Awesomeness... Part 3

Finally, here is the post for the last day of our trip down to Vancouver. This time, I didn't have the patience to go through and post all the pictures through Blogger, so I'm uploading them to photobucket and will then post them here. It won't look as neat but it is faster and so much easier!

Anyway, to officially start "Awesomeness... Part 3"

On Monday, my birthday, Mom, Kathi, Peter, the girls, and I all went to the Oregon Zoo. It has been a LONG time since I've been to the zoo, any zoo. I had a lot of fun!


Here is Natalie and Alexis (who is in the stroller that Peter is picking up) to look at some of the animals.


Here is what they were looking at. Doesn't it look like they are deep in conversation? (I promise not to post too many pictures of the animals we saw. I'm sure that's not what you're interested in anyways)


Here's Mom/Gramma. Doesn't she look great?!?!?


Alexis didn't know what to think of the zoo and all the strange animals and people at first. It took her awhile to warm up to the idea of looking at them.




So this isn't supposed to look like a posed picture. Natalie was playing with the elephant tusks so nicely, and it looked totally cute, but she had stopped before I could get a picture. So I asked her to go back and play with them again, this is the best I could get :|


Peter and Alexis going on a safari.




Auntie Kathi and Natalie


Haha, we had a hard time convincing Natalie to touch the skull. But when she finally did, both Peter and I roared at her and made her jump so high. We're so mean. But she loved it too and then was more willing to touch it again after that.


This is when Alexis started to really get into looking at the animals. Here' we're looking at the giraffes... I think...






One of the few pics of me... I was mostly behind a camera.


Here's another animal picture. Isn't he adorable?!?! He was struggling on figuring out how to step up onto the next level, so Mom came over to help. I could have just stayed there and watched all day! I love the elephants!


Alexis is pointing at some baby pigs (obviously not the kind of pigs you'd find at a farm...)


Doesn't she look so sad? Apparently she lost her companion about a month ago (well, now about a month and a half ago) and she's a bit lonely. It was a bit heartbreaking just seeing her sit there like that. :(


We have our own little bear! So viscious!


I think Alexis was roaring like Natalie was, so we have two viscious bears in the family!


And otters...



Remember earlier, how I said I could have sat and watched the elephants all day? Well, I'm glad I didn't! Otherwise I would have missed a very beautiful show the sea lions were kind enough to put on for us. I swear it looked like they were dancing!







OK I think that's the last of the animal pictures... but no promises!




It's hard to tell because of the lighting and shadows, but we're standing in front of a stuffed black bear, which Natalie was terrified of... of course I didn't realize it and nobody who was taking pictures told me.


Well, that was our visit to the Oregon Zoo. Yes I know there are a lot of pics, but believe me, there could have been more! Haha I kinda went picture crazy that weekend! But I did have a lot of fun!

Awesomness... part 2

OK I did say I was going to go into a more in depth update about my weekend. So here goes.... this is going to be a picture heavy so beware...

We arrived in Vancouver, early afternoon on Saturday and just hung out at Mom's house! It was good to hang out and catch up on how Mom is doing.




Alexis LOVES this hat! She would be wearing it whenever we were at the house. The first thing she'd do was go find that hat and put it on.





Except when she would make Mommy wear it. Don't I look pimp? Hehe






On Saturday we got to go kayaking. Neither Peter nor I had ever been kayaking before, and, of course, neither has Natalie, so we were all excited to go!




While every one else was getting ready, Natalie got to float around and pretend she was kayaking by herself.






Isn't she doing GREAT?!?! Hehe, she was having so much fun!







Of course, once everyone else was ready to go, Gramma went with her.







Peter is excited!








Peter is getting his "How to Paddle a Kayak" lesson.







There he is, all alone in his kayak! What a big boy, I'm so proud of him!!! Hehehe






There they goooooooooooooooo!








Since someone had to stay ashore with Alexis, and there were only three boats, Kathi, Alexis and I hung around and played on the beach while they went out.




For some reason, Alexis started out the day being a bit cranky and attached to Mom.

Me and my beautiful sister! (And yes, Alexis is still attached to my legs, and yes, I'm ignoring her for a moment or two.)


After awhile, she felt comfortable enough to venture off of my legs and check out some rocks!

Until Kathi tried to get a picture with her...







...and then we were back to this. :(

But then they found the water and Kathi had the ingenious idea to throw rocks into the water!




Alexis thought this was a great idea as well and cheered right up! And she warmed right up to Kathi within seconds!





After awhile, we got this! Kisses!!!!! Which of course, made Kathi giddy!


In the background you can see Gramma and Natalie coming back! I love this picture though, it has 4 of the most important girls in my life in it, but totally done unintentionally!







Natalie enjoyed wearing that life jacket. For some reason she thought I'd just let her run out and go swimming by herself with it on... she was mistaken. :)







After awhile, the pants got too wet, and had to come off. Which, of course, didn't bother Alexis at all! She loves running around in just a diaper!







