A second look

Breanne took her new princess bike on it's first "real" ride tonight. Those bigger tires made her ride fantastic! Now, look carefully at the picture. You'll notice Madison is missin' some wheels! She is now riding without training wheels. We were thrilled to take them out tonight and celebrate with ice cream afterwards. Way to go Madi!

A summersault of musings...

 I love to share my thoughts and happenings for not only your benefit, the reader. But also for my own. Someday, I'll look back on this (as will our girls) and laugh (hopefully) at the crazy pictures and stories about our young family.

Road Trip

Our road trip was good and fun! At only one point, about mid-week did I, the mom, freak out. I think it was mostly because I was trying to wear khaki pants and feed the baby (not restrained in a high chair) while she crawled all over me. I wouldn't suggest it...

Other than that, it was great family time! (Below, the girls give daddy a back massage.)

The girls loved swimming every day...all day if I would have let them. And, they learned how to sleep in. Even Aliya! 

We wore them out. Every morning after breakfast, the girls swam until lunch. Derrick would come eat lunch with us, then we'd nap, go to McDonald's for icecream, walk to the Farmer's Market (where we scored 6 pounds of Washington cherries..and they're almost gone...), swam at the local acquatic center (we had to evacuate the pool near the end of our afternoon..as told by Breanne "Madi, they had a situation,") and even played with friends that moved to Moses Lake. 

I wish I had a collage of pictures of Madison and Breanne's faces covered with icecream, cheetos, icecream, cherries, Doritos, cherries and more icecream! The girls stayed up every night until 10 with Derrick and me. It was kinda fun all laying in bed watching HGTV or the Discovery channel together.

The highlight of the trip was definitly our stop on the way home: Silverwood Amusement Park and Boulder Beach Water Park. This is just a little out of Coeur d'Alene and we spent Friday there. The girls (and mom and dad) had a great time! Derrick is so proud of Madison for going on two of the big roller coasters. One with Derrick and one with me. Derrick asked her what she thought of it, "I was a little scared at first, but it was fun." After those, she stuck with the kiddie rides. Our family especially liked the Roaring Creek Log ride (we even took Aliya on it). We floated along in a log and at the end were pulled up and slid down a "waterfall." We didn't even get wet. Madison and Breanne had many favorites including the kiddie ferris wheel, antique cars (they got to drive) and kiddie roller coaster, (Madison liked the wave pool).

Communication!

Aliya has made leaps and bounds in communicating with us. It cracks us up--all she is learning, doing, understanding and saying. I told you already on Thursday, June 25, she started making sounds and said, "Da, da, da, dadae." This only began the babbling and array of sounds. Right before we left for Moses Lake, she finally said more in sign language. We've been showing her this since she was 5 months old and at breakfast that morning, Derrick and I both watched her ask for more muffin. We were so excited that she was "getting it" instead of screaming for it. She also mimics lots of words like all done, hi, uh-oh. (Still no momma!) She loves to clap her hands, she started waving at people and really likes peek-a-boo. She's a bundle of energy right now, but she's super cute at the same time. I recall Madison as a baby being this busy, but Madison didn't become mobile until 10 months....Aliya's not even 10 months and has been crawling for the last 2 months. She is definitely developing a little personality. I think she might be a fire-cracker. Our favorite though is the face she makes...and she knows we think it's funny. You have to watch it in the end of this video..

30 in 30

Let it be known, that I am not excited to turn 30 the end of this month. I know from experience in sharing my anxiety, that anyone reading this that has already hit 40 is rolling their eyes at me. But, I'm sticking with my lament...I'm old! I have a kindergartner. I'm 30. I have 3 kids. I'm old. However, our worship leader at Harvest also turned 30 this past year and he ran a 30 in 30. He literally ran 30 miles in one day before he turned 30 years old. I am not doing that exactly, but I love the idea of reaching one extra goal before turning 30. So my personal 30 in 30 started today. I plan to run 3-miles, on each of 10 days, equalling 30 miles before my 30th birthday.

Last but not least

I know I've kept you wondering what in the world the picture at the top is about. Here's a little backstory. On our honeymoon we drove to Glacier National Park and saw a sign promoting the T****cal Festival...have a ball. We laughed, but since we took a different route home, we never got to take a picture. On our road trip west, we were determined to look for the same billboard. We have mentioned this billboard to many Montanans who all look at us like we're crazy, they've never seen that sign. Frankly, I don't know how you would miss this. We found the sign, and would love to visit the the T****cal Festival. I want to know when it is, but don't think it wise to google that one...

Da Da Dadae by a mile!

I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I've written. There have been many times I had something I wanted to blog, but just didn't sit down at the computer to communicate my thoughts. Right now we are in Moses Lake, Washington with Daddy "at his new work." The big girls are loving it! This morning they were at the pool at 9am and stayed there until noon. Madison kept saying, "Daddy said we could swim all day!" I finally talked them into getting some lunch and then a nap. After that, it was back to the pool.

