the little Zoo

On the last day of our visit we went to the ittle zoo in Tacoma , WA. Very cute, very child friendly and the perfect size for an afternoon visit.. not too big, not too little.

Ofcourse our first visit was to the two monkeys.. Lilja's favorite animals.

cousin Livy and Lilja

Love this photo .. did not mean to have the walrus right behind them.. he was huge!!

Lilja really liked the aquarium

oom Eddy, Liv and Lilja being silly..

There was a very cool kid zone at this Zoo and Lilja loved the 'chair". she said she was pretending to be at the dentist.Hmmmm.

This hopscotch water thingy was a life saver. lilja was really hot and ofcourse just got soaked.. Oh well, i always have extra clothes with me.. just in case..

You had to jump and then wait for the water.. kind of a funniest home video thing.. very funny!

Yep, right in her face,

Liv and Lilja being silly with my camera. so cute

more from the t'Sas's

The two Captains, Uncle Eddy and his friend Lee. Eddy is showing a star fish that was in the pot. he chases the crab away..
bad starfish, bad!!

Lilja in her boating outfit with Aunt Dara.. Lilja apparently almost made Dara cry when Lilja looked at her and said;"You have hair just like me".. Love, love, love.. 

She had so much fun!!

The harbor. Lee took us out for a little boatride.. I love the water.. and Lilja REALLY loves the water.

Lilja was laughing when the water sprayed in her face. Bubbles!!

The beach morning with Ries and oom Eddy.

Lilja, momma, Eddy and Ries.

Lilja loved feeling the seaweed and threw it in the water .

There was a lot of fog, so it had a kind of eerie feeling this morning.

Lilja was soaked, let's go home!

a cute little slug..she is really not afraid to pick up anything.

Must be because of a great teacher... Ries.. She found a cenipede, a slug, starfish and a little crab..Lilja held the starfish in her hand then threw it back in the water. Not sure if that was the idea of the starfish ;0 

Crab fishing in Gig Harbor, WA

Lilja and I went to visit my Uncle Eddy, aunt Dara and their two girls in Gig Harbor this week. We drove to Denver and then left early the next morning on the plane.. lilja was so excited to go on a plane again!!We had an amazing time spending quality time with my family, crab fishing, visiting the beach and the Zoo and I even got to go shopping with the two teenagers for back to school clothes. I love watching Lilja form such strong bonds with my family in such a short time.. It is getting harder to leave each time. But I am sure we will come back again! Thank you guys, for an amazing time.. we felt spoiled, loved and part of the family!  

I borrowed a travel carseat that turned into a stroller for this vacation.. I think i will have to buy one, because it saved my back and Lilja loved traveling in it. Here she is eating breakfast at the denver airport.

Our first morning in Gig Harbor and a trip to the harbor was planned already!! so excited to see what the talk was all about.. fresh crab?? catching it with a chicken in a cage.. well, 5 crab later and eating then one hour after the catch is the BEST crab ever!! and you get to get on a little boat and cruise around.. HEAVEN!!

Ries was the guru in crab fishing. She is not afraid of the crab, gets right in there and was a great teacher to Lilja as I was truing not to squirm in the back..We got to go on a boat of a friend of their; Lee,  who was so generous. We got to keep the first batch of crab of his! Thanks Lee!!

They were huge!!

Always  make sure they were male and the right size!



Ries knew the right way to kill the crab and clean them and some seaweed for Lee's garden.. the best fertilizer for his asparagus.. who knew?



our other visitor..

Per request of my mom.. our new almost daily visitors.. now in the back yard.. this one, Aran is just slobbering over.. apparently he is a very nice, very nice buck.. Ironically,  Aran will be hunting in the break of dawn for days on end and here is one in our back yard.. someone thinks that is funny ;)

Bikes bikes and more bikes..

The USA Pro Challenge Bike race is here for the week. It is a pretty big deal and Durango is welcoming the thousands of people and riders by have wonderful parties and events.  

We want to buy a bike for Lilja's birthday, but many balance bikes are still too big for her.. until we could try out the Strider bike. Always a helmet on for safety!!

The guy came over with a pink bike and pink helmet.. But Lilja said"no Thank you.. a blue one please!" we better buy a blue bike..

So this bike does not have pedals or training wheels and she just walks with it until she gets the hang of the blancing part.. she was pretty timid.. lots of practice..

There she goes.. well, not really..

she got some medals and even had a photo with some junior pro riders from the Livestrong team . Someone was noticing that Lilja was wearing the king of the mountain dress. too funny!! Great choice of dress daddy! 

Aran got to go back and walk around the "real "bikes on his onw this morning and took some inconspicuous pictures, notice the names on the bikes.. For us... Awesome!!! maybe you guys have no idea who they are.. but really this is awesome!!



Taylor and tejay's bikes.. these are names we breathed for the last couple of months with the Tour the France and other races.. Can't wait for the real race tommorrow..!!Lilja is going on a playdate to Melissa's house and Aran and I are going down town for the morning.. Aran even took off for this!!



and ofcourse a facepainting session for Lilja.. this time Blue flowers..

Lake Navajo

My friend Melissa's family has a house boat on Lake Navajo and they invited us to join them for the day.. swimming, relaxing and just plan fun!! Lilja was very excited to see the bubbles coming out of the speed boat that tokok us to the house boat..

so excited momma!!! Maddie goes pretty much every day.. thus that face.. "Lilja chill out! this is no big deal"

she pretty much had this face all day.. she really LOVES the water!

Bubbles momma!!

when we got to the house boat they had a whole play area set up.. Lilja just played and played

maddie and Lilja are the best of friends.. They just play so sweetly together.. Maddie is turning 2 in two weeks!!

The view of the houseboat and the Perry beach..

Lilja liked trying to write her name in the sand.. no she can't write it yet, just trying to..

The water was a really nice temperature.. Lilja wanted to kick her feet in the water, I am trying to hold on.

Finally got her fully in the water. It is pretty deep there, so it was nice to have a life jacket on too. So I could just hold her and float.

Ring around the rosie!! over and over again...

Suddenly she was done!!

did you have fun Lilja?.. don't smile!!

what a wonderful day we had.. very needed and hopefully we can do it again sometime..Thanks Perry's and Melissa.. for being such great hosts..