Left Coast Mom is on Vacation

Lots of travel over the past month and now we're off to Wyoming!

We'll be gone until Monday night, so probably no posts until Tuesday.

Some of those to come:

• BlogHer wrap up
• Couple of product reviews and a pinkey swear that they're not compensated (apparently, the FCC is trying to get in on the action).
• Possibly a Dammit, since I haven't done one of those in awhile.
• Perhaps an anti-Dammit, because I don't want you to think I'm always angry!
• More Hannah-isms, and perhaps a couple of Charlotte-isms--she's getting pretty sassy, too. It
• It's probably a good thing that we still can't understand all of what she says.

See you in a week-ish!

Glacier National Park in Summer

Until I'm feeling more like myself, I thought I'd share a few of the photos from our road trip last summer.

Thomas and the girls walking up the glacier at Logan Pass:





Wildlife in the parking lot:


The reason it looks so close isn't because the zoom on my camera is working better, but because I took the photo from the door of the minivan. Into which I leapt to avoid the horns.

Oh Canada!

Left Coast Mom is heading north to Canada for a couple of weeks. First Oregon (camping); then Washington (Thomas has a conference in a very nice lodge); Idaho (camping); Montana (hotel); Banff, BC (camping); and Invermere, BC (hotel). I'll probably be a little spotty about posting but hope to have some photos up tomorrow while I still have internet acess. I don't trust Hannah and Charlotte in a cafe--they're way too excited to be out and about (not to mention entirely too loud!).

Anyone need maple syrup, besides my lovely neighbors who are chicken sitting?

I Heart the Newseum

One of my favorite parts of our trip to Virginia was going to the Newseum--I could have spent another couple of days there. I know--I'm a dork. But fortunately Thomas doesn't usually seem to mind, so I dragged him along. The gallery of Pulitzer Prize winning photographs alone was worth the price of admission (20$), but I thought this was fun too:


Guess what they were all doing (besides escaping the torrential downpour)?



Why, watching the U.S. Open, of course!

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Well, not my summer vacation, exactly, and of course it's not over yet. But the girls and I went to Virginia to spend a week with their grandparents; to visit a few of the tourist traps you can't go to when you actually live in a place; and to remember why I don't love Virginia in the summer. (Hint: When we landed and were waiting on the jet way for the stroller to emerge from the belly of the plane, Hannah stood for a moment, confused, before asking "UGH! What is that??" That, my little love, is what is known as humidity.)

Aside from the 18-hour door-to-door trip, we had a great time. We went to the Zoo, where we got to see all three of the pandas; the Botanic Gardens, which Grandma and I probably enjoyed more than the girls did; and out for a day of boating on Lake Anna, courtesy the neighbors.

The girls were astounded by the enormous copper screen at the Museum of the American Indian and by the prism window, though they were probably more charmed by the fact that they could dance in the rainbows it cast on the floor:


And I love how they were able to pull off the all American look just in time to hang out in the nation's capital:*



* It's all in the photography--thanks, Penny!