Gearhart Family Reunion

For the semi-annual Quinton family reunion (my Mom's side) we went to Gearhart, which is just a couple minutes from Seaside. This was my kids' first trip to the beach and they thoroughly enjoyed digging in the sand and playing in the water. It was so beautiful and fun -- I definitely could have stayed for a few more days. I anticipated 85 degree weather (yes, I know now that this was unrealistic) and it was more like 65 degrees so I had to swing into Carter's to buy poor Meg some warmer clothes. The kids loved playing with their cousins!! Mark was unable to attend so my parents helped me and were fantastic as usual. My mother-in-law let me take her Denali because it had a DVD player in it. I wish I could say they sat and watched peacefully, but it wasn't the case. Kate screamed so hard she threw up and then peed in her car seat. The other two did a little better. But THANK YOU to my parents for helping me. Without them it would have been miserable, so the help was much appreciated. Here are a few pictures of the trip -- notice my Dad actually giving a big smile in one picture, Meg and I doing the "two-headed monster" (she's in my Baby Bjorn with my jacket zipped up around us) and how you can tell it's slightly windy on the beach. :)

San Poil 2012

We spent the last week at Mark's annual family reunion in San Poil up near Keller. It was actually my best year yet as I actually made it the entire week and we really only had one rough night with Meg. I have had some serious war stories in the past with sick kids, grouchy kids, kids who won't sleep, etc. :) This year the weather was perfect and we had such a great time. The kids loved spending time with their cousins, Meg got spoiled with me holding her the entire time, we thoroughly enjoyed the jet skis and boats, the marble tournament, and lots of snacking and chit chatting with family. Mark's Mom always does matching sweaters for the girls and they turned out adorable. I guess that's one perk to having all those girls!! Before we left I took the girls to my Dad's orchard and picked cherries. They got to ride in the back of the pickup to get the full experience. Can you tell it was a tad bit windy. :)

Odds and Ends

I finally emailed myself all the pictures from iPhone. Since I have the phone available, I am trying to make an attempt of recording and updating my blog better. Here are a fun few pictures of the activities we have been up to. The first is of my Mom, with a goat. I walked into her house and saw a goat on the kitchen counter and her blowdrying it with her hair dryer. I thought the apocalypse was here!! :) She is helping Kameron nurse some of them back to health. One of them, "Bitsy" thinks it's a dog and is running back to her house, drinking out of the fountaain, getting on two legs so it can bang on the door and peek through the windows and snuggling up with her cats on the deck. It's really funny!!

We also attended Tyson's allstate football game. It's the final Mollotte so this was kindof a momentous occasion. Mark is sure sad at the thought of him going off to college. He will be missed!!

And, one of my favorite pictures of Launa and Kate.

Kate -- Need I Say More?

Kate is up to her same tricks. Her latest thing is switching her outfits a bazillion (I'm sure it's a legitimate word:) times a day. As exhibited below, she doesn't actually like to swim in the water, however she does like to get geared up like she's going to... I found a large chair, stacked on top with a small chair leading to the top of the bookshelf. She is still ALWAYS climbing!! She fell off a chair and banged up her lip a little this week as well. Who needs botox when you can just injure your lips and have plump scars? She is obsessed with popcicles and is always on the move, but she sure is irresistible. When we left for Seattle she got potty trained (Yay for Kate!!), and she must be completely naked from the waist down in order for her to go. But she yells "yay!! I go tinkle tinkle!! and then comes out wanting high fives. She has done great and I am so relieved she appears to be over that hump. This last picture is of a gargantuous snake at a lizard show they did at the local library. When it was over no one (including me) was interested in getting near the snake. No one that is, except for Kate. She was insistent and touched this bad boy like it was no big deal. I was holding her hand flinching and looking away.

