Meet the Wilsons

Sequoia 2010

Here are some pics from our "annual" camping trip to Belknap in Giant Sequoia National Monument.  We haven't been in a couple of years, so it was fun to visit our favorite places and find some new ones.

The girls eating spaghetti.

Claire having a meltdown.  She didn't want Brian to go in a nearby giant tree that had a hollowed-out trunk.  He went in anyway, came out the other side, and eventually she calmed down.

A, C, & E, by a great big tree!

My favorite pics of this trip were taken meadow-side.  This gorgeous mountain meadow is next to the picnic area, by the Trail of 100 Giants.

And, we'll close this post with the ever-popular "my belly is better than yours" shot!

This Little Light

We have had a very busy week!  We were in Bakersfield for Audrey's 2nd birthday and have been working at home to get this darn kitchen finished.  I have also been keeping up with most of my photography assignments.  This forces me to get in the habit of carrying my camera everywhere.  Usually I forget it and end up missing great moments. 

This next photo assignment was to capture the light in a loved one's eyes.  This was a hard one for me.  My most loved ones either: a) move too fast for my slowish camera or b) refuse to let the camera near them.  I managed to capture a couple good pics of Claire.  We were at my parents' friends' home on the outskirts of Bakersfield.  They have AMAZING fields of wildflowers on their property.  I tried to get pics of my girls in the flowers.  That didn't work too well--they were too busy rampaging and rolling all over the flowers. 

The first two pics are for the "light" assignment.  The rest are some fun ones.

4th of July: Part I

We had a lovely, HOT 4th in Bakersfield.  Check out the water play at night pics!

These wings were part of her Halloween costume last year and she goes through phases where she wears them all the time.

 
Claire with Grandma BB (Brian's Mom)

Looking Pretty on the Patio


Helping Gammie in the Kitchen

We're ready to celebrate the 4th of July!

Cell Phone Etiquette

We capped off our 4th of July weekend in Bakersfield with breakfast at The Village Grill.  (We actually ate breakfast there twice in three days--YUM!!)  We caught up with Grandma BB, Nana, Aunt Jenny, Auntie D, and Cousin Jacob.  As you can see, Jacob and Claire spent the meal texting each other.

 

 

Night at the Museum

One of the highlights of our weekend was the trip we took to CALM.  CALM (California Living Museum) is a zoo and garden dedicated to showcasing and preserving native plants and animals of California.  If you ever find yourself in Bakersfield and it isn't 900 degrees, it's a fantastic family outing.

Claire got to visit with some bears.   As you can see from the pic, she was not happy being forced to stand in front of their habitat.  (Stephen Colbert would be so proud.)

She was much happier trying to stick her fingers in the deer enclosure (despite being told not to) and looking for raccoons.  Miss C solidified her place in The Colbert Nation by proudly posing with the local eagles.  They even had a couple of bald eagles, but we somehow managed to not get a picture of them.  As usual, Audrey Mae hung out in the sling, blissfully unaware of anything but her Mama's giant boobs.

Yankee Doodle Sweethearts

This year we traveled to Bakersfield to spend the 4th of July with our families.  It was our longest trip with Audrey Mae and the first time we'd traveled out of the LA area in several months.  Our plan was to have everyone get together for a 4th of July party at the Brewer's (B's mom and step-dad) house.  But, they were sick with a nasty stomach bug, which we were concerned about being exposed to, so we partied with Gammie, Papa, Pucci (the dog), and Auntie Dinah and Uncle Dave (Zach and Viv's grandparents).  The patriotic headwear was purchased for the occasion by Gammie.  Gammie LOVES to buy silly headwear.

Claire was excited about the fireworks for exactly 15 seconds; the amount of time it took this firework to make that horrible, high-pitched whine.  She cried during the rest of the fireworks and kept repeating, "I want to go home!"  The highlight of the evening for her was eating the "Happy Birthday America" cake that I made.  (The whole top of the cake was an American flag, complete with 50 stars and properly proportioned stripes.) Brian made homemade ice cream too, which was delicious.  

One of my fondest childhood memories was making ice cream on the 4th of July.  I think it will be a fun tradition for us to continue with our girls.

So Cal Summer Project

Being that I am home this summer with both kids, in a condo with no backyard, I've decided to explore new
venues for kid-tastic fun!  Once or twice a week I'm planning on embarking on a new adventure with the girls.  I'm going to take them to places we've never been to experience all the great learning opportunities the LA area has to offer.  Our first excursion was to the Cerritos Library.  People have been telling me about it for years, but I never went because I either didn't have a kid or the kid I had ate books. 

Claire really loved this library, except for the "scary guy" (life-size T-Rex model skeleton).  I had to whisk her past it and onto the books before she stopped screaming.

 

As you can see, Claire loves bridges and fish! I have a feeling when we go to the local library she is going to be sorely disappointed that all it has are books.  Luckily Audrey Mae slept in the bottom of the Phil & Ted's the whole time, so Claire was able to get my full attention.

One thing I wish I'd known before going, was that there is a fountain for the kids to play in right outside the library.  I tried to get a picture of Claire playing by the dolphins with a little friend she made, but all photos and fun ended when she got unexpectedly doused by the giant water droplets.  We have to come back in a few weeks to return our books, so next time we're bringing swimsuits!

Stay tuned for our continuing adventures!  If you happen to be in available and want to join us on one of our adventures let me know.

Goin' on a Berry Hunt

Strawberry season is here again!  One of our favorite family activities is going to Tanaka Farms and picking (AND EATING) lots of fresh fruits and veggies.  We headed there when Audrey Mae was about four weeks old to get our strawberry fix.

We put Audrey in the sling and we headed to the tractor-pulled wagon.  As always, Claire LOVED picking and eating the berries.  Pulling the delicious, sweet fruit right off the plant and chowing down is an experience our little city slicker doesn't get very often. 

Luckily she has always been a pretty good eater.  On these trips to the farm she always tries the fruit and veggies.  She even took a big bite of a fresh Maui onion after it was pulled
right out of the ground.





 

Happy Strawberry Face!

First Birthday

What better day for a birthday party than the day you come home from the hospital?!  Claire and Audrey both had a little B-Day party when they came home after being born.  When Claire was born, Brian made a delicious lemon layer cake.  We pretty much ate nothing but cake for three days!  This time I stepped up to the plate and made cupcakes for Audrey's first party.  They were certainly VERY tasty (especially the lemon cream cheese frosting).

Gammie (that's Margie, Erin's mom, for those of you not fluent in Claire-speak) was here for a week to help out with cooking, cleaning, Claire-wrangling, etc.  She saved the birthday party by going to the store after dinner and getting confectioners sugar so we could make the frosting for the cupcakes.  Yeah Gammie!!

Claire loved frosting the cupcakes.  In fact, she enjoyed it so much that she frosted the same cupcake about five times.  Impossible?  No way!  She frosted it, ate the frosting off the cupcake, frosted it again, ate the frosting again, etc... She never ate the actual cupcake.

Erin Frosting and Claire Eating Frosting

Tree Hunting

Wow!  The holiday season is quickly drawing to a close and we have so many wonderful events to post about.  Before Christmas comes and goes, I thought it would be appropriate to share some photos of our family Christmas tree hunt this year.

I'm off to find the PERFECT tree!                   Hmmm...this one looked better from over there.

                        Hurry Dad, lets go, go, GO!

The needles appear to be healthy.                                     I think I found our tree!

I did it!!

Taking a well-deserved train ride with Dad after a job well done.