Oh Autumn, you witchy woman you. I was begging for September those last looong , hot days of summer when I dreamt of sending my super active children off to school for hours of productive and healthy learning outside of the home. But once again, you seduced me with your promise of oodles of free time and engaged, happy children, only to provide me with a different and stark reality: over- scheduling, endlessly chauffeuring the kids to and fro, dealing with exhausted little people returning to me at the end of the day and every last free moment stolen by various school-related activities. It's been a doozy of a Fall people and we are just starting to see the light...
That being said, we've done a ton of cool stuff! The boys have big kid bikes, we celebrated Matt's birthday on an awesome boat on Chesapeake Bay and we've been enjoying our weekends up at the cabin. Travel-wise, we did a quick trip up to NY to celebrate a friend's 40th, spent almost a week in California visiting with our cousins and celebrating a family wedding and went to St. Louis to see Papa Doc and celebrate another family wedding. Last week was busy with Halloween celebrations to round it all out.
We turn our attention now to Thanksgiving and the holidays - no travel plans in the works but looking forward to lots of time chilling out, hosting family visitors and getting ready to move homes in January!
Pics below of all of our fun Fall activities - wow we've done a lot!
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| Gus on his bike! |
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| Boys in the hood |
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| A walk around our lake at the cabin takes you through this field of wild flowers. |
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| Climbing the rock wall at the base of Bryce Mountain |
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| First day of school - both boys are at the same school this year. Gus in nursery, Hank in 1st Grade |
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| Gus Vader |
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| Boys on the dinghy during Matt's birthday weekend - a favorite activity was to drive by mom on the big boat screaming at the top of their lungs |
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| Dinner on the boat |
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| Attempt at family selfie |
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| Happy birthday Matt! |
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| Gus is my right hand man most days, accompanying me on errands. Here he finds a friend at Costco |
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| The girls go for a walk and bring baseball bats as protection. You never know.... |
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| Going back to Cali |
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| Henley, our beautiful cousin |
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| We had the chance to reconnect with Hank's best friend Theodore who moved to LA this year. Chanel was nice enough to host him and his family to dinner and a swim at her house. |
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| Dressed for Disney! |
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| DisneyLand with Hayes! |
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| On the cars - Serious Hank at the wheel! |
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| Scared or happy? |
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| Dimple |
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| At Victoria's wedding in Palm Springs (my sister's sister-in-law) |
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| Peace |
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| Gus with Nana |
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| Killing time at the airport |
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| Gus meets a chicken at the farm |
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| And goes horse back riding for the first time! |
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| Picking out pumpkins! |
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| Daddy with June |
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| Tables for two |
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| At the park |
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| We visited the City Museum in St. Louis when we were there. Hard to put it into words - some creative genius turned a huge warehouse into a 10 story playground for kids and adults alike. We could have spent 2 days there and still not seen everything. Highly recommend it if you ever find yourself in St. Louis. |
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| Papa Doc, Matt, Gus, and Hank's fingers |
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| In front of the Arch. Matt's cousin Bonnie got married in the oldest church in the city which is right next door to the Arch. |
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| Dylan, aka the most melancholy flower ever. |
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| The gardner, a flower and a gnome. The girls were thrilled. |
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| This is how the girls go to sleep - with one lovey on their head and another as a blanket. This is Dylan. |
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| And Juney - our thumbsucker. |
