Visit to the North Pole

Mimi and Papa came to visit us at the end of June.  We got the visit off on the right foot by heading up to The North Pole near Cascade, Colorado (just to the west of Colorado Springs).  The North Pole is essentially a Christmas-themed amusement park targeted for kids between the ages of 2 and 8, so Kara and Emily were definitely in the target audience.

As we were walking into the park, Santa and Mrs. Claus were there to greet the guests, which Kara thought was awesome.  From there, we hit some of the rides.  Kara was big enough to ride almost all of the rides (most of them without an adult), so she had a great time running from ride to ride.  Emily thought the rides looked great from the side, but quickly changed her mind once she got on some of them.  She did eventually do some rides with Kara and had a great time.

The coolest part (literally) was The North Pole, which was a pole covered in ice.  That was really neat to check out on a hot day.  In addition, we got to sit down with Santa and talk with him at his little cottage.  It took Emily a couple of visits until she warmed up to Santa (though she never would sit on his lap), but Kara jumped right up there and started telling all about superheroes (it was a little too far until Christmas for her to be prepared).

All in all, it was a really fun day (though a little hot).  Definitely a place we'll have to visit again!

Link to pictures

Wrapping up April and May

Other than a few big events (Easter, trip to Cancun, and Kara's Tae Kwon Do yellow belt test), April and May were pretty calm months.

Emily finished up her last swimming class.  By the end, she was getting very comfortable in the water and was letting loose with jumping into the pool (check out the video).

Kara "graduated" from Stepping Stones (her preschool class).  She's a little sad to move on from all her friends, but she's excited to start kindergarten in the fall.

One afternoon during May, Kara and Emily were having a snack at the kitchen table with Mommy.  Kara has started to become very curious about the world around her and beyond.  Mommy and Kara were discussing the universe and the possibility of aliens and robots on distant plants, not yet discovered (Kara thinks there is a high probability of this).  Emily sat there eating her strawberries and nodding.  Then, she added "Papa make big rockets!" (including hand gestures).  Not quite the same, but pretty impressive that Emily was on topic!

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Tae Kwon Do Yellow Belt Test

The testing group

Showing off a pose

Kara has been practicing her Tae Kwon Do quite a bit for the last few months and has been improving.  She has learned quite a few moves and is performing them confidently.  On May 18th, Kara tested for her yellow belt (everybody starts as a white belt and then moves up to yellow).  Daddy was able to videotape the whole test, which only a parent or grandparent would appreciate.  However, if you only watch one video, watch Part 5.  That's where Kara breaks a board.  We were impressed!

Cancún 2015!

Every May, Grandma and Grandpa S. head down to Cancún for a nice relaxing beach vacation.  Well, this yearthe timing worked out so we could go down with them.  The girls had an absolute blast playing in the pool and playing on the beach.  The ocean was really calm, so the girls could walk around quite a ways off shore (though Emily didn't really want anything to do with the ocean after touching some seaweed).

Emily did a great job adapting to her new surrounding, which we were really worried about (especially after our Colorado Springs trip last year).  Other than a couple of meltdowns, which were caused by sunscreen in the eyes or just getting a little tired in the morning before nap, Emily was very well behaved. She also played up the cuteness for Grandma and Grandpa.  One day, she decided to tell off a bird that was chirping on the balcony.  She told the bird "no, no, no, bird" while waving her finger. "Go away."  We got a video of her reliving the experience below.  She also was quick to tell Grandma not to touch her water (in a very cute way), "don't touch Emily water, OK?" Check out the video on on that one as well.

Kara really enjoyed swimming in the pool and making new friends.  She also enjoyed making sand castles and exploring the ocean with Grandpa.

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Don't touch Emily's water, okay?

No, no, no, bird. Go Away!

Swimming in the pool

Easter 2015

Easter in Colorado is usually a toss up as to whether you'll be celebrating in snow or in the sun.  Fortunately, the weather was great this year, so we got to do a lot of egg searching (perhaps a little too much egg hunting?), even though Easter fell a little early in the spring this year.

We got the day of Easter started off right by doing an egg hunt in the backyard.  Kara immediately went running off to look for eggs, but Emily took a more leisurely approach to egg hunting.  She opened her first egg and was pretty good with that.  We had to prompt her a bit to keep searching for eggs before Kara got them all!  Later in the morning, while Mommy, Kara, and Emily talked to Mimi and Uncle Trey on a Skype call, Dad went down the street to help hide eggs for a neighborhood egg hunt.  The girls had a great time with that one, running around with the kids and sneaking candy.  They were both crashing a bit from the sugar rush once we came home for lunch.

After lunch and quiet time, we headed down to Aunt Amy's house to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa S. for another egg hunt and Easter dinner.  After our third Easter egg hunt of the day, the girls had enough candy to last them for years!

Link to pictures