A week of fall?!

Last Wednesday/Thursday I got the virus :(  The kids and I muddled through until Saturday at which point I crashed into bed after breakfast and didn't get up for much during the day.  Sunday morning going to church wiped me out, but after a nice nap in the afternoon, I was feeling a bit better.  I've still been tired, but don't have any lingering cough or fever, so that's good.

Since last week I knew we were headed for some cool and yucky weather on Friday and into this week, we managed to go to the zoo on Thursday afternoon (since the kids let me rest for a bit after lunch).  As we were on our way, we realized that Anna hadn't been to the zoo since last fall!  It was hard to see everything that everyone wanted to see, especially since Kate and I were pretty tired to start with, but it was fun nonetheless.  Ethan, however, didn't really like the carousel ride ...

Matt took over as parent over the weekend and spent a lot of time working with the girls on their bikes without training wheels.  We've still got a long ways to go, but at least they're both excited about it.  With the cooler weather lately and lack of pool time, we've taken to doing walks/bike rides in the afternoons and evenings.  During one of the first of these, we realized that Kate has outgrown the little 12" bike so Matt's hopefully going to pick up the next size bike after work today.  We'll have to see how Kate adjusts.

Monday we were getting a bit stir crazy towards the end of the day so we planned for a field trip on Tuesday.  I took the kids to CamRock park for a hike and picnic yesterday in the middle of the day.  Matt used to mountain bike at this place and we'd taken the girls there before.  I think everyone had a good time; the girls were laughing and giggling for a lot of their play time.  They ran down the big hill a few times, went for a hike with me and Ethan (in the backpack), had lunch, played with a caterpillar they'd found, and then played at the playground for a long time.

 

You'd have thought they would have been tired, but they had plenty of energy after dinner for a run around the neighborhood.  Yes, a run.  Matt and I walked with Ethan in the stroller and the girls ran on ahead.

Here's a few snapshots of life recently.

Kate still spends large chunks of her day looking through books over and over again.

Anna received some lego sets for her birthday (ages 6-12 ones!) and spent a lot of time on Friday and Saturday putting them ALL together.  She only asked for help a handful of times.

Ethan turned 8 months on Saturday.  We figured that if he didn't spit up, he would have weighed 20 lbs. when he was about 5 months old.  Well, he still spits up, but not nearly as much, and by our estimates he's reached the 20 lb. mark.