Salmon Splash

We ran a 3K race in Oroville for fun.  The fun part is that people spray you with water while you are running. I put rain coats on the girls so they wouldn't get too wet.  It's definitely Fall in California, you can feel the crispness in the morning air. 

 

 The girls got souvenir squirts guns for the race. They used up all their water before the race had even begun and they used it all up on this poor little terrier (reminded me of Mack).

 I started the race in the back, thinking that I would clog things up with a wide jogging stroller in the front.  I passed almost everyone in front of me and managed to win first in the 19-35 year old category.

Starting the Race

Half Mile Mark

No one wanted to squirt the girls so we stayed pretty dry up till we ran by the Fire Trucks.

Running Past the Fire Truck

Allison was a little shocked by the whole experience.  She didn't like being squirted but everyone else seemed to be enjoying it, so confused.

After the Firetruck

 Trying to pose with our prize, it's in the stroller, but the girls were feeling squirmy.  It's a Coleman gas camping grill, I hope we will get a lot of use out of it in the future.

Collecting Our Prize

 After get some free flu shots and some grub at The Salmon Festival downtown, we decided to walk over to the Fish Hatchery and check out some of the activities there.

 Grandad found these cute little fans for the girls, look closely (or magnify your screen) so you can read it.  It's pretty funny.

Allison, Miss Independent, didn't want anyone to hold her hand but the railings on the bridge were just far enough apart to make me nervous so I escorted her against her will.

Walking Old Bridge

Looking Out on Old Bridge

When we got to the Fish Hatchery we tried to watch them squeeze the eggs out of the fish but it was too crowded and they were chopping the heads off the fish too.  Jessica might have nightmares after this visit to the hatchery, it was even more gory than the last one!

Turtle Bay- Round 2

We went to Turtle Bay in Redding on Meema's day off.  The girls played for over three hours straight and we got to have a very peaceful drive home afterwards.  

There are a lot of hands on exhibits at this museum.  Jessica had fun packing some saddle bags while Allison cooked us dinner.

Packing Mule and Making Dinner

Turtle Bay Fish Tank

The best part of Turtle Bay is the Lorikeets.  They sell you a nectar cup for a dollar and we spent at least six dollars on nectar.  Allison was a little freaked out by the colorful little creatures and Meema got a little Lorikeet poop in her hair (I always wear a hat.).  I got some great videos.

Meema and Jess Feeding the Lorikeets

Bird on Jessica

Jessica's Lorikeet Experience

Bird on Allison

Allison's Lorikeet Faces

Allison's Lorikeet Faces 2

Here's a bonus video of the girls being cute on a rocking chair at the library.

Library Rockers


And another bonus video of Allison.

Marbles

Mt Brokeoff

We went up to Lassen Volcanic National Park with my dad on Sunday.  We set out to hike to the top of Mt. Brokeoff.  We made it about halfway up the Mountain and had to turn around because the trails were too muddy and slick, not safe. (It was like trying to climb a hill with roller skates.)  The rain in Chico the day before meant that Lassen got it's first snowfall of the season.  We still got to hike about 4 miles and the girls got to play in the snow for the first time.  There wasn't much snow, so the roads were still pretty safe, and it was still pretty warm out so it was perfect weather for playing in the snow.

Jessica has been hiking a little more each time we go.  She was giving Grandpa grief and he was giving it right back.

Here's a cute video of my dad and Jess looking for deer while they hike.  Notice that Grandpa tells her she has to be quiet to sneak up on them so, of course, she yells, "GRANDPA!"

Looking for Deer

 I loved looking down and seeing their sweet little hand prints in the snow.

Hiking

Panoramic View

Here are a few videos of the girls checking out the snow for the first time.

Writing in the Snow

Investigating the Snow

First Snow Ball Fight

 We had three different people, that we passed along the way, take pictures for us.  Hikers are generally nice people.

We had lunch at Lake Helen, at the base of Mt. Lassen.  The girls were more interested in playing with the snow than eating, no surprise.

Lunch Time Snow Ball Fight

Here's a bonus video of the girls playing in a big pile of sod that the good people at our apartments were nice enough to leave for the girls to play in. (I am being sarcastic, it was difficult to clean them up afterward.)

Playing in the Dirt Mound

Superhero Run

On Saturday we ran in a 5k in Bidwell park.  It was the CASA superhero run, CASA stands for Child Advocacy something something.  We dressed up like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) and Grandad was Master Splinter, their rat teacher/father figure.   There was a dispute between the girls over who would get to be Leonardo (the leader in blue).  We were going to switch halfway through the race but Allison wouldn't leave her headband on so I didn't bother.  It was cute hearing Allison saying, "I aunt bee E-O-NARDO!" Then Jessica, "NO, I'm going to be Leonardo". Then Allison, "NOOO, GECKA!"  It can be pretty cute when they argue... for now anyway.

