summer vacation - part 2 (camping!)

no family reunion (in nor cal at least) with noa's family is complete without a trip to the very special and beautiful wood's lake. noa's family has been coming here since his dad and aunts were young. about 20 of us camped for 2 nights. the campground had just opened that week due to late snowfall (yes, there was still quite a bit of snow on the mountains in JULY). the days were gorgeous, but we froze our booties off at night. in the 30s/40s! in the beginning, our little princess nanea was not so thrilled at the thought of no bathrooms and showers, but by the end of the first day she was peeing in the bushes with the best of 'em!

the second generation of cousins (3rd generation of the allen clan)!

from back row, 1-r: justin, jaimie, makena, nanea, cole, sophie, mili, tess, jorja

the beautiful wood's lake

our last night in sac, the day we returned from camping. WARM and TIRED!

summer vacation - part 1

we were lucky to spend the last two weeks before school started in northern california with family. LOTS of family! our trip began with a quick visit with poppy and rose marie in benicia. the girls love, love, love poppy and rose marie (and i do too!) we had a really nice visit and i took the girls to the jelly belly factory in fairfield on the way back to sacramento. i wasn't willing to wait in the hour + line for the factory tour, but we did manage to purchase $50 worth of jelly bellies. we also got to go to trader joes and chipotle, which of course was my own selfish agenda.

makena and poppy

after returning to sacramento, we made our way northeast for a few days. we spent a great day at pinecrest lake with friends and cousins. the lake was F R E E Z I N G, like ice cold freezing, but it didn't stop the kids from jumping right in. especially our little fish nanea, who of course i managed to not get any pictures of. blue lips and shaking, but she wouldn't get out! holly bought a boat for the kids to paddle around in. since joseph was the oldest (9), he was volunteered to paddle the little kids around. he took his job quite seriously and literally toured the kids around for about 5 hours. everyone had a great time!

joseph rowing sophie and makena; makena preferred to play in the "sand," which was really more like a very thin layer of dirt.

what's a trip to the lake without a soft serve ice cream cone?

back in sac, a trip to the zoo and fairy tale land was in order. the zoo was really nice and fairy tale land is basically a really big playground, fairy tale themed. huge slides and things to climb in, from mother goose to winnie the pooh. the kids had a blast. and the morning ended with lunch at chipotle. this was also the day that baby was "lost," only to be found later that night (see previous post).

nanea as a zoo keeper; tess and nanea making friends with the tiger

makena getting a lift from justin; nanea and her friend the orangutan

woo hoo, woo hoo, i'm driving cinderella's coach!

obsession

those of you that know makena know that she loves her baby. OBSESSED with her baby is actually more accurate. nanea has never had something like this that she so needed all of the time, so it's been a new experience for me. we've "lost" baby before, but in the way that we knew she was somewhere and just had to look or go back (scour the house, go back to the baby sitter, or recently return to the osh kosh store to retrieve her from under a clothes rack that she had been left under while playing when she knew it was a no-no), but, we've never truly LOST her. until today.

we've been in northern ca for about a week, staying with family and having a great time. needless to say, the kids and their lack of sleep has been driving the moms bonkers (dads don't arrive for the family camping trip until tomorrow night). we had a super busy day, taking the kids to the zoo and then fairy tale town, dropping them off and then heading to costco and safeway to buy all the food we will need for 20 people camping for 3 days. not to mention coming home and then cooking the 2 dinners we'll eat while there (though that was all holly and i mainly poured wine and offered moral support) and cooking the 5 kiddos dinner.

upon arriving home from the store(s), makena began asking for baby. well, we'd been gone at least an hour and a half, so i had no idea where she was. the hunt began. it was not in earnest at first, but we had all 3 adults and 4 of the 5 kids a-hunting. we searched everywhere. in dressers, closets, behind doors, under pillows, washing machine and dryer, even the fridge and freezer. nada. hours. nada. we finally called the restaurant that we ate at for lunch, thinking that perhaps it was left there. no luck. in spite of that, we (holly, makena, tess and i) headed there to see for ourselves. at 9pm. all the while an exhausted makena whispering, "baby? baby?" in her car seat next to me. disappointment once we arrived and i got back in to the car to an expectant little makena only to tell her it wasn't there and we'd keep looking. she just nodded her head and then lay her head to the side of her car seat and went to sleep. no thumb and no baby-hat-rubbing/flicking. just about broke my heart. we got home, i put her to bed, put nanea to bed and started to look a bit more. finally gave up. shortly after, everyone started getting ready for bed and yaya turned down her bed. lo and behold, she found baby. tucked under the pillows. the same pillows we had looked under 2, 3, probably a dozen times between all of us looking for her. sweet justin even texted his mom to see if she had seen baby before she left for dinner. so, crisis averted for now. baby has been tucked into makena's sleeping arms where she will happily wake up to her in the morning.

so, in tribute to makena's baby obsession, here are some photos i just discovered that makena took of her. there is no substitute:

rainbow nails

the only way we paint 'um...and also the only way she will let me cut her nails!