Gymboree

We have signed the girls up for baby gym class at Gymboree. This is a great idea for active girls that won't be able to spend as much time outside as the weather gets colder. Check out some of the moments I caught with the camera.

The girls are standing on a huge parachute that is flapped up and down and pulled around by parents that are standing around the edge. It's a little sensory overload, there is music playing, a person blowing bubbles at the kids faces and parents cheering and pulling this huge parachute. Sahara has this looks like, 'are these people serious mom?'.

Here's a good shot of the floor mats and Maya running for her life.

Here's Sahara improperly playing with the balls.

Here's Sahara making a 2 point basket. She's on her toes to make this shot.

Daddy is helping Maya on the obstacle. To the right you can see our friends Laura and Olivia playing.

And here's sweet Maya collecting the balls.

Oceanside Beach

It's still summer, right? Well we are savoring every last sunny day. We went to our local beach and played the afternoon away.

The girls enjoy filling their buckets with water and bringing them back to our home base in the sand. The girls are pretty small so us parents end up doing most of the water retrieving.

And as soon as we bring the buckets back full of water, our little ones tip the buckets and pour the water into the sand. This happens a couple hundred times before the day is over.

Here's our home base in the sand. As you can see daddy is heading to the water with Maya to retrieve another bucket of water.

Sahara is carrying her bucket full of water back on her own.

Here's another shot of our home base in the sand.

Laguna Beach

We took Maya and Sahara along with our out of town guests to Laguna Beach for the day. The morning had a little chill but by noon it was bright, sunny and absolutely beautiful. Can someone remind me why we moved from here?

Here's Sahara running around in the sand.

Mary and Novella Kingman came to hang out with us at the beach.

Too cute ! Look at Novella's dimple on her chin.

Here we have a shot of Novella and Maya playing together in the sand. They both ended up eating a good amount of sand when it was all said and done.

Our cousin's from Greece just left this morning after 2 1/2 weeks of non-stop vacationing in the United States. They have alot of fond memories with Disneyland and Las Vegas topping their list. Goodbye Vivi and Maria !!!!

Visitors From Greece

Some of Nader's cousins are visiting us from Greece. It is the first time that Vivi and Maria have been to the United States, or anywhere outside of Greece for that matter so we have been doing our best to show them around. Here are some snap shots from our touring around.

We took them to Vegas to visit with some of their cousins. Here's a group shot. We all had a wonderful time catching up.

Here's a shot of Vivi and Maria shopping their brains out at the Vegas outlet mall.

Here's a beautiful Vegas sunset. Hard to tell it was 110 degrees from the picture.

Of course I had to take Maria (left) and Vivi (right) to the Wild Animal Park and Sea World. Here are some photos from the WAP.

Sahara and the deer.

Up close and personal.

Hi Maya !!!

Sun, Sand & Water

That pretty much sums up our Summer: Sun, Sand & Water. Here are a few pictures of what we have been up to.

Fallbrook has this really cool place for children under 5 years old called the Early Learning Center. It's a new facility that offers free, age appropriate activities. We try to go every other week or so, naps permitting. Here's a water activity that Maya (left) and Sahara (right) are enjoying.

They have a wonderful sand box. Lots of shovels.

Here's Maya playing with their fake food.

Aside from the Early Learning Center the girls spend their time walking around in other peoples slippers and shoes.

We have discovered a cool play area in the Westfield Mall in Escondido. It's a great place to run around and play on a hot day. Which we are getting more of lately.

Sahara in the tunnel. I had to move quick to get this picture so I apologize that it is blurry.

The other day we walked in on Maya working on the computer. Look how she has her hand on the mouse and is looking rather serious.

Aside from all this fun we have been struggling with frequent middle of the night wakings from Sahara. This coupled with Maya's regular 4 a.m. wakings and we are not getting much sleep. We are hoping this changes soon before we collapse. Please pray for us.

We love animals

We go to the Wild Animal Park or San Diego Zoo just about every week to visit our animal friends. Grandpa Epi always asks me "aren't you guys bored of those places?" My answer, "it never gets old for us." See for yourself why....

The San Diego Zoo is a wonderful world of animals.

Flamingos are high on the favorites list for the girls.

The petting zoo is so much fun. Here we have Sahara punking a goat. She is so fearless. It does not intimidate her at all that the goat is much bigger than her.

Here's Maya. She loves to be around animals.

Here's a wombat. Pretty cool huh?

Sahara "gently" petting a goat. I often times need to remind her to "gently" pet the animals. Otherwise her petting looks alot like slapping.

Sahara found her way into the Sheep's food trough.

Here we have Maya checking out the pigs. She was there for a while watching them sleep.

Close up of the sleeping pigs.

Now do you see Granpa Epi why we keep coming back for more.

CROCS !!!

Maya and Sahara received a box of Crocs today. You would never catch mommy and daddy in these over glorified garden shoes but on kids they are absolutely adorable.

The Steven's family visited the other day and their three girls had Crocs on. Well Maya and Sahara could not stop playing with them so mommy had to get them a pair of their own.

Maya is clapping in approval of her new shoes.

Sahara and Maya dancing around.

Sahara in her new shoes.

Maya posing in her new shoes.

We were needing shoes that could get wet for around the pool and activity table. I think we have our solution.