Emily's First Dance Recital

Emily started a dance class this fall at the Tara Cluck Dance Center.  She's been having a blast, and enjoyed going to class every week.  The dance studio puts on a Christmas recital every December.  Her class did a tropic themed dance to Mele Kalikimaka.  She did a great job.  She got a little starstruck at the beginning of the routine (check out the video below), but she recovered and finished strong. She had such a great time, she wants to take another dance class this spring!

November 2016

November was a bit of a rough month. Kara came down with croup the second week of November and missed the whole week of school. Fortunately, she started feeling better just in time for her birthday party. Unfortunately, Emily started feeling sick just as soon as Kara started feeling better. We were supposed to travel to Mimi and Papa's house to visit for Thanksgiving, but Emily was a miserable mess. She had croup, a stuffed nose, and just generally felt terrible. The worst part was the lack of sleep (for everyone). She would wake up crying at least 2-3 times a night, and nothing Mom and Dad could do could really help her. She consoled herself by going through about a box of tissues every couple of days (we went through a lot of tissues). It would have been miserable trying to travel with such a sick little girl, so we we decided to cancel our travel plans at the last minute and reschedule for Spring Break. We took advantage of being home the long Thanksgiving weekend and got the house all decked out for Christmas. Dad even got out and hung up lights outside!

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Kara's 7th Birthday!

Kara came down with croup and missed the entire week of school before her birthday party. Fortunately, she started feeling better the day before the party, so we were able to have the part as planned.  Kara had her party at Jump N Rope this year, which is a local jump rope gym.  The gym was great about planning games and activities for the kids.  The kids all had a great time running around during the party.  We finished off the party with some pizza and pumpkin muffins.

It's hard to believe Kara is 7 years old!

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October 2016

Kara finished up her first season of soccer.  She had a lot of fun and actually scored a couple of goals (we won't discuss the goals she scored in her own net).  She's looking forward to the next sport season!

Emily has been having some issues with sleeping recently.  She will often wake in the middle of the night and tell us she just doesn't feel like sleeping anymore, which is very bothersome when it's 2 am.  Hopefully we figure this out soon!

Halloween was a lot of fun this year.   We spent most of the month preparing for Halloween.  We made a trip to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins and spent the Saturday before Halloween carving pumpkins.  The girls both ran the Monster Dash this year.  Kara ran the half mile with Dad, and Emily ran the quarter mile with Grandma.  It was a fun time.

Each girl designed her own costume this year.  Kara decided to go as a Magical Cheetah and picked out leopard print shoes, pants, and dress.  She also got some fire wings to complete the ensemble.  Emily wanted to go as Sparkle Girl and put on some pink pajamas that were covered in stars, sparkly shoes,  and finished the costume with a glitter covered mask.  On the day of Halloween, though, Emily kind of changed her mind and didn't want to put on her mask for her school Halloween show.  For Trick-or-Treating that night, Emily completely gave up on Sparkle Girl and opted for a witch costume instead.

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Cousin Travis' Wedding

The first weekend in October, we headed out to California for Cousin Travis' wedding to Dani. It was the girls' first trip to the west coast, and they were very excited to check out the beach.

The wedding was on the beach near Watsonville.  We were able to rent a place right on the beach not far away.

We flew into San Jose with Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Amy.  While Grandma and Grandpa went with Uncle Arch, Aunt Amy came with us to check out Henry Cowell Redwoods California State Park, which was awesome.  The redwoods really are amazing.  It was the first time any of us had seen them, and the girls had a blast walking the trail and checking out the trees.  While at the visitor's center, Kara learned about the animals that live there and about seed size of different California conifers.  Afterwards, we drove to our condo, unloaded, and met up with everyone for dinner at a nearby seafood restaurant.  There was a group of sea loins loittering around the fishing boats.  That would be our closest look at them this trip, so thanks for pointing them out Uncle Arch!

Sleeping has always been an issue on these trips, and we were pretty concerned since the girls were going to share a room at the condo.  The first night Emily popped out about 10 times to talk with Mom and Dad, but eventually calmed down and went to sleep (Kara was very quick to settle down), though the girls did wake Dad up at 5 am because, as they said, they just couldn't sleep any more!  The second night was better, and the third night was no problem at all.  Hopefully, sleeping on vacation will get progressively better...

On Sunday we drove to Monterrey for the morning.  We walked along the oceanfront and through downtown.  We didn't go inside the Aquarium, but we did check out the observation deck.  For lunch, we ate at a place that hung over the bay with great views.  A big sea otter was kind enough to entertain us too!  He was very close and fun to watch.  We also saw seals a bit further out.  Emily was pretty worn out after lunch, so we headed back to Watsonville.

That evening, there was a wedding rehearsal at the campsite followed by a cookout.  Travis and Arch grilled out and had a great spread.  The girls had a blast playing with Langdon, Dani's nephew.  They also had games set up, which were a hit.  The bonfire was also fascinating to the girls, along with being able to stay up a bit after the sun went down!

For Monday morning, we took it pretty easy and just headed down to the beach.  The water was quite cold, but that didn't stop the girls from running right in (though Dad wasn't too happy about hanging out in the water).  Kara spent most of the beach time just running around in the waves.  Emily ran in the waves but also played in the sand for awhile.  We were able to see a few dolphins in the distance from the condo too!

The wedding was beautiful.  The ceremony was on the beach with the reception up the hill at the campsite.  Travis had asked if the girls could be a part of the wedding.  The girls were supposed to walk down the aisle in front of the bride with a sign that said "Here Comes the Bride".  Emily was pretty excited about it up until the time it came to actually walk down the aisle with the sign.  She ended up just walking behind Kara while Kara held the sign.

The reception was awesome.  It was catered from a a food truck.  They had also set up games for the guests and had a S'mores cookout for dessert.  The girls had a good time playing with their new friend Landon.  And wouldn't you know it, Kara caught the bouquet.  Oh, boy!

Welcome to the family, Dani!

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