Dance Recital At The Kenney

Here's some photos from Dylan's last dance recital at the Kenney Retirement Hall here in West Seattle.  She had just come from a full day of skiing but really wanted to do the recital (she actually really loves them).  This performance was called the Funky Monkey - and it was hilarious.

Here she is with her good friend Sophie.

Teacher Jenna gathering the girls

1, 2, 3...

And they are off and dancing

Dance Rectial at the Kenney Retirement Home from Dylan Ray Clark on Vimeo.

Dance Machine

Ever since Dylan starting taking her dance class (we call it Super Fun Dance class) she has really starting expressing herself through movement.  Now, we never expected her to get down to the Hawaii Five O theme song, but it sure makes for a memorable routine!

DRay rocking out to the Hawaii 5-0 Theme song. from Dylan Ray Clark on Vimeo.

Goatie Wrangling

Uncle Ben's and Aunt Liz's now have 20 new kids - baby goaties that is. Their herd of goats just gave birth to 20 little sweet goaties. Matt took Dylan out to see them the other day and boy was there one little girl that was in heaven - not only did she get to hang out with her favorite cousin, Jackson, see Dewey her "bestest pony ever" AND she got to chase around little goaties all day!

Little Goaties from Dylan Ray Clark on Vimeo.

Let It Snow In Seattle

Nothing better than a snow day in Seattle!!!! Yeah! Snow!!

SNOW! from Dylan Ray Clark on Vimeo.

More Snow! from Dylan Ray Clark on Vimeo.

A good day of snow ends with a warm cup of hot chocolate and a cuddle up with dad!

AND then to top off an already perfect snow day - the sledding hill - AND dad let me go down "all by myself" - mom had to close her eyes. Warning the video you are about to watch is quite loud with the girlie screams of joy! Cover your ears.

Snow in Seattle! from Dylan Ray Clark on Vimeo.

Okay now that you are deaf - don't say I didn't warn you!

A Fish In The Sea

We're been going swimming at our gym for a few years now. The other day I put on a couple of arm floaties and oh boy Dylan was so excited to realize that she could do it 'all by myself'. Here's a few video's I could finally capture since Matt was in the pool with her.

DRay Swimming from Dylan Ray Clark on Vimeo.

Swiming with Dad from Dylan Ray Clark on Vimeo.

Little Gym Spring Graduation

I was out of town working during Dylan's Spring Little Gym Graduation but luckily Madison caught the whole thing on video. There are also a few video's of Dylan and her little boyfriend Benny - they just have a ball together!

The Ballard Norwegian Parade

A few weeks ago our good friends, Madison & Kelli Murphy, took Dylan to the Norwegian Parade in Ballard. Great times were had by all! Friends, flags, drums, dancing, police motorcycles, horses, hats, and lollipops - someone had a grand time, and slept very good that night I might add. Thanks Kelli & Madison!!!!!







Here's a couple of fun video's of the event.

Bath Time Musicals

First Bike

What can I say but our girl is following in her Dad's footsteps, she loves bikes! So for Dylan's 2nd birthday we got her a balance bike (basically a bike without pedals or training wheels. The theory is that they learn balance and then to pedal later). Of course her Dad picked out a super cool preemo ride and her Mom picked the color ;).

The day it arrived Matt happen to be home for lunch. I couldn't tell which of the two was more excited to get the bike together. The box was torn open within seconds and parts were coming out - Matt said to Dylan "I have to go to the garage to get a few tools" the next thing we knew Dylan had run in the house and brought out not only one but two of her tool boxes to help her Dad. She was very excited to help!


"Hey Dad, I think this piece goes with this one what do you think?"

"Hmmm, let me adjust my glasses so I can see the directions better."

"Hey Dad I have just the tool for this and hey Dad look I've got tool skills too!"


After a quick seat adjustment Dylan was all set for her first ride. She was good in knowing that you ALWAYS wear your helmet when riding your bike.


She got on just like a pro! Oh and for the record the one pant leg up and sunglasses where her idea - ha!



Here's a video of Dylan's first ride.

Rocking Out With Caspar Babypants

With G-ma Montana in town we were looking for some fun things to do - wait, what's this? Caspar Babypants is performing - stop the press, we're there! Yes, G-ma Montana and Poppa Matt got to experience Dylan in all her dancing glory. Watch out, 'cause the girl got those little cowboy boots of her a moving!!

And Back To Brussels ~ Almost Home

After a week in Paris we drove back to Brussels to catch our flight home. Along the way we stopped off to check out this really cool road that is on the Race of Flanders bike course - we also stopped off in a little town to check out a bike museum Matt was dying to see - not only was it nap time (so two of us waited in the car) but the museum was closed, sorry Matt!

The hotel that Matt booked said it was at the airport - what we didn't expect was literally it was at the airport. We had a nice quiet evening to pack everything up and get some sleep before adventure into another 12 hour flight with a toddler. Here's a funny shot of all our bags (and kid) packed up on the airport carts in the hotel lobby (Dylan loved it).

