2 year old!!!

July 2014

We had some amazing sunsets this month, so I had to share at least one picture!  We celebrated the 4th of July by walking in our neighborhood kids' parade, and then later on we went to a barbecue at a friend's house.  Caden looked particularly patriotic sitting in this chair.

Since our friends are expecting their first baby, Zane must have felt the need to highlight potential baby proofing ideas around the house. :)

One weekend when we were pressure washing the patio, the boys made this awesome chair and cushion fort.  Caden also started counting this month, and his version of counting is saying "2, 3, 2, 3."  It's pretty cute!  Since he has a cold more often than not, it's not surprising that one of his new phrases is "I want see booga."

 Zane has become interested in practicing writing the alphabet, and his letters are getting more and more legible.  After learning that paper is made from trees, his class was working on a paper making project that he was super excited about it.  For a few days at pick up he would drag me over to where the paper was drying to take a look at how it was doing.  It was cute!

I also realized how much more I pay attention to different types of vehicles than I ever have before.  Like when I was heading to the bus stop after work one day, and I was compelled to take this picture of one of metro's tow trucks pulling a bus!  Zane and Caden were excited to see it. :)

 We had a few playground adventures this month, including a couple visits to the wading pool at Lincoln Park.  Playground trips usually involve plenty of time digging in the sand.

 We also watched our favorite summer parade, including the boys' favorite part, the police motorcycle demonstrations. 

The Seafair pirates are also a key part of the parade.  Police officers, motorcycles, pirates, music and candy... what more could these two ask for?

That same weekend, we got to watch Zane's friend Elsa's mom, "White Collar Brawler," at her roller derby match.  It was a lot of fun! 

 The boys worked together to build a few box forts and homes. 

They agreed on the main decorative element for the exterior of their structures, lots and lots of stickers!

Caden turned 2 on the 23rd!  It's hard to believe that it's already been two years.  Caden is very much his own sweet, funny and passionate little person.  It is fun seeing his personality develop. 

He took cupcakes to school to celebrate with his friends, and we had some fun cupcakes to celebrate at home with.  The boys each chose a cookie monster cupcake. :)

He got his very own chair, just like Zane's, which he was pretty tickled about.

 He also got his first lego set,

and a scooter!

He worked really hard on blowing out his two candles, and it was so sweet.  He also worked really hard on eating all of the frosting!

 Here are my very best efforts at capturing his two year old pictures.

 

Zane had to get in on the action too!

 

That weekend, grandma and grandpa came to visit, and we had a birthday party for Caden in our back yard with a few of our school friends.

The birthday boy had a fun time!  We colored with chalk, played with the bubble maker, and threw water balloons.

It's quite convenient that some of Caden's friends are the little siblings of Zane's friends. 

Now that he's two, I turned his car seat around so that he is forward facing.  He stretched out his legs to show me how big he is now!  

Caden's two year check up was the Monday after his party.  After we dropped Zane off at school, we stopped by the playground to burn off some energy before his appointment.  Caden weighed in at 28 lbs 6 oz (55%) and measured 35.25 inches long (80%)!  His doctor was happy with how he's doing, and Caden was more than happy to show off his jumping skills.

kauai

June 2014

We got out and enjoyed some of the gorgeous weather this month!  We played at Lincoln Park one afternoon, and the boys had fun watching the water taxi take off while we waited for our tacos from Marination to be ready.  Yum!

At the beginning of the month, Caden's class got a new pet, Penelope the hedgehog, or "Lope" as Caden calls her.  She's a pretty big deal!  Zane's new thing is saying, "I'm right; you're wrong," a bunch.  He states a fact/opinion/observation, and then blurts out his new favorite phrase before you can agree, disagree or simply marvel over his statement.  :)

The second week of June we went on our family vacation to Kauai from Sunday to Friday.  The old version of us would have been horrified by our ineffective use of the weekends for traveling, but it was perfect for traveling with the boys because it gave us time to pack, unpack and unwind.  Vacations and traveling in general have taken on new meaning now that the boys are in our lives.  It is fun and a change of scenery, but I think it will be quite a few years before it has the potential to be relaxing again.

Caden wasn't excited about our airport selfie.  :)

Zane chased the chickens around while we waited on the rental car, which, by the way, the he decided was a race car.  

 

We stayed at the Westin in Princeville and had a lot of fun exploring and chasing lizards.  

