Winter break begins.

Clear Lake

Ho boy, I am months behind on posting photos. Admitting defeat, skipping over most of the summer, here was last weekend:

You can find the full Flickr set here.

WW: McMillers Go To Disneyland!

Train Trip!!!!

We headed on the train for a quick overnight to Sacramento. Love the quick getaway! The girls loved the train, loved the hot tub and heated pool, loved the free breakfast, loved getting everyone up at 4:30 AM, loved the railroad museum, loved checking out the capitol building. All in all a good trip.

Sacto Dec'12, a set on Flickr.

Mini Vacation: Monterey

Since we have all of Thanksgiving week off, we took a little family trip to Monterey for a few days.

We hit the aquarium as soon as we got there, before even getting to the hotel.  What an amazing place!



 Then the girls relaxed while B creamed me at gin.

Return from Yosemite!

On Sat we returned from a weeks camping at Yosemite.  Many showers and loads of laundry later there's still a faint scent of campfire on everyone.

We have many stories to share, but we'll start with this one:

Brian and the girls in the hammock for about 30 min. The girls are frequently laughing hysterically.  Brian is telling them the fable of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, with tons of silly embellishment.  

Kuna Hike

We took a long, off-trail hike in Yosemite today to a small, 11,000 ft high lake called Kuna. This is a place of beauty. This is a quiet, secret space. This is a space sacred to Mr. B, whose car bears the license plate "KUNA" and whose wishes are for his ashes to be scattered around the lake. I've heard a lot about this place, and today was the day to go there.


Many thanks to Grandma and Grandpa who watched the girls the entire day and gave Brian and I our longest date since.... since... well, since Erin came into our lives.

 As pictures are worth at least 1000 words each, we'll tell the story that way. Let me just say what is not pictured. We had a lunch of mashed potatoes, SPAM and beer. Mr. B caught half a dozen fish in twice as many casts.

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Off to Yosemite!

A week in the woods, these kids are going to have a ton of fun.

And remember two years ago when we somehow managed to pack a weeks worth of stuff in the Prius?

This is what it looks like this year:

Minivan packed to the gills.

Big Basin - Camping Trip #2!

This weekend we headed to Big Basin Redwoods State Park.  We went last year so this year we were prepared with even more bug spray.

We had fantastic weather, superb rangers, and did a lovely hike.  The girls spent a lot of time enjoying nature and playing in the creek.  We all donated a lot of blood to the mosquitos.

And there were lots of pictures.

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Some Big Basin Memories

* Erin found a new role model in Ranger Morgan (a girl).
* Both kids are sensitive to mosquito bites.  Erin has sweet, sweet blood.
* The girls saw mosquito and water skipper larvae.
* Erin slept in the latest she's ever slept - 8:35 am.

Snow Bunny

Today was a perfect day to enjoy some wintertime activities.  Never mind that it's April. Erin tried out skiing.  B & I learned it's often better to leave it to non-parents to help out with such projects.  Uncle Jim had her confidently shushing down the slopes in no time.  Methinks there is another McFeely skier on our hands. 

Robin didn't get a chance to ski, but she did learn that snow is fun, and especially delicious.  She ate nearly her body weight in snow today.

Then there was saucering.  I was fairly certain Erin would beg out of this, with the icy slopes and rocky landing (see below where the snow ended and the mud began).  Erin had no problem careening down as fast as she could, doing jumps, going sideways, and having a marvelous time.  I had to stop watching after awhile, as I had a hard time suppressing the nervous mother instinct, and I wanted her to have a wild, un"adult"erated time. 

Even an unfortunate collision with her cousin couldn't deter her.  

TAHOE!!!!

We were invited to spend part of Spring Break with 3/5ths of the Upper Orinda McF's. They'd rented a cabin in Tahoe with a pet-friendly policy (they have a dog), a hot-tub, 4 bedrooms, lovely surroundings, and a cozy potbelly stove at a super last-minute bargain. How could we miss this opportunity.

Erin was an old-hat at snow, and quickly got into it.  Robin, not so much.  No good footage but the kiddo wanted to touch it, but hated the cold, wanted to explore then slipped and fell unexpectedly.  It was classic toddler new-experience freak out.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better.  

But, everyone enjoyed the unique pleasure of a hot tub in near freezing temperatures!  So glad we're here!

San Diego Day 2

Another fun day with the beach, sidewalk chalk, and the park.  We drive home tonight.  A quick trip, but packed with lots of fun.  Thanks for the great visit, S, M and M!

San Diego!!!!!

We drove last night to San Diego to visit Matt, Sharon and Cousin Megan!  Wooooo.  The drive was smooth and the kids did well.  After LOTS of coffee and delicious eggs, we went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

Seattle Domination!!!!

