Camping at Loeb July 2011

Back in July we went camping at Alfred A. Loeb State Park near Brookings. Who is "we"? Me (Robyn), Alex & Austin, Rochelle (ZiZi) & Dominic, Sari and her three kids, Mathias, Annie, & Gracie.

We headed over to Cresent City to see the tide pools and the Light House. Above is Alex in the red jacket waiting to start our adventure. In the top left is ZiZi holding Austin. You can also see all the little munchins running down the trail.

From top left going L to R: Alex heading off into the great blue yonder, Dominic, Austin getting mad because i forgot his pacifier in the car, Alex showing us a shell, and Alex and ZiZi fixing a shoe.

Sari (in the dark blue hoodie) was acting as our local Tide Pool Expert and kid magnet, Rochelle (in the purple hoodie) acting as Sari's assistant kid herder. Mathias is in the red hoodie, Alex in the blue hat, Dominic in the red hat, Annie in the green striped hoodie, Gracie has the pink camo pants.

Heading up the steep hill to the lighthouse, the start of the trail is in the bottom middle picture. Seated on the bench from Left to Right: Mathias, Annie, Gracie, Dominic, & Alex.

Alex and Annie were fascinated by these buoys  hanging in this dead tree. Dominic thought they were pretty cool, too. Alex touched every one that he could reach with his finger.

The many faces of Alex and ZiZi exploring with Dom and Alex.

Alex showing Dominic and the other kids a dead crab (i think).

We went to the Redwood forest on our way home. The trees were awesome and fun to play on. The ferns made a nice jungle for the short ones. :) Alex is wearing the yellow shorts and Power Ranger shirt, Dominic is wearing the orange Nemo shirt. And, ZiZi is in the pink plaid.

We climbed on top of this HUGE stump. And then got inside of it.

The trail was really cool. The kids loved it. The group shot is Left to Right: Dominic, Alex, Annie, Mathias and Gracie.

Happy 28th Birthday Paul!

Singing Happy Birthday. Alex was singing his favorite version of the song. It goes like this, "Happy Burr-day to you. You live in zoo. You look like mon-key. You smell pee-you!" Austin was watching everyone and apparently on the verge of crying. I guess our singing is that great.: )

Opening presents. Top and bottom Left: Alex was really excited  about this sticky hand that he "bought" his daddy. I don't think Paul even had a chance to touch the wrapper, before Alex had it open and was playing with it. Top Right: Robyn and Austin watching the show. Bottom Right: the rainbow cake. It was really easy and fun to make. Molly sent me the link, found here.

 Top R&L: Alex got Paul and rocket for his birthday, he also got himself a rocket. When we went to the store I suggested that we get a rocket for Daddy's birthday and Alex said, "No mom, get me rocket. Daddy said, my rocket broken, get me new rocket." Yes, I did remember that Paul had told him that a couple of weeks earlier, when his rocket did in fact break. So we decided to get two rockets and wrapped them both. This led Alex to believe that it was his birthday, too. He kept saying, "Daddy birthday, my birthday! :)
Bottom R&L: Austin got Daddy and pack of squirt guns. Can you see how excited he is about them? He is so cute!

These pictures got a little out of order. Here is Alex putting candles on the cake...on top and on sticking out the side. :) He also was the one that insisted on putting a bear on top...that or a snowman, so I picked a bear. Here this is Paul's birthday post and I have hardly said a thing about him. haha I got him a new cell phone for his birthday and then we went to the Water Works Park on the actual day of his birthday (as seen in a previous post). I love you Paul! I hope your birthday was as fun for you as it was for...Alex. haha

Pinewood Derby

 The Contenders

Paul and Alex made Blue Silver Bullet. Alex wanted a rocket, so that is what it is. :)

Couch Potato was Pop-pop's car, even though he couldn't make it. Surprise Texas was Uncle Ben's car. And Silver Spade belonged to Ben's friend David but Ben ended up painting it and racing it.

Alex LOVED his rocket car and was just dying to play with it. So, after it lost all of its races he got to play with it to his heart's content.  In the top left and bottom left photos you can see Paul in the red shirt and hat holding Alex as their car is about to race. Austin is playing with his friend Hannah. Her mom, my friend Tawnya, and I said, "OK babies let's take your picture, just in case you decide to get married some day!" and they immediately held hands. It was really funny. Austin and Hannah were born 2 1/2 weeks apart. (She was actually born on his due date, but we didn't meet them until they were about 4 months old.)

The boys had a lot of fun making their cars. Unfortunately, none of the cars did very good in their races, but we did learn some tips to make them faster next year.

Water Works Park

Paul took a day off from work on his birthday and we headed to Water Works Park in Redding, CA. 

