Babies Babies Babies

We are so excited to tell you... next summer there will be 4 of us! May 12th, to be exact.

"Where we're going, we don't need roads"

Fall

Ruby is one and a half - and she's such a blast right now. Here she is playing "outside" with her dad yesterday.

As far asother updates go, she's been saying the funniest things lately. In addition to repeating EVERYTHING she hears, she says:

• Hold you? (when she wants to be held. This is the cutest thing I've ever experienced... so I've decided not to correct her.)
• YAY!
• Hot
• Cold
• Outside
• Window
• Kitty
• Doggie
• Fish
• Tweet Tweet
• Glasses
• Ryan taught her to say "Ryan" and "Amber", which he thinks is hilarious, but I think is unnecessary.
• Blankie
• Passy
• Owl
• night night
• Oatmeal
• Cereal
• kix
• shoes
• Baby (anyone 12 years old or younger is a baby)
• Bible (when she wants to sing "the B.I.B.L.E")
• Happy Happy (when she wants me to sing "if you're happy and you know it")
• Bath
• Water
• Pumpkin

We are loving every minute we have with Ruby at this age and stage. She's feisty, she's chatty, she's funny and she's got personality. Our days are filled with joy that she brings.

The Boards

I am so proud of Ryan. He is the most disciplined studier that I've ever known. He has always been good at studying... which comes in handy since he is taking the American Board of Pediatrics certification exam on Monday.

Get this - he's been studying every single day since April! Back in January he mapped out his study plan, figured out how many hours/days/minutes he had before October 18th (test day) and set his start date for April 1.

He spent the first 4 months studying for one hour each day, then bumped it up to 2 and over the last few weeks he's been spending pretty much all of his free time preparing for Monday's boards. He's at the top of his game right now. I'm a bit biased, but it seems to be that he can answer any question about anything medical with great detail right now.

I'm so proud of him - he is going to do awesome on Monday! Pray that he can sleep well and feel peace of mind until then!

Sand Harbor

Every day in Tahoe was a new adventure. We drove up the coast to Sand Harbor for a day at the beach. I LOVED this beach - the water was crystal blue and there were huge boulders jetting out into the lake.

Ruby enjoyed the sand... and loved exploring the beach with her Grammy.

Ryan woke up with the sun each morning to do Tai Chi (jkjkjk)

We finished the evening with AMAZING kabobs on the grill. DeeeeeLISH!

The Most Beautiful Lake

Eagle Lake is nestled high in the mountains south of Lake Tahoe. It's totally secluded, totally untouched, totally incredible. We hiked for awhile to get there, but it was so worth it!

We ate some snacks at the lake - except for Aaron, who fed Ruby's goldfish crackers to the chippies.

I loved that everything about Eagle Lake was so natural, no houses, no people, no buildings, just a pure mountain lake ...and I love this picture of Ruby and Lydia in their floppy hats.

Mt. Tallac

The next day the men (Ryan, Aaron and John) decided to spend the morning and afternoon climbing the 11-mile trek to the summit of Mt. Tallac and back. It was the tallest peak they could see from our place, so they had their eyes on it from the first day.

This was the goal. 9,735 feet up! Not many trees up there... they were pumped.

I was so proud of Ryan for taking our little digi-cam along and capturing all these pictures with the self-timer. He's awesome!

Here they are at the top! Lunch consisted of PB&J sandwiches and some fig newtons on the edge of a shale cliff. Ryan texted me from the summit and said something along the lines of "don't wait up, we're going to hang out up here for awhile," ...and they did.

Meanwhile, back at the homestead, all the lady folk (Angela, Tracy and I) sat around talking about how thankful we are that our husbands love each other so much.

Such great men. Such a great day.