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July 22, 2010

Jess took us to the airport and sent us home to Chris.

Here's the top of Mount Rainier from the plane.
Forty minutes later we landed and our adventure was over.

Into the Woods and Finding Our Marbles

July 18-21, 2010

The last leg of our great East Coast Adventure was spent with my pseudo-sister Jessica. Grandma and Grandpa Hoffman drove us out to her parents' house in Raleigh and kissed us good-bye. I remember hanging out with her family and eating dinner there; Ally remembers watching "The Little Mermaid" with Jess' sister, but I'm not so sure it was on this trip. (See what happens when you wait a year to write stuff down?) I am sure that we eventually made it over to Jess' townhouse south of Chapel Hill and that Ally had multiple breakdowns and tantrums over the following few days. I think it was a combination of being on the move for 3 weeks and being a typical(?) 3-year-old.
We walked down Franklin Street and had lunch at a Mediterranean Cafe, after waiting half an hour for the parking lot employee to finish tinkering with the broken pay station. We drove by the UNC Hospitals buildings where I used to work, and we took some pictures of the LDS Institute chapel where Chris and I first met and used to go to church. We also visited Jess' mom at the birth center and showed off Ally and Cora to her coworkers.
One time Jess stayed inside and studied statistics with Cora while Ally and I took a little nature walk down Jess' road. We took lots of pictures, and we collected sticks and stones and pine cones. (We also gathered the 4-piece remains of a picked-apart butterfly, then scotch taped it back together for Jess. I'm positive that morbid piece of artistic expression is still hanging on her fridge.)








Ally is an insect magnet. She saw 3 live butterflies, got 15 mosquito bites, and ended up hosting a tick on her upper thigh for a few hours. When we discovered the tick, Jess and I had to do some emergency "surgery". At first Ally was very afraid we were going to take her whole leg off as we got her into position to remove the tick with a pair of tweezers. Her eventual bravery was rewarded with a soda and a trip to Maple View Farm for some ice cream.
Our last day in NC was spent at the Marbles Museum in downtown Raleigh. Cora laughed and giggled and enjoyed being carried around while Ally hopped from activity to activity. She hula-hooped, drove a truck, gardened and bought groceries, played princess dress-up, sawed some wood, raced a small car, ate lunch with some hockey players, did a few science experiments, counted big money, and tried her hand at cheerleading. Don't believe me? Click to zoom in on the pics and don't forget to watch the video. I'm still wondering who taught her all those excellent moves. . .

Hoffman Horseplay

July 16-18, 2010

We said good-bye to Taunja and Brittany, then we drove back to Selma so we could spend one final weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Hoffman. I was hoping to eat more of Paul's peanut butter balls, but Sarah had finished them all off by then.
The girls enjoyed hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma, eating popsicles on the back porch while the thunderstorms rolled in, and playing with cousin Nate-Nate's toys. It was so nice of him to share like that.

Before we left the Hoffman house, we took pictures of Cora and Ally on Norma's wooden rocking horse. She says she rode on it when she was a little girl (which makes it very, very, very, very old!) and that her grandmother is the one who painted it. It's a neat piece of family history.

el Cuatro de Julio 2011

Now for something a little more recent:

Chris put on a mini fireworks display yesterday afternoon for us. Then he did an encore presentation for Ally around 9:30pm when it was finally dark outside. He lit a bull whip, two egg-laying hens, some killer bees, and a standing stick that shoots off purple fire. We also messed around with some sparklers. Cora and Ally didn't like the loud popping sounds, but they did enjoy watching the sparks fly.


This morning we dressed in our red, white, and blues and drove out to Pasco for the Fourth of July Parade. We found out that Cora has a fear of horses. She whined "horse, horse!" and cuddled tightly on Chris when they marched by, and there were a lot of them in this parade. Ally enjoyed collecting the candy that was thrown, and she did a very good job staying safe by following Daddy's instruction to not cross the white line in the street. At one point she was running for a piece of candy and stopped dead in her tracks when her toes hit the line. She left the just-out-of-reach candy on the ground and walked away. Way to be obedient!


We didn't see any remarkable mullets this year, but we did spot a girl in a dance troupe who was sporting a comically large pink tutu. We also never saw my paleta man, so no arroz con leche popsicles for me. Sad, but I still enjoyed the parade.

