Airshow

The Annual Hillsboro Airshow is an event so coveted in our household, it is talked about throughout the year in anticipation. Mike has done an excellent job getting his girls interested/obsessed with airplanes! Here, Eva sits inside a monster truck wheel...one which we just had a ride in as a family....sounds so right up my alley, no?!! They crawled in and out of various airplanes, helicopters, motorcycles. All the military and government guys there were really sweet to them. You'll also notice that Eva has some shooting muffs on her ears. For the girl who LOVES airplanes, last year's airshow showed a new side of her: terrified of loud sounds. The jets put her over the edge,. Last year, she ran and crawled up inside a canopied pickup that was sitting behind a vendors tent to hide. This year, with the muffs, she just trembled in my arms (poor thing) while the the loudest of the fighter jets did their fly-bys. Luckily, she was brave and watched the whole Thunderbird performance and was only bothered by one, exceptionally loud slow-mo fly by (have you ever seen a fighter jet hover...weird!) Now Kira was just fine and would ask for "more airplane?!" She would exclaim," Wow!!" when something impressed her, and hunt them out in the sky with a, "there it is!" We had a good day and know we'll be hearing about the next one for the rest of the year!

Silly Kids

I am sure we can all agree...our kids are silly for SO many different reasons..some of which actually make me laugh and not cry! Both girls have quite distinct personalities, but both also have a wild side in them too. Kira is well on her way to becoming a football fan, and recognizes the Steeler's and anything football with a exclamations of "FOOTBALL!!" every time. And this dress up time, Eva actually put something girly on!! Ha!! Usually it's just Superman and swords. We can overlook her indecency just this once............... BTW, the jerseys are Mike's new team's jerseys, the girlsloved wrestling in them.

Camping Attempt

So we finally decided to make the attempt to go camping as a family of four. We were thinking back to the last time we had been, and it was 3 summers ago!! WAY too long for this outdoors girl...I guess it is just a testament to how much little ones can change your lifestyle. I was supposed to be at the cabin this week, but we used the plane tickets to go to my Gram's funeral 2 weeks ago instead. Mike had made plans to go hiking with a buddy in our absence, and so my brainstorm was born....camp and then go on a hike together! It should have been easy. I had to break all the camping gear out and make sure everything still worked, and be very discriminate about what we would bring (think big dog taking up the entire cargo area of our Outback...no room for luggage). It was interesting, but we squeezed all the gear in and headed out Saturday afternoon. Although we didn't get the pick of the crop (big surprise there!) we found a walk-in campsite that was nice enough. One minor caveat....the family in residence before us was not exactly clean, so there was half-eaten fruit loops, an entire box of Nerds, and toilet paper strewn about the site (no time to clean up before we moved in). I spent the first 20 minutes picking up garbage thinking Kira just might try and eat some of the colorful tidbits strewn about. Of course she proceeded to do this while I was trying to clean up, multiple times. Gross! Fast forward to bedtime. Eva says she's tired and wants to go to sleep, and at the mention of ni-nights, Kira decides this is a great idea too. Against my better instincts, we put them down together in the tent. Yeah right. We tried removing Eva and letting Kira fall asleep. Nope. The Kira out. Nope again. finally, with two very tired and grumpy girls, we gave up,and went to bed too at 8:55. At least once they were asleep it was fine. Of course at 6:15, a crow cawed outside out tent and we awoke to Kira chiming, "Birdy!!" The morning quickly revealed a grumpy-overtired Eva. One of those, "I want a pancake!. NO! I don't want a pancake" dialogues, you parents all know the one. I realized both girls needed a solid nap for everyone's sanity, so the hike for us a family had to be scrapped. It ended up being a blessing in disguise, as the trail was the furthest from kid-friendly as possible (I took 40 minutes to hike up as much of it as possible for some exercise while Mike played with the girls by the river) Steep, drop-offs, loose gravel on much of the trail..scary! A great work out though!! I went home with the kids and Mike hiked with his buddy. Bottom line: we're glad we went, but know we won't go through so much effort for only one night again!! We had to try, and now we've learned a few things for the next time..............