Left on A Jetplane

We're back in Vancouver now, arrived on the evening of the 30th. Olivia was so sad to say by to Dave and cried for about 1/2 hour after we said bye. Ryder said he didn't want Daddy to go, but then he was easily distracted by all the activity in the airport, and bounced and skipped along. Once Olivia perked up, she said "i'm smiling now, but i still feel sad in my heart" Awww!

Olivia watched shows for the entire flight and was pleased to find out that she stayed awake till the next day. Ryder fell asleep half way through, but then woke up when we arrived. When we arrived, I needed help with Ryder and all my carry-on luggage. Ryder wouldn't walk so I was excited to find out they were going to get one of those little cars for us to ride in. But alas, just my luck, there were no cars available when we arrived so the brought a wheel chair instead. Ryder wouldn't sit in it alone, so guess who had to get pushed through the airport in a wheelchair. Thats right, ME! with Ryder and all my luggage on my lap, and Olivia happily skipping beside me. uggg, it was so akward! i felt like a fool. Haha!

Hope to see you all soon!!

Moon Letters

Took these pictures of the moon, moving the camera while the shutter was open to make letters.
:)

Big Girl Biking

Olivia rode her bike today for the first time without training wheels!! Can you believe it!! I took her down to the beach with the intention of run around with her, holding her bike up, while she got comfortable on her bike with out training wheels. As soon as she started, I could tell that she already had her balance from riding the strider bike, and after about 5 min, I let go and pretended I was holding her bike up. She cruised along no problem. Stopping and starting were a bit wobbly at first, but after about 20 minutes, she let me run ahead of her and film a quick clip while she rode! I'm so proud of her!! She's so proud too, and really excited!! Daddy is smitten! Ryder cruised along happily behind her.

Click here to see Olivia riding her bike

A Few More Days!

I cant believe how quickly our time is passing. We've been out trying to hit up our favorite spots before we leave. Aside from spending most of our time at the beach, the kids love going to the 3rd street promenade to get a gum ball from the sketchers store, a crepe from the crepe restaurant, and playing computer games at the Mac store.


Lunch on the 3rd Street Promenade.

Feeding the ducks at the Venice Canals.

More beach days

While Ryder and I lay together on the towel, Olivia built a row of sand castles around us.

Spiderman Kite

Hoti and Cathy brought Ryder this spiderman kite back from Mexico ages ago. We brought it with us in the hopes of flying it on the beach, then I promptly forgot we had it, until recently. Now it goes with us everywhere. The kids love it. Spiderman dangles from a parachute.

Big waves in Venice

Big waves hit the beach a few weeks ago, so we went down to check it out. Cant tell from the pictures, but they hit the rocks and sprayed way up in the air.

Ryder mesmerized.

I LOVE this picture!

Playing freeze tag on the beach. Olivia's current favorite game.

Biking with Dad

I love this pic! Biking home with Daddy. Not much can beat this!

Only in LA

Only in LA could you find a medical marijuana dispensary along side a Botox on the Beach clinic.

The kids, watching Daddy head off to work, from the end of our balcony. Ryder then comes in and for the next 10 minutes moans, "but Mommy, I dont waaaaaant Daddy to go to work!"

WHAT! How did my kids grow so fast!!!! Especially Ryder! look at him in this pic!
Remove the facial art and he looks like he could be 6!

When bored, Ryder sits on his bike on the porch and watches for airplanes.

Sassy McSass

Olivia stylin' on her way to the car show.
(did I already post this pic?)

Tum tum

An oldie, but a goodie. I know this is redundant for those of you who check out my youtube account but I thought I'd put it here too. Also testing out my html coding skills.
I believe Olivia is about 13 months old here.

Click here to see Olivia's tum tum!

Transformers

Ryder's latest obsession, the transformers main title song. He serenades us with it on a regular basis, and if unaware of his surroundings, which is usually always the case, he sings it in public to the pleasure of others who happen to over hear.

