Hayward 2010

Wow have we ever had a whirlwind of a last month or so! Barely a week after we got back from NY, we went on another big trip to Hayward to see the Walker family. It started off with the long 17 hour car ride. We got the girls new pillow pets for in the car as a surprise. Mikaiya got a bunny and Braenna got a bee. They were a definite hit:

Mikaiya was really into fishing this year and kept asking if she could go down and fish. She actually caught a few and did pretty good with them. I thought she'd be scared of them, but she was pretty interested in them...still not wanting to actually touch them though:

One of my really close friends from college, Katie, and her husband and their two kids (Andrew, 5 and Jenna, 3) rented a house on our lake this year too. It was really nice, we got to see quite a bit of them. Here's a pic of Mikaiya, Andrew and Jenna playing in the water. All of the kids are close enough in age that they really had a blast together this year!

It was so nice for the girls to get some time with their cousin Emily. And as you can see, they took to each other very well! It's great now that everyone is old enough to interact. I think at times my girls were a little overwhelming for little Em, just because they are used to each other and lots of kids around from daycare and Em isn't quite as used to that just yet. She did very well though. Here's one of my favorites of the three of them:

This next one cracks me up. We were at dinner one night and one of the girls started taking off her dress. Next thing you know, we have three naked girls...all laughing hysterically! It was the cutest thing. I managed to get a shot of the three of them after we got them down from the table. They are so proud of themselves!

We got to go to the Wilderness Walk again this year. It is always a big hit with the kids. Mikaiya really enjoyed feeding the animals in the baby zoo:

Braenna still really wasn't very into it this year. She likes looking at the animals that are caged, but isn't too into the ones walking around. Speaking of walking around, these animals get up close and personal. They are very used to people! Check out this dear as Mikaiya checks it out! It almost looks fake, but it is a real, live deer...and it just let her walk up that close to it! Amazing!!
Here is our favorite little niece Emily. She is so adorable!!

And my last favorite...a nice family picture! We haven't had one since Braenna was born, so that's over 2 years of not having everyone in one place at one time and motivated to get a picture. It's great to have a new one and it actually turned out pretty welll:

Overall, it was a great trip! It's always relaxing to go to the lake...well, relaxing as any trip with a two small kids can be! We even got a night out with just us "big kids" and it was great. I honestly don't remember the last time I had that much fun! It really makes me realize how lucky I am to have such a great family! We even got to be there for Casey and Mike's engagement! That meant a lot to me...I always feel like I miss everything, so it was nice for once to be a part of something! Time to start looking forward to a wedding...and of course, to our lake trip next year!!

Here are the rest of the pictures from the trip: Click HERE!