2014 in 44 Pictures

2014 is almost gone and as any of you who have been checking can tell, the blog posting has not been going so well. A lot has happened this year. We took trips to the snow, played on the beach in San Diego, saw the old farm that Paul's mother grew up on in Illinois, celebrated Lotty's 4th and Sarah's 2nd birthdays, enjoyed more beach time in Seaside, OR and many, many visits to parks.

We hope you enjoy this look at what has been keeping us to busy to update the blog. We will do better in 2015.

An early February snow day!

Snow Camp near Plain, WA

At our local park in April

Easter is the time for pretty dresses

Mother's Day

San Diego Trip

The end of May is a good time to fix your airplane and go on a picnic.

June brings fun with water and getting Dad wet while he is trying to take pictures!

The (second) cousins came to visit in July

July is also a birthday month!

 We visited the girls' great grandparents farmstead.

And it is always good to go back the the familiar, neighborhood park.

Lotty enjoyed her first ice cream cone in September!

September also had some hot summer days at the park.

Labor Day weekend saw us in Seaside, OR with family.

September also marked Sarah's refusal to ride in the backpack carrier on hikes.

The girls love to help in the kitchen and it didn't take Sarah long to figure out what to do with the frosting spatula.

October is Halloween—our kitty chased our mouse, and vice versa!

Dry leaves (a rarity here) need to be celebrated.

Just after Thanksgiving, we had our first snowfall, which was too exciting to pass up.

Sarah is now 2!!

Christmas has seen some good time with family.

Sarah's Birthday

Yes, Sarah did have a birthday back at the beginning of December.  It is hard to believe that a year has passed already!  She had a very nice time on her birthday with all her grandparents there and two of her aunts.  We think she liked being the center of attention for the family celebration.

Sarah definitely enjoyed her birthday cupcake.  Once she figured out is was more that just something to touch and smear around on her tray, she was even more excited.  We think she ate over half her cupcake and didn't even get any in her hair.

More Alligators to Walk

As you can see, Sarah is now walking with help.  Lotty has been helping her little sister.

Walking Aligators 2 from Paul Brown on Vimeo.

Magic Word

A little excerpt from life's script:

Lotty: Give me that, Daddy!
Daddy: What is the magic word?
Lotty: Please!
[pause]
Lotty: It doesn't seem very magical, Daddy.

More Summer Pictures

We have moved into fall but still have so many summer pictures to share.  It has been such a busy start to the school year with all of us being sick at some point and our nearly indestructible Subaru finally giving out.  

This collection of pictures all comes from our trip to Mt. Rainier all the way back in July.  We had a very nice time at a cabin we rented near Greenwater.  Oma and Grandpa Derksen joined us, as did Uncle Dan, Auntie Kathryn and cousins John Clair and Jacob.  We did a little hiking in the park.  

Sarah, in a quiet moment, with her chewy giraffe

 

Even though it was July, it was pretty cold out when we went to Sunrise.  We put Sarah in a warm, if silly, hat.  On our hike, we found some butterflies on what look like Truffula trees.  Lotty spent a while hiking with here Uncle Dan, who was very patient with the exquisitely slow pace of a toddler.  Sarah had some very nice time with her Oma.  This is a very nice picture of the both of them.

Lotty and Paul found an old bench in the sunshine.

Lotty enjoyed running through the dandelions.  They turned the bottom of her pants yellow.

The "cabin" in the woods was really a house.

Sarah is learning to be a photographer in her own right

13 pictures from this summer

Here are a few pictures from this summer, at least so far.  The first six are from May, and the rest are from June.  We went down to California in late June for a Brown family reunion, which was our first big road trip with both girls.  July pictures are coming soon!

Sarah has a beautiful smile.  This is from early May.

Sarah spent some time with Grandpa when Grammy & Grandpa visited.

Grandpa even got some laughs.

Both Lotty and Sarah enjoy the swings at the park in mid May.

Sarah started solid food 25-May.

It went pretty well—Sarah was ready.  She is quite the eater now.

Sarah is started getting more hair.  This was in mid June.

We did a little hike in Richardson Grove State Park (Northern CA) while en route.

We visited the Point Cabrillo lighthouse while in Fort Bragg. Lotty walked the whole way.

The lighthouse has been beautifully restored.

Lotty also got to explore some tide-pools. Sea anemone are fun. 

Lotty, Elizabeth and Grammy walk along the beach.

Lotty and Grandpa had a lot of fun playing in the sand together.

Good Dog

We are all sad to say that Maximillian, our beloved beagle of almost 12 years, passed away early in the morning of April 1st.  He had seemed to age a lot recently, but it came as a big surprise, and we don't know what the cause was. We miss him very much. Here are a few pictures of our favorite puppy dog. Please feel free to share your own memories of Max in the comments.