Today we had an early thanksgiving in fernley. Cousins, grandparents and turkey, so much fun!
Sent from my iPhone

Sent from my iPhone

Thanksgiving at grandmas

Our girls at play

We are in DC!!

Patrick had to come to Washington DC for work next week, so we decided to bring the family out a little early and enjoy a little vacation. Too bad the work trip is in December though... it's COLD!! Much colder than we're used to in Death Valley. We traveled all day Thursday, and the kids were great on the flights, much better than expected. Yesterday we did the National Zoo, and decided to walk back to the hotel instead of take the metro becuase Leah had fallen asleep. We also didn't dress them warmly enough, and by the time we got back to the hotel the girls were freezing and screaming and it was a mini nightmare. But we learned our lesson and dressed the girls super warmly today, which came in handy since we also had to walk a million miles once again. Today we went to the top of the Washington Monument, then went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum and the American History Museum. All awesome. We also saw the National Christmas tree, but they aren't lighting it until next Friday, so it wasn't as good as we'd hoped. A few more touristy days here, then Patrick starts working Monday and the girls and I are headed to Philidelphia to stay with our fabulous friend Stephanie while Patrick slaves away. We're having a ton of fun despite the freezingness! Here are some picture highlights:

At the top of the Washington Monument

National Zoo. The kids liked the statues better than the animals.

But the did love the aquarium portion.

Riverside

Right now we are in Riverside, CA. Patrick had some training here this week so we all came along to enjoy the warm (not HOT) weather. And I get to blog! So here ar some pictures from the last few days:

Kaiya loved playing in the water fountain. She got soaked but didn't care.

The girls loved these birds. They talk a little but they mostly fight and bite each other.

We found a fun little cupcake shop and Kaiya was so excited to pick out and eat her very own giant cupcake.

We also got to visit our friends the Rasmussens in Bakersfield before we came out to Riverside. They took us on this wagon pulled by horses. Kai loved it but Leah screamed the whole time. We still had a lot of fun visiting though!

We've had a great time in Riverside and wish our mini vacation could last longer!

Our Home:)

I took this picture of our house the other day. You can hardly see the house, but here's our front yard at least. We are very fortunate to live in the older neighborhood, so we have trees. The newer houses have no trees for shade. Kaiya loves this yard, especially the stream that runs through the front. She loves to explore and get really, really dirty. I don't love to clean her up every time she goes outside, but I suppose it's worth it to see her having so much fun.

Children's Museum

A few weeks ago we took a trip to the Las Vegas Children's Museum and the girls had so much fun. This was also the first time Leah rode forward facing in the car, and they seemed to think that was pretty great. ...And this is how they looked at the end of the day.

Happy Birthday Baby Girls!!

Kaiya turned 3 in April and Leah turned 1 in May! It's kind of fun to have their birthdays so close together because we were in birthday mode for about 3 weeks. We had seperate celebrations for them, and here are some pictures of each party (although I couldnt' get them into an order I wanted):

Leah stuffing her mouth with her very own banana cupcake. The joy!

Leah was supposed to wear this party hat for cake, but I forgot until the end of the party. She didn't really care for it anyway, as you can tell.

Happy Birthday!

This was Leah's present. It's a big bouncy toy that looks like a kiddy pool. The girls enjoyed the bouncing and it's a good way to burn their energy when it's too hot to go outside.

For Kaiya's birthday we had a little party with just us at home, then we took her to Las Vegas to the zoo and to breakfast at the Rainforest Cafe. Here's her and her daddy walking around at the zoo.

Breakfast

We stayed at the Excalibur. It was Kaiya's "princess hotel".

Kaiya's pink cake with pink frosting and pink candles. She had been requesting this combination since Patrick had his birthday in December.

Leah is Walking!

Leah took her first steps the day before Easter and this video is from a few days after that. She looks so cute walking! She's still a little timid about taking steps... it might have something to do with a certain big sister who pushes her over when she tries....

New Updates!

Today is Kaiya's third birthday! We are in Las Vegas becuase we are taking her to the zoo and out to lunch tomorrow for a celebration. And luckily enough they have internet at the hotel so I get to update the blog!! Here are some of the recent pictures we've taken. I wish we could put up some from the last 5 months, but it would take too long to post all that I would want to share!

The fam at Easter. We took the girls to Furnace Creek Inn for their annual egg hunt.

Kaiya really liked hunting eggs this year. When she would find one she would say, "Where's another egg?" excitedly.

Easter basket fun.

The girls are playing together a lot lately and one of the things they like to do is to look at books. So cute.

This is a funny story. Kaiya has pretty much given up napping, but I still occasionally try to put her down when she seems like she needs it. I have to put her down in my room now that she and Leah are sharing a room, because they won't fall asleep at naptime together. So after a while one day I went to check on her and I found her this way: she was wearing Leah's Easter dress inside out on top of her own clothes and had found my high heels. She was pretty sure that she looked great.

Fun at the park.

Leah's bedhead.

Bathtime!

The girls got a wagon for their birthdays from Grandma. They love to ride in the wagon and I love that it has a sunshade!

We had a great visit with the Lawsons when we took a trip to Carson in March. Here's a picture of Kaiya and Trevor, who were born on the same day.

We took Kaiya and her cousin Miles to the Carson Children's Museum and they had a great time making a mess and having fun.

Leah is tired at breakfast at my Grandma's house.

St. Patrick's day cuteness.

Why I work for the National Park Service

It's certainly not for the pay. But there are a lot of perks. One of them is training. In the ten months since I started working at Death Valley I've started training to be a firefighter, emergency medical responder and perform search and rescues. And those aren't even parts of my actual job description. On top of all that, for in depth training we are sent to some of the most amazing places. For example, for the first two weeks of December, I went to the Grand Canyon for training. And I do mean at the Grand Canyon, not close to it. A short walk and we could be on the rim at any time. As I continue my career, locations such as Yosemite, Hawaii Volcanoes, the Statue of Liberty, Washington DC, Gettysburg are all places that we fully expect to live/work/train at. And those are just some of the reasons we love the NPS!

The photos below show the changing weather I experienced while there (in reverse order). It was great weather for the first few days, then it got cold and started to snow, and kept snowing. Normally 18" of snow and -10 degrees might not be too bad, but coming from Death Valley, I almost died.

(On a side note, Crystal and the girls were unable to come along this time, but instead her sister and 2 kids visited for a week. Also, her brother and 2 boys came to visit. Do I love my family?-Yes I do. Am I glad I was gone when there were 6 kids (4 under the age of 3) & 4 adults trying to go to bed?- Yes I am.)