Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Toughing it at Tifft's



we recently went to a local nature preserve:
tifft's nature preserve, as a family. and after making several attempts at following mapquest and rand mcnally, we finally arrived! there were tons of these willowy stalks growing all over the place, especially in the water where they were over 9 feet tall!



as soon as we pulled in, it
started to sprinkle, and i had forgotten to pack anything for chilly weather! my excuse is that i didn't check the weather, but really i didn't even think about it, and i almost always drag an extra layer for everyone whenever we head out! very quick into our walk, it was pouring. it felt nice, because it was pretty warm out, but then it got a little windy, and things just started going awry! check out the poor duck!



after trying to tough it out, we headed back in to this little shelter area to wait it out. toran was so cold, we wrapped him in our emergency mexican car blanket like a
little burrito-boy!



most of us were having a good time. i mean come on...
it's rain and we are from the pacific north west, we can totally do this! haven and cabes were nice and toasty in the little "house" stroller, and haven loved watching the ducks and geese that would walk by.


here is the beginning of some major tantrum throwing. ciela, since being told that we were
going to walk in the rain, right after being told i didn't have a jacket for her, had been on serious pout patrol. she didn't walk with us, and of course hated the camera. she is now heading back out into the rain--to prove some point i'm sure, but i don't know what it is--and then started RUNNING across the boardwalk! toran of course started to chase after her, which is never a good plan. eventually, everyone made it back to the car and we opted to head home and grill some rib-eye's and down some hot cocoa!

Red Stripe Earned!



a few weeks ago
ciela tested for her red stripe in tae kwon do. each level always gets more difficult and this time the kick she had to learn for board breaking was ciela's biggest challenge. as you can see though, she executed the kick and broke her board!


here is ciela after she has received her
new belt. she has ceremoniously removed the blue belt (which they do at each level of receiving belts) and tied on her newly earned red-stripe. she is about half way to black belt, and the next belt level--red--is fairly difficult and time consuming to earn. she will be at this level at least 3 months, and possibly up to 6, depending on how quick she is able to master her new routines. we have upped her attendance from 2 days a week to at least 3, but mostly 4 days. she could go 5, but that seems to be pretty difficult with all of the other things we have to do too.