Happy Thanksgiving

We have just returned from a week-long vacation to Lake Almanor. The kids mostly survived the 5+ hour drive each way, although definitely more difficult on the way home than it was on the way there! We took the kids to Mt Lassen National Park for the first time, and Kyle was very excited for his first experience with snow there

Unfortunately, there was no snow at the house, but Kyle was quite happy to spend the majority of his week there digging in the sand instead!


Hannah was just happy to cuddle up with Mama or Dada (she did quite a lot of bonding with Dave over the week!) and was happy to be moving around, getting very close to crawling now...




Maemo and Granpa (Fiona's parents) joined us for part of the week, arriving Wednesday evening, in time to help for all of the meal preparations and having a couple of days to relax before we all left for home Saturday morning.

Monarch butterflies

This week we took a trip with our play group to Santa Cruz to see the Monarch butterflies at Natural Bridges State Park. It was amazing to see them hanging off the trees, and fluttering around in the sunshine, and unfortunately I think that most of it was lost to the kids. A few more years and they may appreciate it. Still I greatly enjoyed it, and plan to take a trip to Ardenwood soon to see the butterflies there.

It was difficult to get a decent photo of the butterflies on the trees of flying, but we were lucky to observe a newly "born" butterfly in the milkweed garden, still freshly out of the cocoon and unable to fly. It reminded me of an email forward that has circulated in the past which is also very relevant to the children in our lives and having to know when to let them struggle through things themselves!

The story is told about a man who once found a cocoon. It seems a small opening had just appeared in the cocoon and through this small opening the man watched as the young butterfly struggled to escape the confines of the container that had protected it during its metamorphosis.

After several hours it appeared the butterfly’s progress had stopped completely, prompting the man to take action. He very carefully took the cocoon in hand and used his fingers to pry it apart at the opening begun by the butterfly.

When the butterfly emerged the man noted its strange appearance. Instead of a beautiful butterfly he saw a swollen body and shriveled wings. He watched to see if it would continue to develop into the graceful beauty that adorns gardens but nothing changed. The butterfly just sat there unable to fly.

The man then began to realize that the butterfly would never fly. For it is through the struggle to escape the cocoon that the butterfly completes their transformation as the effort to break through causes the bodily fluid to flow to the new wings and gives them the strength they need for flight.

Happy 6-month birthday!

It is hard to believe that our little girl was six months old on Saturday. The time has truly flown by, and we are enjoying every moment of it (except for when Hannah has trouble sleeping!) Kyle helped Daddy to pick out a chocolate birthday cake for Hannah, which unfortunately Hannah wasn't able to taste yet. Just 6 more months to go until she can have some for the first time.

Hannah had her check-up today and weighed in at 15 pounds 3 ounces and is 26.25" tall. She was very brave through 3 shots, and stopped crying as soon as I picked her up. I think Kyle gets more upset for her shots than she does!

She's been sitting up by herself for 2 months now, and very rarely topples over these days. Her rolling has increased a lot lately, and she now loves to pull herself up wherever she can - including an upturned laundry basket. This was always a favorite "walker" for Kyle, and I can see that Hannah will be pushing it around the house before we know it.


Kyle has his own use for the hamper these days!