July 16, 2012

"Hey, We Match!"

Both Ri and I have had a rough week. I'm not sure which of us is more pathetic, I think it's a tie. I think we are both on the mend, in the meantime we can at least spend quality time by napping together, we've taken tandem naps the last three days and today she crawled on top of me while I was half asleep and napped on my back. She is just the snuggliest!

July 9, 2012

Our girl's gone girly

A whole day of Disneyland and we kind of let Riley determine the agenda. She did splash mtn, space mtn, Alice in Wonderland, tea cups, thunder mtn, small world, etc. But she also got to meet Alice and the mad hatters and three different princesses. I'm not sure exactly how she got started on a princess kick, she adores some of these characters from movies she's never seen or had us talk about. But meeting the characters is always fun because for a minute or so they will make Riley feel like the most important person in the world. It's so fun.

July 4, 2012

Caught Chocolate-Handed

So Happy 4th of July! I think this photo must capture some of the disdain that my British ancestors had for the uncultured American colonists. Sure, we can win the revolutionary war, but we drink canned energy drinks instead of having afternoon tea, we work too damn much and we forgot how to use utensils when eating ice cream.

We also honored our patriotism by setting off fireworks (Ali was in bed by then, but Ri enjoyed them), and letting the kids skinny dip. A truly sophisticated American family affair.





July 3, 2012

Celebrating a 65th!

 Riley had been looking forward to a boat ride. We'd been telling her for days that we were all going on a boat ride and that she would see Grandma and Grandpa and Hannah and that she'd also get to see Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa, who invited all of us to join them for the day to celebrate a huge milestone in the family - their 65th wedding anniversary!

We drove down to Anaheim the evening before and moved into our hotel room (it is a serious move when you've got two playpens, luggage, bags of snacks and drinks and a nebulizer, packs of diapers). Sunday morning we got up bright and early (amazing for our slow-little family) and we drove up to Lake Arrowhead to meet the rest of the family.

Riley was a little unnerved when we arrived and out of her comfort zone, but as soon as she saw her grandma and Hannah, she was in a wonderful mood. She remembered her great-grandparents and was so delighted to get a very charming and adorable gift from Great-Grandma; a hand made pink stuffed elephant!

We ate lunch with family and got to talk to all my cousins (who are all doing really neat stuff) and then we hung out by the lake front for awhile. Riley played "ring around the rosies" with her sister and cousin and a kind stranger took a liking to Ri and gave her a bag of bird feed to give to the ducks. Riley (the ever-thoughtful-animal-nurturer) fed the ducks very carefully and taught Hannah how to give the food to the birds. A great teacher and a selfless share-er. Hannah looks up to her cousin "RiRi" so much and their relationship is just adorable. They have all the wonderful perks of having a sibling without any of the fighting or sibling bickering - it's truly precious.

The only downside to the fun was that with all my dad's family (nearly-almost) in one place, we were only able to start haphazard conversations with all our relatives and before we knew it, it was 4 p.m. and the girls were TOAST. We had to get them into the car and get moving so they could nap. I can't wait to have the girls see their extended families again, maybe soon they'll be contained a little more and we can actually catch up with my cousins, grandparents, aunts & uncles.