Our new hangout

Our next-door neighbors got two pet rabbits this week and they put the hutch right outside our bedroom window. August and Rose are in love with the bunnies and run to the window to check on them many times a day. Even on tiptoe this is as high as they can get to see out, but they seem to see everything just fine.

Last weekend continued

We spent last Sunday afternoon at Camp Long in West Seattle enjoying the Arts in Nature Festival. In addition to some great music acts, there were lots of fun things to do for the kids. Here's Rose making some noise at the wall of hanging kitchen utensils.

We went for a walk on one of the camp's trails and Augie spent most of the hike beating on the tin can drum he made with mommy. Here's Rose watching the Japanese drummers. They made some great toddler dance music.

It was a good weekend....

A little late to be posting photos from last weekend, but here they are anyway. It was our first weekend with no obligations in a while so we did some fun family things. First was the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe, WA. The animals, especially the pigs, were a big hit. The kids got to pet four-day-old piglets and had front row seats for the pig races.
Here's August in the petting farm.
The kids loved watching the pigs. We even found an especially nice pig named Rosie. Mommy and Daddy enjoy looking at vegetables but the kids were pretty bored with them.

Rite of passage

Growing up back East, I (Becky) always took it for granted that when I had kids I'd take them to the shore when they were a year old to introduce them to the ocean. But here in the NW, there's no "shore" with swimming, boogie boarding and throngs of people. There's a coast and while it's beautiful, the water is icy cold and wild - not a place to take toddlers for the rite of passage I'd imagined. I'd been missing taking my kids to Rehobeth beach, DE or Ocean City, NJ this summer and rolling my eyes at suggestions that we take them to the beaches on Lake Washington here in Seattle. However, today the weather was warmer than usual so we took them to Madrona beach along Lake Washington and although it's not the ocean with roaring waves, it was surprisingly similar. We all had a blast introducing Rosie and Augie to the water and I was surprised by how happily sentimental the trip (only a few miles from our apartment) made me.
Before heading to the beach, the August and Rose splashed around in the water pump by the parking lot.
The river of water from the rinse-off area to the Lake is one of the best parts of the park for our kids. They tromp back and forth and dig around with their shovels before getting into serious sand play.
Oops. I meant to crop this picture before posting. Rose and her dad wading at the edge. August and Mommy in the water. Augie had an impromptu swimming lesson when he fell in head first and thrashed around before his dad fished him out. He coughed a little and scolded us for letting him fall in, but was fine and went right back to playing in the water.

We're still here!

Alot has happened since our last post and we've been too busy and too exhausted to blog. Things are slowing down a bit now, so we're hoping to get back in the swing of taking photos and posting them to keep you all updated on the twins' lives.
In the last two weeks August has learned to roar like a tiger, has mastered eating with a fork and spoon (albeit with flings of food in between some of the bites) and has figured out how to climb up and go down the slide at the playground. He can climb backwards down steps now, and that means he can climb out the back door if it's left open. Luckily in the process of climbing down, he discovered that the steps are the perfect-sized seats for him and he often pauses at the bottom to sit on the step like in this picture. Augie still shows his sister how much he loves her by clunking her on the head, but with a little prompting can pat her head nicely and say, "ooooo..."
Rose has learned to say "doggie" for dogs, "Daddy" for Daddy, Mommy or her baby doll and "uh oh" whenever I mention changing her diaper. One morning as Rob was getting ready for work she waved to him and said, "Daddy Bye-bye!" but we haven't heard that for a while. Although she doesn't seem to know the parts of her body, if I hand her a washcloth after a meal and say "Rosie, wash your face," she does a pretty good job of cleaning up herself and as much of the table as she can reach. Here she's modelling a dress which Grandma Gloria made for Mommy thirty-some years ago.
Here's August looking at books with his dad after a nap. Since the last post Becky finished the summer quarter at the University of Washington and swam, biked and ran in the Danskin Triathlon. Rob worked extra hard keeping everything together while she retreated to the library or Starbucks to write papers or went out to exercise. Also since the last post, the two of us got gussied up and celebrated our fifth Wedding anniversary at Pasta Freska near Lake Union. Thanks to our friends Tom and Anna for babysitting while we went out for a fun dinner.

Catch-up pictures

It's late and most of the Wentling-Yoder family is in bed but I wanted to post a few pictures to make up for our dismal posting record in the last couple of weeks. Rob pointed out today that there are only eight more days left until the end of my (Becky's)summer quarter and only ten until the Danskin Triathlon. We hope after that to put more effort into normal life and to post a little more often (until Fall quarter).

Here's Rose, proud of herself for climbing onto the rocking chair.
A couple of pictures of a weekend trip to the park. They kept their hats on!

Here they are at the International Fountain at Seattle Center. Both August and Rose were fascinated and intimidated by the big blasts of water. They ventured to the center when the spouts died down but screamed a lot when they splashed back up.