T and B's Bed and Breakfast

July 14-16, 2010

We left my parent's house and drove back down to NC in our speedy red rental car. We stopped at the temple visitor's center in Washington, DC for a quick potty break. Since the girls enjoyed being out of the car so much, we stayed for a movie, ate our lunch/snacks, and got our picture taken with the statue of Jesus.





When we arrived at Taunja's, she tied a fancy apron on Ally and then the two of them got to work cooking and baking. I held Cora, chatted with T, and did my best to not stick my fingers in the pots. She made us a delicious upscale version of cut-up hotdogs in mac and cheese. I was in heaven. Chris is an awesome cook too, but only Taunja caters to my cheesy-creamy-fatty cravings. I still think she should move out here and be my personal chef; I ate so well (and so much!) when we lived together.

Ally enjoyed all the attention Brittany bestowed upon her when she was around. They sang, messed around on the computer, and talked and giggled. Here's Ally trying to explain "Hide and Go Seek" to a very patient B.

When Taunja wasn't at work, she was hanging with us and playing hostess. One evening we got to see Celsi and meet her new-to-me husband. I had a lot of fun catching up with them and reminiscing about when I was living the single life in Durham/Chapel Hill.




Cora loved taking naps on Auntie T while Taunja sang to Ally.





We were only able to spend a few days with T and B, but Ally remembers it well. She still talks about the Princess Bubble Bath and sleeping on the mattress on Taunja's bedroom floor. We also still giggle about her comment "Now we're just like a big happy family!" when we were all piled into T's bed one night. In my book, T has always been family.

Easter Resurrected

We had a playdate in the park along the Columbia River a few days before Easter. Every time I walked away from the picnic table to help Ally or Cora on the playset, a seagull would swoop down and try to steal our lunch. One time he actually was successful and picked up our grocery bag full of food. He flew about 20 feet before gravity forced him to land. Then I swooped in and stole it back. A bird should not be able to fly while holding something 5 times its weight in its beak.

After lunch we moved to another area and fed the geese (and the gulls were fed, too). Thankfully my friend Jenn is smart and had us sit on the picnic table. Those geese were quite aggressive! Everyone had fun throwing the old crusty bread at their new feathered friends, although most of Cora's bread went into her own mouth.














We dyed and decorated eggs the day before Easter. Here are the girls getting all creative in their jammies.

Easter morning, Chris made us a sweet bread (not "sweetbreads" a.k.a. calf brains) shaped like eggs in a basket. We ate that breakfast while looking for treasures in our real Easter baskets. The best part of Daddy's basket were his truffles. My favorite items were the masks. Ally did a great job of practicing self-control, eating a little of this and a little of that at a time. Cora, well, we discovered that she's a sugar maniac. She quickly learned how to say "chocolate", bite and/or suck her way through any kind of wrapper, and climb counters.
The Easter Bunny broke into the house while we were away at church. He left 6 eggs in Ally's room and 6 eggs in Cora's room so they wouldn't have to compete for the sweets. Ally finished her egg hunt in under a minute, while Cora took a bit longer. Once she realized her eggs were more than just great maracas, she had to sit down and have herself a little snack after each discovery. The girl never stops eating!



And then, for Easter dinner, we had homemade Thai food. That's when I dropped the camera and broke it, so we don't have a picture of the dozen crab rangoon I ate. But they were delicious!

A Year Ago

This time last year, we were in the midst of our great East Coast Adventure, which included a few days at Myrtle Beach. Remember back when they were this young?
Thinking about these two cuties on the beach reminded me that I never finished blogging the final week of our adventure. My apologizes to the following fine and fabulous people. I'm hoping to correct that oversight in the next few days (we all know what my track record is) and preserve the memories of our time spent together. Can we please make some new memories really soon?

Hi Ho! Cherry-O

There was a kind Sandy who didn't live in a shoe.

He had so many cherries, he didn't know what to do.

We offered to give some of them a new home. Wouldn't you?

Ally wore a homemade (not by me) polyester house-dress and her sparkling Sunday shoes on our picking adventure.
Not my top choice for an outfit, but it wasn't a fashion competition. Right?

Cora loved eating the fruits of her labor. She downed every cherry she picked-- pit, stem, and all. I wonder how many cherries we will be harvesting from her belly next season. . .


Oh, and Cora was deathly afraid of the little neighbor dog, Professor Kibbles.



What do you do with 15 pounds of cherries?

Eat some, and can the rest for later!










Random pictures of Sandy's flowers. I wish I had a green thumb.