Da Vinci Days!

Da Vinci Days (a local celebration of art, science and technology with music, food, a parade, kinetic sculpture races and all kinds of things to do for kids) was last weekend, and, as usual, we had a blast. Ryan's parents, niece (age 12) and her friend (age 13) arrived Wednesday and stayed until Sunday morning. Jess and the girls arrived Friday afternoon and stayed until after dinner Sunday. We had a super-busy, action-packed time and a really fun visit with everyone. We weren't ready for anyone to leave when the time came!

The 5-year-olds watching the electric car race. Aidan and Hannah are so adorable together--they've been best buddies since they were 1 1/2. They sometimes have a brother-sister type of relationship (good and bad) but they seem to get along better every time we get together. We'll be heading to southern Oregon to visit them next month.

For Aidan, da Vinci Days equals ice cream days. He had a waffle cone all three days of the event.

Little angel Lauren. She wasn't feeling well the first night, but made a quick recovery.

Lauren and Daddy doing their crazy acrobatics in the park.
Kinetic sculpture parade on Saturday. This one is the Calistoga dragon--and it breathed fire!
Our beautiful niece Elise and Lauren at the Frisbee dog competition on Saturday. Elise has three younger brothers and is great with kids! She is really sweet and we enjoyed her company very much.
Aidan in the medical helicopter that landed in the field on Saturday.

Aidan and Lauren playing soccer in the children's village.

Aidan checks out a race car.

Aidan attempting to learn some Irish dancing moves. He was actually really good at it!

Cuties in their PJs

My Jazzercise audition is less than three weeks away now, and I've been practicing quite a bit. When uploading pictures recently, I found several that Ryan had taken one evening before bed, while I was at class. Enjoy the cuteness!

Two-year-old girlie!

Lauren turned 2 two weeks ago! She got to eat ice cream in the nude--I don't think it gets much better than that for her (the girl LOVES to be "nakey," as she calls it). We didn't have a party but had a couple of friends over for fresh cherry pie, ice cream and cupcakes. Our 2-year-old is as cute, smart and fiesty as can be, and impresses us every day with her amazing vocabulary. She is so much fun! My mom got her one of those tricycles with no wheels, and she has gotten so fast on it...she just zips along behind Aidan on the sidewalk. They have been playing together pretty nicely, still with at least one major squabble daily. I guess that will probably last for a while. :-)

By the way, the baby she's feeding ice cream to in the picture below had never had ice cream or cupcakes before--first time for everything, right?

Fun at the Beach

Getting behind on blogging again...we went to the beach a few weeks ago to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday. Although we only live about an hour away, we don't get to the beach very often. We had a wonderful time--the Oregon coast is beautiful, the weather was nice, and the kids had a great time running around in the water, making sandcastles, flying a kite, etc. Plus, Aidan just loves staying at hotels. Our dear family friends from Arizona joined us, en route home from a cruise in Alaska. We did not want to leave!

June Cuties

Just a few pictures for now...will post more from our trip to the beach soon.