A few weeks ago, we went camping out at Sequim Bay State Park with my whole family. We were all looking forward to it and it ended up being a really relaxing weekend. Annaliese and Haleigh were super excited to ride the 'ferry boat' and that may have been the highlight of the trip for them!
Once we arrived at our campsite, we realized that our sleeping bags were back home. Bummer. (Last year we forgot our big tent. This year our sleeping bags. Maybe next year we'll get it all!) Thankfully, we were able to scrounge together enough blankets and use Ben's sleeping bag (he wasn't coming until the next day) where we all stayed warm and then Ben stopped by our house and picked up the bin of sleeping bags when he came out on Saturday morning. There was a nice bike trail close by that we took advantage of and we were also right by the water so spent some time there as well. Kelsey brought along a few games for the kids, some incredible bubbles, lots of coloring supplies and of course, we had their bikes, corn hole and Kan-Jam along.
I think they might be looking at a giant slug.
Looking for fish
They played a game where Grandma hid all the bugs around the campsite and as they found them, they brought them to Lydia (who loved it until she fell out of her chair and face-planted in the dirt!)
Hanging out in the sun...which happened to be right by the bathroom!
Grandma had all the kids lined up, eating snacks and watching the adults play Kan-Jam and Corn Hole!
Playing Bingo
Thursday evening it raining a bit and we were all trying to stay warm and dry as we ate dinner in the rain; however, it cleared up and we saw the most incredible rainbow! Because of the reflection in the water, it was almost a complete 360-degree rainbow and at times it was a double rainbow or even triple! So absolutely amazing!
We did spend a lot of time at the campsite, but we made sure to venture out a little bit and explore the area around us! We went to a local park with a playground and dogpark for lunch and then went to Dungeness Spit.
Trying to teach these kids to walk!
The Spit is over 5 miles long!
Grandma with Mallory, Annaliese, Haleigh, and Lydia!
Saturday we went to another beach that was recommended. The kids really like to play in the sand and dig for rocks so it was perfect! After a little while, they were all getting tired and wanted to head back to the campground so we spent the rest day of the day at the campsite.
Kyle and the kids found this big rock and rolled it into the water!
Camping is becoming more and more fun with these kiddos! They played so well together and are able to entertain themselves so much more. This time, there was also a family next to us with two girls, so they played with them a bit, creating obstacle courses and searching for treasures. Annaliese read us a few books, we made smores, ate good food and even fit in a run on the trail!
The drive home was good, with another ferry ride back. Ben and Kelsey even saw a few orcas at Deception Pass on their way home!
As of June 4, Lydia is 21 months old...hard to believe that she will be two by the end of summer! One would think that she would be doing a bit more walking and talking by now, but those things will come. In the meantime, she has no trouble letting us know what she wants/needs and can get wherever she wants to be by scooting quickly!
Eating: Lydia will eat just about anything, but is starting to become rather picky. She has recently decided that she doesn't like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and eggs are hit and miss. (Sad for me!) She is also pretty selective about meat- she won't eat tuna and will only occasionally eat chicken. She's also not a fan of ice cream, but I think that's a temperature thing. Favorite foods include crackers of any kind, cucumbers, bananas, strawberries, potato chips, chocolate, and applesauce. She loves to drink milk, water, and cranberry juice. She sits in her high chair for meals and has gotten pretty good at communicating when she needs more of something or is all done. She gets a huge smile and kicks her legs when she wants more, and stacks her dishes and hands them to us when she's all done. She also likes to have a napkin to clean up her area when she's all done.
Sleeping; Lydia goes to bed around 7:00pm and sleeps until somewhere from 6:30-7:00 am; some mornings she will wake up earlier than that and yell for us for a few minutes and then go back to sleep! She also takes an afternoon nap that lasts from 2-3 hours. We put her in her crib with her blanket and her bunny and the sound machine on.
Clothes: Most of her clothes are still 18mon or 18-24mon and fit just fine. She wears size 4 shoes and size 4 diapers. Lydia loves shoes! She will put on whatever pair of shoes she can find! She also likes to bring me shoes and gets upset if I don't put them on!
Activities: Lydia loves to be outside, coloring, and knocking down whatever Haleigh has built. She will occasionally go off by herself and read her books or play by herself. She loves pulling all the toilet paper off the roll, brushing her own teeth and putting on shoes. Over the past few days, she has started to push her little cart all over and has preferred to walk with it than scoot around. This is definitely progress on the walking front! In fact, Saturday night she took a few steps by herself!
Talking: Lydia has very few words, mostly just "Dad" "Mom" El-ee" (Shelby), "hi" "yeah" "beep-beep" (which she uses whenever anyone is in her way) and "Babia." My friend Mandi babysits the girls every week and her youngest daughter Eden calls Lydia "Babia." I think it probably comes from 'Baby Lydia' but became "Babia" and now Lydia uses it for herself! She also has lots of grunts and incomprehensible sounds! Regardless, she seems to be able to communicate her needs and she clearly understands us when we talk to her. She follows directions when I ask her to do things and most just gets really excited if she likes what we are saying!
Basically, she is just adorable, smiles all the time, gives great hugs, has a perfect little pucker when you ask for a kiss and will pull hair when looking for attention. She can climb a flight of stairs, loves to look at books, rarely sits still long enough to cuddle and is constantly ruining her sisters' art projects.
