Yaya and Pa came up to join Naomi for Trick or Treating this year!
She was supposedto be a princess, but changed her mind the day of and became a fairy, luckily we already had a fairy costume!
Isn't she pretty?
She got plenty of candy, I guess being cute can get you a long way!
Grammy Jo flew out from California to attend Balloon Fiesta this year! This first picture was taken on Sunday evening at the Balloon Glow. All the Balloons fired at the same time I took the picture, so it's sort of hard to see faces. It was amazing how much heat came off the Balloons. We rode buses from Intel so we didn't have to worry about parking and Naomi LOVED that! She is still talking about it 2 weeks later.
This is Tuesday morning somewhere around 7 am. We got up at 5 am to drive across town and watched from Michael's work. I was glad to stop to get coffee and breakfast along the way! We even got to see the Dawn Patrol go up (they go up just at dawn).
Another picture of the mass ascension. I think there were around 250 Balloons this year, and about 84 of those were special shapes.
Grammy Jo and Naomi looking at the Balloons. Not too long after this Naomi lost all interest in the Balloons and wanted to go home.
I think this was Naomi's favorite Balloon. It was enormous! Also, it almost landed on us. It came down where all the RVs were parked, and they had to lift it off the ground about 6" so the crew could push it to an area where there was room for the envelope to be deflated.
We went to the New Mexico State Fair! Naomi got to see a lot of animals. In the picture above she's just about to pet a 6 day old goat.
She's looking at the Dairy Cows...sort of... She's also showing what a long tongue she has!
She also got to ride a tractor! Not really, but she thought it was neat to be able to climb up and pretend to drive it. This was part of what they call McDonald's farm, the kids are given baskets and told to collect a certain amount of each thing at different stations. For example, at the first station she needed to collect one apple and two pecans. At the end the kids take all their 'produce' to the market and sort it out into the different bins. They are given a popsicle for the efforts.
Naomi also participated in the Pee-Wee-Stampede! There where three classes (determined by age group) the bucking broncos, the barrel racers, and the calf ropers. Naomi was in the calf ropers.
Here she is parading around with her horse.
Yaya and Pa came to visit us over the labor day weekend, and we all enjoyed a fun trip to the Abq Zoo! Aren't they cute in their matching shirts!?!
Naomi's favorite animal of course is the monkeys. She still loves Curious George and all other monkeys.
She also enjoyed feeding the ducks, geese, and fish. She actually had one goose eat out of her hand. She also was able to feed a peacock during our lunch. I'm always a little worried that she'll fall in the fish pond, but she hasn't yet.
I'm not sure what is going through her mind her, but she just looks so grown up!
Naomi again had swim lessons at one of the local pools. It is a two week course, and at her age the goal is to get her comfortable with water. Naomi needs no help in that area, but she had a blast anyway. Today was our last class and she was able to go down the water slide, but due to liability, she had to go down either by herself or with an instructor. She choose to go by herself, but seemed to have a change of heart at the last minute, to the instructor just sat her down and sent her on her way. Naomi came down backwards and once she surfaced said "That lady pushed me!". I thought it was funny as did the other parents waiting at the bottom, but Naomi refused to go on the slide again. We had such a fun two weeks and next summer she'll be able to attend the Tadpole class all by herself!
Naomi enjoyed this 4th of July! We had a nice relaxing day that we spent with just the family. Michael helped her set off some small fireworks at home after dinner, at first she was scared of the noise, but eventually got past that. She also did sparklers for the first time. We told her that if they got too close to her hand she could throw them in the rocks, she interpreted that to be let them burn for about 3 seconds and then throw them in the rocks!
After our home show we packed up and went to a local park to enjoy the cities festivities. They had a cover band performing and Naomi loved it! She danced and sang. The fireworks didn't start until 9:30 which is usually about an hour after her bed time, but she did really well and was only a little fussy.
When the first big firework went off, Naomi turned to me and said 'I want to go home!' but I convinced her that if she covered her ears and just watched that she'd really enjoy them. Of course she did! After a while she was oohhhing and aaahhhing with the rest of the crowd.
