Oldest!

From Theodore Elial 3 Years

Now that Meredith is gone in the mornings at school, that means I get to be the oldest kid in the house! What should I do??

Bus!

From Emmaline Ruth 1 Year

I wanted to ride the bus too! You say I have to wait until I'm 5? That's too long!

Kindergarten!

From Meredith Jane 5 Years

Now that I'm five, I get to go to Kindergarten! I'm so EXCITED!

From Meredith Jane 5 Years

We walk down to the bus stop to wait for the bus to pick me up and take me to school. We even meet new friends along the way!

From Meredith Jane 5 Years

I can't wait for the bus to get here!

From Meredith Jane 5 Years

Time to go!

From Meredith Jane 5 Years

BYE!

Five!

From Meredith Jane 5 Years

Tinkerbell helped me celebrate my birthday. I had a few of my friends over and had a princess (and fairy) tea party. We had a blast!

From Meredith Jane 5 Years

I got all kinds of great presents! A new doll, a new Tinkerbell, some chalk, ponies, and many other great toys!

From Meredith Jane 5 Years

I LOVE my new doll and doll clothes!

From Meredith Jane 5 Years

I can't wait until I turn six!

Zoo! (and walruses and camels)

In August, we went camping at a campground near Tacoma and visited some friends from San Antonio who were vacationing in Seattle.

From Theodore Elial 3 Years

We saw walruses. I thought they would make whistling noises like they did in a video online. They didn't make any noises. What do you think they would do?

From Emmaline Ruth 1 Year

Emmaline didn't really know what a walrus was, so she didn't know.

From Meredith Jane 4 Years

Meredith says the walrus likes to stick out his tongue!

From Meredith Jane 4 Years

Mama says the walrus likes to wiggle its whiskers.

Daddy hid behind the camera, so we don't know what he thinks...

From Meredith Jane 4 Years

We even got to ride a camel! Now I think we should have one as a pet, what do you think? We'll just need to turn some of our backyard into a desert!

Beach!

From Emmaline Ruth 1 Year

In August, we went camping by the beach! Daddy says it is on Puget Sound. I don't care where it was, we got to see the tide go in and out and play in the sand!

From Theodore Elial 3 Years

Theodore didn't like the seaweed in the water, so he pretty much just played in the sand.

From Meredith Jane 4 Years

Meredith liked everything about the beach -- the sand, the water, and sticking out her tongue!

Volcano!

From Mt Saint Helens

This is Mt. Saint Helens. We saw it a lot when we went camping. It was a long ride to get to the campsite, but we had a lot of fun hiking and camping!

From Mt Saint Helens

When we went hiking, we saw lakes!

From Mt Saint Helens

We saw flowers!

From Mt Saint Helens

We saw tent caterpillars!

From Mt Saint Helens

We saw rivers!

From Mt Saint Helens

And, we of course saw a volcano!

Happy Independence Day!

What does Independence Day mean to you?

From Theodore Elial 3 Years

Do you want s'more?

From Theodore Elial 3 Years

And campfires in the backyard!

And you, Meredith?

From Meredith Jane 4 Years

Playing with friends & family! Thank you, Joel, Noel, Mrs Marci, & Mr Aaron for coming over!

And you, Emmaline?

From Emmaline Ruth 1 Year

CHEESE!

Hair cuts are important!

From Theodore Elial 3 Years

Just because you get your hair cut all the time, doesn't mean ours aren't important ;)

We like our haircuts!

Cut It Shorter, Please

From Theodore Elial 3 Years

Mama had my hair cut the same way we always get it cut. That's no fun!

From Theodore Elial 3 Years

So I asked for it to be cut shorter, can you tell? (Look at the top)

My New Hairdo

From Meredith Jane 4 Years

I've been wanting a haircut for a while now. Every time my Mama, Daddy, and Theo got their haircuts, I wanted one too!

From Meredith Jane 4 Years

Now I got one too :D

My First Haircut

From Emmaline Ruth 1 Year

I got my first haircut on Monday. Now I have bangs!

From Emmaline Ruth 1 Year

Now I don't have to look through my hair to see you!

From Emmaline Ruth 1 Year

I was very squirmy, so all I got was my bangs cut... nothing else!

Bye, Holden!

A Holden tradition is to wave bye to all buses leaving the village. We decided to wave back on the way home!

From Holden Village 2012

From Holden Village 2012

Hopefully we'll be able to visit again soon!

What did you do at Holden?

From Holden Village 2012

We went on hikes...

From Holden Village 2012

...to waterfalls!

From Holden Village 2012

We went bowling (and even knocked down a few pins)!

From Holden Village 2012

We played in trees!

From Holden Village 2012

We went to Narnia!

From Holden Village 2012

From Holden Village 2012

From Holden Village 2012

We ate ice cream!

From Holden Village 2012

From Holden Village 2012

From Holden Village 2012

We played on the playground!

From Holden Village 2012

From Holden Village 2012

From Holden Village 2012

We were in a parade!