See Ryder Sing

To Protect

While sword fighting, Ryder shouts at Olivia "I protect you!" (in a tone that implies he's meaning to say "i destroy you!" Olivia immediately stops and says "Ryder, do you know what protect means? Protect means a boy protects a girl by shooting the bad guys."

Ryder also likes to stomp around the house hitting things and yelling "DAMAGE!!" in his growling husky transformer voice. He thinks its a bad word.

Ryder: "MOMMY LOOK!!! ITS ARTIE DOOTIE!!!!"

'No Olivia, there are no Barbie's in StarWars!"

Bacon Bar

This is a bar of chocolate Dave brought home from Wholefoods for us to try. It was surprising good, despite the strong bacon taste. It even had little bits of bacon in it.
mmmm. Even the kids liked it :)

Soakcity

On Sunday, Dave's day off, we took the kids down to Orange County to go to a big water park called Soakcity. We didn't get many pic's because, well, it's a water park, but we did get a few of Olivia feeding us cotton candy. Olivia was so brave and went down some pretty big slides on tubes with her mom and dad. She also went on a few of the big kid ones all by her self! They both loved the wave pool, Ryder especially, giggling and shrieking while he bobbed on a tube. And Ryder did eventually over come his fears of the slides and went down a little one on the octopus, with me scooping him up before he even reached the water at the end :)

First the kids tucked in.


Then Olivia fed Dave some.

mmmmm, teeth aching sweetness!

Then Olivia fed me some before they devoured the rest of the bag.

Kidspace

We had a car rental for this weekend, so on Saturday, while Dave was working, I took the kids out to Pasadena to a place called Kidspace. It was kind of like Science world, but not so sciency. More buggy and outdoorsie. They kids had a blast!

This was a leaf that the kids could paint on, while water ran constantly ran down the front. It would wash and smear their paint along.

There was this really cool climbing tower made of different shaded blue discs. It went up 2 stories, and make for some neat pictures.

I find this one slightly creepy because the kids arn't smiling.

Thats Olivia way up at the top.


Ryder painting a picture at the painting station. What do you know, its a helicopter!!

Pretending to be ants.

Ryder spent a long time at the bug making station and managed to come out with something that resembled a airplane. This kids is obsessed!

Olivia scaling a climbing wall.

I didn't realize there was a water section, and Ryder was wearing his runners, so they had to take turns going in the river with Olivia's holes soles. (no bare feet allowed)

If you look closely, Olivia is making a 'spider' face.

They're both making spider faces here.

Ryder squirting water from a 'shooter' onto different drums. If there's one thing he likes almost as much as he likes helicopters, its waster squirters.

Ryder inside a bubble. They closed this station down just after Ryder and before Olivia noticed, so she didn't get a chance to do this. shhhhh ;)

Climbing inside an ant hole. It was pitch black in there. Once your eyes adjusted, you could just barely make out where the stairs were to climb up to the next level.

Dim glowing ant eggs, inside the ant hole. (its only lit up because of the flash)

Olivia coming down of a leaf climbing tower.

Kaleidoscope tunnel entrance.

MIlking the Beach

Well, we're down to our last few weeks here, so we've been trying to get out and enjoy the beach as much as we can. Unfortunately, the weather has turned cool, apparently 20 degrees cooler that usual. HA! Just my luck! It seems to warm up a bit more in the afternoon though. Here are a few more pic's of a recent day at the beach.

I love how much the kids play side by side together now. They go everywhere together, and always want the other to experience what they are experiencing. Little buddies :)

Looking south down Venice beach.

Collecting water together.

They had some sort of project going here. Cant remember what they were doing, but they were working on it for a long time.

Ryder's stylin' get up, with his sideways hat and his sisters pink sunglasses.

They found 'blue ground' when they dug down through the sand.

Spontaneously decided to try and push over a palm tree.

Mommy and Ryder lounging.
It was a good day :)