Up she goes.

Abby is venturing into a new hobby...climbing. She'll be scaling sheer cliffs by the time she's a teen.

But for now, she's practicing on the kitchen table.

This was the first time she climbed up onto a chair.



Then she looked behind her and saw another challenge. The table!


I, being the caring mother that doesn't want her babies head cracked open on the tile floor kind of person that I am, told her no, no.


She thought about listening, then swung her knee up high and wiggled herself onto the table.


Insert imaginary picture here.


It was her first time climbing that high and I didn't know how stable she would be, so no, I did not take a picture of her on the table. Instead I ran over, grabbed her up, and put her back down on the floor.

Yes, I'm a mean mom who destroys her children's dreams of climbing to higher heights.

But at least their brains remain intact.

For now.

Water

From time to time Madie begs and begs for a water bottle and when I finally give in she takes about 3 big gulps then puts the rest of it in the fridge. And like her big sister, Abby is loving water bottles too. She snuck this one out of the fridge without Madie noticing.













And while we're on the subject of Abby, here are a few pictures of her at a play date from my friend Shaunika.






I love it!

Green

After we visited John Muir's house, we drove over to the coast to check out Muir Woods. I don't know if John Muir had anything to do with the woods directly, but if you go to his house first and bring your receipt, you get in free.

Yay for free!



These woods are beautiful. Tall. Grand. And green!

I've been there lots of times before, but always in the summer. I had no idea everything would be covered in beautiful green moss. This tree was so moss covered and damp, little ferns could live on it.


The kids were especially good. Abby didn't nap all day, and she was still fantastic.


We could have fit our entire family in this tree. This section shows what was going on in history through out it's life.


And now for some craptastic landscape photography!

Have I ever mentioned how bad I am at landscape photography? Well, I am.
































And that was our day at Muir Woods. I'm sure you can see just how pretty it is, despite my very marginal pictures.

And yes, I'll stick to photographing people.

John Muir. Lots and lots of John Muir.

We went on a little day-cation with out friends Trent, Kristyn and Sammy. It was tons of fun and I think we should do something like this every weekend.

But Nathan disagrees.

With the every weekend part, not the it was so much fun part.

We started our day by driving over the hill to John Muir's house. I LOVE old houses. I want to live in one. One that has new plumbing and electrical and central heating and air. Is that too much to ask?


It had been raining for days before this. Can you tell my kids aren't use to sunlight?



Isn't it pretty? And look at the top...it's a bell tower! The kids ventured up the long steep stairs in the attic and rang the bell.


And this is why I love old houses.

Character! Details! Stuff that makes you say, Wow, look at that! This is the door between the kitchen and dining room.

These are the people.

He's scary ;o)

This is Sam.

She's adorable.

This is my kid.

He has chapped lips.

This is my big girl.

She is the King of Legendary.

I don't know what that means either.

And this is my baby girl. (And me too.)

She is nothing but sweet.

And these are the grounds. They raised fruit trees on the property and apparently did very well in that department. I didn't catch exactly what kind of fruit because I had to take the baby out before the intro movie ended at the beginning of our tour.




And these are playful squirrels. Or maybe they were fighting.


Any which way, they made a very loud ruckus chasing each other around.



I believe this was the winner of the game/fight.





This path leads down to the carriage shed...



...past some pretty trees...



And on to an adobe house on the other side of the property.


Because my kids are kids, they needed a potty break. Nathan took them while the rest of us enjoyed the first day of sunshine in weeks.




Then we were united again.


Remember my goal of taking more pictures of me with my kids? Well, I've added an addendum to that. I will take (or have other people take) more pictures of me with my kids and us as a whole entire family.










Goodbye John Muir's old house. We think you're great!

Up next...Muir Woods.