Meg's Summer Activities

I can't believe Meg aka "the Megster" aka "Meggy Megs" is now over 5 months. How does it go by so much faster when they are out of your body than when you are pregnant? Mark had meetings in Seattle so Meg and I went with him, so this was her first real "trip" anywhere. She hung out in the Baby Bjorn and did great. The photo is taken by Mark. We decided to take a "pedi-cab" (basically they pull you behind a bicyle). You know that poor guy saw Mark and was thinking, "oh no, don't pick me, please don't pick me..." He was impressive and biked us all around downtown.

Meg was loving her little exersaucer (as exhibited in the picture below:) but as of late, she's kind-of over it. She's up on her hands and knees rocking now and is really itching to get moving. I am still hoping it takes a couple more months.

She also has started eating. She pretty much chases the spoon around and is pretty aggressive about it. So far, she is NOT fan of baby rice or oatmeal, and her favorite is the sweet potatoes. Below is her first eating experience. By the end it was a lot more messy!

Her first swim. As a general rule of thumb, I don't take any pictures of myself in a swimsuit, much less post it on a blog. This was however the only one, so you know, just focus on Meg. Launa was the photographer as I wasn't comfortable letting her hang on to Meg in the water. Ah well.

Meg gets carted around A LOT!! Even though I am a stay-at-home Mom we are kind-of still running to and from all the time. She spends a lot of time trying to sleep like this...

And this...

My highlights are when I open my eyes and see her on her tummy right in my face with twinkly eyes and a big smile. How can you not wake up happy when you see that? I love to snuggle in bed with her and nurser her. She really is such a joy!! I just love her to pieces.

Launa Swim & Preschool

Launa had her preschool graduation party and it was a blast!!! There was a gigantic slip and slide that I was itching to go down myself (I restrained, don't worry). She loved it!! We really loved her teacher, Colleen. I have known her my whole life and she handled Launa perfectly. At five, Launa can pretty much write and list all the letters and their sounds and can count to about 40. I feel like she is very prepared for kindergarten and will really enjoy it. She just completed her swim lessons today. She also liked those. It was a little chilly but she was a pretty good sport. She can now swim from the shallow end to the deep end all by herself. It's just a doggy paddle, but she is relentlessly practicing and knowing her, will have it mastered by the end of the summer. Her teacher, Piper, was a girl in our ward so that definitely helped her feel a little more comfortable. She is always shy in new situations. Below are a few pictures of all of the above!! Way to go Launa!!

Living on the Wild Side

So it is now 11:24 AM. The day is only half over and I just caught Kate riding the garage door up and down. She talked Jande's little boy, Hunter, into being the operator while she was the rider. When I yelled at her to stop, she dropped from almost the top and took off running, laughing her little head off the entire way. You'd think the fall would have took something out of her, but nope, she could have cared less. Two hours ago, I had to get out to run something into Launa's preschool. In the 15 seconds that I was gone, she had unbuckled herself, shimmied to the front (there are three car seats in the back of my Camry) and locked my door. Good thing I didn't stay to chit chat because she was moving on to the other doors when I came back and ran around the other side of the car to open the passengers side door before I was locked out with her and the baby in the car! Oh yeah, and she broke a glass cup about oh, an hour ago. All this and it's not even noon!! Did I mention she also peed (not in her bed, but in MY bed) and I am washing all the sheets for about the fifth time this week. Last week, she got into Launa's room, dumped out the entire craft kit and then pooped in Launa's room. Launa hysterically came downstairs screaming that Kate had left a "terd" in her room and everything reeked!!! I went up with the wipes and the sterilant to clean up. We then attempted to clean up the craft kit mess when Launa stepped in an actual terd and had it stuck to her foot. At this point, she was on the brink of lunacy and Kate was hiding (probably laughing knowing her). Truthfully, I was glad it was her and not me. If I had stepped in that, I would have had to have gone to my room and counted to a million for the safety of everyone in the house. Kate has an abundance of nicknames but due to her wild personality and lion's mane head of hair, she has now been referred to most often as "Tarzan". Ironically, that was what they called Mark as a child. Hmmmm.... I wonder where she gets it. :)