Frenchman's Bar

This past weekend was gorgegous with sun and warm skies. We took advantage by taking a trip to Frenchman's Bar along the Columbia River.


Lilah explored the park's , uh... PARK....

Then we waded two inches in while Simon swam for his ball. Repeatedly.

Lilah loved playing in the sand along the bar!

Hoping for more sunny days soon....

Catchin' Up

We have been busy these last couple of weeks. I have gotten so busy with my riding academy that I have put Lilah into daycare four days a week, two hours each day. Lilah loves going to her "school", and I appreciate the time it has freed me up to teach and ride. I have also been busy farming out camp's riding string. Since most of the horses are farmed out on care-leases, I have a feeling I will be shuffling horses around for the next couple of years. This picture sums up my week last week -- balancing motherhood with horses. Lilah and I had hauled a camp horse off to a trial period, and I made it back just in time to drop her off at "school" before getting back to my barn to teach.

Here's my rig parallel-parked just outside of Lilah's daycare. Some mommies drive mini-van, this is what Lilah's mommy rolls in.






















One of my students gave Lilah a bag-full of clothes. To Lilah's great excitement, the bag included THREE NEW DRESSES. Lilah loves to wear dresses! She also loves to wear her princess crown. Thank you Michaels for this wonderful $1.25 toy.

We recently had our good friends from camp come and visit us for the weekend. Here Lilah and I are enjoying our Sunday picnic with Jake and Carol:

Nick introduced Jake to Disc Golf.... and got him hooked! (mainly because he can do Mickey Mouse ears....)

Lilah went antique shopping with us. I love antique stores, and Lilah has gotten really good about "only looking with our eyes", and not touching anything.

Mountain men in the 'Couv!

We also hit up the Farmers Market. (Have I ever mentioned Vancouver's a great place to live??) Here someone had put a bouquet of flowers in the statue's hand.

We also had a great Cancer-Free party. Nick had his second "cancer-free" diagnosis from the doctor a few days before the party. We had people trickling in and out all day Saturday, and the last people left Sunday at 3pm.

Here was what our recycling looked like. We even added to this stack later.

Guess what all these girls had in common (other than knowing us) .... ? At least they had something to talk about....

One of my old friends from high school and college came. For whatever reason, we lost touch a few years after college and hadn't seen in each other in years. It was great to catch-up with Slick Rick and introduce to some of our other friends, such as Erin. Looks like they were getting along well.

Thank you everyone who came from near and far! It was great celebrating with you!

Easter 2010

The Tyrrell Jrs. had a very pleasant Easter weekend. On Saturday, we had great fun with Lilah decorating easter eggs. It was a family event complete with spillage and cracked eggs, and Lilah loved it. On Easter Sunday we discovered the Easter Bunny had taken our eggs and baskets, so we went downstairs for an egg and easter-basket hunt. Thankfully, the Easter Bunny remembered I hate looking for the easter egg basket, and "hide" my basket in plain sight.

The Easter Bunny brought Lilah candy and toys, including a new Ariel barbie-like doll that came with Flounder and "Ashton". In exchange, the Easter Bunny (Lilah informed us), took away all her binkies. Apparently the two of them had some sort of second deal going on. It worked great in our favor -- she hasn't had a binky since Easter Sunday! :)

Mom made a yummy Easter dinner with yummy ham!

Happy Easter everyone!

I'll Love You Forever, I'll Like You for Always

I will admit -- there has been some trying days lately in our household as Lilah develops into an independent two-something toddler. Not only is it the whine, the loud yells, the throwing of toys, the instant it takes for a clean house (which took me ALL DAY) to be transformed into rooms looking like a tornado of toys have swept through it, but it's also the endless bouncing-off-the-wall energy that leaves me wondering, "What on earth possessed her to try that??"

When Lilah was still a "bun-in-the-oven", I got a book from a baby shower called I'll Love You Forever. It's a children's book about a new mommy and a new baby, and follows their lives through all the stages until finally the mommy is an old woman, the son is an old man, and the role of care-taker reverses. In the book, during the toddler phase the mommy says, "Some days this baby drives me CRAZY!", but at night during each life stage, the mommy creeps into her baby's room and whispers to the baby:

"I love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be."

I thought about this book when, at the end of a looooooooooong day, I came into the bedroom to see Lilah's new feat: climbing up and over our sleigh bed. She then bounced up to our wall-art (which I custom-made) and tried pulling it apart. Sigh.

But Lilah, I'll love you forever, I like you for always. As long as I'm living, my precious baby you'll be.

Thanks for letting me vent!

Lilah's First Hair-cut

Now that Lilah is older, we don't have "firsts" very often with her anymore, but the other day I did take her to have her First Hair-cut. (sniffle, sniffle -- it's one of the last entries in the baby book!!)

Lilah informed me on the way to the stylist that she did not want a hair-cut, but once we arrived to the salon she marched right up to the stylist, climbed in the chair, and waited PATIENTLY and QUIETLY (who knew she could do it??) while the stylist fawned all over her. Personally, I think Lilah liked it. She was very excited the rest of the day about her new 'do, and I'm happy with finally having the hair out of her eyes!





Happy to be home again!