 Alex loved this frog slide.

 Since it was just Paul and I and our kids, we had to take turns taking Alex down the bigger slides, while one of up held Austin. So, Alex probably went on twice the amount of slides as Paul and I.  He enjoyed it though...for the most part.

Paul took Alex on the Raging River Ride first. There you can see them in the top left picture walking up to get in line. As you can see in the top right, they accidentally went backwards the WHOLE ride. And then of course flipped at the end...Alex wasn't traumatized, but he wasn't too happy either.

 We took these right after Paul and Alex flipped over. I love Alex's contemplative looks down on the bottom right. Alex and Austin loved playing in the pink tube. If you look closely at the top left picture you can see a little bit of spit-up on Austin's chin. He was just leaning over and dousing the sidewalk with puke. It was funny in a gross kind of way. :)

Cyclone!

Believe it or not, Alex actually asked to go on the Cyclone. Its my fault really, because I kept referring to it as the giant toilet. What little boy doesn't want to be flushed down a giant toilet? Alex was no exception and didn't even hesitate when he got to the top platform (there he is waving at me in the middle left pic). This boy seemed to have no fear. I thought for sure he would go on it once and then be done...but the first thing he said to me was, "That fun Mom! I wanna do that a'gain!"

The Avalanche

 Paul went down this one by himself. I was too chicken to do it by myself. For the record, I have done this one before in another water park. I just don;'t like the drop off...and am a chicken to do things like this by myself. Alex asked if he could go, but we were afraid he wouldn't be able to hold on to the tube good enough. You do catch a little air right when they push you over the edge. Technically he was a little too short to go on the big ones, because he was supposed to be able to hold onto the tube by himself. He could sort of do it but, we would help hold him with our feet so he wouldn't fall through the hole in the tube.

 We did go on the Raging River Ride many more times...not backwards of course. Paul and Alex are pictured in the top four pics and Alex and I (Robyn) are in the bottom two. I have to admit I have a pretty awesome splash face. I know you are jealous. :)

 And, above, here we are all getting flushed down the toilet multiple times. It turns out that it is kind of addicting after a while. Paul went by himself in the middle right picture. In the top two pictures, Alex and Paul came out backwards again...but they didn't flip this time. You can see my awesome splash face in the bottom left, and Alex's cute smile. Alex was getting a reputation among the life guards by the time I took him for the last time at about 5PM. The life guard at the top said, "Is this the three-year-old that went down with his Dad a little while ago? That is so cool!" Alex just smiled at him...and then he pushed us down the toilet. haha

 Alex and Austin both enjoyed the kiddie area, too.

Austin conked out at about 4PM and wasn't waking for ANYONE. We were moving him all around and he just kept on sleeping. Alex finally got him to wake up about and hour and half later, but he really didn't want to be woken. He was really sweet. We had such a fun day together. Our kids are such troopers. They just keep going and going. After the water park we went to In&Out Burger, which was DELICIOUS! Mmmmm!  We decided it is probably a good thing they don't have any locations near Grants Pass or we would be eating there way too much. Alex quietly ate his whole burger and then when he got on the road he just conked out and slept almost the whole 2 1/2 hour drive home. Happy Birthday 28th Paul! I love you! 

Austin Loves Sand

What more can I add?

Swimming Lessons 2011

Alex loved swimming lessons this year! He is swimming really good on his own, and LOVES to jump into the water from low places, high places or pretty much any places.

Here he is jumping from the diving board. The sequence starts in the upper right corner with him getting into position, then moves to the top left corner for the leap, then moves to the middle for the splash, then to the bottom left where he floats on his back to the wall, and then to the bottom right  corner where, after a count of five, he rolls over and swims to the wall and pulls himself up. Whew! That was a long sentence. :)

He is really good at swimming unerwater to the ladder and the wall. He does this with little help, mostly just a nudge at the end if he needs it so he can find his grip on the wall.

Diving off the ledge with his classmates. Then they roll on their backs and float to the other side, roll over and grab the wall.

Being a starfish. He can pretty much float on his own. If it looks like I am holding him, I was just barely pinching his shirt in an effort to guide him to the wall.

Here are the swimming stars. Alex was really excited to get his star. Dominic is wearing his boots, to the right of Alex. He was in the class that took place right before Alex's class, so he already got dressed.

At the second day of lessons, something clicked in Alex's head and he realized he could go underwater and look around. Then he was trying to spin underwater, would let of the wall without warning and generally just LOVING it! It is really fun to swim with him now. He is such a water-baby!

Super Hero!

 Alex loves to play super hero!

These look like bugs, but they are the really loud jets that fly over BoatNik every year. Alex thought they were pretty awesome. They flew right over our house this year. It was really cool!