Adventures in Paradise (CA)

I took the girls a couple weeks ago to spend some time with Grandma Solano up in Paradise. Luckily we all survived the drive and had a great time with lots of adventures...(I sound like Dora the Explorer). unfortunately I only had the video camera, so the still photos leave something to be desired (focus).

#1 adventures in tadpole hunting
They had these huge bullfrog tadpoles that had already sprouted their hind legs. Its been a while since I went knee deep into murky pond water to catch tadpoles and crawdads, but it was an adventure. Needless to say it took a few prayers and a long hunt. The girls had fun holding it and we had checked out a book on frogs that morning from the library, so they got to see the stages, and "Helen" was safely returned to her murky pond and swam away very relieved.

#2 Adventures poolside

Luckily we had lots of relief from the heat. Claire finally had her ah ha moment in the pool. She had a life jacket on and a floaty ring and as usual she screamed when I let her go, but all of the sudden it hit her that she was not sinking to her death. She smiled and started kicking around and had a great time "Swimmin by herself" the last day there. I have that saga on video, but no still photos. Here is a blurry one of her warming up on the cement. I loved doing this as a kid. Lara had a great time as usual in the water and eating dinner poolside every night she got to destroy one of Grandma's napkin, and eat some of it. YUM.

The girls really loved this hula girl garden flag and asked me to take a picture of them next to it.

#3 Adventures with friends and family

We timed the trip just right to get to see the Jagodas and Aunt Gayle. The visits were too short, but so fun. The Jagodas oldest, Savannah, was born in Provo a couple months before Ashlyn. They lived across the driveway from us in a basement apartment just like ours. We always knew that Ashlyn and Savannah would hit it off. Too bad they live on the other side of the country from us. Dan and Britany are planning to take a vacation together next summer to Vegas without their kids. Brock and I are planning on crash their vacation and "just happen" to be there at the same time. Anyone else want to go on vacation with the Jagodas?

Brock's Aunt Gayle came and swam with us that afternoon and it made us miss our days in Utah when we got to see her more often.



#4 Adventures in Bakersfield

Luckily we had pit stops in bakersfield to and from Paradise and got to see Ernie and Ryker. It was Rykers birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE RYKER!!!!


Well, you know its time to stop blogging when your two year old comes in smelling like your deodorant. I'm sure I'll find the empty canister some day hidden somewhere with the empty tubes of glue stick she likes to randomly smear on her fisher price toys. Oh Claire--how qyickly she gets in to things. Time to go to the pool.