Yesterday's drive across western Montana, Idaho and eastern Washington was very beautiful! The girls were excellent riders and they "heard" it for the first time---the Dairy Queen calling. =)

Now if I may I'd love to rewind and bring you up to speed on milestone and adventures of the DeWildes. The last weekend in June, we went camping at Tongue River Resevior with a big group of friends from Harvest. Before we left, Aliya started babbling a bunch! It was the Thursday Derrick came home and Madi & Bre were talking about Daddy. Aliya started babbling, "a da da daddae." It was so cute. She's said a number of time now.

Our camping weekend was fun and the girls loved riding in the boat and playing in the sand! S'moreos were a hit among the other kids, but I still think Madison led the record in most S'moreos eaten at one time. Breanne still prefers the traditional S'more, but I think they get equally messy faces eating their campfire desserts.

My favorite line from the weekend is Breanne leaning into the camper as we set it up and saying, "Hello gorgeous!" Derrick got to drive a boat and water ski. He was in heaven! I also got to waterski, but it wasn't too pretty. I took a few tries to get up and then I wiped out with a nose-dive shortly later. I'm blaming it on have babies. My opportunities to water ski are few and far between as it is and when I spend summers out of commission being pregnant, it doesn't help matters. Oh, well. At least I got up!

Last week was Breanne's birthday week! What a birthday princess we have indeed. Four years old already. She had a birthday breakfast of waffles and bacon. We sang Happy Birthday and she blew out candles in her waffle.

Her princess bike from mom and dad wasn't near as exciting as the lotions, glitter and lip gloss from her big sister Madison. And the waterbottle that came with the bike was pretty exciting as well. But, Aliya thoroughly enjoyed the pom poms on the bike handles.

Her birthday was filled with lots of activities: doctor appointment, playing with friends as the park, lunch at Mc Donald's, swimming with friends in the afternoon, and pizza and ice cream cones for dinner. Her party was the next day, Friday. We set up a slip and slide for the kiddos, a pool and they also played on the swing set and trampoline. Watermelon was a must for her party.

And Princess Ariel had a castle of a birthday cake.

 Aliya woke up from a nap after the party. Here she is on the deck, standing against the patio door while Derrick and I are inside the house.On the Fourth of July, Madison ran her first 5K! What a girl. She ran most of the first mile, then walked a bit. She finished strong, running the last two-tenths mile.

Here's Aliya eating watermelon on the Fourth of July. How much more Americana do you get than that?

Trauma

Ever had one of those days where everything just keeps going wrong? Well, the DeWilde girls did today.

This morning something actually went right when Madison & Breanne unloaded the dishwasher and Aliya tried to help. That was actually great because the big girls thought it was fun to have Aliya "help" them.

Not too long after that, Breanne got her finger slammed in the van door by Madison. Ouch! This wound took hours to even start to feel better. The good news is Madison got to practice showing compassion toward Breanne. Thankfully, Breanne can still move all her fingers, they aren't too swollen and they didn't bleed.

A couple hours later, Madison and Breanne were racing to the deck to help make Breanne birthday party invitations when Breanne accidently tripped Madison and Madison got a bad scape on her knee. The good news here is that it didn't bleed too much and looked pretty good after we cleaned it up with some soap and water.

Minutes later, Aliya decided to eat sand. No matter what we did, she kept grabbing it and shoving it into her mouth. I tried taking her to the garden hose to rinse off some of the sand from her mouth. I was not very successful, but my neighbor walking past probably got a chuckle out of the sight.

By now, it's dinner time. Aliya's, "I'm getting tired and I'm getting hungry and so could you just hold me?" time. I was busy making dinner when Aliya pulled up on my legs, let go of my pant legs and instantly nose-dived into the step stool.

Calgon, take me away!

Squirrel!

Oh what a night! This past Friday, we took the girls to the Drive-In Movie Theater. We packed blankets and our camp chairs and the girls were ready to go. We were no more than parked and Madison points over to the concessions and says, "Um, I think that they might sell popcorn over there." The first movie was "Up." We all enjoyed it. But our favorite line (or word) was when the dogs that could talk would stop mid-sentence, point and say, "Squirrel!" All weekend long, we've been doing that with the girls. Madison will do it and then say, "That's kinda funny!"
Derrick and I (well I guess I didn't quite stay awake through all of it) stayed up for the 2nd movie, "Race to Witch Mountain." However, 2am is way too late for us old duffers! We could hardly function on Saturday morning.
Madison and Breanne made Derrick coffee Sunday morning for Father's Day. He finally got his coffee maker for the camper, and we had his favorite dinner, fajittas.
After dinner, our kind and gracious neighbor came over to round up the big girls and give them a horse ride. Joe has two easy-going horses: Red & Sam. Madison (our thrill-seeker) didn't hesitate a second and hopped right on. Joe said, "She's a natural." Meanwhile I'm thinking, horses are expensive; I hope daddy has a lot of money! Breanne took a little more convincing. I had to ride with her, but she did enjoy her ride.
This past Tuesday, our friends the Fullers stopped for a very quick visit. They moved to Kentucky last October and had to make a quick trip to Montana. The girls were very excited to see their friends and I enjoyed seeing them too! I was thinking it would be easier than 8 months ago because all the girls are older...however, Brandee pointed out that we added 2 babies to the mix....so it was still mass chaos! Oh, well!

