Good-bye to the Yoder Grandparents

Today is the last day of another great visit with Rob's parents, Delmar and Marjorie. The twins enjoyed every minute of their visit, especially a two day trip to Port Angeles which included an excursion to Victoria. Here are the kids with their grandparents at Port Gamble.
Augie shows off his photos of Dinotown - they're still talking about that place - to Grandma Marjorie. Grandpa Delmar gets the full experience of double toddler chaos.

Deer park hiking

Here are some photos of a recent trek up to Deer Park near Port Angeles. We've been trying to take the kids on a few short hikes with us and getting them out of their backpacks some to acclimate them to one of our favorite hobbies. One this day Rosie stayed with her grandma Marjorie and only August came along with Becky, Rob and Grandpa Delmar. In the background is Sequim and the Sound.
He was a trooper, but needed a little help getting up the last part of the hill.
Three generations of Yoder men - Delmar, August and Rob - at the lookout from Deer Park. August heads back down the trail with his Dad.

In case you're wondering how potty-training is going....

...the answer is "Jerry is doing great!" Augie and Rosie however, are getting more and more resistant to the idea of using their potties. They occassionally agree to sit on them and like to read books about using a toilet, but that's about as far as we get. Rose has taken a special interest in teaching Jerry Garcia everything she's learned so far on the topic.

Here are some photos of the twins modeling t-shirts sent by their uncle Chris. The t-shirts are leftovers from the days when he worked in Saudi Arabia, but they look brand new and the kids were tickled with them.

Dinotown!

For months Rose and August have been getting wound up by seeing ads for Dinotown on PBS after Sesame Street. So we decided that while Grandma Gloria was visiting we would all make the trip to Bridal Falls, BC to visit the place. It was pretty goofy and run down, but a toddlers' paradise with cartoon dinosaur shows, a parade, a train, a boat ride, etc.
As you can see, the Flintstone-like vehicles were a big hit with the kids.
Augie was serious about trying everything out.

I'm not sure we could recommend Dinotown to our friends with kids. The place is a little grungy and worn down from years of use, and the minimal staffing raised my concerns about safety on some of the "do-it-yourself" rides. But our kids loved every minute of our visit, and since they're under 3, admission was free for them. It might have been harder to swallow if all four of us had to pay the $15 admission price.

Visit from Grandma Gloria

We are at the tail end of one of our visits from Grandma Gloria. Although she's been here for more than two weeks, it feels like she just arrived and we've been teasing her about hiding her return tickets home.
Since the weather was lousy for the first half of her visit, we've been madly dragging her off to some of our favorite outdoor play spots during the second half. We forgot the camera for most outings but here are some photos from a few trips.
Here is a picture of the main play area at St.Edwards State Park in Kenmore one of our favorite destinations for a roadtrip.
A shot of part of the toddler area with Augie climbing to the left.
We've already made several treks over to the new water spray park at Crossroads Community center in Bellevue. Rosie and Augie run all over this place getting wet, but always end up stuck at the turtle putting their heads in the spray and drinking the water.