Rocks and Rock Candy

 Emma found an unusually large lump under the rug the other day. I wonder what it could be...

 One day during naptime, Naomi and I made rock candy. Here is our candy after letting it sit for a week.

Yum! We got the directions here.

More House Pictures

 Before moving, we sold our old table, so we needed a new one. I was tired of having a round table where a square one should go! I found this one on craigslist. It was only $100, plus gas to go get it (we borrowed a pickup truck from another resident in Kurt's program). We love our new table! It came with a leaf and 8 chairs, which really came in handy when my family was in town!

 It's very wide, too. Here is Kurt trying out our new table.

 Here is our front door. These flowers are everywhere here.

 While they are pretty, they really aren't in the best place, as Emma demonstrates here. :)

 Here is the view from our living room. The second level is only about half the size of the downstairs. Our bedrooms are smaller than in our old house, but I'd much rather have the third bedroom and bathroom! The double doors on the bottom lead to the third bedroom, which we use as a play room. So far having an overlook from the upstairs has really come in handy. If Kurt or I forgets something for the girls' bedroom routine, the other can just toss it up!

 Here is the living room. The window behind Emma is actually a sliding door, but we blocked it off to make more room for couches. There is another sliding door leading outside in the kitchen, which is just to the right from this picture (you can see a shadow from a kitchen chair on the wall there).

 Here is another view of the living room. The door on the left is our front door.

 Here is our backyard patio. Naomi and Emma got this trampoline from Santa for Christmas, and they have loved having it here. I love having an enclosed backyard! I can just send them out to jump on the tramp and not worry about them running off. The door in the background is the sliding door we blocked off.

 Here is our dead patch of grass. :(

 This is the bulk of our backyard.

And here is our new grill! This is the sliding door from the kitchen. I hope you enjoyed the tour!

Durlands at the Beach

 My brother Lyle and his family, as well as my brother Spencer visited us this week. I only managed to take pictures when we were at the beach, so that's what you get to see! Here is Emma enjoying pretzels while watching the waves.

 Lyle's girls enjoyed finding little sand crabs that dug into the sand.

 Everyone had fun digging in the sand.

 Naomi fetched water to help in building sand sculptures.

 Here is the pier on Huntington Beach. This is the same beach we went to with the Moores last week.

 Here is Spencer digging in the sand.

 Emma helps Mandy fill up a bucket.

 Naomi checking out the hole Spencer dug.

 Spencer's sand castle, with some help from Mandy.

 Emma didn't appreciate that the ocean was colder today than last week.

 Lyle's wife, Nicole, with her sand castle.

 Rose testing the depth of Spencer's hole. Lyle is laying out in the background. Next time he'll be sure to use more sunscreen. :)

Emily shows off the prize of her seashell collection--a sand dollar.

It was fun having my family come visit. We also watched movies and played games, and of course, made homemade ice cream! We even got to swim in our pool one day when someone left the gate open. (We really need our pool key!) Thanks for coming Durlands!

Happy Father's Day

Naomi made this cute card for Kurt for Father's Day. I thought her answers were pretty cute. For the record, Kurt is actually 29, not 32, although we were both surprised how close to his age she got.

   For dinner I attempted to make ribs. It went really well. The recipe called for baking in the oven for a couple hours, then putting it under the broiler for 15 minutes. I was supposed to check on it every few minutes, but I got distracted with making everything else for dinner and dessert (and having the kids "help" me). Well, I opened up the oven and smoke came pouring out and all the fire alarms went off. I was half expecting some fire trucks to show up, since that's always what happened at Whipple Park.
   We actually still ate the ribs. Surprisingly, after peeling off the black, the ribs were pretty good. When I was scraping off the black parts, Naomi announced that she would taste test the meat and tell us if we could still eat it. Right before she tried it, she said, "I have a feeling this isn't going to taste very good." Funny girl. But she tried it and declared it not only to be edible, but tasty to boot. :) We also had corn, rolls and Santa Claus melon.
  To celebrate his day, Kurt got a bike helmet and lock for his bike, which we just got off of craigslist. We sold our second car before we moved, so Kurt will be riding a bike to work instead. Happy Father's Day! ;) Maybe someday we'll be able to get him something he actually wants, like an iPad. :)

Huntington Beach

 On Friday we met up with our friends, the Moores, who went to medical school with us, and also matched to a residency program in California. They are just an hour away, so we decided to meet up at the beach.

 The girls looooooved the ocean. It wasn't a super warm day, so we were just going to get our toes wet. Ha!

 Tyler and Kurt buried the girls in sand. They thought that was pretty hilarious.

Here's the crew minus Tyler (who was taking the picture). We changed the girls into their dry swimming suits for the drive home. :) Thanks for going with us Tyler and Rebe!

Disneyland, Day 3 (our last day)

 I was so proud of Naomi on this trip. I didn't think she'd like any of the "scarier" rides, but she actually did really well! She rode Splash Mountain several times, and even went on Pirates of the Caribbean. This picture is from the third time Naomi rode Splash Mountain. The first time she hid in daddy's lap. The second time she hid in daddy's shoulder, and this time, she looked straight ahead! She was so brave, and I was very proud of her.

 We went back to Toon Town and the girls met Minnie and played at her house.

 Nana waited in line for nearly two hours so the girls could meet Rapunzel. Emma was scared of a lot of the characters, but she ran right up to Rapunzel. It was pretty cute.

 Papa, I'm told, is usually the grumpy one on trips to Disneyland, but I think he enjoyed spending the time with his grandkids.

 Meeting Pooh. The girls loved the Winnie the Pooh ride at Disneyland. I think they rode it about 5 times. Good thing there wasn't much of a line!

 They had these bubble guns at the park, but they were selling them for $15. We couldn't bring ourselves to spend that much, but our hotel was selling a similar gun for $9, so we splurged. It was a hit with the girls.

Watching the parade one last time. Emma got especially excited when her pal Rapunzel went by. It was a great trip, and I'm really glad we got to go with Nana and Papa.