Tink keeps up!

Pictures 1 and 2 are Hil and Phil enjoying Naomi.

Picture 3 is the whole family with Hilary, Phil and Rose.

Picture 4 is the three girls in the hollow of a giant tree. (It smelled green).

Picture 5 was taken in the van after lunch. Just a nice spontaneous shot of those three.

Well hello Everyone,

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your comments. We love them!!!! That many exclamation points means that it is especially true.

My task is to tell you of two things. One, our trip to Victoria and two our drive through the redwoods.

Our trip to Victoria was warm with friends and cold and rainy with weather. We did a bit of "veg"ing so that we would have maximum energy for our long drive through the states. Maia was extremely comfortable at Hil and Phil's place. She even snuggled up with Phil to read a couple of books one rainy afternoon.
Luckily, we also caught up with our good friend Rose. We stole a couple of her busy student hours to play at the park, eat soup and Ice-cream and to discuss the health benefits of nuts. Many of you may be pleasantly surprised to hear that I have become of fun of nuts of many varieties. Hummm, I guess I had to just go on a life changing trip in order to become a little less picky, that's all.
Sadly, we didn't prepare well enough in advance and we completely missed seeing my Cousin Matt and his girlfriend Shauna. We felt very silly when we found out that they were in Victoria and that we had no time to see them!
Other than that one disappointment, it was a relaxing and comfortable stay. Many and mucho thanks to our gracious and giving hosts.
The very next day, as Adam's last blog indicates, we drove our little van as far as we could go. The girls were great and we ended up having a 13 hour day, including the Coho ferry ride from Victoria to Port Angeles. We are desperate for warm weather so that we can make the best use of our CAMPER van.
So, last night we stayed in Grants Pass and this morning we drove a leisurely 6 hours, with an hour and a half stop to visit the giant redwoods. WOWEE ZOWEE is what first comes to mind, but there are a few other adjectives that could also describe their magnificence, like; awesome (in both the original and contemporary sense), fantastic, stupendous and of course humongous. Maia had a blast and so did Naomi. Naomi loved the wet air and the quiet I think. The roar of the van engine can get to be a little loud at times. As for Adam and I, well if you must know, we loved it as well.
Speaking of the girls, quick update...Maia is constantly amazing us with her increasing vocabulary. She's also becoming quite the climber and most recently, she has started to play with her sister. She keeps hoping that we are in Nicaragua, but she was pretty excited to be in California. She gave the sunshine state a round of applause and a couple of shout-outs!
Naomi is really loving her hands at the moment. Her face when she concentrates is hysterically funny. I am certain that you would all agree. Also, we think that a tooth may be erupting momentarily, so there is a degree of discomfort for her that isn't fun to hear.
Tonight, we are in Eureka. The coastal highway is dangerously beautiful....in a very real way. Luckily I was reminded by Adam on a regular basis to keep my eyes on the road. We are staying at a fancy hotel as a treat....it had a pool and a hot tub for Maia.
Love, love, love you all too much! Oh, yeah...the name Tink for the van is here to stay. She just seems to have a halo of pixie dust following her as we chug/fly down the road.
E