Cousins!

While Mike was gone, My sister Tiff and her two little munchkins came to visit! It was wonderful having them and Ian was thrilled to play with his cousin Amy. Here are some pics from their visit....Here's cute Amy with a snippit of my sister behind her...

And baby Casey who's built like a tank! He weighs a lot more than Eliza but at least she's taller than him! Poor kid was sick while he was here but he still had fun.

And here's Ian having fun at the park with his cousins. (notice the chin injury, as explained in the last post!) I was going to post a picture of my sister with her kids, but then I realized I took those photos with her camera! Whoops. But we had fun. And Mike is home now, Hooray!

101 Ways to Hide a Mullet

So I don't really have 101 ways to do Eliza's hair, but this is our new favorite that hides the lack of hair up front. It looks like she has little bangs, but it is really just the shorter hair finally growing in. Luckily most people just see her cuteness and ignore the mullet. Anybody have any other suggestions for her hair? We do this, the waterspout and the comb over with barrette.

Right before this picture was taken Ian attempting to jump from the blue chair, over the white table (behind Eliza) on to the couch. He didn't make it and has a big bloody scrape on his jaw now. When I was asking him what happened, he got mad at ME and said "You should have had a pillow there Mom!" What was I thinking? I think I will have to add rubber padding to the walls as well.

We are loving our new apartment, all the space. And yes, that is our garage in the picture! Wahoo now we have a place for sleeping bags, tents, skis, bikes, ice axes, and of course, the trailer. (Any body want to buy a trailer?) Thanks to Jan and Mark and our lovely friends at Ridgecrest for helping us move. Please come visit us soon! Ian has been a "little" upset that we used the third bedroom as a computer room and he is still supposed to share with Eliza. The past few nights however, we have started putting her into the computer room to try and get her to sleep through the night. She would rather scream though, and wake up the whole house.

I had to document this little habit of Eliza's. When she is tired, she sticks out her tongue and licks her special blanket. It's funny.

I only seem to post when Mike is out of town, he is at a fire somewhere around Island Park. Hopefully he will be home early next week. But we are looking forward to a visit from my sister Tiffany and kids on Monday and that will keep us entertained.

And here is a picture of silly Ian to even out the Eliza to Ian picture ratio. I barely recognize him without his glasses!

Hiking with the kids

Yesterday the kids and I took a brief hike up a trail just outside of town called Gibson Jack. We walked up there with the kids on Sunday, and they did so great, hiked the whole way without being carried, even Eliza. So I thought I would try it again. I made the mistake of telling Ian that we could play in the little stream on the way back so every 5 minutes he tried to get me to turn around, saying he was tired, wanted to go home, anything just so he could play in the water. In this picture he's just pretending to be sad because he wants to go back.
So we didn't make it nearly as far up the mountain as we did on Sunday. But it was a good break and got them out of the house and gave them their "Green Hour." I even got to take my new birthday present camera (Canon Powershot SD1100 IS) with me and try out some cool features.
Ian had so much fun playing in the water that he wouldn't even hold still for a photo. Just jumped around like crazy. Eventually Eliza had to get in to so I had to put away the camera so I could keep her safe. By the end of the trip the kids were covered in mud from head to toe and I still haven't cleaned out the car. (sorry Mike!) Mike by the way was hanging out in the Sun Valley area with his buddies. Ok, ok. Not really hanging out. Fighting a fire and camping in the dirt.

Happy Birthday to me...

So tomorrow is my last birthday. Growing up, whenever I asked my mom her age, she always replied, "29". After a few years I caught on that she wasn't aging, but she always insisted she was 29. Despite the fact that she was just 4 months shy of 40 when I was born. So I think after tomorrow, I will have to give up on birthdays as well. Except you can all still give me presents. And ice cream cake. And hugs. And cards. Even e-cards. But from here on out, if anybody asks, I am 29.