Greetings from Bonaire

We're here...enjoying the sun, pool, ocean, etc. The girls are currently in the pool with their daddy. Jim and I went diving last night...big fun. Blogger won't let me post pictures this morning. Will try later this week.

A few more from this afternoon

Perhaps I should have taken the photos on the rocker and by the pumpkins before Norah ate so many berries.

Raspberries & Apples

From our trek out to pick raspberries this afternoon (and we bought some apples too). Willem and his mom joined us for the fun. Norah ate her weight in berries and Lolo picked almost a full carton (a record for her because up until today, Lolo ate all that she picked....just like Norah).

Melmo slippers

Norah and I went to Target this morning. She flipped when she saw these slippers and of course, I couldn't pass them up either.

More on Norah

A bit more on Norah...at dinner tonight, Norah really isn't eating much. (We had grilled mozerella cheese sandwiches and butternut squash soup). She was basically sopping up the basalmic vinegar that I let the kids dip the sandwiches in and "drinking" the vinegar. Anyway, the bottom line is that she didn't eat her dinner and she knew it. After a while, she looks up at me & Jim and asks sweetly "Treat?" I look at her and say "Are you kidding me? You didn't eat your dinner!" That rotten kid just grins and grins...Yeah, I just had to give it a try mom.
FYI - I'm eating Norah's brownie right now.

Hooray for Norah!

A big BIG milestone for Miss Norah this evening. After dinner, Norah announced "poop"....Jim got her to her new potty just in time. Hooray!

But before you get too excited.... (because you know we did)...

We let Norah run around without a diaper because it was so close to bathtime. Then, she wanted up in Jim's lap. Of course, her daddy picked her up and she sat ever so sweetly in his lap..well, you can guess the rest. She's not really ready to be potty trained yet.

Paint project

Our artist-in-residence at work this afternoon.

Bonaire

FYI - we're heading back out to Bonaire this friday evening. Will be back the following saturday in October.
Lolo went to Shannon's birthday party on saturday. She's slowly learning all about birthday parties....her first experience with a pinata. She's completely geared up for her birthday and has been making requests left and right. Whew. I had kind of hoped we'd avoid too much by way of birthdays until kindergarten but it has started in full force already. FYI - the party is going to be all about princesses and will be heavy on pink ;-)

What is it about Elmo?

What is it about Elmo that makes toddlers go crazy for him? Norah has recently developed this love for (as she call him) "Melmo". She goes nuts when she hears him on the radio. She loves Lolo in her "Melmo" costume and refers to herself in the Tigger costume as "Melmo". Yes, I've been letting the girls wear their costumes in September...and yes, they have been seen outside by our neighbors. Earlier this week the girls wanted to wear their costumes out to the Nook for dinner....but somehow, they changed their minds. It's hard to ride a bike when you're Melmo ;-)

Circus School

We've had a terribly busy day today. Both girls attended music class this morning. This was the first time Norah really participated in any way (the previous class she attended, she basically slept through the whole class)....she just had the biggest grin on her face...dancing around, playing instruments....

Then, Lolo went to circus school. Pictures didn't really turn out. It was just too dark in there. Lolo is in the blue leotard (right behind Willem who has his hands up in the air). The kids did sommersaults, cartwheels, jumped on trampolines, and Lolo's favorite part was hanging upside down on the trapeze!! The dark dark photo below is of Lolo letting go of the trapeze bar and landing on a mat. (I couldn't get photoshop to recognize the file...therefore no edits...but I think it will be ok if you click on it and blow up the image to see our circus star).

Another picture from Las Vegas

We took a tour through the Dolphin Habitat and to see the white lions & tigers.

Photo courtesy of Nancy.

Rock baby

Our babydoll has been talking up a storm lately...repeats stuff back all the time...tonight in the bathtub she was rocking her bathtoys to sleep...gathering everything in her arms, rocking back and forth while singing "rock baby". Wish I had a video of that.

Back in the groove in MN

We're back to our old schedule....preschool, swim class,...music class starts friday and Lolo is signed up for circus school too. We're in the process of getting new closet shelves put in....took the opportunity to paint and clean out the closets. In the process, the girls discovered their old Halloween costumes.

Happy Halloween a little early!

Finally onto Las Vegas

Let's just say we're not huge Vegas fans. Didn't drop a penny gambling. Spent more than a penny eating though (as an aside, Jim and I had the best meal ever at Nobu one evening...absolutely amazing sushi!). The girls were not impressed by Vegas either. They just wanted to....you guessed it...go schwimming. Even though the pool was frigid, the girls managed to warm up in a pool-sized tub.

Onward...

to the Hoover Dam. Could it have been any hotter?! Note how the water level has dropped.

Pushed too hard

We might have pushed Norah a little too hard.

Hermit's Rest

So the next day, we promise the girls no more walking. (Lolo was about to break down at the thought of more hiking.) We took the shuttle bus to Hermit's Rest with lots of breaks to hunt for rocks, play in dirt, and throw rocks down into the canyon (in hindsight, that was probably not such a good idea). Norah discovered the fly in her overalls...she kept insisting it was a pocket and tried (unsuccessfully) all morning to get rocks to stay in the pocket.

