Here is a pic from the boat that erik sent a few days ago....there was another shot of them all trying to look "tough" but I can't seem to find it...i like this one better anyways, they are more relaxed...that is Kip in the frontlaughing at something...

Watching all the kiddos!!
at one point there were about 15-16 kids here at our house! thank god for the backyard!

Mo hard at work on Creepy's name (which we later found out is spelled with a K--not sure why)

my garage-turned-studio

Janelle and Mo

Painting Party!
Well, its been a week since Erik left for deployment and it feels like MONTHS!
To help the first weekend go by without being to down, I decided to host a painting party for our squadron...we were painting our signs that we use to put up around the base for the guys' homecoming ( i know, a little early of a start, but we figured we might as well start working on them!)
This first batch are the pilots individual airplanes where we stencil their call signs on and then line them up outside the gate on the base...
All the ladies came on Saturday (with kids!) and we painted away and got a lot done...here are some pics...(if you are wondering which one is Erik's--big dookie...what a ridiculous call sign!)

Look at our new favorite playground...uh-oh!
In an effort to make our house look a little less like a prison with all these gates,Erik and I tried
some remodeling of the playroom and to make more room, we removed the gate that surrounded the baker's rack...WELL, you can guess what happened...crazy girls...

Trying on Mommy's headbands...

"that's daddy's ear..."
(they are getting good with knowing body parts!)

"That's Daddy's nose.."

Silly Sophie

Sophie and Daddy...

Here's Lucy, splashing around and chewing on something, as usual...

There's Miss Sophie...

Check out our new pool!
With the soaring temperatures this past weekend, we had to get the girls a little pool to ool off in! This day they went in sans suits--to much work!! Dont worry they were sunscreened up though...

a rare moment of love!!

We broke out their sunhats this past weekend when we went "pool hopping" next door and they girls had so much fun playing with them the rest of the day, who knew?

Lots of pouring going on...

Another funny face now from Sophie!!

Funny face, Lucy...

Sand and Water Table!!!

Elfi bought the girls this table back when she was visiting last month and they LOVE it!!!

They especially love when I actually put the water in, which I haven't been able to do until lately when I temperature here has been over 100 degrees that past three days! UNBEARABLE!!! Thank goodness our neighbors have a pool that we can jump into when we need to cool down!!!

Here are Lucy and Sophie digging, pouring, and basically having a ball making a BIG Mess with their table...

(BTW, these next pics are taken with my Mother's Day present from Erik, my new phone! Sorry for some of the lighting...BUT he is taking the camera with on deployment--he leaves in TWO days--UGH! Its terrible...but we are enjoying each and every moment...)

Family Portrait...

At Bridalveil Falls...

Look who finally paaaaaa-ssed out...

Rushing rapids...

Ready for a hike...

See what I mean?

Mirror Lake

Our little ladies...

Mommy and the girls...
In this picture, we had just hiked up a hill after riding our bikes to Mirror Lake...we couldn't ride our bikes up the hill so we braved a hike with these two...the sign said it was just 1000 feet ahead...well, that 1000ft took us almost an hour to do! My goodness, every blessed speck of dirt we had to investigate and look at! It was like walking with the two WORST cases of ADD...at some points, they even layed down on the ground and just refused to walk! What little angels! ;)

Some wildlife!
We DID get to see some of the wildlife at Yosemite but this the only pic we got of anything....While riding bikes, a coyote just walked right in front of us...I was too shocked to be so close tht I didn't reach for my camera (i also thought any sudden movements would bring its attention towards us!) At first I thought it was a dog, but then I saw its tail and realized what it was!! Thank goodness we didn't see any bears, or worse, any "bab-cats"!!! (shenendoah shout-out!!)

Another view of the falls...

Our little bike-riders!!

Bike Riding!!!
Yosemite was unlike any other park we had ever been to...aside from the fantastic surroundings, the park is very user-friendly...they even had places to rent bikes (with kiddie-trailers!) right there at our hotel...and there are paved paths that can take you ALL around the park on your bike...we rented bikes for half a day and Sophie and Lucy LOVED it...here we all are (something was wrong with the light on me!)

Having a bath in our Yosemite Lodge tub!!