Snapshots of our Jackson Hole vacation

I have been wanting to write about our vacation to visit my parents in Wyoming for weeks now, but have felt overwhelmed by events and the amount of things I wanted to share.  Because of this I have decided to share some snapshots of the fun times we had and will work on posting more details soon.

When we first arrived it was cold (as you can tell from the coats and hats).  It even snowed.  We went out walking around down town and had a nice lunch at the Wort Hotel.

Here we are swinging at the bottom of a mountain.  Behind us is the bottom of the ski lift.  The girls loved to be outside so we went to the park a lot.

This is really the first time they crawled around on play equipment, and they loved it.  The stairs were their favorite, as they were too little to make it up the tunnel.

There is a great children's museum in Jackson that the girls loved.  They had a a special room just for toddlers with a slide and stairs

They had these really fun chairs that Emma loved to sit on.

Jackson has this great square in the middle of the town where people can sit and enjoy the outdoors.  E and C loved crawling around and playing in the dirt.

It was so fun to spend time with my dad and see him spend time with my daughters.

C felt comfortable on the grass and tried out a head stand.

E spent over 20 minutes playing in the bark.  She loved running it through her fingers.

We went to my grandparent's house for dinner one night and took family photos in their backyard.  Yes, this is their backyard!  It is so beautiful.

With Grammy and Grandpa.

I just love this picture of Charlotte.  I think that her face just looks so happy.

The sun came out!

Here are E and C with my grandpa and grandma.  It was so important to me that they were able to spend some time together.

The whole gang (minus my uncle Gerry who left a little earlier)

Again, such a sweet moment.  My dad helping E to walk in the grass.  The background is amazing too.

Here is C and her dad practicing walking also.

My mom, my husband, the girls and I all went to a local burger place to eat lunch.  Here is Charlotte drinking from a straw.  It was probably the highlight of lunch for her.

My mom and I.

Our family in front of the famous elk antler arches at the Jackson Hole town square.

This was a daily occurrence.  C and E love to help unload the dishwasher.

On my birthday (and the last day we were there) we went to a gymnastic gym and let the girls crawl around for a while.  They had a great time sliding, bouncing, swinging, and climbing.

Daddy helping E down the slide.

Daddy helping C down the slide.

My birthday cake!  It was a white cake with maraschino cherries in the batter, pastry cream in between the layers, and chocolate ganache on top.  It was an amazing cake.

Overall an amazing trip.  Well worth the three plane flights to get there.  We are already planning our next trip.  I think we are going to try and drive it next time.

Water fun

It has been hot here already.  Yesterday was up close to 90 degrees.  This does not look good for the summer, but has allowed us to have some fun outside with water.  Last week we joined some friends at the local splash park.  I was really unsure about how the girls would like it, especially because they are not walking yet.  I also was nervous about the logistics of two tiny girls, only one mama, and lots of water, but it went really well.  After they got comfortable with the splashing water they enjoyed crawling around in it.  I am learning to relax a little and try things even though they might be difficult.  It is easy for me to say "I have one year old twins, this will be too difficult."  Sometimes that is true, but most of the time it is just an excuse.

We also went to walmart and purchased a small blow-up pool to use at our house.  We couldn't wait and got it ready while the girls were napping.  After nap we popped them in.  It is really interesting because again it took them a little while to figure out what they thought about being in the water and what they wanted to do.  They were not scared, just cautious.  I guess I keep forgetting that these are all new experiences for them.  They have never been to a splash park or sat in a baby pool before, amazing!  I am thankful that I get to experience these firsts with them.  What a gift.



Attempting Something New

Since having twins I feel like I have had to learn how to do a lot of things all over again, taking into account two very small children.  There are instances everyday where I am trying something new or figuring out the best way to tackle something.

This weekend my husband and I had the opportunity to eat out with the girls.  This was the first time we had done this, just the four of us, since the girls were born.  I have to admit that I was nervous, but also tried to be as prepared as possible.  We made sure to go at a time when they would be awake and hungry.  I packed bibs, spoons, food, wipes, and sippy cups in the diaper bag, as well as the normal assortment of diapers.  The girls did great.  They were so distracted by all of the different people to look at that they didn't get much eating done, but it kept them very entertained. Both my husband and I were able to order and eat our food, although we did take turns trying to feed them.  We did make a mess and were loud with lots of happy noises, but there were no huge meltdowns.

It is very encouraging to have such a great family outing.  I am looking forward to the next time that we are able to go out together.

Charlotte having fun banging on the table.

Emma was too distracted to eat very much.

Whew!

Well, after an unexpectedly extended vacation, I am finally back and able to blog.  I have so many things to write about, it is almost overwhelming.  In the last week and a half we have had so many experiences, both happy and sad.  To give you a short run down:

• We started our vacation visiting my husband's grandfather in the hospital
• We spent the fourth of July with my husband's family and enjoy some time with his nieces and great fire works
• We went camping and floating with my parents and some very good friends
• We had a rain disaster with our tent flooding
• We had the memorial for our daughters
• My husband's Grandfather passed away so we stayed in Missouri for the visitation and funeral
• I unofficially started my new job today by going and getting books and seeing my classroom

So Whew!  We have been super busy and now I have lots to write about, as well as much catching up to do on others blogs.  Look for many posts coming soon. 

Blueberries for Ann

Saturday morning my husband and I got up bright and early and headed out of the house to pick blueberries.  We packed up sandwiches, lots of water, sunscreen, and bug spray.  On the hour and a half drive we spent time talking about upcoming events, how we were both doing with things, and what are goals are for the house.  We passed a great looking fruit stand and vowed to stop on the way back (we got a half bushel of the best peaches I have tasted in a long time!). 

The sign that welcomed us to our blueberry picking fun!

After a couple of wrong turns and having to use my husband's blackberry (the irony :), we found the farm.  It was already getting warm but we were there and excited, so with white buckets in hand we hopped on the golf cart and got a ride out to the blueberry bushes.  We learned that the farm had over 60 acres of blueberry plants, they just seemed to go on and on.  Another thing we learned is that there is more than one type of blueberry.  They actually had us try two different kinds and then pick which one we liked the best.  We both liked the tarter kind. 

Here is just a snapshot of the rows and rows of bushes.

Once we had found our row we got down to business.  My husband and I started picking next to each other, but over the course of picking drifted apart, and then back together.  I enjoyed feeling the sun warming my neck and hair, popping warm blueberries in my mouth and feeling them explode with juice, the comfortable conversation my husband and I shared, and especially the sound that the blueberries made when they hit the bottom of the white buckets.  It reminded me of one of my all time favorite children's book, Blueberries for Sal.  If you are not familiar with this book, I would highly recommend it.  I have great memories of my mother reading it to me.

It really is a great book!

After two hours of picking, we finally felt too hot to continue and walked back to the main part of the farm.  While we had been picking my husband kept encouraging me to keep going by saying that we only had 3-4 pounds and we could pick more.  WELL, we ended up with 18 pounds of blueberries!!!!  That is a lot of blueberries.  As my husband said, "We have blueberries coming out of our blueberries!"  We spent all of Sunday freezing most of them, and I made a yummy blueberry cobbler. 

This is only two of three bags we brought back, and one is already missing half of it's berries.

Freezing the berries took a long time because we froze them flat on a cookie sheet and then put them in a container.

Overall it was a very fun experience, mainly because of the great time I got to spend with my husband outside doing something we both enjoyed, and also the blueberries!

The yummy cobbler I made, overloaded with fresh blueberries.

There was only a little bit of crust and lots of warm, gushy blueberries.