I can't believe how long it has been since I've posted on our little family blog here. of all the blogging I do, this is the blog I care most about, as it's the journal for our family. I've updated the template so that the photos can be bigger and I'm hoping I can get into a better habit of writing on here, rather than just updating Facebook. we'll see how it goes!
we had a VERY busy summer this year! we kicked things off by moving into our new house, then the girls did some summer day camps (cate: soccer, tennis and cooking; anna: fancy nancy, little chefs and high fives). then we were off to the east coast! first we hit new jersey, where I dropped off the kids to spend time with grandma phyllis while I went on a business trip to chicago. I rejoined the fun, spent about a week in new jersey, then we headed north to new england.
here are about a billion photos of our visit in new jersey. the kids loved staying with grandma and grandpa, especially when I wasn't there to stop them from eating too much candy! lucky for us, cousins maddox and sophie live in new jersey, too, so we got a lot of great wallin family time in!
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| Evidence of grandchildren eating too much candy. |
When we visited last summer,
we took some cute photos of Owen and Sophie hanging out in their diapers. We recreated the shot this year.
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| Owen in focus... |
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| Now Sophie in focus! |
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| Much to his dad's surprise, Owen learned to surf in New Jersey! |
We had some fun with my wedding dress...
Grandma dug out all the old Barbie clothes for the girls to take home to California, many of the clothes handmade by Grandma Blomquist. The girls were in
heaven.
We spent a lot of time at the super awesome hotel pool by Grandma and Grandpa's house. I didn't get many photos, we were having too much fun!
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| Why, yes, Owen is 3 months older. Why do you ask? |
Oh, Sophie...
We spent a day in Morristown, visiting Washington's Headquarters and Jockey Hollow, where Washington's troops stayed for the most brutal winter of the war.
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| This house was the "Pentagon" for about 6 months of the Revolutionary War. |
Some big-time hijinks occurred in Jockey Hollow, involving otherwise innocent-looking children stuffing a body into a trunk...
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| The Happy Captor! |
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| Anna always makes sure her captives don't have a fever. |
It's always exciting trying to get a picture of all the kids together...
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| Pretty good for the first shot, but let's see if we can get the Wallins in the game. |
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| Wait, Owen, we're trying to get the Wallins in the game! |
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| The money shot! |
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| "'Money Shot' is over, I'm outta here," says Owen, even though Maddox is looking especially cute for this shot. |
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| Sophie: Hmmmmm.... Cate: I'm such a good helper! Owen: You guys stink! Anna: I'm definitely the best at posing, right? Maddox: What's up with that kid? |
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| Maddox isn't so sure about his new job as water boy... |
Our little Linus...
I think the girls' most favorite thing we did the entire month we were on the east coast was going to the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. They were SO excited the entire time and everything they saw was a delight. Coincidentally, we had finished reading the book "Wonderstruck" the week before - the story centers around a wolf diorama at the museum that we were able to visit. It was like magic taking the girls to see the display. (Also, the display is way cooler in person because it's dark and not lit up by a bad iPhone flash.)
I didn't take my "real" camera out at the museum, so we're stuck with lame iPhone photos, but it's better than nothing!
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| A rare moment where I get Cate (who never wants any attention drawn to herself) to pose for a silly photo with a dinosaur eating her head! |
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| Amazingly both babies took a nap at the museum! |
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| This giant meteor was also in the book "Wonderstruck," which I had forgotten but the girls recognized it instantly. |
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| For whatever reason, Anna loved the coyotes. She and Maddox stood and howled at the glass for a good 2 or 3 minutes straight. Also, kids love taxidermy, in case you were wondering. |
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| New York in the rain! |
Cutest bath of the vacation!
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| This is what happens when you combine short people with deep bathtubs. |
THANK YOU GRANDMA PHYLLIS AND GRANDPA HANS!
