Deer Lake 2008

We spent a long weekend at the lake this year. It was a packed house with Great Grandpa Ray, Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle David and Jenny, Uncle Patrick, Auntie Sarah, Ari, Auntie Meg, Great Uncle Brian, and Great Aunt Boo.

Due to the price of gas, we decided that we'd sacrifice some comfort for a little savings: we carpooled. Grandma and Grandpa graciously let us pile into their Hilander for the 8 hour drive. The girls were packed into the third row and we were packed into the middle seat with all kinds of bags around us. The girls were champs despite Jana not napping and Kara only getting about 45 minutes of sleep. All I can say is thank goodness for DVD players.

The girls loved spending this time with everyone and thoroughly entertained everyone for the entire weekend.

Jana has a wonderful attachment to her Aunts and Uncles and they are so wonderful in helping out with her - Dada and I both felt like we got a bit of a break with so many willing hands around to help keep the girls happy.

Here's Jana spending some quality time with Auntie Meg.

We blew up the baby pool and put it on the beach, but Jana had other ideas for its use: a boat.


She insisted on Uncle David and I taking her out into her lake in it. The funniest part of this, as we were pushing her back and forth, was that she asked for us to push her in a triangle, instead of back and forth.


It was very nice that there are "Cabin Rules", so Jana was very agreeable to wearing the lifejacket on the beach. Here she decided it was time to go in the water, but wanted to wear the ring... too. Goofy girl!


For years we've heard the stories of the infamous turtles in the lake, but have never seen them. Uncle Dave managed to reach down from the dock and catch one. Jana quickly named him Mack (the plain little turtle named Mack at the bottom of the nine turtle stack in Yurtle the Turtle - one of Jana's current favorite stories).

Jana was so excited to tickle Mack's tummy. :-) Mack's imprisonment only lasted a few minutes and Jana was very insistent that he was able to go home to his mommy.

Here she is watching to make sure that Mack made it home to his mommy.

Jana and Dada then went for a little ride on the jet ski. She had a wonderful time, but when she came in, she declared "I cried." She got a little freaked out when he had to go fast enough to get it to plane in the water.


Jana loved going out in the boat.


Here we are heading out for our sunset boat trip


Jana mesmerized by the sights.


Kara enjoying some cuddle time with Grandma on the boat.
Once Kara got used to the life jacket, the boat was quite soothing for her. Here's our mellow girl!


Mama stealing snuggles from Jana on one of our trips out to go swimming .

The three girls, all snuggled in, on the trip back to the cabin on our sunset cruise. Jana (wrapped in the towel in the very back) was excited to cuddle with Uncle Dave; Kara enjoyed hanging out with Grandma, and Ari was having some quality time with her Daddy.
Auntie Meg and Jana

Mama and Kara

Ari - all save and secure!

Jana also enjoyed swimming - mostly. Considering we have been doing Parent-Tot in water that was around 90 degrees, we were impressed that she went swimming in the lake - especially impressed that she jumped in the water from the boat, repeatedly.


Jumping to Daddy.
Swimming with Daddy
Taking a break from swimming and hanging out with Corrina.
"Safe toes!' (She decided to share with everyone that they needed to have their toes on the edge before they could jump.)

The water was a tad cold. Can you tell?

She relaxed a bit, but had more fun jumping in, than staying in.
Right now, Jana enjoys anything that has to do with water. Carrying buckets of water from the lake to the bucket on the beach was great fun... for quite a while too.


She loves pools, too! So much so that she wasn't willing to wait for Auntie Sarah to get the pool down to the beach before climbing in.

Kara was quite a character on this trip. After not saying anything other than "Dada", the occasional "Mama", and a very rare "uh oh", she decided to share the things that she's probably been saying in her head for months. We got "good job", "get down", and "more banana." Look at this face and tell me that this kid wasn't scheming and waiting to share what's on her mind.

We pulled the car seats out of the car, after needing the space for a trip into town. Both girls found great amusement in climbing in and out of them while they sat on the floor. Jana even strapped herself in.

And finally, here are just some more fun pictures.

