Goodbye Summer, It's Been...

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!

More Summer 2018

The last month or so has been especially busy around here, so I'm playing a little catch-up in hope of finding a tiny bit of time to post consistently (once a month? maybe?) going forward. Anyway, July brought a downpour of change around here, including the start of my new job and Declan's return to daycare for the first time since November of last year (Marshall has been attending preschool full time since January). We've all had a tough time adjusting to the new routine, but I'm hopeful that we're slowly seeing some signs of getting the hang of things.

Maybe someday I'll get another day in the life post up, but our daily routine involves Terry taking the morning shift with the kids, bringing them to their schools around 9 am and then heading to work. I leave the house before 7 to start work by 7:30 or 8, and then I get off around 4 to get to the kids by 5 or 5:30, home by 5:30 or 5:45, then a little bit of play before dinner and bed. Back to packing lunches, no time for stopping at the grocery store mid-week, no sitting on the couch until 9 or 9:30 pm. It's definitely NOT enough time with the kids, but we're doing our best to make the most of it, and we really soak up our weekends!

Some fun from this summer so far:

Swim lessons for our little fish - he LOVES it!

Our favorite swimming book (we refer to it whenever Marshall is nervous about trying something new). It's a GREAT book in many ways, and both kids love it!

Marshall wrapped up swim "camp" and can definitely swim a few feet completely independently now! With a life jacket, he can hang out for quite a long time on his own, and he's getting more and more confident every time he's in the water. 

New basketball hoop from our friends whose kids didn't use it!

Smoothies on the kitchen floor (I don't remember why they ended up there instead of at the table, but I do remember Marshall sweetly putting his arm around his brother). 

Terry and I built a ridiculously difficult 2000 piece puzzle, and we let Marshall put in the last piece because he had supported us through the weeks of working on it!

Strong little dude!

Beach time! We brought the kids to the beach without checking the weather. It was so cold! But they still had a blast!

And we grabbed donuts after--YUM!

Riding around the neighborhood! Declan is still too little for his tricycle, so he's eager to start riding for real. And Marshall is great on his trike, but he's really ready to move up to a bike with training wheels. Perhaps in the next few weeks!

Random outings when we find ourselves with time to kill in the Bay Area.

One day recently, Dec missed his nap due to our poor planning, so I cradled him and he was out in a few minutes. My arms were KILLING me!

Shopping for Marshall's new big bed! (He was in a toddler bed for about two years.)

Park time!

Baking PopPop's birth cake with mama! 

We're really loving our time with these sweet boys. This age is a blast! Of course, we have lots of moments of struggle with one kid or the other's emotions. Toddlers are dealing with a lot, and they are overwhelmed a lot of the time, so we are just trying to be patient and understanding. But for the most part, we have two very sweet, chill, funny kids, and we truly enjoy whatever time we get with them. We feel so grateful. I am already looking forward to more summer memories!

HAGS

Happy (official) start of summer!

We are ready to dig in to some delicious summer food, like one of Marshall's favorites: corn on the cob (from my parents' city, which grows AMAZING corn).

Declan and I enjoyed a picnic at the park this week to take advantage before I start work soon!

This kid at the dinner table keeps all of us laughing (his brother did the same at this age).

One of our favorite summer treats: fudge pops on repeat!

Not especially summery, but on Father's Day we took Daddy out for coffee and ordered milk for the boys. They LOVED it!

Summer baking is always fun too! We just have to get the oven turned off early before the heat consumes the whole house.

Speaking of heat, our fridge recently went on the fritz and Terry fixed it by himself like a champ! I was so impressed with this handy dude!

Other summer plans:

Bike riding!

Reading and library trips

Teaching M to use the computer!

Hopefully playing board games--Marshall is occasionally showing some interest

Enjoying Marshall's birthday gifts

Attempting to plant a small garden (the boys helped me choose tomatoes and peppers, so we'll see what happens)

Recently, we went to the doctor for Marshall, and later the same day I put out some paper for Declan to color. He must have made an association with the paper on the table at the doctor's office, because he laid back the way M did for his checkup! It was too cute.

For Father's Day, I always take sports-related photos of the boys for Daddy. This year it was a struggle to get these squirmy, less-than-excited-to-pose boys to smile or look generally decent for three photos! Some outtakes:

And some winners:

We celebrated Father's Day with a run, coffee, tacos, and a brewery. Not a bad day for Daddy!

I can't remember if I shared photos of our new house...ever...but this is where we're living for a while as we settle in up in Silicon Valley.

Kids' play area

One of my favorite walls <3

Recent cleaning of backyard toys for water play

And of course, summer fitness!

Baby and toddler yoga:

Running:

(Terry and I are actually training for a very informal 10K. My mom used to run 6 miles on her birthday every year and I thought it would be a good goal to set for my own upcoming 33rd birthday. So we set up a training schedule and are really enjoying the consistent workouts! We're following Hal Higdon's basic 10K plan, but I doubled it so that it extended to something like 16 weeks. On Wednesdays and Saturdays we do strength training, and we're up to 4.5 miles for our "long" weekend runs so far.)

Biking and walking around the neighborhood!

 Swim lessons :-)

 Prepping for Declan's upcoming start to daycare

 Here's to what will hopefully be our best summer yet. We have a few minor plans, like checking out some local festivals (growing up in the Bay Area I loved Art & Wine Festivals, music in the park, etc., and we're hoping to enjoy some of those with the next generation!), hanging out with friends and family (and hopefully snuggling--er, chasing--my sweet niblings), a wedding later this year (one of my best friends is getting married and I can't WAIT!), and more!

Have a great summer! (HAGS!)