Camelback

We had a great time in Arizona visiting Grandma Edith. And we also had a great time climbing Camelback Mountain. We told the kids about Camelback - which Jeff has been climbing since he was a young boy when he'd visit Grandma Edith - and they were quite excited to climb this mountain. It sure was quite the adventure. There are a ton of pictures, but this was quite an accomplishment for Kyle & Emily as it's a difficult climb. While we didn't go all the way to the top which is just over a mile, we did go about 3/4 of a mile up the mountain. And there were some VERY steep parts. They both climbed up on their own. On the way down, we did use the backpacks for some of the more difficult parts.

At the bottom, Kyle playing photographer

Still at the bottom, finding rocks. Thankfully they didn't insist on carrying these giant rocks for very long!

Water break before an extraordinarily steep part.

Kyle posing in front of major steep climb. There are railings on the side and middle to help people climb up this incline, but when you are just over 3 feet tall, the railings don't help you very much. So we went up climbing like mountain lions.

Okay let's climb!

Here is the last part of this steep climb for Kyle. Emily was seriously a mountain lion, or mountain kitty as she preferred to be called, scaling it without much hesitation. You can see in this video just how long and steep it was.

A well deserved snack break of water and dried mangoes after that climb.

This is what we just climbed up. Yes, Kyle and Emily climbed up this all by themselves!!

Daddy, we did it!!

At our "top" of the mountain.

Kyle and Emily climbed all the way up! Yes, we are wearing backpacks, but they were not used on the way up.

The crazy steep part from the way up, we insisted the kids go in the backpacks for the way down. It's hard enough going down as an adult being able to hold onto the railings that it would just be too dangerous for the kids to go down, not being able to hold the railings.

The kids were great, giving us encouragement going down this part. While they were strapped into the backpacks, they were holding on pretty tightly as Jeff and I held the railings, going backwards down.

Near the bottom, probably 1/4 mile to go. As soon as we were done going down the super steep part, Kyle wanted out of the backpack to hike on his own. Emily was quite tired and stayed.

At the bottom, Kyle still couldn't get enough climbing so he scaled a little rock.

This sure was fun!! And the kids were pretty tired after this. So much so that after lunch, Kyle walked into his room and put himself in a nap! Now you likely know that they are both great sleepers, but going to a nap on their own, this was a first!

Waffle House!

On the way home from visiting Grandma Edith in Arizona, the kids got to visit the Waffle House for the first time since they were born (they actually were in a Waffle House while I was pregnant with them - the last time we went to Arizona). And what's a visit to the Waffle House without some classic Waffle House songs. We couldn't find "Special Lady at the Waffle House" on their juke box (which Jeff played for me the first time he took me to a Waffle House in North Carolina), but we did get some other goodies: Big Green Tractor, Waffle House for You and Me, and It's a Waffle Great Day. What a great way to eat some pecan waffles, hashbrowns, eggs and bacon!

Visiting Jacki

The kids and I went up to Newport Beach for the morning to visit with Jacki and her family who were visiting for spring break. We hung out by the pool at their hotel and then went down to the beach for some lunch. It was great to catch up with Jacki and her entire family - mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law and cute little nephew.

Beautiful

Emily is quite the fashionista. And Kyle is quite the enabler. He loves helping her make herself beautiful. Apparently, more clips makes you more beautiful.

Poor lil guy

This poor little guy has strep and ear infections. :-( But what a trooper he is! He was very calm and brave for his ear wash (washing out the ear wax so the doctor could see his ear drum) and beyond tired from being awake a lot at night from a fever. Poor little guy.

Beach day

Spring has sprung! What a nice warm day to hit the beach! Kyle and Emily loved digging trenches, which they called a "butter hole", connecting them together and then filling it with water. I'm not quite sure how they came up with the term "butter hole", but when pressed on what a butter hole is, they gave some explanation about bread and butter.

The things they know!

On Saturday, we celebrated St. Patrick's Day with the kids over at The Field for some Irish lunch. While waiting for our food to arrive, we were talking with the kids and got to spelling things. And things they know. So we spelled (in a sing-song voice) D-A-D-D-Y to which Emily easily replied, "Daddy!" M-O-M-M-Y and Emily eagerly shouts "Mommy!" K-Y-L-E and Emily shouts "Kyle!" E-M-I-L-Y and Emily shouts "Emily!" And mind you all of these are very sing-song and they know these words. They have learned these and will recite them. Jeff keeps going with the game and singingly says "M-O-Z-A-R-T" and Emily, without pause, belts out "Mozart!" I know writing this exchange down, it loses the effect a little, but we were amazed!! We have never taught her how to spell Mozart. Both Kyle & Emily do know what sounds the letters make and can spell words out when slowly sounding them out together, but this was something else. She didn't even pause! She just knew it!! It really was amazing!

Mozart, March 2007 with Ben's "adas", Ben-ese for pacifier

Tea time

Lately Emily has been all about her tea set. Thanks Uncle David, Aunt Kristin & Ryan! When the kids help set the table for dinner, Emily is sure to set everyone up with a cup of tea! She even tells us to make sure it cools off (even though it is made with ice cold water to make the cups change colors)!

Tea for four!

Then after dinner, Emily makes sure to feed her babies dinner. They used to eat before dinner, but with the tea set, they eat afterwards and have their own tea! Kyle joins in on the action and usually feeds the boy baby as well as some animals. I love how they cover the babies up so they don't get messy.

Some tea for Kyle!

Ellie gets some tea too

Emily carefully feeding her girl baby.

This last picture was too cute to pass up. Emily is good about tucking in her babies and her animals. What a slumber party in her bed!

Kyle & Emily's first ad!

So much to my surprise today, I received an email from MPix.com advertising a special they were running. Like most ads, I looked very briefly at it (not really at all) and deleted it. After having done so, I paused and thought to myself, that sure looked like Cabrillo and my kids in that ad. Thanks to gmail's undo feature, I undid my deletion of the message to find that my kids were in their ad! I had no idea. Apparently, the lady that does our pictures works with MPix and had our pictures for them for this ad. Not sure how that really works, but there they were. To check it out, do so soon as I assume it will be gone from their website when the promo expires:

http://community.mpix.com/blogs/mpix/archive/2010/02/26/15-of-all-prints-march-9th-13th.aspx It's also on their main landing page as the first ad: http://mpix.com/ in case you're interested.

Dentist visit

Kyle and Emily had their first real dentist visit this past week. Yes, we didn't heed the normal recommendation and take them at 1. Well I take that back, we did take them at 13 months and the visit consisted of 30 seconds in the chair combined, both kids screaming in terror and the dentist proclaiming they both had a lot of teeth (they both had all of their teeth, minus 2 year molars, at one year). That's it.

This time, we talked with the dentist, he checked out their choppers and did a cleaning. Thankfully they had a field trip to the dentist the week before with their preschool so they were ready for this. Well they were a bit unnerved at first, but settled down with the help of some Handy Manny and being able to sit on my lap. And they did great getting their teeth tickled.

Pink bear accompanied Emily

And ever faithful Miko accompanied Kyle

Eggs Italia a la Kyle

Kyle made Eggs Italia with Jeff on Monday morning. What a treat it was for all of us, but I think especially for Kyle to be the cook with Daddy! These are delicious eggs - tomatos, goat cheese, pesto and bread. Recipe is from Cafe 222 in San Diego and we now make it quite often.

Stirring the eggs over the stove, but making sure to keep his other hand behind his back!

Switching hands