Kitsap State Park

Another beautiful Washington beach...on the Hood Canal where the submarines come through :)

Nick and his Browni. She had a hard time walking on all the rocks but she loves being outside with us and does great!

Me having fun with my camera :)

Picking up rocks...heaven help us, there's a lot of rocks on this beach!

Nick couldn't venture this close to the water, he was wearing tennis shoes and there were lots of tide pools to traverse. But the tide pools were full of interesting critters!

Two little crabs I managed to trick into crawling into our bucket...

Love hermit crabs!

Do not love this worm...GROSS! It was feeding on a dead crab...eww!

Sea Stars are neat! Turned over this rock to find...I think 7...any more?

These big Sea Stars were everywhere! Just waiting for the tide to come in! They were stuck to the rocks and there was no prying them off! I tried!

He's a big boy! We had a great time walking and playing on the rocky beach. We enjoyed a picnic lunch in the park and Julius took a good nap that afternoon! :)

We really enjoyed Nick's time-off! Julius is growing so fast! We are grateful every day for the wonderful family we have been blessed with! Julius doesn't quite understand that he will be a big brother soon but he is definitely noticing Mommy's growing tummy!

Point Defiance Zoo

Proof that Julius was in his stroller at one point in the day...from the parking lot to the zoo entrance :)

In the Kids' Zone checking out some fish, frogs, etc.

Wonder what Julius is looking at?

These big guys...I was trying to see if the flash from the camera would make them scatter :) didn't work :(

Hanging out with some lemurs...the lemur cage was neat but it was surrounded by fenced off plants so we had to lift Julius up to see the lemurs, plus it was still pretty early in the day and the lemurs were all being pretty lazy!

The meerkats on the other hand were so ready to get out in the sun!! One kept pacing back and forth in front of the window (too quickly!) and they would go over to their door that led into the outdoor area and scratch. I guess in our colder climate they have to have an indoor, heated area too!

The "Otter Slide" a.k.a...

The big boy slide!! He loved sliding down...however right next to the slide was a little water area with sprinklers turned on!! It was not warm enough for water so after two times down the slide and a few longing looks at the water, we had to talk him into seeing the goats :)

This goat was extremely friendly, sure it had nothing to do with the food machine! We did pay 50 cents for a handful of food eventually...

and Julius loved feeding him, piece by piece! He was very patient...the goat I mean :)

Playing peek-a-boo with the elephant.

Pointing to the porcupines!

This is one of two tiger cubs born in May 2010. You really couldn't tell the difference between the cubs and the Mom, they were all huge!

The Budgie Buddies! We got little seed sticks and walked in and the birds just fly right up and start piggin' out! It was so much fun!!!

We enjoyed a live animal show and got to see some fun little critters!

The tortoise taking his time across the stage :)

Puffins!

Having fun on Daddy's shoulders :) Really he was getting a better look at the muskoxen.

The last animals to see at the zoo: Red Wolves

Julius loves dogs...and the red wolf was close enough! The red wolf was a little uneasy because the exhibit next to his was being weed whacked. It made him move around a lot and Julius liked that!

What does a wolf say?

Needless to say, Julius ended up with a Red Wolf stuffed animal from the gift shop! It has become his favorite toy, he goes to sleep with it under his arm and when he wakes up in the morning it comes with him to watch cartoons!

We loved the zoo!! We had a great day and we don't go to Tacoma without coming home with Krispy Kremes, a great way to finish the day! :)

Point No Point Lighthouse

His walking sticks :)

Pointing out all the sticks that Daddy has to choose from!

"Where did I leave my chainsaw?"

Nick and I enjoyed discussing how this enormous rock ended up here...any guesses?

A close-up of the rock...it was "talking" to us as we stood next to it, probably begging for some water :)

I was just asking him to say "cheese" but he got a little upset when I interrupted his rock throwing...so we didn't get a cheese face, we got a whiny face :(

So we were walking along and heard a barking sound coming from the shore and along comes a seal! I was very excited, this was the first "free" seal I've seen :) Nick informed me he see's them all the time on the boat...pooh to him! But Julius and I enjoyed it...however he was too fast for me to get a picture, so this is his back as he's disappearing under the water :)

Julius loves airplanes! Especially when he can hear them before we see them and we have to look for them! There were lots of planes to see that day!

The lighthouse...not too grand nor was it open for touring...but we enjoyed the windy walk on the beach anyways!

Throwing rocks into the water...

...trying to keep our feet dry...

...didn't work! Julius got too close and kept going which meant Daddy went in after him and they both ended up with frozen toes :) Thank goodness Daddy put on sandals :)

"I can't possibly take another step! Do you realize how much walking we just did??"

We had lots of fun at the beach, without the sun too! Just happy there was sand! Gonna do some more sightseeing this summer and hopefully enjoy some warm days soon! Just watched a report on the news about how the growing season this year is suffering because we are having a cold spring...umm don't they know summer starts tomorrow???

Home videos :)

Julius has learned to scoot along on the inch worm...really we just had to wait for his legs to get a little longer...I think the shoes gave him just the little bit he needed :)

Working on t-ball! He is really good at putting the baseball/football/basketball or anything shaped like a ball on the T, hitting it with the bat is a work in progress :)

We have a cookie in this video but I think if it were a cracker or kitty we would have the same word :) but he is doing really good with trying to say different words when I ask him to! He has quite a list of words that he says semi-clear: uh-oh, Dada, juice, dog, tree, cracker, teeth, cheese, Pop Pop and then the sounds for a car-vroom, cow-moo, monkey-ah ah, and dog-woof woof...probably some more that I'll think of later!

Getting Bigger!

We decided to do a little planting...daisies and sunflowers...

Julius hasn't quite gotten the hang of the watering can...we have since practiced watering the grass and he understands where the water is supposed to come out of now :)

This is Julius's little snap pea plant that he planted in nursery and it was doing great until I decided to move it from one shelf to another and it got broken...bummer!

Ready, set, GO!! Julius has his own version of how this is said but he says it every time he's in the mood to do some running around :)

Getting the baseball t ready!

Holding the bat one-handed...still working on that..maybe Daddy will have to help him with that!

The BIG BOY BED!! He LOVES his toddler bed and sleeps great in it!! Not with all of these stuffed animals of course...I'm so proud of him!