Pasadena

The first big outing with all the kids and grandparents was spent in Pasadena at a children’s museum called Kidspace. It was a really neat place with an indoor giant ant tunnel, climbing leaves, paint stations, bugs, and other activities. The best part for the kids was outside with their man-made river, spitting fountains, and outdoor play stations. We brought their swimsuits and water shoes for lots of fun!

For dinner we dined downtown at Slater’s 50/50 known for their 50% bacon/50% beef burger patties. I had this crazy bacon loaded burger with a bacon pretzel bun, bacon cheese, bacon sauce, egg, bacon, 50/50 patty. My brother had a sandwich with pancakes as the bun and fried chicken & bacon in between. They also have a bacon brownie for dessert but we didn’t try it. It’s a neat place if you are ever in So Cal and want to clog your arteries 🙂

Dresden Friesen

A few weeks ago Ada & I flew down to California to visit family (Todd joined us a week later). We were very excited to meet the newest member of the family, baby Dresden. Oh man is he a cutie and the sweetest baby! He is so calm and easy going I forgot he was there half the time. He only cried when hungry or uncomfortable (like when I swaddled him too long for pictures). Ada had a lot of fun with her cousins and especially loved giving kisses to Dresden.

Dresden was 3 & 4 weeks in these pictures. Taking pictures with him was like working with a doll. Dresden let me put him in a basket, a tray, and warm blankets without complaining too much 🙂

28 Months

Ada is definitely a girl when it comes to style, she changes her outfits multiple times a day. I often find her in new clothes (that she did not have on before) after nap or in the morning after waking up 🙂 She is starting to use the word “favorite” to say what she likes, but that changes on a daily basis too. Lately, Ada wants to play with me and have conversations with her toys. Our toys often go to the park, the store for milk, and sing “wheels on the bus” together.

Ada’s outfit with the sunglasses cracks me up, I don’t know what I was thinking when I bought it 🙂 I also needed to throw in some pretty flowers that make living in the rainy northwest so worth it.

27 Months

Ada likes to count to 10 and does so consecutively. She will line up her toys or count images in a book. She loves to dress herself (head to toe) and doesn’t really want help unless she gets stuck. We also moved her to a toddler bed and it has been working well so far. She likes to play with her toys for a little while before bed and grab a few more to play with in bed.

Ada has been adding more words to her vocabulary and lengthening her sentences. She often uses the word “like” as a comparison when she sees something familiar. If she sees a stranger mowing the lawn, she will say “mowing the lawn like Daddy.” When my parents were visiting she began using the word “anymore” for “I’m not tired anymore,” or “I’m not hungry anymore.” She really is starting to understand new and many concepts and it’s fun for us to see this 🙂

The neighbor cat, Spicy, still comes over almost every day to visit and play with Ada.

Tulips

My parents came up for 9 days in April to keep me company while Todd was working in Arizona. One of our special outings was visiting the Tulip Festival, a first for my parents and Ada. We paid to gain entrance to the RoozenGaarde tulip fields and display gardens and wow, what a beautiful place! You can also buy their tulips but then I realized it would take 1/4 million bulbs to pull off the same look 🙂

Snails!

Ada loves nature, especially looking for bugs. She enjoys flipping over rocks and bricks to find worms, rolly-pollies, beetles, slugs and snails. Ada could spend all day doing this. I am glad she enjoys God’s creation even if it is a little gross and slimy at times 🙂

We collected a few snails from around the garden one day. The next day we found even more. I think we got most of them now (it’s been several weeks) 🙂

26 Months

Ada continues to impress us with her vocabulary skills and how she grasps things seen from shows, books or us teaching her. She is ever changing and it is difficult to remember/record all of it but she is still a little goof-ball and humors us daily.

Ada’s current interests involve Barbie and baby dolls. She loves to dress/undress them, change their diapers, greet each other, make them dance and use the potty. She is a little nurturing mommy herself 🙂

These were taken Easter morning after church.

Nature Walk

A few weeks back we drove up Mt. Baker Highway and stopped for a little nature walk. We were hoping to see eagles at the Eagle Park, but they had moved on from there. We see them soaring above our neighborhood and near the river close-by from time to time but in the early winter they congregate to feed on spawned salmon. I still have not see this amazing sight, but hope to next year. We just need to remember to take another drive around the new year 🙂

33

Todd’s birthday landed on a Friday this year so he took the day off. We enjoyed playing some disc golf as a family and spending time at a playground. That night Todd and I got to have a date night (saw a movie) after dropping Ada off at our friends’ home. It was a fun day and I hope he enjoyed it too 🙂

I took several pictures of Ada and her hair! It was super frizzy that day and beautiful. She reminded me of the girl from Brave, especially on the swing 🙂

Seagulls

I have been saving up bread in the freezer so I can take Ada to feed ducks at some point. We found a pond that I thought had ducks/geese year round, but unfortunately they were not there that day so we made do with what was…seagulls 🙂 Ada enjoyed throwing bread to them, and after about 30 seconds several more had found their way to us.