first trip to the beach

Today was supposed to be Evie's first time at a water park, but when we got there, they were closed, so we went to the beach instead. The beach isn't my favorite place, but the girls really love it, and that makes it more fun. But the beach combined with a fussy 7 week old, and no good place for nursing or diaper changes, was not so fun. the girls still enjoyed themselves, so I guess that's what really matters, right? Ben played with the girls in the water, and they walked all along the beach together, while I sat with the baby in the shade. I walked around a little, and while I was away from our stuff, someone stole the girls' leftover lunches. I'm glad that is what was taken, since we had a lot of other stuff sitting there that I would be a lot more worried about losing. but we thought it was weird. I looked in the trash can, thinking maybe the sack fell on the ground, and someone tossed it. the brown bag was in there, and the sandwich bags were in there, empty, as well as the cheetos bags, aslo empty. I was wondering if some hungry bum was wandering the beach, looking for food. If someone wanted a half eaten sandwich and some cheetos that badly, I guess I'm glad we could help them out.

Evie's first trip to the beach. I tried to make Ben hold her for the picture, to avoid a bathing suit picture myself, but he made me hold her instead. that's why I have that idiotic look on my face.

since we were planning on going to the water park, we didn't bring any sand toys. But they managed to make a sand castle anyway.

I'm glad they could have a fun day, and we could all get out of the house for a few hours. Last weekend, Ben took the girls to a movie, and school clothes shopping. it was nice to spend the day alone with the baby, but it was also nice today, to get to come along for the fun.

We were going to take them to baskin robins for ice cream, but kiersten got carsick, and puked all over herself. So after stopping to clean her up, we decided just to go through the dairy queen drive through and take the ice cream home. Kiersten is naked, due to the puking.

After we got home, Ben took Kara to get her hair cut. She looks super cute, but I think it makes her look older, which is kinda sad for me. She starts school again on the 13th. She is so excited.

Dash point beach

A few beach pictures from the other day. We bought the girls some new beach toys, so I decided to take them to the beach. I'm glad we went on the day we did, because it's been in the 90's ever since, and I'd have been miserable. Mom stretching her legs while Kiersten was filling a bucket with water.

Kara usually just wants to play in the sand, and wont go in the water much. I was surprised that this time she actually got in the waves a few times.

Ben came after he got off work and met us there. I brought him a change of clothes, but forgot sandals, so he had to go barefoot. I don't think it was too much of a problem for him though. Here he is "helping" the girls build a sand castle.

Kara stamping out a starfish pattern in the sand.

Kiersten would spend all her time in the water if we'd let her. We had to keep bringing her in. She doesn't get scared of the waves at all.

Kara insisted on bringing this chair. I wished I had brought mine too. I had to sit on the uncomfortable ground the whole time. I got tons of stares. I'm conviced people thought I was a beached whale. I actually thought my belly was looking smaller that day, but I saw a few pics that my mom took of me, and I thought, "no wonder people were staring". I'm pretty enormous.

Kiersten loves dressing up. This was her outfit today. The tutu had a piece ripping off, so I cut it, and gave her a little headband. She loves being a "ballerina princess". or any type of princess, for that matter. Kara loves helping her dress up. I think she prefers dressing Kiersten up, to playing dress up herself.

Kara has been teaching her some ballet. Here she is trying to do a pose. She is so cute galloping around the room and saying, "chasse! chasse!" you'd have to hear it in her baby voice to know how cute it really is.

The ballet teacher with her student.

Labor Day weekend

Ben's sister Nancy, and her husband Vic came to spend labor day weekend with us. They arrived early friday morning, and I expected them to be sleeping in when the girls and I woke up. Instead, I woke up to find them playing candy land with a very excited Karalee. Kiersten slept in until I woke her up for breakfast an hour or two later. Ben had to work that day, but we had plenty of fun without him.
Kara got to ride her new bike outside for only the 2nd or 3rd time. (it's been rainy, and we've been busy.) And Kiersten got to try out her inherited trike. It was lots of fun, and also nice to have someone else there to go chasing after them once in a while. Kara is so brave to ride down the hill on our street. Kiersten is still a little hesitant, and needs help to stay on the sidewalk.

Of course Kiersten had to try out the new bike too. That's our little neighbor girl, Haley on the lawn. She loves riding bikes with Kara, and is glad Kara finally has a real bike to be able to keep up.

Later that afternoon, we decided to head to the beach. It was a bit cooler than we would have liked, but we did see some sun, and Kara had lots of fun collecting seashells. She isn't too fond of going in the water. Kiersten on the other hand, wanted to be in the water as much as possible, and kept trying to break away from me to get in there deeper, but I'm one of those "worried moms", so I wouldn't let go of her hand. She even saw a couple of small crabs that washed up, and she thought they were neat.

Here they are playing ball.

Victor loves baseball, so on saturday, we went to see a Tacoma Raniers game. I wan't expecting too much out of a minor league game, but I was surprised how exciting and fun it was. It was very similar to a mariners game, but with fewer people there (especially thanks to the rain) and I hadn't heard of any of the players. But I'm glad we went. This picture is after the downpour. Our section wasn't covered, so it really emptied out. That made it fun for the girls to run around and play. I think Kara's favorite part was getting snacks at the game that she normally doesn't get to have.

Here we are enjoying the game. I don't know what all those snacks in my lap were, but I swear I didn't eat all that myself! Doesn't Nancy make a cute pregnant mommy?

Kiersten got to meet Rhubarb, the moose. She was a little scared of him though. This is as close as she would get. Kara was not at all interested in meeting him, and was even scared when I took her to the bathroom, that he was lurking around the corner.

Sunday was a nice, relaxing day. We spent the morning playing wii, and the afternoon playing so many board, card, and dice games, that I couldn't even name them all. It was a fun day, even if I did snack a little more than I should have. Kara is still talking about uncle Bictor and aunt Nancy, and their fun visit. It's exciting to think the next time we'll see them, their little boy will be born!