Sleeping

Nora likes to sleep in the corner of the bed. And i finally got a picture of it. Her legs were sticking out too.

 
 

Washington trip

Late August we went on a very short trip to Washington state visiting Grandma Sue, aunt Faith & Pam and going to Ruth's wedding. we had a great time and wish we could have stayed a bit longer. Emma just loved playing each day in the barn and seeing the animals. A very big hit with emma also was grandma sue's iPhone and some of it's fun games:) We can not forget Saddie, Faith's little dog that was very loved by both Emma and Nora. we stayed at uncle John's house and he has a bunch of animals and things that were of interest to the kids. he also has only one real eye so Emma calls him the one eye man:)This was our opportunity to see chris' grandma too. Emma could not say great grandma and just called her Great Mother. In Anacortes there is a big croatian community so we were able to have a lunch in croatian restaurant one day and I was able to speak croatian a bit with some croatians. IT was all together a nice trip and we were thankful we could go. Below are the pictures from the trip. We do not have many pictures from the wedding. When we get some of the professional pics we may post some of those. The wedding was nice even though we all froze-winds on the island were brutal.

Warning!

Attention! Attention!

Just a warning that the 2 albums attached below with pictures from Croatia have tons of pictures. We just took a bunch. So if you are interested but do not have much time you can double click on the album and it will lead you to the link for the webalbum and you can just look at thumbnails. And if you are very interested you can still do the same and just see pictures in a much better a bigger format-slowly:)
Anyway hope you enjoy it and it give you a sense of our time in Croatia.

Week 2 - beach and then back in Sisak

Week two we went to beach in zadar-or should i say diklo for those who know better:) We had a good time. Beach with 2 kids has a totally new meaning for chris and I. It's fun and all but there is no more laying on the beach reading our books or things or that sort. It is go go go all the time. And ocassional screaming and fighting of the 3 year old cousins-in spite of their big love for each other. It's that time of their life where everything is MIne Mine and Mine only. But they sure had fun too. They could not do anything apart. Zadar is one of my favorite towns on Croatian Coast. My best friend from college lives there and i often would spend my summers in the area. we got a chance to visit with him and see his 6 months old daughter Lori. And also see his awesome apartment. We went back to Sisak a day early because our last day on the beach was bad weather and rain. That was great because it gave us extra time to spend in sisak with the nighbor kids-Dora, Tamara, Maja, Matija...Emma had a blast just being outside all the time and there was always a bunch of other kids there to play with. Nora loved it also.
We will miss being there even though it is nice to be home again.

In Sisak - week one of our trip to Croatia

Finally i am posting some pics from our trip to Croatia. we have been home for almost 2 weeks but i just did not have much tie to do this. as you can see i am posting pictures from our first week while in Sisak and there is 150 pictures in this slideshow. I picked and picked but these are all the one to capture all the important moments. I have pit captions under the pics so you can more easily follow.
First week we were in Sisak and spent with mom and dad and mateja's fam. my uncle from berlin came to visit also because we celebrated my dad's 60th b-day. It was fun to see everyone and especially Stric Blaz from germany. I learned some of his story from growing up in an orphanage and also learned some stuff about dad. It was crazy with the kids but looking back at photos we had a good time and kids had a blast! My parents did too:
I will post week 2 tomorrow hopefully:)

Summer Pool Fun at Ed & Ginny's

As soon as the hot days start we are headed to the pool. We are blessed that our good friends Ed & Ginny let us use their pool any time we want. Our neighborhood doesn't have a pool so this is great! Girls both love the water and swimming and all the pool fun. Emma always wants to be very independent and do all that big kids are doing.Nora just love splashing and jumping. I am the one always taking photos so i am not in any of the pictures:(

Girls Birthday!

June 26 (Nora's actual birthday) we celebrated Nora's 1st and Emma's 3rd b-day (June 27th). Our "theme" this year was Hello Kitty per Emma's request. She wanted a Hello Kitty cake so i made a big one for her and a little one for Nora. Nora did not have a preference-she was just going along to whatever we did. We invited our closest friends (Clarks & Davis' we are sad you could not be there with us this year) and had a good time. Emma was so excited that all of the "big" kids came-because she tells me Mom,they are my friends:)This was the first year Emma understood things and what will happen and was so excited a week in advance about the b-day. She was also excited about all the gifts and opening everything. Nora had a good time even thought by 7pm she was ready to have her "alone" time. I think she had enough of people and just wanted me to put her in her room and leave her by herself. I thought she would crash and go to sleep but i heard her just talking to herself and giggling-happy to finally have some peace of her own. Funny! We don't have tons of pictures but here are some to give you an idea of what was going on. Thank you browns, Pickrens, Gumbrills, Remigailos, Herreros, Boys, Sue & MeMe for coming and spoiling the girls with fun gifts.