On track?

Well, that worked. Two more: Isaac and Max on the links, and the four Molins at the swings (photo by Tom, thanks!) We had a lot of fun.
 
 

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Been having trouble getting pics to show up. This is Sydney on a merry-go-round in Lake Chelan. 

Lake Chelan - pics updated!

Some pics from our trip to Lake Chelan in Washington. Sue and Max were with us, and Tom came over from Spokane to join
us for two days. We had a great time: apple cider pressing (and hot cider donuts!), playgrounds, beaches, boat trip (that's the pic of S and I asleep on mommy), petting farm, even miniature golf. We had nice weather: brisk and a few showers, and a dusting of snow on the peaks. Some terrific sunrises. We're told that in high season, the place is packed, but in October it's terrific! (as long as you're prepared to deal with a little rain now and then). Nice people, too, both the locals and the other visitors --- S found several kids to play with.

 
 
 
 

Some scenes from our trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We all had a pretty good time, largely because I decided that it was Just Fine that S & I spend a lot of time in this kids' area, instead of actually looking at actual sea life. We did see quite a bit of the "real" parts of the aquarium, like the jellies and the "funny fish" (sunfish) and we did catch the sea otter feeding, which was fun. Note for next time: set clear rules for the gift store before going in.

And one pic from the drive home, at the Black Bear Diner in Mt Shasta. They're mugging for the camera here, the food at Black Bear is suitable but nothing to dance and sing about.

Carnival

Yesterday was Open House at school, a yearly event. Sydney likes the face painting and was quite pleased with this one:

Isaac got into it too, with a "Spider Hero" face to match his shirt (coincidence):

Both of them enjoyed the Pony Ride, but Isaac especially --- he kept coming back! I lost track, it was either 5 or 6 rides:

This giant slide, oddly, didn't get any repeat business from our kids after they'd each done it once:

We both were delighted at how Sydney laughed and laughed at this clown --- she couldn't get enough of him:

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It took me 48 seconds to write the title of this post, and I missed "v". (Yes, I timed it.) Try it sometime, it's an interesting mental exercise. I mention it because at dinner last night Sydney started reciting the alphabet backwards! She did really well, too --- with a little encouragement and a couple hints now and then she made it the whole way. She seemed quite chuffed.

Isaac's been more receptive to practicing his language skills too, which is really happy to see.

Of course, it's not all roses and song, but let's just gloss over some of the noisier and higher velocity parts of recent home life ....

artifacts

Why a picture of this otherwise uninteresting toy? This is the first one that we brought out of "hiding" after it had been away for several months in a box in the spare bedroom. We'd always been planning to do this, but never quite got around to it. Well, the reception was very gratifying: Sydney rushed out of the Library shouting "Mommy! Daddy! Look! I haven't seen this toy in weeks and weeks [more like months!]. Isaac found it for me!" We didn't correct this last minor point ... a little inaccuracy in the service of sybling harmony seems like a fair trade.

These? The shoes Isaac was wearing on Gotcha Day. They've been in service all this time (not exclusively), but he's quite outgrown them. Time for them to go to the cabinet of memories. Sometimes I've wondered who GWJ was, who bought them new, and whose feet they graced before coming into Isaac's possession.