September Bliss

Ah September, I am convinced it is the best month of the year.  The month is a little bit of summer and a little bit of autumn wrapped up into 30 days of awesomeness. From the hot sunny days to the cozy thunder showers, I love it all.  

 Below are two pictures from my office this month.  The first is the sunrise on a beautiful morning (no filters needed) and the second is a double rainbow during an amazing thunderstorm this week.

We squeezed our last pool days out of the beginning of September and loved every minute of it.  Throughout the summer Grady went from loving the pool to kind of being neutral on the whole thing.  He ended the year with a big pool obsession.  Lucky for us, the season came to an end at just about the right time because Grady has learned to scoot backwards into the pool announcing "dow" (AKA down) as he attempts to lower himself in.  Good thing he gives himself about a 10 foot runway as he tries to scoot into the pool, which is long enough for one of us to get in the water and grab him before he makes it "dow" into the water. :)   It is still a little discomforting so I am happy to put the pool cover on for good.

 Here, Grady announced "more more more" for about 20 minutes while Chris got an arm workout throwing him into the air repeatedly. 

Love my pool buddy. 

 Love my boys.

Grady also spent those last summer days helping daddy get the yard in shape. He looks like a bald old man with a little beer belly to me in these pics.

He also enjoyed his new water table.  Thanks grandpa and grandpa, it is a huge hit!

And finally Grady was sure to get his last round of shirtless bike rides in showing mama and dada that he now knows how to ring his bell by very meticulously placing his finger on the ringer and proudly clapping after sounding the bell.  Not sure I've ever heard so many dings in my life. 

I also love September because I feel like it is the time to get organized and start over.  Although I am not in school and have no kids in school, "back to school days" still seem so refreshing for me. I also felt refreshed by a women's retreat that I attended and helped organize for my firm. The retreat was a 2 day event for every female attorney in the firm and I walked away from it feeling reinvigorated. I appreciated the opportunity to talk with and to learn from those that have been there before me. 

In prioritizing things this month I realized that I wanted to have special things that I got to look forward to with my Grady boy.  It is important for me to see that I have fun things planned that Grady and I can do together. This whole new theory prompted the making of huge new magnet board.  Chris once again impressed me with his handiness and I love my new mommy central station.  

I love seeing on my calendar that I have a standing Saturday morning date with Grady at the Little Gym.  The little gym is so perfect for our climbing, running, hanging, active boy.   We love going to class together and I love seeing Grady do things that I had no idea he could do like hang from a bar or climb a rock wall.  It is a place where independent children can explore in free play, which is just perfect for Grady.  

(We are also enjoying the return of college football!  Go Broncos!) 

The greenbelt is perfect for those warm September walks.   We've made a point of getting down to the river at least a couple of times this month and we are never disappointed when we do.

 (Eric Johnson, we could use your aviary expertise here)

Chris and I also made it a point to get out and use Ruby.  We had a great Sunday night round of golf last week.  The weather was perfect.  When we rolled up in Ruby Grady couldn't resist sitting with Dada and pretending to drive.  I could feel Chris counting down the years until he could take his boy out on the course. 

I also love September because it ends like this!  Let the Halloween festivities begin!

Extra Blessed

Some days I feel extra blessed. 

 I am having one of those days.

Wedding Bells and Baseballs

Two weeks ago we celebrated the wedding of one of my 801 Girls in the Bay Area.  Katie and Vince tied the knot in a beautiful ceremony at the Santa Clara Mission followed by a gorgeous reception at Poppy Ridge Golf Course.   It feels like our visits with our college friends are getting spaced a little further apart so it was also wonderful to catch up with everyone.  I wish I could cast a big net and swoop them all up to Boise. We just will never be able to replicate what we have with them.  

Congrats Katie and Vince, thanks for hosting such a wonderful event and making us a part of your special day!

Our group is multiplying very quickly, it has been a stream of wonderful future Santa Clara Broncos for about 4 years straight now.   We are even missing two kiddos in this picture!

It was pretty special to be back on campus with Grady.  Without Santa Clara, there would be no Grady.  In fact, without Santa Clara, there would be none of the kids pictured above.   Now that is pretty crazy!  

 I knew I was lucky to go to Santa Clara, but I don't think I really knew how lucky until I look back at it now.  

Our one phone picture from the wedding.  A friend of Kelli's joked that Chris looked like Obama in this photo and I can kind of see it.... ha ha!

Grady made the trip, um. . . eventful.  I have heard of the terrible twos and I have even heard of the terrible threes.  I'd not heard of the terrible ones and Grady did a pretty good job educating us that those exist too! I love the kid so much, but we had some moments on this trip. Yeah he had a cold and yeah he was teething, but I cannot blame what we experienced on that. I say this in part because I think blogs have a way of painting such a rosy, perfect picture and I want to be clear that this is not always the case.  I also say this because I didn't get a single picture of the bride or the groom?!?!  I was too busy chasing a spirited little boy around!  

The day after the wedding we were lucky enough to take Grady to his first Giants game.  Auntie Becko made the game really special for us and we owe her big time!  Thanks so much Becko!

Headed into the game.

Grady sat in his seat for exactly one inning and enjoyed a hot dog while his name was posted on the scoreboard.  We spent the rest of the game getting to know AT&T Ballpark very well.  Good thing it was a beautiful day!

What a lucky little boy!

The city doesn't get much better than this.

Grady loved watching the people below and made it his job to greet everyone of them with a friendly waive and a "hi" from above.

Auntie Becko is the best!

Saying goodbye to his girlfriend, just try to tell me her outfit is not the cutest thing in the world. 

What a great memory for us.  Thank you again Becko, words cannot tell you how much we appreciate you!

And on the way home, we took the obligatory picture of the new portion of the Bay Bridge, 12 years in the making.

Checking in for the flight. 

  Packing up.  What a trip! 

See Bella Splash

Who said you cannot teach an old dog new tricks?  Three years ago when we were brand new to Boise and Bella was just a pup, we took her to See Spot Splash, Boise's premier dog event.  This is a fundraiser for the Humane Society where they shut down the public pool and let the dogs have a swim party.  Last time Chris was so sad/frustrated that his dog was not a joiner that he threw her in nearly drowning the poor dog.

Oh how times have changed.  Ever since Bella figured out that there was jumping and fetching involved with the whole swimming thing, she's become a real swimmer.  This time around Chris stood proudly by his pup making sure that everyone knew that this jumping bean was his dog.  Even the event photographers were semi-obsessed with her.  

Bella with all your energy you are a real piece of work some days, but you are also such a fun dogie.  We love you Miss B.