Swimming

Spending the night with Nonna

Means a super early wake up for Maddie. Nonna wakes up early and Maddie is her shadow. Today it was 4:30 AM. Yes, she was a crab cake by noon. But, at 6:30 in the morning, with a beautiful golden hour sunrise, we went down to the lake and woke up the entire neighborhood with Maddie's giggles. 

Happy Fourth Allie!!

Reading

Crystal Mountain

After staying up WAY past our bedtimes last night we started our day around 6:00.  Allie needed more sleep.  But we rallied and drove on up to Crystal for a ride on the gondola, a cliff-side picnic (nervous nelly pulled the chairs WAY back from the edge) and a quick little hike (ride in mama's arms for Allie) to see a lake.  Maddie made sure to talk to me the whole way home so I wouldn't sleep, and verified how much gas we had left about 30 times, so I wouldn't run out.  She is quite the helper.  Allie and Rudder fell asleep within seconds of the car turning on.  Phew.

Discovery Park

Every year, it seems, we get pictures taken around Allie's birthday.  This year I thought I'd snap a few pictures of the girls myself.  And it was a disaster, to start.  Both girls fell asleep in the car and were total pills when we finally got to the park.  Allie refused to walk and screamed every time I tried to take a picture.  They were both thirsty and I had nothing to drink.  And so, we left the beach, found a meadow, found a rabbit and began to re-right our sinking ship. We found a fort on the beach, hunted for crabs and seashells, and saw a spectacular sunset.  And even better, showed up to our car seconds before we were about to get a parking ticket.  All in all, ONE GIANT SUCCESS.

Picture overload: