Hidden Valley Holiday, Part 3

Yay!  Everyone is pretty healthy today!  I'm so relieved that Tavin has bounced back quite quickly and was functioning at 90% this morning.  We've enjoyed having him involved in the activities available here again.  He accompanied Doug and Koen on a bike ride this morning and then we were able to have a nice long midday visit at the pool without an intense sick 3 year old break-down.  After a few hours and the picnic at the pool, Koen wanted to go back to the house with Doug and Tav.  That left Penn and I some very special pool time.  I was still feeding him his lunch (he can take a long time when there are so many fascinating distractions like patio chairs, towels and hats to get his hands on).  While he was busy contemplating something, I had to take a shot of his adorable profile in his silly pool hat. 

After he finally finished we went back into the pool.  He had already spent quite a lot of time in his boat, but this time I wanted him to get to play in the very shallow baby pool (which was also much warmer thankfully).  Doug snapped a picture of the happy water baby on his way out.  Oh yes, his mom is happy too.  Thirty minutes of sweet splashes with my youngest was all I needed to feel like this vacation, despite its caveats, was totally worth it.

After the pool time, all the Melder boys were pretty tired.  Tav took a hard, long nap.  Penn took such a long nap I had to wake him up at 5pm!  Koen had a restful afternoon, but we also had some fun (including him "beating" me in a soccer scrimmage in the backyard).  Doug was away for most of the afternoon doing the wedding in Ligonier.  I was excited though as he was able to make it back before 6pm!  I had planned on taking the boys on foot up to the woodsy playground again, but with Doug back we decided to turn it into a family bike ride to the playground.  Penn was very curious about this activity and particularly his head gear, but he really did enjoy the outing.

When we got to the playground the boys played for a little bit and then I hung with Koen and Penn on the swings while Tavin and Doug had some one-on-one time.  Turns out they took some super sweet pictures.  They were doing different faces.  Here's silly face.

Smiley face (my favorite!).

 My 2nd-runner-up is this adorable kissy shot.

And this one is hilarious.  Doug taught Tavin how to do "serious."  And the best part is you can see that Tav is trying to hold in a laugh.  Awesome.

Well, that was the end of the boys' adventures for the day.  We got them to bed after the playground outing.  Doug helped me get the lay down process started and then he slipped out to get us some much-deserved pizza.  Happy Holiday!