santee playground

One day in San Diego, Chad took the kids to a playground out in Santee (a town that is a bit more inland). They played on the playground awhile and then Chad took them for a short hike. I was not there, but apparently it was caterpillar season and Abby was completely terrified of them and every other bug she saw. She had thought that they were going to bite her and every time she saw one she screamed (and there were lots them!). When they got home, she heard us talking about it and she came up to me and told me "bite, bite...", over and over again.

Great picture Chad!
Abby loves the swings:
Maybe Jamie is practicing his pumping? (we've been trying to teach him)
He loves the monkey bars:
They did a little bouldering at the end of the trail:
you can do it!
Jamie still talks about the rock he climbed at "the place where daddy climbed the big crack" (which I assume might be the crack in the background?)
the scenery:
Too cute!


As it turns out, Chad took the kids out there again with my dad and this last time they were able to convince Abby to call the caterpillars "cute" by the end of the day!

NHM and Legoland

One dreary day a few weeks ago we took the kids to the Natural History Museum at Balboa park. It was still a little too "old" for them but they still enjoyed looking at the dinosaur fossils and under microscopes. We also watched a short movie (similar to an IMAX) about life in the Sea of Cortez. It was quite interesting and the kids enjoyed watching the real life "Nemos". Here are a few pics:





And the Sunday before last we took the kids to Legoland. We all had a blast. There were virtually no lines, and the weather was mild (even a bit cool at times - but that kept the locals away!). The kids loved going on the rides. Jamie was just barely tall enough for all them and Abby was just barely tall enough for most of the littler rides. We took turns taking the kids on different rides and there were several that we went on as a whole family. In fact, I think it was the best family day we have ever had...it was so awesome to see the smiles on the kids' faces. In an attempt to not forget our lunch and extra clothes, we forgot our camera, so I ended up buying a cheesy one from legoland, I'll scan it in when we get home. In the meantime, here are some pictures of the kids playing with their new legos the next morning.

Abby videos

These videos are a few months old. The first 2 are from the night of her birthday party after all the guests had left, we let her play with her new baby doll and the things that came with it. She was so cute, what a natural momma! The last video is one of her talking about the different things in the fruit bowl!

Abby's photoshoot

Abby got her very own photoshoot the other day as well. The pool area really makes for a nice "tropical" backdrop.

What a croc!

pretty in pink

Here's to pink!





And the other day I let Abby pick out a special new cup since we took her bottles away. It figures that she picked out the most babiest looking cup and now calls it her...ba-ba.