Aunt Boo, spending some quality time with Kara

Aunt Book taking advantage of some cuddle time with Ari.

Jana being a goof and wearing Daddy's hat.

Grandma and Ari

Tell me that's not one tired toddler! She was sacked out like that since I put her down for her nap 3 hours earlier. We opened the door and she proceeded to sleep through all the noise for another 45 minutes

Kara Mae entertaining us all.

The granddaughters, all sitting so cute purples.

Ari - and her many expressive faces.

And finally two pictures of our sweet Kara Mae.

Kara Speaks

I had to share this.

Kara decided this weekend to skip speaking words and go right to sentences.

She went from just "Dada", "Mama", and an occasional "uh-oh" to adding "good job", "get down", "more banana" and "you're welcome".

She's such a crack up.

Kara and her many crawls

I know I've been terrible about updating lately - apparently we've been busy lately.

Here are a couple of funny Kara videos for your enjoyment.

She seems to be very thoughtful in all that she does, so she's taking her time. She has become a crawling expert and has a few fun variations on her crawling.

Here is her famous bear crawl.



And here is her goofy one legged crawl.

Jana's 29 months

As this summer has progressed, it amazes us more and more just how big Jana is getting. She just has her own personality that is so unique and sweet - it makes everything so fun (and challenging at times).

One way she likes to show her personality is through putting things on...

Like her giraffe rain coat, giraffe sunglasses, and giraffe umbrella on a 90 degree day.



Or her sunglasses and her swim goggles.

If you've been around her lately, you know just how active she is. I think Uncle Patrick put it best with his comment to the effect that the only time he sees her stay in one place is when she's sleeping. With that in mind, we've been spending LOTS of time down at the pool, wearing her out. She is such a water bug and LOVES to swim.

The girls also got a special treat when Mama found a new sandbox for them and they both are enjoying it greatly.



Some days Jana is great at sharing her toys and some days... not so much. At first she thought it was great that Grandpa bought two Ewok treehouses (oh, flashbacks of my own childhood) - one for Jana and one for Kara. But then Jana wanted to play with them both. Most days, "playing together" ends up with Jana hitting Kara or pushing Kara down and Jana ends up in time out. Just a taste of the many years to come, right?

And what summer is complete without the messy watermelon-eating pictures?!?! Jana insists on eating "BIG watermelon" and making such a glorious mess.


And look at all of this hair!!! Remember how bald she was last summer?

One of Jana's favorite things to do is to go through the utensil drawer in the kitchen and pull out as many fun toys to play with as she can get before Mommy and Daddy stop her. She always seems to go for the tongs first.

Little Miss Independent on the 4th with her own sparkler. "No Mommy! Jana do it by myself."

Jana loves to get "nakedy." It's hard to keep her dressed some afternoons now that it gets so warm. But what better way to enjoy the bubble machine than being nakedy - except for socks and her Dora crocks.

And I have to say that I love this picture of the two of them. Jana has been refusing to sit in her booster seat and Kara doesn't like to sit away from the table in her high chair, so we gave this a try. In the end, we've bought another booster seat and we try to have all 4 of us sitting down to dinner together - or at least attempt it for a little while. :-)


At times I wonder if we're going to make it through the terrible twos - little miss sassy-pants can really push our buttons, but I guess that's what you get when you have two head-strong, stubborn, and opinionated parents. She comes by it naturally.

Her favorite saying when I say no to something is still, "Yes Mommy, you can."

Some of the memorable comments coming out of her mouth lately are:

(to Mama) "Whatcha doing my friend?"

(when you ask her to do something) "No way!"

(anytime I look like I'm leaving the house) "Going to swim class, Mommy? I go to swim class, too."

(to 4 month old cousin) "Whatcha doing my little friend?"

(to Uncle Patrick) "Whatcha doing big guy?"

And yesterday, when sharing with someone that I couldn't believe how big Jana is and it makes me a bit sad, she came over to me, sat in my lap facing me, saying, "Mommy, are you sad? I cuddle you and you be happy. Okay?" Gulp, sniffle, sniffle. Thanks for showing just how big you really are my wonderful not-so-baby girl!