in the river later. It is overall a fun family experience. Hopefully one that we can keep doing as a family.

IT's A...

For those that haven't heard yet, we are having a Boy! We are very excited and so glad that everything looked good on the ultrasound. Ryan was so happy when we told him. Kaylee was pretty disappointed and acted like a little stinker for the first few hours. I asked her later why she was being so naughty and she said, "I was just so mad that it was a boy!" She will learn to love him I am sure. She has Taylor and now Ryan has his brother. Perfect right?

Hawaiian photo shoot

The last night before we left I made the kids get dressed up, and hair done for a photo shoot. We haven't had pictures of them done forever. They weren't too excited, but Jeff was even less excited even though he wasn't even in the pictures. It was a little bit stressful for me because we were on the clock until sunset. I had hoped we would make it down to the beach for some shots too, but it got too dark. Overall the kids did pretty good, but I am not happey with the group pictures. We only got a couple of decent ones. Oh well we can always do it again soon, just not in Hawaii. I am still trying to decide on which ones to put on my wall. Let me know which ones are your favorites. I will number them to make it easier.

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And there you have it.

Hilton & Volcanos

We did end up doing a few other things in Hawaii besides the beach and the pool. One afternoon we went over to the Hilton to see the Dolphins. They are amazing to watch. I love that it is free to come and look and you can get really close up to them. Maybe when our kids are bigger we could get into the water with them. That has always been a dream of mine.


We also took a day and drove to the other side of the island. It took a couple of hours to get there and the roads are very narrow and windy. Taylor and I both got a little car sick on the way.

We made our kids do a 4 mile hike down to a lava lake. It was really cool. Taylor did great too and made it to the ascent mostly be herself. Unfortunately right before we got back into the trees she fell and got cut up on the lava rocks. She had some skinned knees and a bloody elbow. Needless to say she got a ride up the hill. Jeff and I took turns. At the time that we started back up the hill it also started to rain. I thought the cover of the trees would keep us pretty dry, but we were soaked and cold by the end. It didn't really help morale much. I was so proud of my kids for doing it. They were by far the youngest kids on the trail. I think I saw one other girl that was probably 10. We got a lot of looks and comments from people about how brave we were to do it with kids. Jeff and I have always tried to stay active even with kids and I hope that someday our kids love the adventure as much as we do.
In the picture above you can see the trail across the lava lake, it is a little bit lighter than the other lava.



Kaylee and Taylor showing off their muscles.


Normally I don't like to post pictures of my butt, especially in saggy pregnancy pants, but Taylor reminded me of a little monkey curled up on my back.
We didn't see any red flowing lava at the volcano rim, just lots of hot spots with lots of smoke.