After checking out we crossed the passenger unload area right into the airport - this picture is standing in the hotel doorway. It was soooo easy. When we got to the ticket counter there wasn't a soul around - I was a little worried that our flight was canceled but nope, just no one around. Very strange.


Here's a funny video Matt shot of Dylan's newest favorite thing to do - her dad showed her this one and she had tons of fun. You can only guess what we did every lay over we had - luckily we didn't have many. And the flight, for those wondering went just fine - of course it did when you have Curious George playing on DVD (for another 10 hours) :)>.





Awe back home! Good to be home after being on the road for a month (a long weekend in Bend, Or then out of the country for 3 1/2 weeks). It was the first trip I was actually a little glad to be heading home. Someone asked me if Dylan got a lot of presents for Christmas - I said she got a lot of experiences AND best of all she was so happy to see all her toys they were as good as getting tons of presents. The only problem about coming home was dealing with the jet lag alllll over again - at least this time we were a little more prepared for it! AND the best part about coming home seeing our 'puppy' (aka Maggie)!

Happy New Years Paris Style

Awe Paris at the ripe old age of 22 months - what a lucky girl! And at this point in our trip we are into a traveling groove. We arrived in Paris on New Years Eve around 5pm to find out that once again the apartment I pre-arranged wasn't going to work out - I was quite mad to say the least. Dylan is screaming up and down the street excited to be out of the car, Matt's chasing after her and I'm trying to figure out how to make an international call and use my rusty french to try and talk to people to make other arrangements. It wasn't so much the money lost that I was mad about (we've since gotten that portion back) it was the time in arranging another place - ON New Years Eve evening with a toddler! Luckily it all worked out, we were able to book a hotel for a few nights before Matt found a great little apartment in the Montmartre district - which we loved.

Our New Years Eve was pretty low key - we found a quite little restaurant and had a yummy dinner and then headed back to our hotel. It was an early evening for the Clarks. The next day we headed over to the Eiffel Tower, which apparently there was a big hoopla the night before because there was all kinds of trash - confetti, champagne bottles, paper, beer cans.... Well little missy being the eco girl that she is saw all the garbage and started picking it up saying "trash" and taking it to the garbage can. Well this was cute for the first few minutes but after 5 and not seeing the end of the garbage in sight we had to steer her in another direction as we'd probably still be there picking up all the trash!

One thing that really helped our travels in Paris was our sitter, Madison, taught Dylan a few french words - like Bonjour and Merci - with just those few words and that cute little face the French were like pudding in our hands.




Here's Dylan back on the Chou-Chou, like I said before it was her favorite part of the trip. She even memorized the entrances and when we'd pass by one she start yelling "chou-chou, dadda chou-chou".


Sweet picture of a girl and her dad.
Here's a few shots of Dylan and what we called her "chou-chou" dance as she'd get so excited to see another train pass by us. Her arms would start waving, her legs start jumping, and she'd yell (loudly, I might add) "Chou-Chou, Chou-Chou, bye Chou-Chou".


Well Dylan learned quickly that when in Paris you shop and being our girl she learned quickly you shop for shoes. She eyed a nice purple suede pair in this window - luckily it was after hours and they were closed!


Uh, guess someone was a little hungry...

Driving miss momma.

Awe, Notre Dame.


Back at the apartment Dylan found a tool kit. Usually we wouldn't really let her run around the house with a screw driver and hammer but after constantly through out the trip telling her 'don't touch this and don't touch that' we figured the girl needed a few toys to play with. And by the looks of her from the picture she had it all figure out what tools you use to fix what.

Here's a picture of the Sacre Coeur right by where we were staying. One night we hiked up the hill to check it out - it was quite a sight and even better was the view of all of Paris!




The next day we found a really awesome little bakery just a few blocks from our apartment. We stopped in for a baguette and found ourselves munching on chocolate croissants and cappuccinos and warm steamed milk for miss d. It was one of those really fun unplanned moments.



Back at the apartment again and I guess this time the dryer needed fixing - yes, those are wire cutters, come on the girl needed something to play with!


We even had her reviewing maps for the next day's event.

(notice the crossed feet).

"Hum, well if we took that subway to that stop then transferred to the red line...."

Awe the Pere Lachaise Cemetery - one of my favorite places to visit in Paris (besides my very favorite little Indian textile shop - which we did find!). It's a very old and very beautiful cemetery - I just love it. It was a nice day and we thought it would be a great spot for Dylan to run off some energy.







Okay so maybe she ran off a little too much energy! Before heading back to the apartment we ducked into a bike shop Matt wanted to check out - honestly we weren't in there very long when we looked down and found Dylan passed out cold. We weren't sure what to do (as if we moved her it would risk waking her up) - We felt a little bad as she didn't look to comfortable but figured sleep out weight comfort. I wrapped my scarf around her head to keep it warm and make it a little darker for her to rest. We ducked into a restaurant and had a nice quiet little lunch together (as usually one of us is chasing after d). We even got to enjoy our after lunch cappuccinos!

Bath time fun!

Make sure you read all the labels Dylan.


And here's a little video of Dylan running after her dad in the Pere Lachaise Cemetry.