october so far

We welcomed October with the perfect dinner!

Getting in the spooky mood!

School pictures came in and the kids are looking so grown. 

The volleyball picture makes me laugh. 

Jason and I have been able to enjoy some Friday day dates again.  

Bryce is filling every free moment with friends!

I got a haircut.  I think it is drastically shorter in person!

We try so hard to get together with this group of friends every month or so.  It takes a lot of planning and arranging, but it's always so fun to be together. 

Jason got a BIG buck!

There's been baseball, gymnastics, volleyball, a few fun fall things and just overall busyness with very few pictures!

100

My Nanny would have been 100 years old today!  My mom and her brother and some family got together for lunch back in February to celebrate what would have been my Poppy's 100th birthday.  The four us were busy and unable to attend so we were glad to be available to do it again yesterday for my Nanny!  My uncle came down from New Jersey and we drove up to Northern Virginia where we all met for lunch.  It was a great time together since we don't see each other often enough. 

Nanny loved a chocolate Frosty.  We always gave her a hard time for drinking it through a straw, but she'd nurse it all afternoon until she drank the last sip!  We went to Wendy's after lunch to continue the celebration!

She was such a gift to our family, and we miss her dearly!

sophomore homecoming 24

Another year, another homecoming!

I can't get over what a difference a year makes!  

Bryce said the whole homecoming experience this year was so fun and better than last year.  I saw lots of pictures from the evening to prove it.  I love that he's found his place in high school and is thriving!

a busy week

We have been enjoying the early start of fall.  Football and cooler temperatures make for fun nights on the new deck. 

I'm having fun decorating and the house smells amazing!

Bryce had a volleyball game in Midlothian on Monday night.  We have friends that live on that side of town that we don't see nearly enough.  We've talked about getting together at a brewery on their side of town and we finally made it happen this week.  We realized how close we were while at the game and reached out to them and they just happened to have all three of their kids at sports with scheduled carpools back home so we were able to meet up for a quick drink.  Impromptu dates are the best!

We celebrated PaPa's birthday on Tuesday and had ice cream and banana splits in his memory. 

Bryce is enjoying volleyball, and they are currently undefeated.  

This jeep had so many miles put on it by both kids.  They finally got too big for it after 10 or so years, but it was still kicking when we passed it down to neighbors.  

Bryce's wheels got an upgrade this week.  We had been looking for a jeep that fit his criteria.  The list changed a few times, but we went to look at this jeep thinking it would be a research mission because it was the first we looked at since he had switched to wanting four doors and a hard top.  It had high miles so we were sure we wouldn't want it, but we instantly fell in love with it because it was in such good condition.  Even though he was involved in the shopping process, we didn't let him know we were negotiating or that we had bought it so we were able to surprise him with it!

We're all enjoying driving it!

we have a new driver

The timing for driving has changed since Jason and I came along.  You used to be able to get your learner's permit at age 15 and your driver's license at 16.  Now, you have to be 15 and 6 months to get your learner's and 16 and 3 months to get your license.  Bryce was eligible to get his learner's last Sunday, but because DMV is closed on Sundays, we made an appointment first thing Monday morning before school.  He didn't want his driving delayed any longer than necessary!

He passed his test and drove us to school!

Bryce has done all the diving since getting his learner's.  It is truly a new sense of parenting.  It's a little nerve wracking to hand over control.  Jason is a little better at riding in the passenger seat than I am.  

Today was Kelly's birthday and we went to a winery to listen to Chase's girlfriend sing.  It was fun to do something different on a Sunday afternoon.  

It's hard to believe it's September, but we sure are enjoying our four-day holiday weekend.  

back to school

Emmy started 7th grade on Monday.  

We went out for ice cream after school to celebrate a great day.

Bryce started 10th grade on Tuesday.  

Bryce is trying something new this year.  He had his first volleyball scrimmage on Thursday and we had a great time watching something new. 

We have had the nicest weather this week so we've been outside as much as possible.  

One busy week down, lots more to go!

the last week of summer

It was a whirlwind of a week getting caught up from being in California and trying to get into the swing of school stuff as everything seemed to get started early. 

The cousins found themselves with lots of time together which they won't complain about.  Chase started driving this week, so he was a big help picking Bryce up from baseball camp and entertaining everyone while we helped with back-to-school stuff. 

Emmy was excited to have her gang back together at open house.  They all went back to one of the girl's house for a sleepover.  

Kelly and Dave gave the kids tickets to the Savannah Bananas for Christmas.  The game was Friday night and they had a great time.  

Next up, back to school!

 

California

We went to southern California this year to knock out three more baseball stadiums.  We packed in lots of fun along the way.  

We got to California around lunch time on Thursday and we hit the ground running.  We stopped for lunch and then headed to the La Brea tarpits.  This was a must do for Jason and everyone else enjoyed it too. 

Next, we rode up into the Hollywood Hills for some photos of the iconic sign.  

Jason's next thing on the list was the Griffith Observatory.  This proved very difficult to get to (but we somehow got lucky with prime-time parking) and wasn't exactly what we thought, but the views of the city were nice, and we caught the sunset. 

Day 2 was our anniversary.  We started the day on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and got our first ever acai bowls for breakfast.  

We left LA and headed down the Pacific Coast Highway.  We stopped along the way for a beachside lunch for our anniversary.  Everyone loved the restuarant Jason chose. 

After lunch we finished our drive to San Diego.  We knocked out stadium number 20 at the Padres game.  This was probably one of our favorite ballparks.  

Day 3 we went to the San Diego Zoo.  I personally feel as though it you've seen one zoo: you've seen them all.  I was willing to do another zoo because I had always heard this was the best. This zoo was very nice, but very large and hard to navigate.  We saw a lot, but we regret not starting the day with the double decker bus tour around the zoo.  

After the zoo, we headed to the desert to Joshua Tree.  We thought we had overbooked ourselves and weren't going to get to drive through, but it wall worked out.  

These three are more outgoing than me.  They explored the edge a little more than I was comfortable with. 

It was over 110 degrees in the desert. 

A Joshua Tree

Day 4 we left the desert and headed to Anaheim for an Angels game.  This was stadium 21.  This was a day game, so we enjoyed going back to hotel for some much-needed downtime for the rest of the night. 

Day 5 we stayed in Anaheim and went to Disneyland.  I honestly don't think the kids were looking forward to it, but I think it was one of our favorite days.

We enjoyed all of the Mickey shaped treats. 

From ice cream sandwiches to beignets.  

And a pretzel is always a must. 

We ended the night at California Adventure Park because Bryce wanted to see Carsland (Radiator Springs) lit up at night.  It was stunning.  

Day 6 we headed back to LA for the last leg of our trip.  

We were touristy and walked down Rodeo Drive and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

We had lunch and the kids swam before we headed to Dodger stadium for our last game of the summer.  This was stadium number 22.  We have 8 more to go. 

The scenic views from the stadium were nice.  Fun fact:  we felt an earthquake during the 7th inning stretch.  

Day 7 was a bonus day because our airline only flew on Thursday.  We slept in, went to UCLA, then spent the afternoon on the beach in Santa Monica.  

It was cooler at the coast, but comfortable.  The water was cool, but not as cold as we remembered and honestly not much colder than we experienced on the east coast this summer. 

After the beach, the kids picked up Chipotle for dinner and ate by the pool and Jason and I went out for our second date night of the trip.  Vacationing with older kids is so different, but so fun.  This was a long trip with lots of stops, but hopefully lots of memories were made!