The Wildman family reunion was held here over Father's Day weekend. We started Friday night with a pizza party, then went to the Botanical Gardens on Saturday morning, followed by a Mexican dinner/Birthday party Saturday evening, ending with a Father's Day picnic at the park! About 50 people showed up, and we all had a wonderful time.
Naomi always loves the chance to see her cousins, and she also got to meet new friends!
We went to Durango, CO over Memorial Day weekend to ride the Silverton train. Naomi loves trains and we have bought her some Thomas the Train toys that she loves to play with. She was so excited to see a train close up and even more excited that she was going to ride in it. It is a 3.5 hour trip each way, with a 2 hour stay in Silverton.
Naomi took a nap on the way there. We were hoping this would happen on the way back, but she woke everyone up at 5 am, so I don't blame her. You can tell by the look on my face that I'm ready for a nap too!
We stopped to restock the water along the way and I was able to stick my head out of the train to get this shot. That's the Animas River (really fun for rafting, but not with a two year old, we'll try that when she's older).
This is the A Frame cabin we rented. It was so nice! It could have accommodated 7 people, but it was perfect for 3. It was great to have a microwave and fridge available to us (plus the necessary coffee maker!).
This is the view from our cabin. We are actually closer to Mancos than Durango (don't worry if you haven't heard of it). Durango was so crowded with all the people getting away for Memorial Day that it was actually nice to be removed from the crowds. We did end up eating most of our meals in Durango since Mancos doesn't actually have any restaurants.
Botanical Gardens hiding in a giant carrot.
Botanical Gardens looking at the cow with a friend.
Botanical Gardens again.
A friends birthday party at Build-A-Bear, she named her bear Jessica.
Demi has been more tolerant of Naomi recently. But we aren't sure yet if they are actually going to become friends. They look nice an cozy here, but about 10 minutes after these pictures were taken, Naomi was chasing Demi throughout the house!
Jessica's cake (she's 2 also)
Naomi's Curious George cake.
Hannah's cake (she's 4!)
Hannah's other cake (she was having two parties)
Naomi was feeling camera shy that day. We had a nice party and the girls got a lot of nice things. I think they enjoyed dumping sand on eachother in the sandbox the most, but they are still little kids. I'm pretty proud of myself, I made all four of the cakes in just 3 days while Naomi and Michael were away in Texas.
Naomi is helping make her present.
I'm not sure if she enjoyed eating the cake or playing with it...probably both.
This is her birthday crown. She decorated it herself.
We're almost done! It was so windy both days while this was being put up, we were all coated with dirt.
She's scoping out her next target.
"Look how many I got!"
And now to enjoy her spoils! The candy was mixed with little toys, and she actually tried to eat one of those little capsules that you put in water and get a little sponge animal from!
Here is Naomi on the ferry coming home from Victoria (on Vancouver Island, Canada).
While in Victoria we took a horse drawn carriage . Naomi loved it! She especially liked when the horse would trot so we could get through intersections faster. This is actually another horse, we rode on Ruby, but I wasn't able to get a good picture of her.
Michael and Naomi in front of The Empress hotel, a very nice hotel in Victoria, it had beautiful garden surrounding it.
Here we are at the Seattle Aquarium. Naomi liked the fish especially since she had just watched Finding Nemo the day before (and after....and the day after that....).
I think Naomi is an Eel, I might be a diver, but I'm not really sure. This is also at the Seattle Aquarium
This picture was taken at a place called The Children's Museum in Seattle near the Space Needle. This is a great place for families to go with young children. As you can see Naomi is dressed in Fireman garb and is driving a fire truck!
This was also at the museum in the Alice in Wonderland exhibit. She's having a tea party, but we also smelled 6 different types of tea.
This is another exhibit, it was the entrance to an around the world area where they were able to walk into homes from Japan, Africa, and the Caribbean.
Naomi and I are on a beach on Bainbridge Island. She picked up seashells and rocks. We also went to a beach in Seabeck to find oyster shells.
This is historic Port Gamble, a very cute seaside community. Most of the houses in this town are historically protected and very well kept. We saw the old General Store and Post Office, and long with a Fire Station that had been converted to an Antiques shop.