Wildflower Hike

Something we've done the past couple of years, well, when it rains at least, is take the kids on a nature hike to look at the wildflowers up above the college and in the Rademacher range. The boys love to get out of the house and it's a great opportunity to expose them to nature. We have fun photographing the flowers, watching out for snakes, and running around (if you're Galen at least). Poor Liam got freaked out by a bug that flew past him and so he wanted to go home, but we convinced him that it wasn't going to hurt him and he calmed down and we continued on our adventure. Unfortunately there were many bugs that decided the boys were interesting, which caused many a squeal!

After the hike we stopped at the college because the Galen wanted to play on the rocks, meaning he wanted to jump on the rocks! Thane told me that when Galen and I went one direction to head towards the college sign, Liam said to him, "Galen and Mamma went that way, but we have to stay here, and you have to stay here with me." He's such a character. He is so opinionated, definitely not one that changes his mind easily when it is set. The boys had fun climbing on the rocks, and as you can see, doing some rather good jumping feats. All in all, it was a good afternoon hike and adventure.

January Snow Trip

Back in January we took the boys up to Walker's Pass to play in the snow after we had a good snow storm come through the Sierra's. It was great! The snow was between 10-12" deep. This was the deepest the snow has been, or at least that we've seen, in a long while. The only snow the kids have seen has been at most a few inches thick, so this was great! We played for almost an hour.

We asked Galen if he wanted to make a snowman, but he said no, he wanted to make a jet. We tried, and got the semblance of it, but he was so distracted having fun rolling around in the snow and making snowballs, that he didn't really notice that it was mostly a fuselage. Liam wasn't as thrilled as Galen, but that was because he had a hard time getting around I think. Being much shorter, and the snow going up to his knees in some places, or higher, made it hard for him to walk. We finally got him smiling though when Thane decided to make Liam headprints in the snow.

The only bad thing was that we forgot about how short the kids are in relation to the depth of the snow and the fact that their pants were going to get soaked - poor Galen's pants were completely soaked through, his socks were completely wet, and we had to strip him down to his underpants for the trip home (to be wrapped up in mom's coat and uncomfortably strapped into his carseat in just his undies). Thankfully we just happened to find an extra set of clothes in the diaper bag that Liam could use (dumb luck). Both the boys were toddler popsicles by the time we were done, and Galen in particular was having so much fun he didn't have any clue how cold he was.

Little Liam insists he didn't have fun and didn't like the snow, even though we know he had some fun. Galen enjoyed it, and we definitely learned that we need to bring an extra set of clothes for the trip home! Hopefully next year there will be more snow and we can get some sleds and go sledding! Here are some happy faces, having fun in the snow:

First Ocean Visit

During our Legoland trip we had an opportunity to take the boys to the ocean, not just see the ocean from the car, but actually take them to the beach and let them walk up and see the vastness of the Pacific up close. Since Legoland didn't open until 10am, it was a great way to spend some the morning.

It was fantastic, and an opportunity we couldn't pass up - especially when our hotel was only a mile from the beach! Both the boys were a little freaked out by the waves that were "trying to get them" and poor little Liam really got thrown for a moment or two, but for Galen, who loves to dig in the dirt and sand, well, as you can imagine, he was in sandbox heaven! We showed them seashells, seaweed, seabirds, seafoam, squirrels and surfers. The boys had fun climbing on the rocks, and as you can see, Liam had another one of his more, serious moments as he contemplated the ocean before him.

At a little inlet where the water formed a tiny pool, Thane showed them how he could dig a hole and it would immediately fill with water - seemingly out of nowhere! When it was time to go we were getting the sand out of the boys shoes and socks up at some benches overlooking the beach up the cliff and there were a bunch of squirrels looking for handouts. It was a fun way for the boys to get a close up look at some wildlife (that wasn't quite so wild unfortunately). All in all it was a great little visit, to a wonderful little spot in Carslbad.

Legoland

Our first real family vacation! We felt bad because Liam couldn't go on some of the rides, and he was definitely cranky as a result. It didn't help that it was nap time and that only amplified Mr. Cranky Boy. We went for two days, not sure if we would stay for a second day, but since we didn't get down as early as we'd hoped the first day and the boys were having so much fun, we left it up to them as to whether or not they wanted to go home, or stay the night and come back the next day. Well, of course they wanted to stay! It was a really fun trip.

The second ride Galen went on was the biggest, fastest, roller coaster they had in the whole park! He'd never been on any rollercoaster before so it would be interesting to see how he'd do. The first downhill was a shock to him, but after that it was all smiles! Liam loved the boat ride, one we went on about 4 times, if not more, and both of the boys loved the lego Vader and R-2 D-2. Gramma and Grampa Karnos came with us the first day and that was really fun to get to enjoy some of the trip with them too.

The boys were pretty tuckered out on the way home, which took us much longer than expected due to an accident and a pit stop at Costco. It was really cute how they hung onto their newly acquired Legoland swords and axe while riding in the car - and even falling asleep with them, as you can see from Galen's photo. We'll definitely be back again in a year or two when Liam is a little bigger so he can go on all the rides!