North Pole

On Friday we took the kids to the North Pole. We have made this an annual tradition, and we always look forward to it. The girls remembered all about it and had a list of what rides they wanted to go on first. We invited Ben's parents to come with us, and that was really nice as well.

The best thing about the park is that it is never crowded. I don't think the girls waited in a single line the entire time- they just went back and forth to whatever ride they wanted. If you have little kids and live in Colorado, this is definitely worth the trip!

 Camille mostly stayed in her stroller- she was quite content to watch the kiddos on the rides. But, we did take her on the candy cane slide, and even though she doesn't look like it, she LOVED it. We would get off the slide and she would immediately run to the stairs to climb up and go down again.

She's A Climber!

While is Seattle Camille perfected the art of going up and down stairs.

As soon as we got home, she figured out how to climb onto our chaise. Now, it's really cute because she climbs up on the chaise and "relaxes" while she reads a book or just looks cute.

Camille's First Self-Feed

It just kind of worked out, that all three girls had their first self-fed meal in my parents high chair.
The first two pictures above are of Claire (just for comparison).


Then here's Camille:

From these pictures, they look quite different. Sometimes I see pictures and they look exactly the same, but not so much in these pictures. Oh, well. It's still fun to compare.

The True Story of One Girls Horrific Journey To The Fishing Hole

 Before we left for Seattle, Audra BEGEGD AND BEGGED AND BEGGED to go fishing. Not wanting to take her ourselves, we told her Grandpa High would take her. Oh, how this girl was so excited!

We got to Seattle and she immediately asked grandpa when he could take her fishing. Not wanting to take her himself he replied, "Once your dad gets here."

Finally Ben arrived, and the fishing questions started up again.

We rallied the troops and decided to go to a little you-fish place.

We got on the road and Audra started talking about how excited she was to catch a goldfish to have for a pet.

Umm...What?

Catch a goldfish. For a pet. Like Hannah.

So began the delicate process of telling Audra we weren't catching a gold fish to take home for a pet. We were going to catch and kill and eat the fish we caught.

The excitement was gone.

But, we insisted she do it- this whole journey was, of course, HER idea (well, actually it was the idea of Curious George- who did, indeed, catch a fish and take it home for a pet).

Ben cast the reel:

 Camille sat nicely:

 Audra began her first fishing adventure:

 She got one!

 Dad helped her get it in!

 The fish is caught! Whereupon Ben declared as loudly and as fiercely as possible: "I am NOT killing the fish. Just so you know, I am NOT killing the fish!"

 Claire was fine with watching fish being killed and with fishing. We even got to see the fish's heart beat.

Audra, however, sobbed. And sobbed and sobbed.

Even after I told her that God created fish so that we could eat, the crying continued.

No pet goldfish, but we did get dinner tonight. A dinner Audra only ate because she wanted dessert.

We may have a future vegetarian on our hands.

Redondo Beach

 One of my favorite parts of going to Seattle every time is walking along Redondo. I think Redondo might be the prettiest place on the planet.

 Claire saw this house with the ivy entryway. She was CONVINCED that we needed to buy this ivy walkway (who cares about the house behind it?) and move in. I told her we couldn't move there and she said, "why? Because it doesn't have any toys?" and I said "yes, it doesn't have any toys." So then she formulated a plan about how we could bring all our toys from Denver to this new ivy house. Or, she would be OK with having no toys as long as she got to live in the ivy.

Unfortunately, my beloved Redondo walk ended with a huge meltdown by Claire (because we wouldn't let her immediately move into the ivy.)

It's been over a week, and Claire still talks about this house.

Maybe Ben and I will just have to buy it.

Fourth of July, Part 2

The last half of our Fourth of July festivities started out well but ended pretty, well, not well.

Ben has never been a fan of the Fourth. He is a HUGE party-pooper. I haven't seen fireworks since before we got married- when he tricked me by taking me to a fireworks show and dazzling me with romance (that's the night he first told me he loved me). Now I know it was all fake. And I'm not very happy about it.

So this year I was ECSTATIC to show him how AWESOME fireworks are! My girls were FINALLY going to get to see fireworks! It was going to be the perfect "I told you so" night- and what wife doesn't look forward to that?

We arrived at my sisters house ready for action. She lives in one of 3 townships in the entire USA that still allows you to shoot fireworks. For years they have shot fireworks in their cul-de-sac as I enviously looked at pictures and longed for such an adventure for my own life.

The girls were appropriately excited. Ben was not.

 They started out with pump rockets- how could life get any better???

 Then sparklers and snaps- life is good!

But it can get worse...

Finally, the sun went down and the real fireworks could begin. The snacks were being eaten, and everyone was sitting for the show.

The first ones went off. Oops, they were illegal ones.

The second ones went off. One problem: the firework fell on its side and shot out at us.

The firework literally shot into the kids. It went off right by Audra- hurting her ears really bad, as well as Ken's dads' ears. Audra was sobbing and had hearing problems the rest of the night. Thankfully, she woke up fine and has no lasting damage.

But the worst was poor Olivia. She wasn't wearing her shoes. The firework went right under her foot (of course- why would it go to someone who was wearing shoes?) and gave her some pretty serious burns on the bottom of her foot. She had to go to the ER. Thankfully, it was 2nd degree burns, not 3rd degree, so she didn't need a skin graft or anything.

It could have been a lot worse, but it was still pretty bad.

And aside from Olivia's burns, which really were the worst part of the night, the second part of the night that was horrible is this: Ben was right. HE got to tell ME "I told you so."

I really hate that.