Lovin' Hawaii, Missin' the Girls

Aloha, here we are in Kauai, Hawaii, enjoying this lovely view from our lanai.

Also with us is our son Jon and our nephew Peter. Their photo is an ongoing "cousins joke" that they have been taking part in for the past month as they toured the islands. They email a photo of Pete, very somber looking and holding this sign, to their cousin Tim every day or so, to show him what he is missing. The sign says "booyaah" which is another story in itself.

Below you can see Norm, feeding the chickens, as he always does, each time we drive to the Koke'e Lodge area. I swear they recognize him because when he went in to buy the food they headed to the steps to wait for him. :)

We spent time with the girls before we left and soaked in every minute, knowing we would be gone for a week. Here you see the girls with their "tippy cups". Neither one loves to use them, but they are tolerating them at this moment.

We did also do a little outing with Aunt Suzie and Papa on Saturday. Papa needed a couple of things from Walmart and so we took the girls along. While there, we did some trying on of hats.

Uncle Jon has requested that we refrain from taking them to Walmart again. :)

While at Walmart we also had a little McDonald's lunch. A new experience for us, and I think for them as well. It took the three of us to manage the two of them. Twins are sure fun! Can't wait to see them again!

Dolls, Balls, Frosty, and Strolling!

Claire and Chloe are seen here rocking their new "Love Bug Dolls" that Great Aunt Dode and Uncle Rog gave them for their birthday. Those little dolls got lots of hugs and kisses as we played this week.

We also had fun with a neat toy that Aunt Suzie gave them. The balls are popped up out of a cylinder by a gust of air and they bounce all over. All this is done while a catchy tune is playing. :)The girls have such a good time chasing them and putting them back in the tube.

Also this week, Chloe decided that walking might be fun after all. She hadn't shown much interest previously and was perfectly happy getting around by crawling and walking along furniture. In the following video clip she is pushing the little shopping cart and if you listen carefully she is making a "motor" sound with it. We sure laughed about that, we don't know where that came from!

As Papa and Chloe read books one day, Chloe decided to do the reading. Here she is with Papa showing him the book of nursery rhymes and telling him all about it.

Papa often brings a little surprise when he drops by. This time is was a Wendy's Frosty. Here you see Claire looking quite satisfied with the taste.

On Friday the girls had their 12 month checkup. As we already knew, they were pronounced perfect in every way. Other than the shot and finger poke that they each had to endure, they enjoyed their outing very much and both took a nice nap upon returning home.

Enjoying the 1 Year Old Girls!

Claire and Chloe continue to develop their individual and unique personalities and traits. They both, however, are very interested in books and when things start to get wild it always creates a quiet diversion for them.

Here Chloe is after we had read several books this week, a few of them over and over.

The two girls had a little adventure in the kitchen on my watch. Before I realized what was happening they had started helping their Mommy by cleaning out one of the bottom drawers. Chloe didn't stop until every item was out and on the floor. Fortunately it was a drawer with safe kitchen items, mostly baby related, so it was rather harmless.

The film clip below is of the girls having a "squeal-off", it sounds better to say "squeal" than to say "scream off". I can't remember what got them going but I know we had been reading books a bit earlier.

The last little video is of Claire parading around with the birthday balloons that were still around for their enjoyment. Normally they hang over the staircase out of reach but close enough for them to enjoy.