Rock Climbing

Rock Climbing: the funnest part is falling down. 

Ma-king Coffeeh...

How to Make Coffee, by Axel Hansen

1. get a filter

2. put it in the Mr. Coffee Maker

 3. Pour the beans into the grinder

 4. Listen to the grinding sound

4. scoop the fresh grinds

 5. Be sure to count the right number

 6. wait a few minutes, then SERVE

Ode to the Inner Tube

Yesterday we crashed the pool at the hotel Hilton with our friends.  Bot had brought two inner tubes that turned out to be an endless source of entertainment for the boys.  Best 89 cents ever spent!

Despite EIGHTEEN MONTHS of swim lessons, Axel still refuses to go into water deeper than eight inches:

Observe: the 10 month old baby is the only one brave enough to be in the deepest section of the pool:

Instead, Axel and Mason spent three hours playing non-stop with those inner tubes:

Here they perform the interpretive dance "Ode to the Inner Tube"

Heat Wave with Marisol

The other day there was a heat wave in San Diego.  Marisol and Axel passed by a fountain, and they just had to jump in. The kids didn't have swim clothes, but it was so hot, we didn't care.  Gotta stay cool.  

Go Go Go with my two favorite Dutch girls

Axel reads with his two favorite Dutch girls.  Thanks for a fun few weeks of play dates, Evi!

Jump around, jump around

Hazel and Axel doing some sweet jumps of the patio furniture:

 

No kids were injured doing the production of these photographs. 

Labor Day Bubble Party

Axel and I were invited to a Labor Day barbeque at Vincent and Ellis's. Luckily for Axel, Ellis's brother and sister-in-law were visiting from Amsterdam and they brought their daughter Evi. Ellis had set up two kiddie pools: one with water and one with bubbles. Guess which one was most popular:

What's better than soap bubbles and Thomas the Train? A Thomas the Train Bubble Maker, duh! (thanks, Ellis!)

Beach Trip with Dad

While mom was beating up competing roller girls in an out of town tournament, Axel and I went to La Jolla Shores to enjoy the Labor Day weekend. While Axel is a very physically oriented kid, he has always been a bit cautious when it comes to large bodies of water, usually preferring to stay on dry land (I chalk it up to him being half Danish - we had "Respect for the Sea!" drilled into our young minds growing up in Denmark). In any case, he finally seems to be warming up to the idea of playing in the ocean:

-Karsten