Friends

In this below par weather, we have been trying to stay busy.  Briz and Piper went to Tryon Creek State Park for the Ranger guided hike.  They learned all about bees this week and then went exploring in the meadow.

 They loved imitating bees with their pollen pockets.  

 Piper was devastated when they left, crying and saying, "I'll never come back to the meadow!"

We also went to the park and practiced our bike riding.  Going down the hills is quite an adventure.  Even though there is lots of owies, crying, and wrestling, these two girls love each other.  

But we miss one of our favorite little guys.  Jaron told us he wanted to move back and live with us, so we are planning on it.

Mother's Day

My Mother's Day was a bit lame this year.  My Saturday before Mother's Day, however, was excellent.  We celebrated Mothers day on Saturday.  Nick made me some German pancakes, got me some trashy magazines, and he got me a pedicure/manicure.  I'm not a big fan of spending money on things like getting my nails painted, but I forced myself to enjoy it, and I actually did in the end.  But now I feel pressure to continue painting my nails!

My favorite thing from the day is going to Riverview Cemetery.  I have often seen people biking/jogging through the cemetery and have always wanted to.  We did.  It was hard.  But awesome.  I want to do it again.  I love spending sunny days there.  

Briz was being a pain and did not want to smile.  She must have been exhausted from sitting in the stroller the whole run :)

That night, Nick and I went and saw Bill Cosby, ate at Cheesecake Factory, and saw The Great Gatsby.  It was like three dates in one!  It was an excellent pre-Mothers Day.

Baby Link

While I was in California, Mac let me do a photo shoot of Baby Link.  It was fun, and he was seriously the best baby ever.  He is so mellow.   He was a natural.  Here are some of the ones I took (I took way too many).

California

About a month ago, we headed down to California.   Briz and I were spoiled going to Disneyland together for a day, but we also got to have lots of Michels time.  We met baby Lincoln for the first time, and Briz got to spend a lot of time bossing Dane around.  Luckily he's pretty good at being bossy himself, so they were a pair.  

It was a bit of a bummer because it wasn't great weather.  The one day it was great weather, we headed to the beach.  Briz and I were in heaven, and we are determined to make Dane like the beach eventually.  He did love the beach snacks quite a bit :)

So so excited to play in the sand and make sand castles.  

 Briz is proud of herself for going under the waves with Mom.  Dane is wiped, as you can tell by his Robin Hood self soothing techniques: "PJ . . . "

He got pretty happy when his Dad showed up.

 Being her weird self.

 Doing his grump face.  My absolute favorite.

Dane's other favorite thing about the beach: chasing the seagulls.  To the point where this normally cautious child ran away, in attempt to get a seagull.

 Briz and Dane love having bath time together.

Briz and I got to be there for Link's baby blessing (although I didn't really get to hear it, cause I was on Dane Duty out in the hall).  McKenna put together an amazing luncheon after and here they are in the midst of all of the craziness.

Link loves me, he probably can hear my voice :)

 Another good one.

 The best family pic.

Papa was also able to be there for the blessing.  

 Love this picture of Dane trying to get Papa's attention.

 Loved his sweet talking.  

 We made Dane go swimming in the not-so-warm weather because Briz loves swimming and we weren't going to miss the chance.

 We went to the zoo one day, and Briz was so excited about the baby giraffes.

For being fairly high maintenance children, they sure do get along pretty well.  It's fun watching them play.

 Briz asked me to take about 24 different pictures of her doing different poses with the elephants.

Riding the sky cart thing.  Dane was a little nervous.

It was so fun spending time with the Michels.  We love going to San Diego.  Briz was crying on the airplane as we left and she suggested that we Nick get a job working with Paul so we could move there.