Dear Maggie

Unfortunately, on Sunday, October 23rd we lost a wonderful woman, Maggie Rogers, to cancer. She was Jim's aunt and a simply amazing woman. We will miss her very much!

Jim flew back to Pittsburgh for the funeral and even though it was a sad time he was happy to spend a few days with his extended family.

Maya's First Visit to Vegas

On the weekend of October 21st-23rd Remy, Joe, and Maya made the drive from Redondo Beach to Las Vegas for a visit. They arrived on Friday and we had a relaxing evening at home playing with the kids and eating Sushi Bomb. Abby was so happy to have them here that she had a hard time sleeping on Friday night. She was so tired on Saturday morning that she found the nearest "comfortable" place to sleep a bit more.

Saturday we spend the day in the pool:

After afternoon naps for everyone it was off to the Hofbrauhause for dinner. This is one of Abby's favorite restaurants...

 Abby loves the oompah polka music. Remy, Joe, and Maya seemed to enjoy it too.

 Kera enjoyed the big steins.

 This picture of Kera reminds me of a similar picture we have of Abby...

 Like sister like sister!

It was great having the girls together and we can't wait for our next visit!

New Hat and Mittens

Abby LOVES her new hat and mittens!

She thinks she looks like a bunny rabbit...a bunny rabbit in pajamas.

Pumpkins and Camping

On Columbus Day weekend we had 2 adventures, the pumpkin patch and a night of camping at Valley of Fire.

First, the pumpkin patch. This was our second annual trip to the Gilcrease Orchard to get our pumpkins. It really is a nice "orchard" for being in the middle of the desert. We were able to find 4 nice pumpkins and a 1/2 gallon of pear cider (YUM!).

Next up camping. Our plan was to go up to Mount Charleston for the night but...sometimes plans have to change. The nice thing about camping at Mount Charleston is that it is only 45 minutes away so, we could have always come home if needed but...Mount Charleston is over 6000 feet above sea level. Jim kept on asking me to check what the weather was going to be like on the mountain. Well, the Internet is wrong sometimes! When I checked the weather it told me that the nights were in the 50s but when we got there and talked to the ranger she told us that the lows have been around 29. This equalled a change in plans. There was no way that we were going to camp with the girls with it being that cold.  Next thought, Valley of Fire. This state park is on the dessert valley floor so, much warmer. Valley of Fire is usually only an hour away but not today since we were already traveling in the wrong direction. All that being said, we ended up with a great campsite:

The girls loved the tent:

Chewy was able to come with us too and he was one happy dog!

Getting him there was a bit difficult though. The back of the car was filled with all of our gear, the girls took up the back seat so, Chewy was int he front seat with me. Very crowded but it was worth it to see him so happy!

It was a lot of work to go camping for one night and Jim and I come home exhausted but the girls had fun and that is all that matters. Here are a few more of our camping pictures...

Stand...Walk...Run plus Teeth

Kera is days away from running after her sister...

Look how proud she is of herself!

On another note, look at her new teeth:

I can't believe we are a little over a month away from Kera turning 1. Time really does fly!!

Abby Loves to Sing

Check out Abby's new music video:

Zion National Park

The weekend of August 26th through the 29th we headed to Zion National Park in Utah and we had a great time! It was absolutely beautiful there. My dad reminded me that I had been there once before but...I was 6. I wish I could say that we camped but instead we stayed in the Lodge...the girls are still a bit young for camping...they need to sleep through the night first.

Here are some pictures of our adventures...

The lodge rooms didn't have any kitchens so we had to eat every meal out...this was fun and a bit trying at the sane time. The girls were acting their age but, that can be hard when you are in a restaurant setting. Here is picture from our first dinner out..and our best at Oscars:

We brought our bikes with us and, it ended up, that the bikes were the perfect way to see the park. The girls are not the best hikers yet but they are great on the bike.

We had a couple of great  short walks were we saw some fun animals...

The Lodge had a great grassy area that both Abby and Kera loved to play in and in the middle of the grass was a huge Willow tree...

And of course there were the great views...

We had a fantastic time!

but of course we couldn't end our long weekend without a dip in our pool...