Oceanside

Chris's mom gets a condo on the beach in Oceanside every year, and she was nice enough to let us encroach on her for few days. We did a day at Disneyland and every other day at the beach. Molly was pretty crabby for a lot of the trip (we actually took her to urgent care because we thought she had Swimmers Ear - turned out nothing was wrong with her at all; she was just cranky) but we still had plenty of fun.





Molly eating the signature Disneyland sucker.



The Disneyland highlight for Molly was definitely the parade. She waved to everyone and everything that passed.




My nephew Danny couldn't get enough of Claire. He called her "Blaire-Bear" or "Baby Blaire" and it ended up sticking for her new nick-name.


I bought Molly a visor for the beach because I thought it would protect her face from the sun. Unfortunately she preferred to wear it gangsta style so not much sun protection there.


Molly took a nasty spill at the beach the first day we were there when a wave came up and took her back down with it. After that she wouldn't go near the water unless she was holding your hand, preferably both hands. But she still liked going down to the water; she called it "skating."






Sand crabs were always a highlight at the beach.


So was Molly's plumber butt.


Everything, including me, was so covered in sand all the time that Claire got a sample when she ate.


Not exactly a classic family picture but I love the girls' matching swimsuits!


The condos we stayed at have really spectacular grounds. They have a coi pond that Molly loved and it was so nice to be able to play outside in such beautiful weather.








The party didn't stop even on the drive home!

Fourth of July

We spent the Fourth of July in Fountain Hills and got a great view of fireworks from the street in front of my parent's house.

I know this isn't a great picture of anyone, but Claire's got such a festive outfit on I wanted a picture of it (she's the third baby that has gotten to wear it - I love hand-me-downs!).

Amelia and Molly have kind of a love/hate relationship, but that night it was all love!

Molly Swimming

Molly, Amelia, Colin, and Max started swimming lessons together and Molly has recently decided that she loves it! The first two days were non-stop crying (they have to jump off the diving board and dive off the side the first day, that's how intense it is), but Molly had a breakthrough the third day and couldn't get enough of it. The video of her (it's about five minutes long, we couldn't figure out how to get a thirty-second segment from it, but you can get the gist in the first fifteen seconds) is at Chris's parent's pool after three days of swimming lessons. I think she's doing pretty well for a kid who didn't like her head under the water a week ago!

Claire's Photo Story

My dad made a Photo Story for Molly when she was born, so I thought I'd continue the tradition and make one for Claire. Warning: it's about three minutes long so don't feel compelled to watch it if you don't want to invest the time.

Molly's First Lake Trip!

The people at my mom's office went to Bartlet Lake today (they have a sweet Malibu wakeboarding boat) so Molly and I got to tag along. It has been a couple of years since I've been to the lake because my dad sold his boat, but I was really hoping Molly would love it because I have such a great time. She didn't disappoint! She was pretty nervous the first time she saw my dad ski; when he fell she thought he was gone and we were leaving him so she started crying, but once she understood that we were going back around to pick him up she was pretty excited about it. When I was wakeboarding she said to my mom "Woggy do it!" because she wanted to go next (for those of you don't know Molly's nickname has morphed into Woggy. It's like her alter-ego). Unfortunately it wasn't too kid-friendly so Molly and I got to get pulled around behind the boat laying on one of the wakeboards instead of a tube or some other inflatable device, but she still liked it okay. I think we need to get her a board of her own in a couple of years!





I know this is a terrible picture but Molly loved the flag and always wanted to be the flag-holder.

Roberts Family Campout 2008!

We went on our annual family campout this past weekend and had a great time! We only went for one night because I don't think the babies could handle much more sleep deprivation, but it was definitely worth it.

We tie-dyes t-shirts for the event; I wish I could gotten a picture of my kitchen after it was done. It was covered in green and brown dye! But this is what my living room looked like while we were rubber-banding all the shirts and pillowcases in preparation for the dying.

Claire even got her own tie-dyed onesie! The kid's shirts turned out pretty awesome too.

We put Molly to work right off the bat.

As soon as we got our tents set up we roasted hot dogs and made S'Mores...which no camping trip is complete without.

Amelia was our resident doctor. I brought a play doctor kit and as soon as Amelia spied it she didn't let go the entire trip. She gave everyone in the camp many, many check-ups. I think she gave the most to Max because he was the best sport about it.

Molly's favorite part was rolling in the dirt. There was no point in ever wiping her off because five seconds later she'd be sitting in a pile of dirt pouring it all over herself.

My dad found a horny toad that all the kids were pretty excited to look at, but not too excited to touch.

I think I was a little overly cautious making sure Claire didn't get too cold the next morning.

Jessie made these awesome marshmallow guns that were really fun. The kids couldn't really get them to work, so they mostly just ate the marshmallows. Max liked to stuff as many marshmallows as he could into the exhaust pipe of my dad's truck.

While the kids were eating marshmallows the adults had some serious warfare. We tried to change up the teams a couple times to make sure they were fair, but it just ended up that whoever was on Chris's team won.

Claire's First Bubble Bath

I wasn't planning on blogging these pictures because I feel like I've overloaded on bath pictures, but not much blog-worthy has been happening lately, so there's more tub. Molly always wants to "help" me give Claire a bath, so I finally just put Molly in the tub with Claire in her baby tub. It's a little tight, but no one seems to mind.