This weekend, McMiller Inc. is in Seattle, visiting Stunt Dad and family. * Our long weekend has been composed of overnight yeasted waffles, a trip to Costco, visiting an awesome park with lots of ride-on toys, an outing to a play gym at the Y, a swimming trip, a rainy visit to a beach, much cousin craziness, extended bedtimes, and enjoyable glasses of wine and TV after the kids are asleep. Our girls loved seeing the newest McFeely boy cousins** and getting more time to play with Liam.  Thanks for the great visit!!




* I have zero pictures because I didn't bring a camera, but hopefully some of Brian's iPhone pictures and movies will make their way here.
** Holy moly, twins are a lot of work.  I bow in honor to all mothers and all families with these special two-fer blessings.  

Angel Island Camping - August 2011

We did it!  We backpacked for 2 nights with an almost-4 year old and 18 month old.  Before the trip, I was questioning our sanity, but it was quite an easy introduction to non-car camping.

We took the ferry from Tiburon to Angel Island.  The grown-ups anticipated carrying the gear and having Erin in the Bob stroller, Robin in the Ergo in a front-carry.  It was MUCH easier, however, to cart all the gear in the stroller and hoist the kids.  Erin even figured a new way to ride in the stroller, atop the canopy, and imagined herself to ride a horse named "Lala" all weekend.

Our site was remote (heck, there's only 10 on the island), and was a bit windy, but we had incredible views of the East Bay.  The evening/morning fog kept temperatures kind, and pesky wildlife was limited to a few raccoons.

We hiked about the island, checking out this historical sites, including the West Coast's Ellis Island equivalent and an army base used throughout WWII.  It was sobering to have such crumbling monuments nearly next door to where we live. We ended the day with a hike to the top of the island, Mt. Livermore.  Perfectly clear weather permitted a spectacular 360 view of the bay area, complete with the picturesque San Francisco skyline, the Golden Gate, Richmond, Berkeley (we could see the UCB campanile!), Tiburon and more.

This was the 3rd summer camping trip so the girls were total camping pros.  But backpacking limited the gear (toys, books, etc) we could bring.  The girls did just fine, making up lots of fun games and being generally energetic and silly. Plus, they got to eat SPAM.  I think there will be more backpacking in the future!

Of course, there were TONS of pictures.  And movies.  But pictures for now:

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Maui 2011

It's taken an entire week to blog about this.... the first week in Feb found the McMillers in Maui, HI. We had a wonderful week at this place with lots of aunts, uncles and cousins, and Grandma and Grandpa.  There were beaches, there was snorkeling, there were chi chis, there was pool time, there was whale watching, both from a boat and just from our condo, there were turtles, there were hikes, there were volcanoes, there was fun.

And there were pictures.
I still have more pictures and videos on the other camera to work through, so consider this part 1.

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It's a very San Diego Thanksgiving

Carne asada burritos, here we come! 

Wish us luck on our overnight drive.  Trust me, sleeping awkwardly in the car in shifts is significantly preferable to two cranky little kids cooped up in five-point-harnesses for nearly a day. 

McMillers rock PDX

It was high time the McMillers visited the old homestead, so we packed it up and took a long weekend trip up.  We had a fantastic time with all the old gang, celebrated a big birthday of a dear friend, got to meet one handsome new little guy, introduced our newest little lady, were treated to amazing stick-to-yer-ribs food, visited old stomping grounds, enjoyed the rain, the food, and most of all the friends.

Sadly, we did not get enough pictures.  But you can see some here.  And here.  And there will be movies soon, I promise.

Here's the few good picts we did manage to get:

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McMillers Rock Sacto!

Labor Day weekend had us taking a mini vacation to Sacramento - on the train!  A short 2 hour trip plopped us right near Old Town Sacramento.  2 days, 2 kids, 2 backpacks.  We stayed at an inexpensive hotel that had a pool and free breakfast, was in close proximity to a beach, and that had a shuttle that would take us to/from places.  Sweet.  There are lots of stories to tell - taking the kids to a fancy dinner when we meant to go to a kid-friendly place.  Watching 4 episodes worth of bad TV.  Inadvertently going during Gold Rush Days. Swimming in the American River, and seeing all walks of life on the beach, including 3 horses.  Brian taking Robin for a walk at 4:30 AM so I could get some sleep and having to explain to all the, um, interesting people he met that he was carrying a baby. Checking out the Railroad Museum.  Saying "Hi" to the Governor.   We thought there'd  be nothing to do, but it ended up we had no spare time.

And of course, there were pictures.

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