We found these kites for a $1 at WalMart. Maddy chose Buzz Lightyear and Sarah liked the the one with Elmo. The kids played with these for about 10 minutes before they lost interest. It took Brice considerably longer to get tired of his. All around a good $2 investment.

We walked from our hotel to the local outlet mall. Brice and I splurged on some summer clothes. We both needed some new things to replace worn stuff from last year (and the year before that, and the year before that....). Sarah completely sacked out in the back pack, while Maddy relaxed and enjoyed her ride in the stroller. Mommy and Daddy were wiped out by the time we got there. Strangly enough, a sleeping child feels a lot heavier than one who is awake and active. I wonder what theory of reletivity that falls into?

Right out front of our hotel, they had this great swingset. We got there on Thursday night and walked out to the beach right away, even though it was cold and windy. We weren't on the beach 10 minutes when we found our first WHOLE sand dollar. That has never happended to me before. I took that as God's blessing on our first family trip together (without friends or grandparents. Not that we don't love you all, but it was fun to be the 4 of us).

Sarah didn't like the sand at first. She didn't want to get down at all and insisted on being carried for the longest time. She finally got the hang of the sand and began to enjoy it. In fact, she developed a taste for handfuls of wet, salty sand. We caught her eating quite a bit of it. Yuck! I'm pretty sure that isn't hygenic.

Oh yeah, check out our awesome hotel. Our room was right under the that big "Seaside" in the middle. 2nd balcony down on the right. You can see the Oregon Flag waving just in front of it. It had a full kitchen, dining and living room, 1 bedroom with a king size bed, a full bathroom with a jetted tub (the Lord is Gracious!). It also had a Murphy Bed (those pull down kind) which Sarah fell off of and scraped the skin off her forehead. Didn't use that again, ha ha. The hotel pool was heated to a wonderful 95 degrees. That was the pool; the hottub was hotter! Felt great to swim at 8 pm when it was 50 degrees outside. The kids loved it.

It was VERY hard to leave.

The Ocean Just Wears You Out!

Its amazing how a child who never wants to sleep can end up like this by her own choice. She just wanted to go to bed.

We were actually in a restaurant. One minute she was laughing and talking to Sarah, the next she was very quiet. Just nodded off without us even realizing it. Needless to say, she was a hit with our fellow diners. A table next to us thought it was a blast to watch her head nodding. She almost cracked it on the table a couple of times.

Easter Dresses are So Wonderful!

The girls were so excited to get into their Easter dresses. We purchased them about a month ago. Maddy has been begging to wear hers.

Maddy just adores her cousin Hope. Hope is a "big girl" and very cool in Maddy's opinion. Maddy had so much fun playing with Hope, Seth and Meaghan. Lots of fun on Easter Sunday.

Maddy is our little fashionista. She's very into pretty dresses this year and constantly asks to wear a dress. It's been hard to keep explaining that it's just too cold to wear dresses in the winter. Now that Spring is here.....

Sarah wants to be just like Maddy. If Maddy is in dress up clothes, then Sarah must have one on too. Sarah is big into shoes. She was very excited to get her Easter Sandals this morning. She showed them off to everyone.

And this is my baby's true personality. She's so quiet around most people, they don't get to see the inner beauty and goofiness of my sweet smiling girl. Daddy told her to give him her biggest smile...she gave that and much more. This picture says it all.

Very Tired Girls

Just a couple of funny pictures of the girls falling asleep in odd places.

Sarah was sitting in the rocking chair, having such a wonderful time rocking herself. She managed to rock the chair so hard that she actually moved it from the corner of the room to the edge of the carpet where it stopped. By that time she was so exhausted that once the chair stopped rocking, she just fell forward and ended up in this position...completely out.

Maddy was having a rough time one night. Brice was working late on our bathroom and Maddy had to play downstairs. This is how we found her.

Father Daughter Ball

Maddy hasn't learned that no one really wants to see her bloomers. Sorry about the view all, but its kinda cute!

At first everyone wanted to Dance. Dancing with Brice and the girls are Dale Vrieling and his daughter Lilly. Maddy and Lilly are best friends. They both are as girly as can be. Sarah was absolutely rocking out. She's a girl after her Daddy's dancing heart.

This lasted about 30 minutes or so. Until Lilly and Maddy decided they just wanted to play. They sat at the table, ate grapes and drank tons of pop, and talked up a storm. Maddy refused to dance anymore, so Sarah and Daddy danced all night.

Nothing cuter than and 18 month old all hyped up on pop. These 1/2 cans are the perfect size for little mouths.

Sarah was looking a little out of it by the end of the night. She ended up falling asleep in my arms, while we waited for Daddy to say the "Goodnight Prayer" for all the dad's. What an honor for Brice and the girls to be the hosts of the evening.

God Bless Renae Quigley for all the hard work she does. My family had a wonderful time.

Uncle Scott's Wedding

Welcome to the family Aunt Laureen. We had so much fun at the wedding. The girls dressed up all pretty and were very well behaved during the wedding.

Maddy was introduced to "Decided Cider" (sparkling cider), which was eventually shortened to "Decider". It was a complete hit. It was funny to watch, because she would take a small sip and then let a small burp. She would politely say "Excuse me" and then repeat. She talked about it for quite a while after.

This is probably one of the best smiles I've gotton on film of Sarah. She's got this thing with taking her socks off and then laughing because she knows it drives me nuts. I got her with the tights though. HA!

Snow in Leavenworth

We had a lot of fun in Leavenworth over Valentine's Day weekend. We had a TON of fun playing in the snow.

On Friday morning, we had our first try at sledding. It was a blast. The girls got really brave and even started going alone. Of course the hill we found wasn't all that steep, but to them I'm sure it was a mountain.
We dragged them around the yard for awhile, but the snow was about 2 feet deep. While the girls were light enough to walk on top, Grandma and I sank through almost to our knees. It was quite a workout...which was good since we ate pretty well while we were up there.

Daddy and Maddy made tons of snow angels. Sarah was quite content to sit in one spot and eat the snow. The girls ate tons of it. Daddy took the girls out on Sunday morning to play while the rest of us (Mommy, Grandma, Grandad, Great-Gram and Great-Grandad) packed our stuff, loaded cars and picked up the rental house. They were out there for 2 1/2 hours, I think.
Great memories for Daddy and his girls. Definitly doing this again next year.