The Zoo!

Playing at the park

Overlooking Roanoke

Raquel was afraid and didn't want to take a picture at first, she thought it was a real Tiger.

Watching the Wolverine

Riding on the Train!

Mike finally is home and so on Monday we decided we needed to get out and have some fun as a family. So we went to the Mill Mountain Zoo in Roanoke. Outside the zoo is a fun little play area with a slide that you have to climb up a man made rock to get to it and a beautiful over look of the city. The zoo is pretty small but was fun to see all the different animals, quite a few of them I've never seen before. We even got to see a cougar catch a little robin, its amazing how fast and sneaky they are.  Before we left the zoo we went on a train ride around the zoo, I think the train was Raquel's favorite part.  We ended our day in Roanoke with a trip to Sam's club for a little shopping and a pretzel and Polish dog for dinner. It was a fun day and we were all happy to have dad home!

Home Alone

The girls and I are home alone for the week, Mike is in San Antonio Texas attending combat medical training preparing him for his deployment in August. If you haven't heard he is getting deployed to Afghanistan the 26th of August. We are sad to see him go and pray that he will be safe but at the same time we are happy he only has to be gone for 3 1/2 months and will be home in time for Christmas.  

Raquel just finished another set of swim lessons and did so well that her teacher said that she can skip a level and start the minnows class which is the class without parent participation which I'm happy about because that means I don't have to get in the cold water.

Natalya is getting so big, she will turn 6 months in a few days. She can roll over both ways and is learning to sit-up. She is enjoying eating her new big kid food of sweet potatoes, rice cereal, applesauce and all the other pureed baby food. 

And as for me, I'm enjoying the warm weather and being able to get outside to garden and go for walks. Today I even tempted to take both dogs and both girls on a walk to the park. Lets just say I survived and will try not to do that again alone.

Dog House

May 4, 2009

We decided that the dogs needed a new place to sleep since we removed the shed where they use to reside and so we spent one afternoon buying wood, building and painting a dog house for them. As of right now its one of Raquel's favorite places to play.

Blowing Rock

My sister Erin and mom came to visit and so the girls and I went down to Ali's house to visit them. We had a fun couple of days hanging out and shopping at Blowing rock. We stopped in for ice cream and the girls had superman ice cream as you can tell by the bright blue ring around Raquel's mouth. While there we found a fun wagon to buy which ended up being very handy pulling all the girls around when they got tired of walking.

Aunt Erin & Natalya

Eating Superman ice cream

Lexi holding Natalya

Mustang

April 20th, 2009

So we decided we didn't need three cars for 2 drivers and that the Mustang just didn't work with 2 car seats, so we sold it. This is a picture of Raquel helping clean and wash the car before we put it up for sale and a picture of Mike right before he gave the keys to the new owner. 

Easter

We went to the town of Blacksburg's Easter egg hunt this year on Saturday and had a little egg hunt of our own on Easter. Raquel ate only a few candies and then we were off to go feed the ducks at Pandapos Pond. But before we made it to the pond Raquel threw-up and was done with candy for the day, she still felt ok so we took a walk around the pond anyway. 

Over the River and Through the Woods...

Raquel was such a big help pulling her own bag at the airport

Picking flowers

Shopping with Grandma

Pretend camping in Grandma & Papa's backyard

Swimming at the pool

Cousin Anna, Lexi & Raquel

Natalya soaking up some sun at the pool

The girls and I took a trip to visit my parents in Phoenix. We were able to over lap one day with my sister Ali and her kids. Natalya and I walked every morning around my parents subdivision until everyone else woke up in the house, followed by a glass of fresh squeezed oj. We went to the pool everyday, shopped, ate out and spent time with friends and family. One of the nights we were there we went to the Easter pageant at the Mesa Temple, Raquel was so amazed by all the people and lights. She loved the angels, and spent most of the night fighting going to sleep because she was so tired.  We had a great time and came home with a box full of oranges so we could share with dada a little bit of Arizona since he didn't get to come. When we came home dada had a surprise for us too, a Wii!

Virginia Beach

On the private beach at Camp Pendleton

Military Dad!

Playing in the waves

Resting in our hotel

Swimming in the pool

For Mike's drill in March he had to go to a special medical meeting at Camp Pendleton which is at Virginia Beach, Va. We all tagged along to make it a little family vacation. We originally checked into a little 2 bedroom military housing unit, it was nice we were the first people to stay in it. It had a kitchen and was right across the street from where Mike's meeting was so that I could have the car. So we spent the first night out getting food to fill our little kitchen and had a good nights rest (as good as you can have with 2 little girls sleeping with you. While Mike had a room to himself.) In the morning Mike took a shower and while he was in the shower I kept hearing strange noises coming from the kitchen sink. So Mike left for his meeting

and I took a shower and noticed that it didn't drain and the toilet was plugged. So I called the housing people to tell them about the shower, toilet and tv (it didn't work either). I left a message and soon got a call back saying the tv would work soon and the plumbing guy was on his way to take a look. The girls and I left to go explore the beach and town, but soon got a phone call telling us we had to move out of our unit and go find a hotel. I guess the plumbing issue was bigger than expected and wouldn't be able to be fixed over the weekend.  So the hunt was on for a hotel, my only major criterial was that it had a heated indoor pool. I quickly found on and Raquel spent the rest of the day swimming in it, being March the beach was too cold.  The hotel room was a lot smaller then the military housing unit but in the end I'm glad that we had to move to the hotel. It gave Raquel something to do and made the trip a lot of fun! And the military ended up paying for our hotel, food and gas which made it a pretty cheap family vacation. 

Raquel's 3rd Birthday!

Raquel was so excited for her birthday! For months all she could talk about was her princess cake and all the kids that would come help her celebrate. Her day was filled with Mickey mouse shaped pancakes, lunch with Dada at Wendy's and of course a princess birthday cake. 

3/16/09

You may be asking why would I post such pictures. Its not a guess what this picture is game either. Raquel loves to take the camera and take pictures. We usually don't find out that she has taken the camera until we download the pictures to our computer. I think they are cute and wanted to remember some of the things that she thought were so interesting that she wanted to take a picture of it.

The Big One

I saw this Cardinal eating at our bird feeder and thought it was so pretty with the bright red against the snow.

We get one big snow a year and this year I had already put away the sled in the attic thinking we weren't going to get it. But finally in March, the big one came. We aren't talking Canadian or Utah snow storms but enough to close down school and work.  We spent plenty of time outside playing, sledding and building snowmen before it melted a few days later.