Sleeping with Animals

This is how I found Ellie in bed one night.  She was surrounded by stuffed animals.  On most nights Ellie has to sleep towards the middle of her bed since the top part is filled with animals, drawing pad, doll bed and many other things.

Waterfall

During our trip we all went to see this large waterfall.  Cooper was more interested in his snack but Ellie liked the adventure.

Leaves

As we were walking back to the car after a fun day at the luge, Ellie spotted this very cool pattern on the sidewalk.

2nd Race South

This was our second time traveling down south for a race.  We went with the same families and this time Victoria, Ellie and I all raced.  The day after the race we went to the luge.  Cooper had a blast looking out the windows of the gondola as we were going to the top.  Cooper also had his first ride with me racing down the luge.  He didn’t really know what to expect but he had a smile on his face by the end.  Ellie and I raced down the luge together and just like last time, I couldn’t go fast enough for her.  Then she decided she was brave enough to drive a luge car down the hill with Cooper and me following.  After two small crashes, she figured it out and we all sped down the track.  The other favorite attraction of the day is the Jelly Belly store.  All the kids picked out their favorites and Ellie was brave enough to take the jelly bean challenge.  I had the camera ready for Ellie’s disgusted face but she lucked out both times and didn’t get a bad bean.  Oh well, we will have to try again next time.  By the end Cooper was over tired and really didn’t want to leave all the jelly beans behind!

Leaves - Thanks Dad

Here is an old picture of me playing in the leaves.

Island Walk

One beach north of ours is a small island (not really an island, just what the kids call it) that during low tide you can walk to.  We have talked about doing the walk for a while but we don’t seem to get the timing right with the tide.  On this day, we were going to another beach and playground when driving past Ellie said look daddy we can walk to the island.  After a quick check if everyone had the proper shoes I turned around and parked for our mission to walk to the island.  As we were getting out of the car, I realized that Ellie did have her sandals but not the ones for walking on rocks at the beach.  Then Cooper having the right footwear didn’t want to walk on the rocks or sand.  We finally made it to the island and we all had a good time looking around.  Ellie found some starfish and after asking, touched them.  Cooper went on his knees to touch them then went to lick one of them.  Good thing I was paying attention to him!  On the way back to the car, we found a cool tree swing and Ellie had a go.  Cooper tried to help me take a photo of her by standing in front of the flash.  We all made it back to the car safely and hungry after our island walk.  Ellie and I discussed trying it again in a few weeks without Cooper.  (We do go to the island again with much better results.  Blog post in the future)