Donnie, the purple headband, was Allison's second choice.  Ofcourse, Meema and I were assigned our headbands by Jessica.

The girls colored their own slices of pizza for our pizza box prop.

I drew turtle shells on the backs of our shirts with fabric paint.

 We ran into another team of TMNT at the start line.

Michelangelo had a pretty cute Spiderdog too.

 Check out the hairdo.

Chico people love their dogs.  I think there were more dogs dressed up than people!

 This was my favorite costume.  The jet packs were two liter bottles and the pants said committed.

 Jessica is my little marathon runner.  I knew she liked to run because she always does laps on the sidewalk circle at our apartments.  The sheer joy on her face and the shrieks and giggles of excitement while she tried to pass everyone up were priceless.

Running

Running 2

Running 3

 It's cooled off dramatically in the past week and rain was in the forecast for Saturday.  It came down pretty hard the last half mile of our run.

 Jessica and Allison were the only ones who managed to stay dry.

After the race we went to a petting zoo that I had heard about from my moms group.  It would have been a lot more fun if it wasn't so cold, wet and muddy.  But the girls enjoyed mingling with the animals.

Petting Zoo

Here's a bonus video of the girls playing right outside our apartment.  There is a good patch of mud right outside our door that they enjoy digging in.

Playing on Our Porch

Mud Blast

Well, I did it again!  I talked my mom into another crazy adventure, hee hee.  We ran the 5K Mud Blast in Colusa on Saturday while my dad watched the girls.  I didn't think that I would get much of a workout because I normally run at least 6 miles at a time but I was pretty sore the next day because the obstacles were intense.  I am proud of my mom, she made it through every single obstacle and they were harder than the obstacles they had in the Air Force boot camp.  I am totally going to sign up for another mud run.  I don't know if I will have as much fun if my mom isn't with me though, she provided some pretty comical commentary:  "I didn't want to get muddy","Now this is my kind of obstacle", "I feel like I have Praying Mantis arms" and "not another friggin' mud pit!"  there were more but, sadly, I can't remember them.

I said my share of odd things too: "Will someone push my butt up please?" (As I was trying to climb up out of a super slippery mud pit, I just couldn't get any traction!)  I heard a sweet voice behind me saying, "I'm a girl, I swear" as she shoved me up.

Here's a video of me jumping in the Sacramento River to wash off the mud after the race.

Running into the River

And here are a few pictures of me and Meema, nice and clean before the race began.

I know how lucky I am to have a mom that's this much fun.  I hope I will be able to do lots of fun things with my little girls when they are all grown up.

My dad took the girls to DeGarmo park in the morning while Meema and I were getting muddy.  He said that Allison climbed up the spider web all by herself.  I wasn't surprised, she climbed these rocks all by herself earlier in the week.  (This photo is going to give Meema a heart attack.) I spotted her the whole way up and only stepped away long enough to snap this pic.

After my mom and I cleaned the mud off, and after the girls had a nap, we went to a reptile show in Chico.  Jessica wanted to touch everything and Allison was more into the snow cone she got at the end.

Here are a few videos from the reptile show.

Bearded Dragon

Big Lizard

Big Lizard 2

On Sunday I drove over to Clear Lake to go to my best friend's baby shower.  Steph is due mid October and she is going to name her baby girl Madison.

I got some great quality time with my BFF while Meema and Grandad watched my girls for me.  I even got some snuggle time with Hannah before I left, but I always wish I had more time.

Here are a couple videos of the girls playing with Meema and Grandad while I was at the baby shower.

Yeeha No

Surf's Up

Cute!!!!

Here are some videos I took at Meema and Grandad's house last Friday.  We took a walk down to the ditch, it's one of the fun things to do there, and the dogs always go too.

Allison Throwing Rocks into Ditch

Jessica trying to climb up to the ditch is pretty much what Meema and I looked like trying to climb out of the mud pits.

Jessica Climbing the Ditch

Walking Up the Driveway


Jessica found a wiggly worm while we were playing after dinner one night last week.  She played with this worm for about 30 minutes until her little sister got so jealous that she chopped it in half with the cup Jessica used to give it a bath.  Allison didn't want the worm, she just didn't want Jessica to enjoy it so much.