I can't believe I don't have a picture of it, but Zane's favorite part of the whole trip was the keiki pool at the hotel.  It wasn't too deep, had fun turtle fountains, and a big water slide (which wasn't scary at all once you went down a couple times). 

We had a nice view over the golf course, which is pretty awesome because there is usually some sort of truck or golf cart zooming around to watch.

We watched the sunset from our balcony that first night.

We ventured to Ke'e Beach, and it was raining when we got there.  We stopped off to check out the caves on the way to the beach.  This picture is a little over exposed, but you can really see the cave.

There were chickens hanging out everywhere in Kauai, even on the beach. 

 

 After the rain, we got to see a rainbow from the room.  The boys get super excited over rainbows at home or on vacation, but who doesn't get excited about rainbows?

We snuggled up in Zane's pull out bed for a movie. While we were there, Caden slept in a crib in between our bed and Zane's bed.  He still has some rough times at night, but being so close we were able to calm him down quickly when he woke up upset.

 We loved driving by these trees on the way to Hanalei.

Caden wondering where his smoothie is one day at lunch...

Green kale smoothies (aka, dinosaur smoothies!)

At least we have proof that we got some veggies into them while we were gone :)

Zane was excited about this coconut he found, and he asked me to take a picture so he could show it to his friends when he got back to school.  He did take in a few pictures when we got back and talked to all of his friends about his trip.  Pretty cool!

 We went on a little hike to Queen's Bath. 

The end of the trail comes out at at waterfall near the ocean.

And the views were pretty spectacular!

 

You can see the protected swimming hole, the Queen's Bath, in the picture below.  We didn't attempt to climb down with the boys, but it looked really cool.

The way back up to the trail was about as tricky as it was coming down because it was a bit muddy and slick, but Zane was a hiking champ!  We managed to pass Caden up and down a few times to each other to get everyone back up the trail to the car. 

 One morning we went to check out the beach at the St. Regis.  It was gorgeous, and the waves were the perfect size for the boys. 

Zane made sure that our fearless Caden didn't go too far into the water by himself. :)

The view was beautiful, and the boys loved watching the tiny fish in the crystal clear water.

 We also went for a train ride at the Kauai Plantation Railway near Lihue.

We got to see lots of different animals and plants, including a stop to feed the now domesticated wild hogs and chickens.

 We drove all the way around to Polihale State Park.  It was quite the bumpy drive getting out there, but our race car, I mean rental, handled it just fine!

The beach, the waves, and the surrounding cliffs were huge.  It was really hot, but we could take our shoes off in the wet sand.  Caden stayed asleep most of the time we were there; the bumpy roads must have put him into a deep sleep. :)

 After that we drove through Waimea Canyon and stopped off in several spots to take in the views.

We had fun, but Zane's stomach had a tough time on the drive back down.  "GO SLOW MAMA!" So we pulled off to the side a lot to let other cars pass by, but we made it all the way back down to sea level without any yucky incidents.  Whew!

That night we had dinner in Poipu, and this was the fabulous view from our table.  The open window looked right out on the beach. 

We also fit in a round of mini golf, or just golf if you're mini to begin with, at a really pretty course.

They had all sorts of different plants around that were labeled, including our favorite during the trip, pineapples!

Here's another rainbow that we saw, probably on our way to or from getting shave ice or a coconut for the biggest boy.

 

It's safe to say that we had a great time and saw a lot of cool things!  The evening flight home was a rough one for Caden.  He definitely kept a few rows awake when we had to sit in our seats, but thankfully he calmed down and was quiet when we stood at the back of the plane with him - the flight attendants were really nice about it!  I think being off his usual schedule so much just really caught up to him. 

The weekend we got home, we celebrated Father's Day with brunch at Salty's.

The following weekend was Zane's last t ball game, and I missed it to run the Seattle Rock 'n Roll half marathon, but the boys picked me up afterward.  We found out the next day that we have another munchkin (!!!) on the way, so that's my excuse for my slowest time to date!  But I managed to run a half marathon while each of them was taking up residence in my belly. 

That same weekend, Jess and Alex were in town visiting, so it was great hanging out with them!

The following weekend, Ankur was in town visiting before he took off on his Alaskan adventure.  We got him warmed up by going to Snoqualmie Falls and walking the trails there. 

Caden got to ride on my back in the Ergo, even though after the Hawaii trip, he has decided that he is too big for his high chair now. ;) His top two canine teeth also came in this month!