Finally the boys came back too.








But Alexis wanted to go fro a ride too. But we figured that would be a little to risky for the time being.







And then it was my turn!!! YAYAYAYAYAY!!!!







I can't tell tell you how much fun kayaking is! I was a little surprised on how much I enjoyed it! It is so very relaxing!





So I've debated back and forth with myself on whether to include this picture or not... It's a great picture...... except for the stupid expression on my face! So I may look like a retard, but at least its a great picture of me looking like a retard!... right???

It's difficult getting out of a kayak... especially for first timer big butts like me! ;)






And for the last picture of our kayaking experience, I thought I'd share this picture. This is a family who brought their little dog with them. Before this picture, the dog was swimming in the lake just fine, and having a blast I might add. But, for some strange reason, they decided to pull it out of the water. "To do what?" you might ask. To put a life vest on it! Of all the silly things I've ever seen, I think this may rank up there in the top 5! And, I might add this as well, the poor little pooch was able to escape them a couple times to go swimming without the vest, but they were determined that it needed the stupid life vest and eventually they won. I think the dog struggled more with it on than without.....

And I think I'm going to leave this post at that! There will be a part 3 to this saga though. I have another whole day to post about. But with the pictures taking so long to attach to the post, it's taken me hours (stretched out over a couple days, of course) already to get this one prepared. Maybe later today I'll start the next one! Something for you to look forward to!

Awesomeness!!!

I had a GREAT birthday weekend! I'll update more when I have more time and I am able to go through the billions of pictures we took! (OK It wasn't really billions, but it is A LOT!!!) Let's just say this weekend involved boats, animals, and pictures (more than what we took).

We're headed back today. But I had so much fun this weekend! Thanks mom for the great times!

Long time, no update

So it's been awhile since I've posted anything, and even longer since I've done an actual update. So here goes.

It seems that the past couple of weeks have been busy. There was one week where I had two interviews and Peter had an interview all in the same day. Needless to say that day was a bit hectic. One of those interviews I got the job for! I am the newest receptionist at Riverside Health Club I started training on Tuesday, went in again yesterday, and go in again on Friday and Saturday. I go in alone for the first time on Sunday. I think its a bit odd that they have so many training days for this position. It really isn't that difficult. The hardest part of it is finding all the products in the computer part of it and that just takes looking around once you know how to do it. I had it mostly down the first day. So yesterday I just did what I needed to do and snooped around trying to find all the products and stuff that I'll have to possibly ring out every now and then. But its a fun part time job and I'm excited for it. The best part about the whole thing is that both Peter and I get free memberships to the club!

I also got my login and password information to be able to get some subbing jobs! YAY! So my plan is to next week start subbing as much as I can! I'm really really nervous about my first day whenever that will be. It's been a LONG time since I've been in a classroom. Hopefully things will come back to me quickly!

Peter has had a couple interviews as well, but he's getting a bit frustrated because they're either not for the original position he's applied for, or they won't pay him what he deserves. He actually had one company say to him that they were looking at him because he had his college degree but that it wouldn't be considered in the amount they would pay him, which was 10 grand less a year than what he was making before he had his degree. Ummmm how the heck does that work? Yeah not so much. So he gets to be a stay at home dad, while I bring in the bacon for a change. HEHE.

Natalie is doing wonderfully. We're waiting to hear if she's been accepted to a preschool here. I'm hoping that she gets accepted. It is based on income and is geared toward the lower income based. If we don't qualify for that then I don't know who would. She's becoming so independent and helpful. She loves to help prepare dinner where ever she can, such as setting the table, getting stuff out of the fridge/freezer/cupboards, etc. She's also been doing some chores as well. She unloads the silverware out of the dishwasher, she cleans up all the toys every afternoon just before dinner, and she makes her own bed. Most of the time she does these willingly; it's only occasionally that I really have to get on her to do them. I'm enjoying that while it lasts, lol.

And finally Alexis. I'm amazed at how big she is! Even though she's staying a 'baby' a lot longer than Natalie did, she's still starting to become a 'kid'. She's really into climbing lately. She's figured out that if she moves Natalie's stool, she can use it to climb into the couch and chairs. It's very rare anymore that she lets someone else help her. She's not saying much still. She's very slow developing in that area. Which is totally ok with me so far. If she's still not saying anything when she turns two, I'll start worrying. But for now she's just fine in my eyes! But just because she's not 'talking' doesn't mean she's not noisy! I think we're getting into the sibling rivalry stages. Natalie, at times, tries to be too helpful, or decides she wants whatever toy Alexis has and tries to take it, and Alexis lets her know that she doesn't like it, by screaming and/or hitting. It's hard as a mom to know which one to correct, Natalie for taking the toy (or invading her sister's space), or Alexis for screaming and hitting. It usually turns into a "Alexis don't hit, and Natalie you need to back off from your sister." kind of thing.

Anyway, that's what's been going on with us. Nothing super exciting I suppose, but it's been keeping us busy.