The Beach

There are rules.

Whenever you go to California, you must go to the beach.



(Even though Northern California beaches are freezing, and you end up staying fully dressed for most of the day.)



You must dip your feet into the frigid water that gives you instant frostbite. (Lydia actually LOVED the water!)



You must sample the local sand with your cousin.



You must play play play with cousins you don't get to see enough.



And if you are a Brown, you must create some sort of sand monument. These are legendary. Troy will do the digging.

Lydia will play in the hole.

Even Grandpa will get involved in the efforts.

And Ryan, Grandma, and Nicole will proudly kneel by their monument- a sea crab.

But a sea crab is not enough. You must build another creature. A baby elephant, perhaps?

When can we come back?

Lake Almanor

We just got back from a fun-filled trip to California. First stop: Lake Almanor with Ryan's family.

Lydia love love LOVED playing with her cousins. The babies are all a few months apart. We thought we would have tantrums this year as they tried to play together, but they surprised us all and got along pretty perfectly! Maybe we should have more faith in our children's niceness capabilities.

Lucy and Lydia loved playing with this bucket of water. Cute, right? Except that this water was used for cleaning off dirty, sandy feet. Gross children. Or maybe it's more gross that the parents let them play in the feet water, and even encouraged such play by snapping pictures?



Lydia loved story time with Grandma.



Grandma gave all the girls matching dresses, which they all wore to church. We attempted to get a super cute picture all together. Do you think we got one? NO. Do you wonder who the culprit was?



In this one, I think Lucy and Lydia were giving big cousin Ruby a kiss, something she was not too crazy about.



Again, we tried to get a cute baby picture. Again, it was foiled. Again, the foiling was because of my dear daughter.

First, she wouldn't smile.



Then, between the time it takes to lift my finger and press it down again on the camera button, she was off and running. The girl is incapable of relaxing.

Messy Days

We had several pots filled with dirt and failed flower seeds sitting on our front porch. I was tired of looking at evidence of my failure as a gardener, so I decided to dump the pots out and let Lydia play in the dirt.




She was more interested in stacking the flower pots, which was a good thing. I later found out that the dirt was filled with tiny splinters, a fact I didn't discover until I swept it away with my hand, and came away with a palm that would make a porcupine jealous. I'm still tweezing splinters out of my hand today.



After Lydia lost interest in stacking pots, I decided to make things even messier. I pulled out some paintbrushes and water so Lydia could "paint" the steps, door, and walls. Why didn't I think of this earlier? This is a genius idea- one given to me by my friend Jessica. Lydia "painted" happily for more than an hour. She never does ANYTHING for more than an hour.

And just so you know, I DO Lydia's hair every day. I promise. This particular day began with the cutest pigtails you've ever seen. But after teaching a gazillion piano students, I just don't feel like re-doing it. I understand if you're horrified. But I'm not going to change.

Lydia has been obsessed with huggies lately. And not the diapers. One day, she started adding -ie to everything. She wants to go for a walkie, she wants to dancie, sittie, and give huggies. We have no idea where it came from, but we're just going with it.

The "huggie" part of the obsession extends to everything, including inanimate objects. Stuffed animals, toy tractors, "bookies," and shoes all receive regular "huggies."

And apparently, kitchen towels are also deserving of loving "huggies."

Don't mind the hair. This is after lunch, aka "stick your hands in your milk, smear them in your soup, then comb your hair with your fingers."

From this expression, can you guess what Lydia is looking at?



If you guessed "Daddy doing 'I'm a Little Teacup,'" well you're right.

The Zoo!

We made our annual pilgrimage to the zoo this weekend, one of my absolute favorite family traditions we have established.



I'm not sure Lydia would call it one of her absolute favorite traditions, though. Last year, she was about 6 months old when we went, and she loved it. She pointed, stared, and smiled at everything.

This year, the only time she seemed excited was when we watched the pacing black bear. When the bear paced one way, it would disappear behind a rock. Lydia would question me with her hands in the air, "Go?" When the bear paced back, she would laugh hysterically. This process was repeated over and over until I walked away.

Other than that little bit of excitement, Lydia's reaction stayed pretty close to this the whole time:

Completely unimpressed.

Until we came to the big gorilla. Then, she became herself again.

Library Day

We love Library Day! Lydia sat down by herself, pulled the books from our library bag, and read all on her own.

It was so fun to see her eager little hands searching for new books and thumbing through the pages.

She was truly delighted! I hope I hope I hope I'm raising a bookworm!