Jessica's Pet Worm

Jessica's Pet Worm 2

Jessica's Pet Worm 3

Talking about our Georgia Visit

Grandparents Day with Grandpa

We visited Grandpa on Sunday.  He had new sparkly outfits for the girls.  Allison immediately started twirling her skirt and saying, "I'm Cinderella".  Jessica liked the kitty on hers and decided that she would be the girl kitty from "Puss and Boots" for the rest of the morning.  Then Grandpa  took us to the zoo.  The girls favorite thing to do at the zoo is ride the awesome carousel.  They like to pick different animals each time.  

Carousel

 Jessica was thrilled when we pretended her Praying Mantis was trying to eat Allison.

 The Chimps were having their breakfast.

Allison and Jessica were drinking their chocolate milk that I packed for them.

Chimp Encounter

After the zoo we went to Fairytale Town.  The girls got face paints on their arms.  Jessica got Rafael (the rude ninja turtle) and Allison picked out Spiderman.

 It was Allison's first face painting experience and the lady was impressed by how much she was talking.  She said most kids her age are barely putting two words together, Alli has been talking in full sentences for months now.

 After lunch we went back to Grandpa's house and paddled around in his pool for awhile.  Allison was a little upset that her Spiderman got washed off in the pool, she's been talking about it for the past couple days.

Jessica liked the giant squirty thingy and I told her not to squirt the house... so she started squirting me (I was an easy target).

Swimming

We all had a great time.  Next time we will have to go to Chuck E Cheese and Funderland.  There are so many fun things to do in Sacramento.

Feather Falls Hike

Yep, we did a 10 mile hike with two toddlers... I don't know how I talked my mom into it.  We were one of the first people on the trail that day.  My little morning stars like to wake up between five thirty and six every morning.  The weather forecast said it would be in the upper nineties so we got an early start to beat the heat.  You know the mosquitoes are bad when you are glad when it gets too hot for them.  The blood sucking little buggers swarmed our faces relentlessly for the first four miles of the hike.  The mosquitoes didn't seem to like Jess and Alli though, must be the Haggerty blood coursing through their veins.  Here we are bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to start our hike.

 We played musical babies for the first mile or so.  That seems to be something we do on all our hikes.

Hiking 1

Hiking 2

 I think Allison loves hiking, she sits up tall in the backpack and can see everything that way.  I could hear her singing here and there too.

 Meema had a first aid kit packed with just about everything you could possibly need on a hiking trip, everything but bug spray.  I even thought about taking it too and got side-tracked, which is always the case.  I will NEVER be without bug spray in the woods ever again.

 Jessica is in the stroller and Allison is saying CHEEEEEEEESE! We were able to get the jogging stroller in most of the way, that doesn't mean that Jessica rode in it though.  I would say that it was empty for all but two miles, we just kept thinking that we would want it on the way out which is mostly uphill.

 Have paci, will hike.

 We stopped at the mini waterfalls to let the girls run around.

Mini Waterfalls

 We were hoping to find some salamanders but we didn't.

 Allison and Jessica like to fight over Meema.

 Posing in front of Bald Rock.  Jessica rode most of the way like this.

Playing Around

 Allison rode most of the way like this, with Grandad's hat that she stole.  I am surprised that Grandad was able to get it back.

 Finally at the Falls!

 The girls could really care less about the falls, but they did like the rainbow it created.  They were more interested in the sour gummy worms that Meema had told them they would get once we got to the falls.

Overlook

They sat in the shade on the stair happily eating their gummy worms and sucking down all of Meema's water out of her camelbak.  (That is why Meema ran out of water towards the end of the hike.)  Jessica took full advantage of going potty in the woods and that is why she isn't wearing pants, it got a little messy.

Playing on the Stairs

Sometimes both of my little girls want Momma and I welcome the challenge.  Meema said I looked like some strange scuffling down the trail and she got a couple videos.

Strange Insect

Double Duty

The highlight of Jessica's day was when we found a garden snake crossing the path in front of us. It was a big one, about 3ft long.

Garden Snake

Here is a video of our final mile.  Jessica is asleep in the stroller and Allison fell asleep a few minutes after I took this video.

Final Mile

No ticks, no poison oak, no sunburns, and no major injuries (just a few mosquito bites).  All in all it was a success!  Now, we need to start planning our next hike...

When we got to Meema and Grandad's house Jessica got to play in the hose with Porter.

Playing in the Hose

Hete's a bonus video.  We've been going outside after dinner to let the girls run out some energy.  I let them run barefoot so they can enjoy the plush California grass between their toes.  They won't have their playground back for a month so we improvise.

Playing After Dinner