We did not forget about precious Isabela’s Birthday!  As most bloggers have encountered…  The “Save” button, and “Publish” button, while close in proximity, and similar in appearance… do not achieve the same result. 

Bela is 3 years old going on 15.  She is simply amazing with her vocabulary, reasoning, and imagination.  We have a family tradition of telling a story before bedtime.  Usually it’s a bible story, sometimes we read, or just make one up.  Bela has decided it is her job to make up the bedtime stories.  You would not believe the stories she comes up with.  We have such a brilliant and creative  girl.

For her birthday Bela asked… (Multiple times) to go camping.  So we headed out to Cleary Lake Park Reserve, and spent the weekend out there.  This was our first camping trip of the season and we had a blast.

It’s a mellow spring around the Doar house.  Rob is finishing up his business traveling or the foreseeable future with a trip to Panama, and Kirstie and the kids are enjoying the lovely weather and budding plants.  Happy Birthday Bela!  We love you!

We finally had a break in the rain here and got out on the trails here at Pine Knob Farm in Bethlehem, NH. Bela has been enjoying a wide variety of new scat and tracks from moose to eastern coyote. \n\nAs I write I’m enjoying the trails with Dave Tellman. Bela and Teo are at the local bookstore with Grandma Tanya. \n\nSad that we only have 2 days left, but we will get the most out of it.\n\n\n

OK, while it’s not really spring here, it sure does feel like it lately. Since Mateo is growing so huge, I needed some new pictures for my desk at work…
So we went on a picture hike…

Sunday, we got a change to gout out again for some winter fun.  It was a great relief for me, as I had just put in a 70 hour work week in Las Vegas, and missed the kids and Kirst greatly.

We all went to Highland Lake and hit the snowshoe trails.  Thanks to (Great) Grandma and Grandpa Tellman for the Christmas snowshoes…  They are getting much use!

Bela askes us everyday to go out snowshoeing, and seems to have no concept of getting cold.  She will be starting to shiver, and will still emphatically reply “NO!” when asked if she is getting cold.
She also has taken a liking to ice skating, and we think she will love watching it on the Olympics…

Here’s a fer pics of out outing…

“Mommy, You’re at the top of the Mountain!”

“I made tracks like the deer!”

Teo is clearly miserable.

As many of you know, or have deduced by my extensive flickr page, I like taking pictures…

Most of the time, I prefer scenery, nature, buildings, etc…  I do like taking pics of the kids too… mostly candid shots.  I’ve never really tried to have the kids sit still for a picture together. Now I know why…

I never imagined it could be such a wrestling match to get 2 kids to sit still for 3 seconds.  I need to work on my imagination.
We had a nice fire built up in the fireplace for ambiance, but by the time the cameras were set up, and Teo stopped fussing, it had gone out.  Then, some shots, Teo was smiling, and Bela wasn’t.  Than Vice, versa…  Then Teo started crying.  He kept crawling towards us, making the picture be out of focus.
Here are a few shots from the adventure of trying to get a Christmas picture.

Finally, we ended up with a slightly out of focus, but very cute picture.

Good thing too.  Mateo crashed 14 seconds after this pic was taken…
Now we have our Christmas card!  I’m hiring a professional next year.