Hi, I'm four.

Whew. I'm back from a series of very demanding vacations and birthday celebrations. It seemed that every corner of my little world was interested in celebrating with me. First, we headed down to La Quinta and celebrated with a yellow cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles. I got to play with my brother and cousins: Grace, Cal, Johnny, and Kate. Cal and I have the same birthday, so we blew out our candles together. Then mama and I flew to Seattle where I got to have a sprinkle cake with chocolate frosting. My cousins Van and Zoe were there and Zoe gave me ALL her old barbies, plus Aunt Kimmy gave me another one. So now I have 8 barbies! But it gets better. I flew back to Bozeman and celebrated again with Aunt Lize, Uncle Tim, Audrey, Claire, Grandpa and Jeanne and I can't even remember a cake because I was so engorged on Easter candy. Guess what else? I got ANOTHER barbie! It's so fun being four. I hope you all get to turn four one day.

When can we go back to Molokai-ee?

Aloha compadres! I just returned from an awesome vaca in Hawaii with my cousins and Nannie. My favorite thing was sliding into the water on a super-high slide. I also just grooved on the Aloha spirit, reading books in the middle of the day, running around on the lawn, eating fresh pineapple, and swinging on the hamock. Thank you, Nannie!

Skiing in Yellowstone

A few weeks ago Grandpa gave me a piece of GUM! We were traveling by snowcoach into Yellowstone National Park (which is a park that doesn't have any swings or slides) and he offered it to me. My parents didn't object, so I got to chew it and swallow it with zero guilt. We stayed for the weekend in a huge hotel with long hallways where I went on lots of adventures. I even got lost once, but I told a hotel guy that my name was S-C-H-A-U-B and he brought me back to my room. One day I went cross-country skiing. That's like real skiing, but without the chairlifts and downhill part. I thought it was fun. Ice skating was fun, too. And seeing old Faithful blow water into the air--that was a little bit confusing because the water was hot and we couldn't get too close.

Ne'er do well hackers

Don't trust these people! They are scheming blog hackers. You could be next! Sorry about the disturbing photo, ma.

Girly girl

Never thought I'd say it, but I'm totally, like, into princesses, dancing fairies, and the color pink. I just love the way they make me feel. This is me dancing to my favorite CD of French songs. Sooo fancy!

Thanksgiving

We just returned from a wonderful Thanksgiving at Tunitas Creek Ranch. It was a mix of Mor Mor, Nanny, Bacco, both Uncle Tims and all my cousins except Grace, Cal, Johnny, and Kate (they were in Seattle). My favorite moments were in front of the television, but aside from that, there was the outdoor kitchen, the beach, milking the goats, reading books, playing with cousins, and eating treats. I'm thankful for my huge and very fun family.

So, when's Christmas?

Early SNOW

Here I am on my way to school with Angus and mama. As you can see, there is snow in the air and on the ground. Snow. Can you believe it? It makes me get excited about ski season, especially since we all have season passes this year. Yahoo! Dad just folded up the raft and got the garage ready for winter parking. I love winter. Bring it on!

Indian summer

Here's a little snapshot from a day we spent up at Langhor campground a few weeks ago. We had a picnic together, then went for a big hike up to Palisade Falls. Mom let me do some rock throwing and rock climbing. Very cool.

Gus is ONE

I can't believe how quickly the past year has been. One minute, he's a little alien attached to mom's boob, and the next minute he's scooting around on his bottom, jabbering away in his alien language. On September 21, we celebrated his first birthday. Now I guess I'm realizing that he's human, and he even looks like me. Not a big surprise, but he ate his whole birthday cake slice in about 10 seconds, and then looked around for more. You can't help but love him.

Nanny's farm

We just returned from a fabulous, weeklong visit to Nanny's farm in Half Moon Bay. I got to sleep in a cabin with Nanny and Rosy-the-dog all to myself. I also had fun milking the goat, harvesting fresh organic vegetables and fruits, feeding apples to the horses, hiking, four-wheeling with daddy, playing on the beach, and reading books in the sunny chair. Honestly, can you beat a vacation like that?

Me n Grandpa

I know, technically, this is Hazel's blog, but I think it's time to move over and make way for the next generation, heh? Here's a picture of me, Mr. Angus Oluf Schaub, with my grandpa.


Um, excuse me, how many more minutes until my next meal?

S'mores

You know what I love best about my cousins in Seattle? They have a magical power over my mom and she always lets me eat sweets when I'm with them. Case in point: here's me on the 4th of July at Van and Zoe's house eating a S'more. We spent a week in Seattle with Van while Zoe and her parents were in Greece. I think my mom was a little strung out by the end, but I loved it. Van and I make a great team.

Point No Point

Hi folks, Angus here. I know I haven't yet mastered my pincer grasp, but I think typing is actually pretty easy compared to picking up a raisin. This is a picture of me at Point No Point on the Olympic Peninsula. I was there a few weeks ago with my mama, sister, and cousin Van. I don't know about you, but I think the whole sand thing is just thrilling. You can pick it up, but then it slips through your fingers. It's cool, but also hot. You can even eat it. Amazing.

Angus 8 mo

Angus is really starting to become a real person. He likes to look at me with his half-lidded eyes and smile or cry, depending on the situation. He eats like a horse! I mean, way more than I do and he's half my size. I wonder if he's going to be super tall like his daddy...er...I mean mommy.

Bouncy thing

Since it was my birthday, Cal's birthday, Zoe's birthday, and Johnny's birthday, and Joel's birthday all in the same month, plus MorMor and Bacco's 40th wedding anniversary, we celebrated by getting a big bouncy castle for a whole day down in La Quinta. Lemme tell you that it was big FUN. Here's a picture of the palacious interior.

Birthday

Oh and here's my cake.

SPRINKLE BIRTHDAY

I turned THREE last week and had a really fun sprinkle party with my cousin Claire. Here we are waiting for our cake! If you haven't guessed, we got to put the sprinkles on ourselves. I also got some balloons and I got to see all my cousins, all my grandparents, and all my aunts and uncles just before and after my birthday. That was the best part. I have a really big family.

Yellowstone Ski

On a random Wednesday, completely out of the blue, my parents surprised me by driving me and my best friend Claire (and Angus) all the way to Yellowstone National Park to go skiing. It started off real nice. We were all snuggly and warm in our Chariot stroller thing with dad pulling me and Angus and mama pulling Claire. I had almost dozed off completely when we went down a hill too fast and the stroller rolled completely over. Then mama rolled Claire, too. Needless to say, us kiddos decided to stay up the rest of the time just to be safe. I'm glad we did, too, 'cause we saw lots of buffalo and elk and we had a good long time to catch up on life.

WInter is NOT over...

Greetings friends! After warm weather lulling us into believing that winter was over, we got a big dump of snow yesterday, turning everything white and beautiful again. Here's a pic of me and dad and Angus in the hot tub enjoying the view. Hope you're having a good day.

Me and Gus

This here is an updated picture of me and my brother Angus. He's getting more fun, but mom won't let me pick him up by myself yet (because I drop him when I get distracted or tired). Gus is kind of a mama's boy, from what I can tell. He likes to be held ALL THE TIME because he likes to look around. I think he secretly hopes he'll be tall so he doesn't miss any of the action. The best part about Gus is that he laughs when I tickle him. So far, he hasn't smiled for many pictures. I didn't either, so maybe it's a family thing. We like the deadpan. It works for us.