Brandee loves on Aliya.

Mud Pie Soup. It's what's for dinner.

Breanne and Aimee.This morning, I picked some strawberries from our little strawberry patch. The bad news is, these berries are "enlarged to show texture." The good news is, what they lack in size, they make up for in sweetness.

Wonder Girl!

Time for another weekend adventure with the DeWilde family. Grab a cup of coffee and see our weekend unfold. We set out Friday afternoon for Woodbine Campground on the Stillwater River-a new destination for us all. The drive was beautiful and a great time for Derrick and I to catch up on our weeks since he had spent the week in Moses Lake, WA with work. Without any problems, we found a great campsite along a creek nestled among the relaxing smell of the pine trees. We were amazed at our daughters, who quickly took over setting up the camper. "No, mom, I can do this," Madison informs me as she lowers the jack from the camper. Breanne had her turn as well.

Aliya was just excited to not be camping in the cold and snow. She had a semi-"safe" place to roam in front of the camper. Truth be told, she probably ate her share of dirt, but we tried to keep the pine needles out of the digestive track.

The weather was terrific! We didn't need winter gloves, snowpants or hats. We were forever taking Madison and Breanne to the bathroom! From our campsite, they would like to take the shortcut across the creek to the toilets. Every time it was a MAJOR decision, should I take the rocks or the log across? Hmmm....(Madison only fell in once.) On the first night, we came back from the toilets to find Aliya had fallen asleep on Derrick's shoulder by the campfire. I had no idea that sometime over the course of our snowy camping trip, my oldest daughters became marshmellow "snobs." They are quite the roasters and it can't be burnt, they need red coals, no flames.....and they can polish off 1/2 a bag of marshmellows quite quickly! Breanne prefers the traditional s'more.Madison on the other hand likes the sm'oreo. She very carefully roasts her marshmellow to perfection, untwists the oreo and sandwiches it between the oreos cookies. We are unsure of the official count on how many of these she can polish off.

Saturday morning we started off with a big breakfast and got ready to hit the trail to Sioux Charlie Lake. A hike that follows the Stillwater and is 3.1 miles in length. This was Breanne's first big hike as a hiker, as opposed to a rider in the backpack.
The river was raging and loud. Madison often covered her ears, draining out the loud sound of the rushing water.
There is still much snow on the mountains as you can see in the pictures. It is so beautiful!
Aliya is a great rider. And didn't hardly complain a bit! I think she likes to be along and watch everything around her. She also slept a little bit. I have never hiked in Montana among so many flowers and butterflies. They were everywhere. Madison and Breanne loved it!The highlights of the hike were the exciting words from the trail blazer (or line leader) "Water on the trail," to warn everyone that we were about to cross a little stream or creek of water. It was kinda fun and no one even got wet. Breanne was even getting really good at navigating these crossing on the return trip. It made it exciting. We praised Breanne up and down for this huge feat (hiking 6.2 miles!) We have now nicknamed her "Wonder Girl" (I started this 2 weeks ago when she biked 4-miles..including up and down the big hill on Senators.)

Shortly after arriving at the lake, a couple came to inform us that they had seen a black bear 1/4 mile further up the trail. We really didn't want any bear encounters so we headed back down the trail and found a grassy spot on the other side of the lake. Breanne told us this was the lake without a bear by it. We nodded and just didn't tell her it was the same lake, different shore. We laid out the rain poncho and all laid down to rest. It was awesome to open our eyes and see this view.On Sunday, we planned to see the Woodbine Falls. A small hike (.8 miles one way) to see a fairly large waterfall.

Madison and Breanne were more excited about the water trickling off a rock on the way up the trail.
We returned to the campsite and Breanne and Madison were ready for another hike. Apparently a 2-mile hike isn't enough for our girls. We went on a couple little adventures along the creeks that flow into the Stillwater and around the campsite before packing up and returning home.
It's so nice to get away, but being home and able to shower is equally wonderful! Here's our newested bath tub fan, smilin' in the tub.

Until next time...

I'm movin' on up!