Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Holiday pictures
















Class pictures

Here are Violet's kindergarten pictures.  We had to do the retake because she wasn't smiling in the first one.  I'm honestly not sure which one is better--the one without the smile or the one with the grimace?


Take One

The retake

Halloween

Finally Elsa was out this year.  After two years in a row, the Elsa costume sits in the costume box.  Violet wanted to be a black kitten for Halloween and she me to be a black cat.  She really seemed to "get it" this year.  She was running from house to house yelling in surprise "They are giving away free candy!!!"






 Violet had a hand in carving two pumpkins.


My pumpkin and Violet's pumpkin

Eric and Violet's pumpkin.
She got so much candy it was insane.  We have all been enjoying it.  I am wondering if my parents stole from my Halloween candy as well?  I think parents everywhere do that.

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Cousins

We recently went to Oregon for a memorial for Eric's uncle Greg in Bend.  It was a sobering trip but it did give Violet a change to meet a lot of her cousins.  All of the cousins visited Richardson's Ranch where you can dig for thunder eggs.






Lilliana

Liliana and Sheryl

Kai


Krissy
It was hard work.  We all took a break for lunch.


One of the spoils.


Back at the entrance, the kids were obsessed with chasing (i.e. torturing) the resident peacocks.


After Bend we stopped in Portland and visited my cousins Al and Rosanne.  Al spent all day on the barbecue making the most awesome ribs.





Violet was thrilled when Aunt Rosanne brought out cousin Juliana's toys from 20 years ago.


Later that month we visited cousins Tory and Shelley with their daughter Ayla from Arizona who were in Manhattan Beach on vacation.



Violet torturing Grey Cat:


Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Family Camp July 2016

The three of us went to family camp at the Montecito in Sequoia this July.  We stayed in a cabin.  Violet was with a group of kids her age every day and they did various camp activities.  I didn't realize that the adults got to do their own camp activities.  I felt like I was a kid at camp again.  Eric and I spend a bunch of time in the art studio making tie dye and candles.  Eric also had fun getting back into archery.




The talent show:



The most popular activity by far was "fishing" which involved catching fish off the doc with nets.  The fish seemed pretty used to it.

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Releasing the fish.

My artwork
 Violet had fun dressing up for the "decades" dance.







Eric and I went on a tour through a cave with the coolest front gate.


Gate of the cave







Violet was worried for me and made me bring her LED light.
 We took a hike to a place Eric used to go sliding and swimming to the run off.  The rocks were slippery enough to use them as water slides but only Eric was brave enough for the freezing water.  I also slipped hard on the rocks and had an injured tailbone for weeks.






Seven story treehouse at Bravo Farms on the way back.  Violet is rocking her tie dye camp shirt Eric made for her.




We are already planning on going next year again.