Hearty Appetites

Lauren (left) and Emily (right) eating breakfast. They love to eat all kinds of foods! Lauren is 35 inches tall (78th percentile) and 27.8 pounds (64th percentile). Emily is 35.25 inches tall (83rd percentile) and 28.4 pounds (71st percentile). The girls also like to play hard, as evidenced by the scratch on Emily's arm and Lauren's black eye.

Lauren (left) and Emily (right) all dressed up and ready to go to Uncle Lane's birthday dinner!

We had a great time celebrating Uncle Lane's birthday! The girls like to assist with present opening and they particularly enjoy eating birthday cake and ice cream.

Family Trip to the Coast

This past week we took a family vacation to visit Lincoln City! Here is Lauren sleeping in the car on the way to the coast.

Emily snoozing away with her favorite bathtub toys she found in a bag we had placed on the floor of the backseat.

This is the front of the beach house we rented.

The house was located right on the beach... as soon as we walked in, the girls ran to the window to look at the beautiful view.

A picture of the back of the house... it's the one with six windows on the bottom floor.

Getting ready to play on the beach! Emily on the left and Lauren on the right.

Lauren looking serious in her sunglasses as she opens the sliding glass door.

Emily wearing her sunglasses... she picked them out herself!

Emily, Lauren, and Justin enjoying a windy but beautiful day on the beach.

The girls loved playing with the sand!

Emily shoveling some sand into a bucket.

Lauren enjoyed playing with the sand but kept brushing it off her feet while saying, "Dirty!"

We were still able to enjoy the ocean view while playing inside too!

The wind was perfect for kite flying!

Each night we enjoyed watching the sun set.

The sunset views looked slightly different each night!

Adventures at the Coast!

We had a great time visiting the Newport Aquarium... here is Lauren (left) and Emily (middle) checking out the Passages of the Deep exhibit... a huge acrylic tunnel with fish, rays, and sharks!

The aquarium had a neat childrens play area... here is Lauren sitting on the turtle.

Emily riding the dolphin.

After the aquarium, we bought some sandwiches and ate a picnic lunch at the Yaquina Head observation center. It was quite windy!

The view was amazing!

Justin and the girls...

Justin walking with Lauren (left) and Emily (right) to the beach.

The girls had their first lesson in kiteflying!

Lauren had a great time dragging her kite through the sand.

Emily actually managed to get her kite to fly!

We discovered a fabulous park called Regatta Park which overlooks Devil's Lake. The girls loved the tire swings!

The park also has a LARGE wooden play structure.

Can you find Emily? She is wearing a purple shirt.

Fun times with cousins Kay and Kali!

Cousins Kay and Kali came over with more toys for Emily and Lauren! As usual, the four girls had a great time playing together and there was much laughter and shrill squeals of delight.

Playing with the Elmo doodle mat... from left to right: Lauren, Kay, Emily, and Kali.

Kay and Kali stayed for dinner too... cheese quesadillas for the main course and blueberry streusel muffins for dessert! Emily and Lauren are very robust eaters and were too interested in their food to look at the camera.

The girls continue to be mischievous at every opportunity. Earlier this week I went upstairs for a few minutes and came back to find that Emily (left) and Lauren (right) had retrieved their leftover birthday party cups and a bottle of soy sauce from the pantry and were trying to pour up some party drinks.

Lauren LOVES her Tickle Me Elmo doll!

Playdate with the boys and more fun at the park...

The highlight of this week was getting together for a playdate with Gavin and Harrison and babies Liam and Harper!

Everyone loved playing on the slide! Lauren likes to slide down while simultaneously holding the chocolate ice cream cone.

Running in circles... Gavin with the vacuum, Emily with the purple car, and Lauren with the chocolate ice cream.

This week we also visited Bonita Park for the first time and discovered these unique swings.

We also went to King City Park... here is Emily crossing the bridge. She insisted on simultaneously holding the Wiggles car from her birthday cake last week which made it a bit trickier but she was still able to get across!

Lauren having a great time at the park!

The King City park has a large grassy area which is perfect for playing with balls. Lauren is very good at kicking and we wonder if she will be a future soccer player.

Lauren (left) and Emily (right) playing the keyboard together.

Emily (left) and Lauren (right) enjoying a lazy sunday morning with Dad.

Happy 2nd Birthday!

The girls celebrated their 2nd birthday on saturday! Here is Emily (back) and Lauren (front) checking out their presents.

Fortunately cousins Kay and Kali were able to assist with difficult ribbons.

Emily wearing her new strawberry hooded sweatshirt while Lauren checks out a present with Grandpa Rufener.

Everyone loved the new play tent!

This year we had birthday cakes decorated with the Wiggles! Emily's was silver chiffon cake with strawberry and whipped cream filling and Lauren's was chocolate cake with chocolate raspberry ganache filling.

Lauren eating birthday cake. Cake eating this year was much less messy than last year.

Emily eating birthday cake. The girls love cake and they both ate several servings.

On sunday we went to the zoo to meet some old friends and new friends from Eugene. Emily (left) and Lauren (right) love to run across the grassy lawn.

We attempted to take a group photo of the four toddlers (from left to right: Alyssa, Emily, Lauren, and Zander) which was difficult to say the least.