Molly is 8 months old...

Molly is 8 months old and has been fully crawling since just a few days after she turned 7 months.  The girl is into everything!  She's very, very happy to be exploring around the house.

 She is also becoming an expert at pulling up.  She will stand up on anything and everything.  She even sometimes lets go and tries to stand for a nanosecond.

 She loves getting under and into everything that she will fit inside.  It makes for alot of fun and a bunch of bumps on the head!

Here's a video of our busy little girl:

Cotopaxi

Two years ago, my college friends, Ann and Kylie, and our families met at a KOA in Fort Collins for a college reunion/BBQ.  We had so much fun at the KOA, that we have since tried to make it an annual event.  We couldn't make it last year, but Ann and Kylie's families met in Cortez, CO and visited Mesa Verde.  This year, it was just Kylie's family and the Hobgoods and we met in Cotopaxi, CO, which is just east of Salida in the Arkansas River Canyon. 

Here are the kiddos:  Danika (6), Owen (5), Molly (8 months), Wyatt (2.5) and Tuli (3)

The campsite overlooked the Arkansas River, so we spent time fishing and exploring.

 The kids loved looking at the tackle boxes.

There was a huge boulder by our campsite.  All the kids loved climbing it, but Owen was absolutely obsessed.

He and Josh figured out problems on every side of the boulder.  He LOVED it!

 Molly wanted to get in on the action, too!

 Wyatt just likes to look cute.

Our cabin was right next to a big sandbox, which was really wonderful in helping the kids stay busy while we cooked dinner.  There was also the most delightful, bathtub temperature, pool, but we did not get pictures of it.

Wyatt was so exhausted after our first morning, that he crawled into bed right after lunch and fell instantly asleep.  It's hard work having so much fun!

 Kylie and Brian were kind enough to bring a little gate for Molly to play inside.  She's so busy right now, that we needed somewhere for her to play, without handfuls of sand/grass/dirt/rocks ending up in her mouth. 

A few end-of-summer shots

The three kiddos playing with their dolls in the morning.

 We met Ben, Brenda and family at the coolest park in the world in Woodland Park.

 Somehow, we only took one picture of Wyatt, but I swear that Owen, Amelia, Cavan, and Molly were all having fun, too.

 Wyatt is really into building forts, nests, and anything else he can dream up right now.  This is his baby eagle nest.

Molly fell asleep on my lap one hot afternoon.  This is where I put her.

Kindergarten, Here We Come!

Owen starts kindergarten!!

Molly is 7 months old!

Our little sweetie is 7 months old!!  She just had a well-check and is almost 16 pounds and almost 26 inches.  She is OBSESSED with moving around...she army crawls everywhere (it's actually more like an inch-worm-type scoot, which Josh thinks looks like a baby walrus).  In the last 2 days, she's taken several actual crawls, so it won't be long until we have a little crawler on our hands.  She's settled into 2 naps a day, thankfully, and loves running around and participating in all the boys' adventures.  When she's not crawling all over, she enjoys hanging out in the front pack with Josh...I think she'll really miss their morning watering sessions when he goes back to work on July 25th.

 We call her "heart-heart bug" when she wears this outfit...Owen coined this term.

Practicing her crawling in the tunnel...

It's been really hot, so we've been spending every afternoon inside.  Wyatt dresses up everyday.  Here he is in Owen's Luigi costume from last Halloween (Wyatt refers to this as O-Luigi, for some reason).

Owen has been perfecting some pretty crazy jump-and-roll skills off the card table.  It takes alot of practice to become a good Jedi!

 Nothing better than a sugar-free popsicle on a hot day!

On Molly's 7-month birthday, we met Nana, Papa, Ben, Brenda, Amelia and Cavan in Pueblo for a trip to the children's art center.  The boys had a blast playing in the dress-ups.  Here are the world's two most handsome pirates and a crazy octopus-hatted wizard.

 Cutie!

 All the cousins...we never could get them to all look at the camera.  Notice Owen's self-made and much-loved pirate hat!

Owen took this first video of Molly.  I know that it's upside down, but it is the sweetest little song that I've ever seen.  This is where the term "heart-heart bug" came from.

Here are a few highlights of Molly, now that she is 7 months old:

The North Pole - 2011

We returned to one of our favorite spots from last summer....the North Pole (to see our 2010 adventure, click here.)  We even tried to recreate a picture from last year, with Miss Molly as a happy addition.

Here is the cutest picture in the entire world:  happy boys with guns!

 Wyatt ended up getting scared on the ride above, so Grammy had to sit with him for the next few rides.  As you can see, he quickly got over his fear and had a great time!

 Owen was (barely) big enough to "drive" his own car this year.  He LOVED it!

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.