Monument Lake

We recently met our friends, Kylie and Brian, and their girls, Danika and Tuli, at Monument Lake.  It's a small little lake in Monument (obviously) and one of our favorite places to go in the summer.  It is so peaceful, with no motorboats and never more than a handful of other families there.  We enjoyed a day of fishing, playing in the water and kayaking in Kylie and Brian's inflatable kayaks.  It was actually sort of smoky (from the New Mexico fires) and cloudy, so the pictures are sort of washed out, but here are the highlights....

All the kiddos, except for Owen (he was out on the lake)...

 Owen and Josh kayaking.   Owen LOVED it!

 Bree and Wyatt kayaking.  Wyatt was a little unsure of this adventure and said he missed his green blankie and his Daddy when we were about halfway across the lake.

4th of July 2011

We spent the 4th of July in Monument this year and actually took some family pictures!!

 Molly is always happy to be outside!

After the family pictures, we spent the afternoon in the backyard, playing in the water.  Wyatt loved the pool and Owen loved the squirt bottles (and Molly loved the quiet house for napping).

Visit with the Closes

We were planning a fun 4th of July trip to Los Alamos, NM, to visit with Becky, Devin, Logan and Laila, but their town was evacuated due to forest fires.  So, they came up to Colorado Springs for a little visit instead  As is often the case when five kids are together, it was hard to take pictures, but we did get a few cute shots during our outing to North Cheyenne Canyon.  All the kids had a wonderful time playing in the stream...even Josh and Devin had a blast (they spent about 30 minutes trying to catch a fish with their hands).  Wyatt and Laila thought that splashing in the shallow pools was the best time ever!

 Molly liked exploring the stream with Josh.

 Owen especially loved crawling up and down the stream on the rocks.

Wyatt was so exhausted from all the fun that he fell asleep on the middle of the living room floor soon after the Close family left.

 Molly was too busy learning about one of life's greatest pleasures to be tired....her first time in the laundry basket!

Paint Mines

In early July, we took a little day trip to the Paint Mines in Calhan, Colorado.  We had a ton of fun...it was a fairly easy and short hike, but an unexpectedly beautiful destination, with small chalk canyons to explore. 

 Both boys really loved exploring the rocks, caves and mazes created by the chalk cliffs.

One of the awesome views at the Paint Mines (named because the local Native Americans used the various colors of chalk in their pottery)...

Molly is 6 months old!

It's hard to believe that Molly is half-way through her first year!  She is a happy little thing who loves to play with her brothers and bounce and roll and scoot and wiggle.  She's eating several types of food and her first tooth is just about to pop through.  She also just took her first airplane ride to Oklahoma to visit Aunt Lauren and Uncle Jerod.  She did really well on both flights.  She loved jumping in her bouncer at Lauren's house.

 It was insanely hot in Norman, but we managed to spend a little time on the hammock.

 Molly took a bath in the sink...

and spent some time swinging at the most adorable park.

 Before I left for Oklahoma, we met friends at the local splash park.  Owen was having so much fun running around that we did not get a single picture of him, but we got many of our littlest cuties.  Molly had a blast watching the big kids play.

 Our other big adventure this month was getting a swingset in our backyard.  Molly loves her baby swing...

 Wyatt loves the big boy swing...

 and Owen loves the glider.

Here's a little video of Molly's latest milestones....

Early June fun!

I found too many cute pictures this morning and just had to make a new post!  The boys were having fun playing outside while we worked on the yard.

 Molly is having fun in her high chair.  We just got it out for her last weekend and she really enjoys joining the family for meals.

 Wyatt offically moved into a big boy bed last weekend.  He's on the bottom bunk and Owen is up top.  They LOVE their new bunkbeds, which are actually the beds that Lauren and I slept in as children.  Wyatt is dressed up as Robin here.  He is a dress-up fanatic lately.

 We went on a beautiful and fun hike to Rock Ledge Ranch last week.  It's a living history museum, attached to Garden of the Gods (which you can see a little bit in the background).  All three kids had a blast watching animals, seeing a real blacksmith at work, and climbing on old farm equipment (Molly didn't actually participate in this part!)

 I thought this picture was so sweet.  All three kids playing together...it doesn't get better than that!

More May cuteness...

Before May is too far behind us, I wanted to include the last few notable moments from the month.  Molly started rice cereal over Memorial Day weekend.  She's doing a great job of eating several bites every day at lunch time.  I can't believe that she'll soon be eating 3 meals a day of solids...where did the time go??

Molly is also a crazy little roller.  She'll roll all over a room, so it's starting to become necessary to keep small toys/parts off the floor.  She's working on sitting up, too.  She can sit up for several seconds, sometimes even a minute, but if she sees a toy she wants, she'll just fall over and try to roll towards it.  She is always on the go!

Jazz hands in the swimming pool!  We recently had our first swim of the season at a friend's birthday party.  For the first time ever, Owen really enjoyed himself in the water, both in the kiddie pool and the spray park.  He's finally interested in learning to swim, so he'll start lessons in mid-June. 

 We also had time for a fun trip to the zoo with our friends, Maxwell and Finn.  Maxwell is almost 6 years old and Finn is 2 years old, so they match up with Owen and Wyatt perfectly!

 Molly had fun watching the boys tear around....