Today I felt the first tingle of fall in the air, with a bit of a breeze and leaves all around us when we came home. Honestly, I'm ready to say goodbye to summer; it was much tougher than summer is supposed to be! Summer is advertised as a trip to a sunny place, long, lazy days at home, ice cream as often as possible. Ours turned out to be quite a lot more intense, with a new job for mama and new daycare for Declan, which then resulted in new schedules for all of us. Plus we ended up with way too many weekends in a row of travel for one or all of us. Calm and lazy it was not, but now we're fairly settled into our new routine and eagerly awaiting autumn.
I have plenty of fun, happy photos to share, but that's because I rarely capture the less-than-stellar moments of my long commute, my frazzled attempts to learn my new job, the ache that comes with wishing I had more unscheduled time with my kids, and the frequent moments of wondering how we can make the next year as positive as possible before we wrap up our lease and hunt for a new place to live. As we inch into fall, I'm hopeful we can slow down, focus on the present, and enjoy our boys at this hilarious and wonderful age.
So, some flashes of our summer, as we wave farewell:
Marshall loves his new bed, but he asks to sleep in Declan's room most nights. Since Declan's room is the only one with air conditioning, we're happy to oblige and have M's old mattress on the floor in there. Once they're both asleep, we move Marshall into Dec's room, and in the morning they chatter to each other while we eavesdrop on the monitor. Soon, though not too soon I hope, Declan will switch to a toddler bed, and instead of hanging out calmly in their respective beds they'll be running rampant around the house at 6 am!
Now that we live so much closer, we are doing our best to take advantage of time with the boys' cousins! Sometimes it's tough because the kids' naps don't align, but any twin time is okay with me!
This big boy is too sweet.
We found an adorable event near us, where we could ride a REAL Thomas the Tank Engine train! It was in the middle of the redwoods, and we all loved it. Such a chill, fun outing!
We got Declan into corn on the cob this summer: check!
Our tomato plants exploded! We've only actually gotten to eat maybe 10 tomatoes, but they are truly delicious. I hope we get a late crop this month so I can make bruschetta!
:-)
Hiking in the Santa Cruz mountains
Declan going for World's Strongest Man; Marshall probably pretending to be a dinosaur.
We live pretty close to some of our best friends from college, and Marshall is about the same age as their older son. As luck would have it, the two boys have hit it off and are total buddies! They even joined soccer together this summer, so Marshall is officially in his first sport!
Here's some of that summer ice cream!
This month has been all about dinosaurs, so Marshall was pretty stoked to find a dinosaur on the merry-go-round.
While the boys were at the amusement park, I was at Amanda's bachelorette weekend! (Photo taken in Paso Robles after a fun night of dancing and great champagne!) Her wedding is this weekend, and I am so excited and anxious and giddy and just thrilled to celebrate her and Duncan. They are getting married in Downtown LA, and Terry and I are looking forward to the added bonus of a night away while the kiddos stay with Gammie and Grandpa!
Makin' pizzas--Declan has become my little kitchen helper this summer! Marshall will help once in awhile, but he's usually engrossed in his Legos. This dude is pretty into the chef thing, though, and we're hoping we can convince him to be a chef for Halloween.
Brothers bonding over utensils at the dinner table.
We squeezed in a trip to the Delta and are seeing how fun it will be to hang out there once the boys are a liiiiiittle older. Declan had a rough time and was not happy for 90% of it, but I'm sure next time will be better. Marshall had a blast!
Some other fun scenes:
Yoga with Dada
This kid looooooooves his blanket. Fun fact: Aunt Jenny gave us this blanket when I was pregnant with Marshall, but one day Declan giggled madly when we covered him with it in his crib and he has not slept without it since. I kind of love that he has a security blanket!
Little carts at TJs--fun, but not big enough for all our food!
I think this was another hike...?
Reading <3
Here are those Legos I mentioned. He's building some pretty impressive sets! He follows the instructions all by himself, and he's ridiculously patient. He'll sit there for hours! We have to pull him away to go run around and get outside. (Is this the ultimate nerd photo or what?)
So that's it! Looking back, summer was great, of course, and all these memories are good reminders that the stressful days, long commutes, not-so-smooth transitions are all worth it to build our foundation up here. I'm not busting out the pumpkins yet (talk to me next weekend, though...), but bring on the cooler weather, cozy evenings, and weekends with NO PLANS! Fall, here we come!