A Flamingo Habitat

While we were at the Truckee cabin, Emma started to work on her flamingo habitat project. It was a perfect place to work on the project because after playing in the snow she wanted to do something fun while warming up in the cabin.

She even made some "water" by melting sugar in water and adding food coloring.
The completed project was so cute! I loved her flamingos made from pipe cleaners, feathers and construction paper.
We even included pictures of her at the zoo visiting the real flamingos!
Her diorama was on display at school with the rest of her class. It looked fantastic!

A Trip to Memory Maker

We decided to rent a cabin for some fun in the snow. We'd rented from this family before, but they bought a new cabin in Truckee, so we wanted to try it. A big storm was coming in Friday night, so we left home at about 2:00 thinking we'd be there around 5:00. Needless to say, the storm came in early and we didn't arrive until almost 9:00! It was horrible! Traffic was stopped for hours and we were crawling up Highway 88. The worst part was that Allison had to go to the bathroom. I tried to get her to use the travel potty in the car while we were stopped on the road. She would have nothing to do with it though. I felt horrible for her. She finally got to a point when she couldn't hold it any longer and peed in her car seat. :( She was devastated. When we finally arrived in Truckee, it was still snowing. I pulled her out of her seat and tried to get her to go on her travel potty. She freaked out though and did NOT like the snow falling on her. My poor baby! We got back in the car and started to look for our cabin. The bad part was that it was so dark, and it was snowing so all the street signs were covered in snow! We couldn't read them to see where to turn. It was a very tense ride in the car until we finally arrived at the beautiful cabin!!!

After the crazy drive we were ready for bed so we could play in the snow the next day. We were getting ready for bed and I thought I heard running water somewhere. Jeff looked around in the dark and didn't see anything, but I thought I could hear something all night. The next morning Jeff looked around a bit more because there was more light and he found that the water heater had blown a part and the basement was flooded! We called the owners and they had a handy man come out and fix it because we had no hot water! This didn't seem to be a weekend that was going to turn out very well. Happy to say though, they had a great time! They LOVED the snow!

Allison and Emma were all bundled up and ready to go. They looked so cute as a little snow bunnies!
I even set the camera up on a rock to get a family photo too.


Emma loved when Jeff would throw her up in the air and land in a big bank of snow.
The snow was soooo deep! They would sink up to their bellies with some steps.




After quite a bit of drama to get to the house, we ended up having a great time!

Doran Birthday Trip

To celebrate Keith and Jeff's birthdays we headed to Doran Beach for the weekend. We had beautiful weather (after the first night of chilly weather) and beautiful sunsets! It's one of our favorite places to visit.

Searching for shells is always one of the girls' favorite things to do.

Brynn was a trooper with her pink cast. We had to bundle it up real good with a plastic bag so she could enjoy the beach too!

Kiley was not too sure about all the sand on her hands.

Back to the beach for more shell collections...
...and kite flying too.

Can't forget those walks on the beach. Always a favorite for us!

Olivia and Emma always have so much fun playing together.
Allison liked to play in the wet sand...that wasn't too close to the waves!
She watched the waves closely as I was holding her. She wasn't too sure about them and didn't want to get too close though.
She started gaining in confidence...she's a little closer now!
A great family photo on the beach.


This is one of my favorites of our family!

Love the beautiful Bay in the background of all the family photos.


Back to the beach in round 2 of what used to be dry clothes!

Daddy/daughter walks are the best!
Jump rope with kelp is so fun on the beach.
Emma and Kiley love to dig in the wet sand. They could care less that it is freezing water!!
Paige brought the kids to the beach too. Here, Emma takes Brody for a stroll around the campground in the Barbie Jeep.
The sand pit is a hit with all the kids, including Brody, Olivia, Allison and Emma.

Painting with pudding!!! Such a fun and yummy art project. Perfect for camping because it doesn't matter if you get messy!

Happy Birthday Keith and Jeff!
Play time in the trees...Emma, Brody, Olivia and Allison.
Allison turned into a tree monkey!

One of the best parts about going to Doran each year is watching the kids have so much fun in all the sun, sand and surf!

Happy Birthday Jeff!

We celebrated Jeff's birthday with a peanut butter and chocolate ice cream cake from Coldstone! Yum!

Happy Birthday, Jeff!