Christmas in California

Roberg family, December 2014.

The boys loved our little Charlie Brown tree. (Once it was fully decorated, it was more ornaments than tree!)

The boys met Santa at the church Christmas party. No tears!

We headed down to La Crescenta for some Christmas festivities.

The house was appropriately festive, and Grandpa Carl made an awesome Elmo sign to greet the grandkids.

Emerson enjoyed his Abominable Snowman Teeth stocking stuffer.

Emerson's castle ogre and Hugo's vibrating/singing bug toy were also hits.

We visited the LA Zoo...

...enjoyed a meal at Bob's Big Boy and took the traditional statue picture...

...braved the unusually cold weather to play in the yard...

...and visited Griffith Park so Emerson could ride a pony! (He loved it.)

We got together for a family photo including brand-new (three days old!) cousin Hazel.

We also two of the 21 California missions: San Fernando...

...and San Gabriel.

On the way home, we drove through fog and rain and narrowly avoided snow (whew!). We ate lunch at Willow Ranch restaurant in Buttonwillow, and then returned to Martinez to ring in the new year!

November and Early December

Daddy and Emerson flew a kite. Loving the fall t-shirt and shorts weather...

Mimi visited and we took Emerson to Fairyland in Oakland. It was just perfect for his age and his love of fairy tales. 

For Thansgiving, the Stone relatives (Grandma/Grandpa/Neil, plus Granny and Aunt Shelly and Uncle Joe) visited, and we got to spend the holiday at an awesome rental house with a gorgeous view.

We managed to get some pictures of Grandma Lori with the kids this time.

The BYU-Cal game was a highlight...

Especially the exciting finish!

Emerson loved the boat ride to Alcatraz and tolerated the tour of the prison.

Hugo learned to play pool...

 ..,.and we had a family celebration for his blessing day.

 Did we mention the fall weather was great? We had an In-N-Out picnic at the park and Emerson had a breakfast picnic on the porch.

 Hugo had his 6-month doctor appointment and is doing great.

In early December, it got a bit colder, but thanks to a few days of rain, the hills turned green again! We took a fun hike with some cows.

October Trip to South Carolina, Halloween

Alison and the little boys got to take a wonderful trip to South Carolina in October to visit the Stones. Alison bravely boarded the plane for a two-leg, eight-hour plane journey with two small children:

 (It went fine! People were nice!)

We had a great time hanging out with Grandpa Scott and Grandma Lori. (Grandma Lori didn't make it into many pictures...probably because she was taking most of them!)

There was also lots of bonding time with Uncle Neil. 

Hugo was pretty happy with floor time and taking walks in the lovely South Carolina weather.

Alison and Grandma Lori worked together to make Emerson's Halloween costume dreams come true. He wanted to be the Giant from the Jack and the Beanstalk story. We created the costume from scratch, and it turned out awesome. This picture was from its debut, at the church trunk-or-treat party.

 We also checked out the Halloween decorations at the Greenville Zoo.

Other fun events that didn't photograph well: Greenville Children's Museum, trampoline time at Gravitopia, lots of reading and playing time at the Stones' house...

On the way home from the epic trip, Hugo slept on the BART train...until he woke up and started to scream.

Back in California, we went out trick-or-treating on Halloween. Emerson rocked the giant costume again, and Hugo (as Tigger) slept through the whole thing.

Three's Company

Our biggest boy turned three! His birthday weekend extravaganza included a visit from Mimi, Grandpa Carl, and Spencer.

There was time for a haircut (from Carl the Barber)

...and a new bed.

We headed back to Muir Woods for some more nature time.

And we fulfilled the plan made by Emerson and Grandpa Carl to walk on the Golden Gate Bridge for Emerson's third birthday.

We didn't cross the entire bridge (that's a long trip for 3-year-old legs, plus it was a surprisingly warm and sunny day in San Francisco), but we did make it up onto the bridge for photo ops, and to experience the high winds, loud traffic, and great views. Plus, we inspected underneath the bridge for trolls.

Emerson continued to practice his swimming skills.

And Hugo was cute, as always!