Hula babies- part deux

Anya has endured quite a change this past month. We recently returned from sunny, warm Hawaii and just had a major snow storm with frigid temperatures back home. In Hawaii we played outside all day, rain or shine. Back at home it is a bit more of a process to get outside then once we are out she gets cold so fast in the 20 degree temperatures we end up back inside within a matter of minutes.

The Hawaii trip was interesting to say the least. I traveled with Anya solo- no Myles. That was a challenge but I feel that we both we handled it fairly well. Luckily we shared the plane ride (and an extra seat) with Jinny and Lucy our Hawaiian companions.

The weather was really rainy the first 3-4 days. I mean we are talking no sunscreen, sunglasses or even a thought of a bathing suit. We took the girls out on the beach and to the park despite the torrential downpours. Being wet in Hawaii is almost a gift since the humidity is high and the temperatures are mild.

Lucy is 1 month older than Anya so the girls had a blast together. The funniest part (which I'm sure you can see in the pictures) is the difference in size. Lucy is off the charts in height where Anya is off the chart as well (just at the other end of the chart!). We lovingly referred to them as 'Mutt and Jeff" but the size difference was never an issue- thankfully Lucy is a gentle soul and didn't pound on Anya!

Once we got some sunny days the girls spent a lot of time in the yard playing in the "splash pad" and at the foot bath water faucet. The ocean was gorgeous and calmed down enough for us to swim the girls several times.

Daddy missed his little girl terribly. We were able to Skype so that helped but I know he was so happy to have us home.

Elephants on Parade

Halloween is a wonderful holiday full of spooks and goblins, but this year Anya (well me really) decided she wanted to be an elephant. What an adorable costume I thought as I purchased it never really thinking through the process of my 16 month old willful toddler wearing a full elephant head piece.

Yeah- she didn't like the ears or the trunk. Even after weeks of encouragement- "look, mommy's wearing the ears, ooooh, daddy is an elephant.... hey look Boone even likes it...."

Nope, the second those ears came near her head it was no and run away. So we have very few pictures of our little darling elephant, but the ones we have are precious of course.

The best of all was our PEPS Halloween party. You might recall last year I posted a video of all of our babies in costume crying... (see below)

Well this year we have the same group a year later and much more defiant screaming and lurching off the couch..... (see below)

We are wonderful parents to torture our kids this way.

Myles and I got in the Halloween spirit this year and dressed up with our Aussie friends (Harry's parents) and went to my dad's band party. We had a blast- (we are smurfs if you can't tell)