Sikorski Saga

Look at the big ONE YEAR OLD!!!! She still has the bluest eyes, even if they aren't amused. This was right before her nap. The cakes Kyla, Luella and G'Ma helped make for Katja's party. The big one was for us all to share and the little one was just for Katja to dig into and destroy. Luella giving her G'G'Pa a big hug while we were watching Fox News, or was it The Price Is Right? Katja with her birthday balloon. Tim told Kyla to go get something for Katja that said birthday and Arizona. The closest we could find was an Elmo balloon that said, " Feliz Cumplean ~ os ". The kids' table! Christian and Colleen and the kids joined us for dinner, pool time and cake! Kyla wanted to get a photo of the girls before they got ribs, baked beans, veggie tray, fruits, or juice on them. It was a fantastic dinner! Thanks G'G'Ma ! Luella giving her G'G'Ma a big hug for making such a tasty dinner! All of us in the pool! Luella, Calvin, Quinten , Co...

We took a vacation for 8 days to see Tim's family in Phoenix, AZ and Rosamond, CA. We flew into Phoenix and stayed with Tim's G'Pa and G'Ma (Tim and Wanda McIntyre). The first full day there, we had dinner with Tim's high school buddy/groomsman Christian Schnepf and his family. Here's our kids Emmaline (will be 2 in December), Quinten (4), Calvin (3), Katja (last day being 0), and Luella (3 weeks from being 3). We told them to pretend to like each other!

Kyla's parents, Karen and Dan, sent presents early so we'd be ready for our upcoming vacation. Katja's getting ready to open her presents. Oh! Cute new clothes! New books too! Katja loves reading. She even loves to pretend to read Kyla's books that have no pictures. If we try to adjust the book (so she's reading it right side up) she gets upset. Luella's turn! She got new clothes too, but the hit was a My Little Pony travel kit with 8 crayons and 100 pages to color and activities to do. It was supposed to entertain her on the plane, but she colored most of the pages that night. Katja jumping for joy after opening her presents! Thank you Grammy and Granddaddy!

The first full day of camping in one location started out with Katja climbing the stairs to our van. Our campsite was down the hill from the main road and a little further down was the beach. Katja loves using her new stair climbing skills. Tim showing Luella how to bait the hook with a real night crawler. Tim's idyllic vacation. Fishing in the sun. Just needed a cold brew that was up in the cooler. The only fish we caught on camera. It happens to be tan, like Tim's shirt. Look in his armpit and you can see it! Katja being cute, drinking milk, but it was way too hot for clothes. Tim grilling up Bubba Burgers. They were delicious! Luella playing in the water, pretending to do dishes, but really just adding more of the woods into the water. A good view of Katja's sweat Mohawk ! A cute picture of Katja , even though her Mohawk doesn't show up the best. Luella showing off the blister on her lip from trying to lick her marshmallow roasting stick. Tim racked his brain...

So after driving around Virginia Beach for about an hour to find Highway 58 (Did I mention that our GPS CD broke in the van about 2 months ago and we were relying on a poor state park map of the area?), we took about another hour to get out of the Virginia Beach/Norfolk/Portsmouth area and decided to stop for lunch. We drove another 2 hours and decided to stop for diaper changes and to find a map. Then we realized that we still had another 90 minutes to go! This park is on the border of North Carolina and Virginia west of I-85. So much for being close to Virginia Beach! We realized we really just wanted to go camping, even if we couldn't let Katja play in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. (Which was our original plan for Saturday on the way home.) We decided to camp for two nights in this park and come home Sunday. Luella loved the lake and throwing sand into the water. Good thing we didn't tell her it was Bugg's Island Lake! Luella with an action shot of throwing sa...

We finally got to cash in on our promise to go camping for Tim's birthday on Thursday 8/6/09 and Friday 8/7/09. We had to do laundry and pack and got a late start. So we showed up to the campsite in the dark, in the rain and set up the tent we gave Tim for his birthday. Thankfully the sun was shining in the morning! Tim made us pancakes, sausage and hot water for coffee. The girls had fun waiting for their breakfast. Tim making his world-famous pancakes - but outside on a cast iron griddle. The girls were being goofy. Luella is two going on thirteen. She got really moody that she couldn't eat breakfast that instant. She got over it eventually and pretended to drink coffee with Tim. Kyla and the girls having fun in the great outdoors. Kiptopeke State Park is on the peninsula across the Chesapeake Bay from Virginia Beach. One side is the Bay, the other is the Atlantic Ocean. To get there you have to cross a three bridge/two tunnel combination that is 19 miles long. One benefi...