Next stop...the Grand Canyon

After 36+ years, Jim and I finally make it out to see the Grand Canyon....considering the fact that we're such travel fiends, it just seemed like something we should have done a long, long time ago. In any event, our first morning, we attempt a small portion of the famed Bright Angel Trail into the canyon. 30 minutes into the canyon, the girls are ready for snacks and are pretty much done with the walking part....time to go back up and the crying begins...."when can we go back downhill mama? why do we have to keep going uphill?" All in all, the girls were troopers...we do push them pretty hard....and of course, an afternoon spent at the motel swimming pool.

Dinosaur Tracks!

I'd call this a surprise highlight of the trip. On our way from Canyon de Chelly to the Grand Canyon (a little ways west of Tuba City) there's a homemade sign "Dinosaur Tracks". We stop to stretch our legs...amazing stuff. This is one of those things, you kind of read about on the internet and figure it's a load of cr*p. Of course, now, I'm a believer. You get out of your car and a Navajo person greets you to take you on this "tour"...pointing out tracks and fossilized plant life...and check out the last photo...with the girls next to dinosaur poop. Yep. Big tip for the guide. This place is awesome.

Library books...an aside

As you may know, the girls have been really excited about reading "The Mouse & The Motorcycle"....it's a really good book about a mouse who lives in a hotel....anyway, Jim was reading the book to the kids and we brought it along on the trip. When we arrived in the Grand Canyon, we realized at bedtime that we had left the book at the previous motel. I kept beating myself up over leaving the book....I checked the room, even under the bed....couldn't figure out how I had missed packing up the book.
A couple of mornings later, Lolo (who was really distraught over the missing book and had asked us to drive back) said while looking at me as if I'm extremely dense, "Mama, why didn't you pack the book? I put it under my pillow." Doh! Now, I know why I didn't see the book.
Moral of the story. No more library books when traveling. We're buying a copy of the book for our trip to Bonaire.

Schwimming

It's just not a family vacation if we don't go swimming. This goes in the category of "hard to believe" but true....we're in 100 degree+ weather and the pool is actually freezing cold! Norah would turn blue after just a few minutes in the pool. Imagine, hypothermia in the desert....absolutely crazy. It was cold in just about every pool we encountered on this trip. Poor Norah, she just doesn't have any fat to keep her warm. Anyway, enough complaining about cold water pools in the desert...a video of the girls jumping in the pool. We're having to be extra vigilent with Norah....the kid has no fear and will just walk off the edge of the pool.

More Canyon de Chelly photos

From an afternoon driving tour that we snuck in post-schwimming....just to take in the views from the top of the canyon. Yes, spectacular....but you've just got to do the drive down in the canyon.



Here's something odd that happened...Jim and the girls were sitting on a rock ledge when this tiny little lizard comes up. We expect him to run away quickly but interestingly enough, this crazy lizard comes right up to Jim's shoe! Click on the picture to magnify the lizard.

Canyon de Chelly National Monument

We took a morning tour with a Navajo guide down into the Canyon. Canyon de Chelly is simply magnificent. When we first drove into the sandy canyon, the views just took my breath away. Of course, our girls were more tickled with the bumpy off-road ride and the opportunity to play in the sand....yep, a gajillion miles of driving into a spectacular creation and our kids are preoccupied with making sand castles. Most importantly, for the girls, the motel we stayed at had a swimming pool. Every day, we'd hear "awww, mom, when can we go schwimming?" So now you know our travel schedule...morning tour, lunch, quiet time, schwimming, dinner, bedtime.

And just a few more park pics

Note the petroglyphs on the rock behind Norah. Very neat. Next stop Canyon de Chelly.

Interesting to me anyway...

While we were driving around the park, there was a road kind of blocked off where a crew was shooting a car commercial. Clearly, they didn't want us to see the car. We're keeping our eyes out for a new car commercial featuring this mystery car ;-)

More Park Shots

From the Petrified Forest National Park

It's worth a trek out to the middle of nowhere to see this park. It totally beats what we saw in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. But gosh, it was HOT!

Did you think I'd ever get around to posting again?

We got back on sunday. I've been in extreme slow-mo and am just now getting around to blogging again.

Our trek was an exhausting success. It has been a road trip summer for us (a drive up to Ely, a drive through North Dakota, and then this trek through Arizona & Nevada). We flew into Phoenix and drove up through Flagstaff to stay overnight in Winslow, Arizona. (Go ahead and sing the song, you know you want to). Found a great inn, La Posada, a Mary Coulter designed inn. Amazing architecture. Even better food. It was worth it to stay there one evening just so we could eat breakfast there.

After a calorie-laden, entirely satisfying breakfast, we were off to the Petrified Forest National Park. Yep. It's the summer of petrified wood. Can you believe they have so much petrified wood just sitting around a parking lot?!? Amazing. The girls, however, we more enamoured with the concrete dinosaurs.

I didn't see that!

I'm avoiding last minute packing right now. The taxi will be here in a bit. We just finished breakfast. A bit of something was under Norah's chair. She bends down, picks it up off the floor and pops it into her mouth. I close my eyes and say "I didn't see that!" Norah walks over, puts her hand on my leg to get my attention, and opens her mouth wide to show me the piece of cereal she just popped in her mouth. LOL!

Norah's hand washing

I couldn't leave without this last post before our trip.
This evening, Norah comes to me, wipes her wet hands on my clothes, saying "wash". (Norah loves to wash her hands). I looked at Jim. He looks at me. He investigates the bathroom since neither of us had taken Norah to get her hands washed and we didn't hear any water running. Well, guess what. She "washed" her own hands and it wasn't in the sink. Needless to say, she got a really good scrubbing.

Packing up

We're packing up today. We'll be heading out to Pheonix tomorrow and taking a tour through Canyon De Chelly, the Grand Canyon, and finally to Las Vegas. Will post when we get back.

Tantrums

It's hard to believe but true. Lolo had a major tantrum because I left Dadabooboo downstairs. Talk about a no win situation.

Naming a turtle

Nancy has her car stocked with car toys. Lolo found a turtle there yesterday and since it didn't have a name, she named it "Turdy". LOL!

Labor Day and First day of school

Labor Day was a tough one at our house. Jim was gone all day....it seems the work never really stops. As a matter of fact, he's still there. Lolo was having a really tough time. She threw three major tantrums in one day. I think that's a record for her. And when she wasn't tantruming, Norah was....I don't know what was going on yesterday; but gosh, was I ever glad when they went to bed.
Luckily, they seemed to have gotten a good night's rest because today was a completely different day. It was Lolo's first day of preschool. She's typically had a transition problem. But her good friends are in her class and she's thrilled about moving upstairs (because she's now one of the big kids). Lolo and I had a special afternoon and went out to lunch together....just the two of us. It's a real treat to just do something special with Lolo....doesn't happen often. I'm keeping an eye out for any transitional problems into her new class, but so far, so good.
The girls and I went to the library after an early dinner. We had forgotten to turn in our library books earlier in the day and had to pick out new books for our bedtime stories. Recently, we finished Doctor Doolittle and Little House on the Prairie. Tonight, we started Emily's Runaway Imagination (which started a long conversation about E116). We also checked out The Mouse & the Motorcycle...Lolo has decided she wants her daddy to read that one to her so we're saving it for next week when we're on vacation and Jim has time to read to the girls.
And, I almost forgot...big news for Norah, we recently gave her a "big girls" pillow for her crib. She's thrilled with the pillow and was showing it off to Jim the other night. We're prepping for the transition to a big girls bed....but we're keeping her in the crib as long as possible (which, knowing Norah, may not be nearly as long as we'd like).

Sweet Lolo

There are times when I just can't get over how sweet my girls are (biased mom speaking)...of course, on tough days, the sweet factor seems to kick in once the house is picked up, the girls are in bed, and everything is temporarily peaceful and in place.

Future basketball star

We may have a future ball player on our hands. Norah loves to play ball. She's quite good at catching for her age. Frankly, she's better than Lolo, even now...poor Lolo just can't seem to get the hang of catching...she gets that from me :-( Luckily, catching is not as big of a deal for a girl...I'm sure Jim would be working with her a lot more on catching if she were a boy.

Jim and I were thinking that Norah will probably end up being our sports nut (basketball, tennis, soccer, softball, etc) and Lolo will be our ballerina and figure skater. Of course, we expect both girls will be downhill ski racers ;-) It's just so exciting and interesting to see their personalities, interests, and skills develop. I can't get over how different the girls are from each other, but at the same time, it's the differences that keep life interesting and exciting.

Here's a video of Jim and Norah playing with her basketball this evening before he had to go back to work.

Happy Birthday, Birthday Boy!

This morning, Lolo sweetly climbs into our bed to snuggle. She rolls over next to her daddy and says "Happy Birthday, Birthday Boy! We're so proud of you!" I don't know where she gets this stuff from; but goodness, it just gives us warm smileys all over.
We continued Jim's birthday celebration today (despite the fact that he's on call). The girls helped make pesto (everyone has a special job and gets to be "in charge" of something...Norah spun the basil dry and Lolo food processed everything). When it came to appetizers, Norah got a cracker, licked brie off of it, and went back in for more cheese and more cheese and more cheese....I'm not sure she ate any cracker, the cracker was simply a delivery vehicle. (Note to visitors...we'll make sure Norah's brie is separate from everyone else's when you come visit. )
In related news...for months now, we've been talking about birthdays. I've been telling Lolo...first comes Mama's birthday, then it's Daddy's birthday, then it's Lolo's birthday, then it's Norah's birthday, and then it's Jesus' birthday. So tonight while we're working on Jim's birthday dinner, Lolo asks "is my birthday tomorrow?" I guess I should have been more specific.