into the woods...

in an effort to celebrate a more traditional "twelve days of christmas," we have waited until now to get our christmas tree. we were the very last customers at the tree stand we chose!


i had this idea that it would be fun to pretend we were hiking into the snowy woods, chopping down a tree and pulling it home on our sleigh. so last night we "hiked" down a busy street to the closest tree stand, chose a tree and towed it home in the wagon. it was pretty fun, and noah really enjoyed pulling the wagon. he towed the tree almost the whole way home!

lummi island

we spent a perfect day last weekend biking around lummi island, a little island that's a 20 minute drive and 5 minute ferry ride from our house. isla loved the green seat and noah relaxed in the trailer. we spent a good chunk of time lounging and exploring the beach, noah had his first popsicle, and we scored tons of great kids' books at a yard sale. what could be better?

isla was pretty excited about being at the beach (read: eating sand).

noah's beach bum, still pretty tiny.

but even tinier last year!

this is how isla waves--like she's raising the roof. it's so funny!

noah made a "k" from sticks. it's sort of already falling apart here.

little girl on the ferry.

what cheeks!

we're goin' to the zoo...

a few weeks ago the kids and i went to the greater vancouver zoo with grandpa, uncle colin, aunt nicole, aunt jess, kate and john spencer. it's a really fun place--lots of space for the kids to run around and climb, a train ride around the zoo, a great playground, a big garden, etc. i almost felt like the animals were secondary, though they were fun to see too.

noah and kate climbed, ran, climbed, hopped in and out of strollers, checked out animals and climbed some more. i'm pretty sure they had a great time.

standing on one foot like flamingos.

waiting for the train to come--good thing grandpa was there to keep noah safe!