Perspective

I knew our "little" Havey wasn't so little since she wears clothes made for kids twice her age. Still, it didn't strike me until this weekend just how big she really is for her age. That is, until we discovered that she can ride Space Mountain at Disneyland. That's right, a 2-year old riding Space Mountain! We had to smile when all you could see of her in the photo of the ride is a blond tuft of hair next to Ryan.

Happy Belated Halloween!

Adventures in Gardening (and other Summer adventures)

Despite living in one of the most temperate climates in the world with a growing season of nearly 365 days of the year, we managed to bungle our garden this summer. The harvest has been anything but plentiful, as you can see by the stunted yellow pepper and cucumber in the photo above. We had the best intentions of eating organic and saving the world and money one home-grown vegetable at a time. I figure if we had to recover the costs of our garden, we'd have to charge about $100/lb for our produce. Luckily, our neighbor, whose tomatoes plants are a few feet from ours, takes pity on us every once in a while and brings us the vegetables they can't eat.

When we haven't been gardening which, truthfully, is almost all the time, we've been enjoying the summer. Ryan and I celebrated our 10th anniversary by redeeming 10-years worth of frequent flyer miles for a trip to the Big Island of Hawaii--without the kids. I only regret that the next time we'll probably have another vacation like that is in another ten years. The highlight was definitely all the snorkeling--with a reef shark, a giant manta ray (in Ryan's case), an eel, and tons of tropical fish. Here's some of my favorite photos:

We'll definitely also miss not seeing our family as much as we have this summer. Our only hope is that they'll want to come visit us (or Disneyland) this winter. Some photos:

Boating in Pineview with grandma

Shoemaker reunion in Capital Reef

Ryan wakeboarding in Bear Lake

The Morgan Fam

The Shoemaker Fam

Shoemakers L.A. Weekend

We had a fun weekend with the Shoemakers in town. Here are a few photos from the weekend:

The Getty Villa

Our little Padowan, Kieran, finally achieved his dream of lightsaber combat with Lord Vader

Enjoying an evening of baseball, Dodger dogs, and drunken fans

Easy to Please

Ryan read about an easy way to make your child's day on babycenter.com: add food coloring to their bath. It's true, it does make their day and, even though I was initially doubtful, it doesn't dye their skin or the bath tub. I'll be sad one day when simply chasing them around the house or dyeing their bathwater doesn't make the cut.

Haven recently discovered the "pinza" dress hanging up in her closet since Christmas. It was a gift from grandma and grandpa Shoemaker. This is Haven wearing the dress:

And this is Haven when she's told she cannot wear the dress: