A Trip to the Museum with the Cousins

Last month, Robby, Jenna, and I took a trip to the Science Museum with Aunt Andra, and cousins Matthew and James! It was Andra, Matthew, and James' first time to this museum. They really had fun playing with the different exhibits. (When I get a chance I will post an amusing videoclip from this trip!)

Here Matthew pulls himself up using a double pulley.

The boys really liked the gravity well. There is something so facinating about watching a marble roll around and around and around and ....

Jenna just kicked back in her stroller and watched all the people.

James had fun with these toys and made a very colorful tower!

A Hot Hike!

Well, I have been hoping that Dad would get a chance to write about this, but he has been very busy lately. So I will tell you what I know, and maybe he can add his comments later. A few weeks back in the middle of our scorching July, Robby decided to go on a hike in the mountains near our home. He planned on getting a very early start to miss the heat of the day (but in an Arizona July all day is the heat of the day!) At first, we were going to all go as a family, but when I thought about how hot it was going to be I decided that Jenna and I should stay home and wait for another day! Here we have Little Robby at the trail head.This was a cool "rainbow" lizaard that they saw on the way.

They called this one the "fork" in the road.

Our little hiker with his very important bottle of water.

This was a view of the area they hiked through.

As you can tell, Little Robby got VERY hot! In fact, the one of the sites on the internet recorded a temperature of 105! I'm sure glad I didn't go! The real treat for them was the ride home. A half-hour drive in Robby's car which has NO AIR CONDITIONING! But, you know what, they still had a lot of fun!

My 28th Birthday!

Okay, so it's been a really long time since I posted! I really need to catch up. First I will post a short one about my birthday which we celebrated in July! If you look closely at the cake below you will see that Little Robby arranged my candles in the shape of my age with and exclamation point at the end. Very nice! I had a lovely celebration one evening with my husband, my two sweet children, Robby's sister Andra and her husband David, and my nephews Matthew and James. Robby took the opportunity to make dinner for all of us, and he prepared a delicious meal which I will call Creamy Cajun Chicken. (This is proof that he can cook!) So there you go, I'm another year older.

The Mad Scientist!!!

Okay, so Big Robby comes home from his office the other day and tells us how this other Ph.D. student at school (whose known for having done some pretty wacky things in his life) told him about this interesting science experiment. After telling us the details we wanted to know more about what causes the reaction, so we did some research online to learn more. Well we came across some pretty interesting and entertaining video clips, and both my Robbys decided they just had to try this experiment themselves. I know at this point you are wondering, "What is the experiment?" To find out go and see the video clips entitled Experiment #1 and Experiment #2 on page 14 of the video clips on our site!

When you are done with our videos, come back and click on the following links to see what other people have done with this same experiment:

1. Click here to see one of the first experiments we saw. (Select the first video link in the article.)
2. You'll love this next link. It is to one of our favorites videoclips involving this experiment. These guys have taken it to a whole new level.
3. Finally, this last link is for those who appear to be insane (but have intrigued Big Robby enough that he really wants to try it.) See what twist they put on this experiment, but be prepared to turn down the volume.

New Photo Albums

We just wanted to let you know that there are some new photo albums posted on our web site that include many photos that are not on our blog or Little Robby's blog. Click this link to go and browse our new albums. We hope you enjoy!

Matthew and James visit

Over the past several days I have gotten a taste of what having four children would be like since we were watching our nephews Matthew and James. Let's just say, a lot of work! I talked to a couple of friends of mine who have five children and they both said it's different when they are your own because you establish a routine. It's hard to develop that kind of routine over only three days. I was just getting the hang of it when the boys went home. It was fun though! And yes, I still want ten kids (that is, if things work out that way.) It's okay if you think I'm crazy!

Well, I thought I would post a few pics of the kids having fun over their stay. All of these were taken at home. We did go to the local pool one day, and to McDonald's and the public library the next day, but I forgot to take the camera. (Of course, I had my hands full anyway, so I don't think I would have had a free hand to take pictures.)

We begin with James's hunger strike! We were totally surprised that James initially refused to eat the first night the boys were with us. Not that missing a meal would hurt him in any way, but every time I've seen James with food he enjoys every last bite. Eventually he decided that the food must be okay since Matthew ate it and was still alive, and he chose to try it for himself when nobody was watching.

The next morning when I got up I came into Little Robby's room to check on Robby and Matthew, and all I saw was an empty room. I could hear voices coming from the closet, so I opened to see what was going on in there only to find Robby and Matthew squished in a corner reading a book together with a flashlight.

Bath time for the boys!

Look at me! I'm sitting in a box!

First Robby started playing the piano, and then everybody wanted to play! Aaaahh! Harmony!

On the last day the boys were with us Big Robby got the grand idea of setting up a big tent in the living room. (Yes, those are food storage boxes for the walls.) In order to get in you have to go through the Bob the Builder door. Needless to say, all the kids thoroughly enjoyed the tent!

Here's Matthew in the entrance way to the "main room. " Matthew had such fun playing in the tent that when his parents called that morning he refused to come out and talk to them. I had to chase him down, and then all he did was giggle and jokingly call his Dad a "turkey."

James crawling around in the main room of the tent! "Oh what fun!" he says.

We did learn during their visit that Jenna can get very jealous. She really didn't like either Robby or me picking James up. As soon as he was in our arms, she would wail at our feet insisting that we put James down and pick her up instead.

One thing I enjoyed while having them was being asked on two occasions when we were out if they were all mine! I think the fact that Jenna and James are close in age made some people do a double take. I will say that if they were all mine I would definitely have a double stroller!

San Diego: Day 3 - The Zoo

On Day 3 of our San Diego vacation we visited the San Diego Zoo. I was really glad because the skies cleared up and we had a warm, sunny day. My personal favorite animals were the polar bears and the pandas. I would post pictures of them, but Little Robby already has on his blog.

It was really fun taking Jenna to the zoo this time because she actually saw most of the animals we were pointing at.

Now here's an image we saw a lot of. Matthew and Robby taking off running.

Look at the duck, Mom!

Robby standing in front of the hippo tank. In the background you can see the hind-end of one hippo in the water and another hippo in the distance facing us.

Big Robby really liked this guy. Apparently this orangutan needed a little privacy for his nap.

And here's another picture that we saw a lot of... David and Sharon waiting for everyone else to catch up. Most of the time though it was David waiting on everyone.

This picture of Jenna is one of our favorites. Something about the look on her face. We took it because she had a flamingo on her shirt and we were looking at the flamingo enclosure.

While at the sea lion show, Jenna was more interested in climbing the stairs than sitting to wait for the show.

Hello, are you there?!

I really enjoyed riding the sky tram with Little Robby.

Coming into the station.

And here's the whole group of us. We really did have a lot of fun visiting San Diego with Andra, David, Matthew, and James. I hope we have other opportunities in the future to take joint vacations.

The last picture is of one of the windmills that you pass on I-8 in California. You can see these windmills standing just on the horizon from a long way off, and as you approach them you begin to realize how incredibly massive they are. I wish I had a way to show you their relative size, but you'll just have to take my word for it.

On a last note, check out the video clips page of our site to see some fun clips from this trip.