Thanksgiving

I got sick of looking at Austin Powers' face.

We were very lucky to have spent Thanksgiving this year with my parents, my sister Mollie and her family, and Uncle Mark! They braved the pass to come see us and we had a great visit.

The cousins had such a fun time together - Kennedi and Parker wrote "newspapers," organized "parades," and ran the "store," while Klare & Tyler did whatever they were told by them. Here they are as Indi...er...."First Nations People."

I don't know how the whole weekend went by without one single picture of this handsome devil - my ADORABLE nephew, Krew. Probably because I was happy holding him instead of taking his picture. He's so cute, I could eat him for breakfast.

I was happy with the way the feast turned out. Of course, we had my Mom at the helm, so it was a fail-proof operation. My contribution was setting the table - don't you love my new Pottery Barn plates? I had a gift card - thanks, Mom S.!

We are so happy to be living closer to family, although we dearly missed the Matt & Megan families at our celebration! We have more to be thankful for this year than ever before!

Speechless

I have a confession to make...

I have lost my blogging mo-jo.

Was it the drive across country? Maybe. Did I leave it somewhere in Wyoming on I-80? Who knows? But I have seriously lost it. Maybe it is that restless nights formerly spent composing blog posts in my head are now plagued with thoughts of home decorating ideas. Where my blog was once my best friend, I am now having an affair with Craigslist. Days spent escaping apartment life with my children, exploring new areas (hence giving blogworthy excursions to immortalize), have now turned to days content just puttering around our home & neighborhood. I don't know. At the risk of sounding like TAMN, we find that we are seriously, so blessed. And maybe it's not such a bad thing to find happiness away from my blog!

After all - and especially with the arrival of fall's cold, blustery days -

can you blame me for wanting to stay here all day with these snugglebugs?

Our October

This month, we've been...

Pumpkin Patching with Parker's kindergarten class...

Making new friends...

Dressing up...

Partying with family...

Housing projects...

Butchering innocent pumpkins...

...and exploring the beautiful Pacific Northwest!

Helloooooo Out There....

We made it! I'm still alive, but trying to figure out where to start back up with blogging after a very busy two month hiatus. I guess I'll start with this picture of our house, which we love and have now lived in for 10 days! More updates to come...

Signing Off....

The day has come! We are off on our crazy cross country adventure. Check back here in a month or so...unless you just want to listen to my mad summer tunes. They are here to stay for a while...

C-ya, C-bus

"El fin se acerca, y hay poco tiempo..." (for the Hermanas.)

It's almost here! The exodus! My thoughts? Not many. Mostly, "hooray!"

But, there are a few things we'll miss around here...

COSI

City BBQ

the ZOO

the parks - oh, so many great parks.

the GREEN in the spring & summer, and the BRILLIANT fall colors. No, winter, we will not miss you.

Graeters

the dollar movie theater

cicadas & fireflies

the pool

Honey Dip

the city skyline

the Pottery Barn/Williams-Sonoma outlet store

the other plethora of shopping opportunities

hmmmm....yeah that's about it...except for what we'll miss most...

our few good friends! If you're reading this, you're probably one of them....

We will especially miss our "family" here, the Fultons. So many laughs & good times. After a year of living two doors away from her, I don't know what I'll do without Carolyn - I think we have definitely developed a co-dependent relationship when it comes to raising our kids! How do I go on without our "daughter," Sarah? How does Parker go on without his best little friend that he sees EVERY DAY? and monitor sitting? How do people function without it? It's hard to leave another great family, where everyone in your family has a friend with everyone in theirs. It's a good thing we have blogs to keep up with each other's lives. We had a great time with them at the beach with them last Saturday...here are some pics.

Parker & Sarah

John & Peter - preparing for their marathon swimming event.

Carolyn...

...me...

...a sand-and-candy-filled Alex...

...and our fishy boy, Tyler.

Making Me Happy...

'round here

A new hobby...

...and it's that time again!

Defended!

Peter has just successfully defended his dissertation and passed with flying colors! Wahooooo! This has been a loooong time coming...

...and we are so incredibly proud of our man! He has amazingly pulled this whole thing off, from start to finish, in less than six months. All he has to do now is finish out the internship (August 22nd could not come sooner...) and he is officially DONE WITH SCHOOL!!!

Congrats, honey!

Independence Day

We drove out & spent ours in Milwaukee with the Daniel & Katie family. It was a great time!

We did the parade thing...

Aren't those Stewarts so cute? I was very lame and did not take one single picture the whole time we were there. So I bummed these off of Katie. That night, we celebrated with some friends of theirs at a traditional backyard BBQ. It was fabulous. I want to be that hostess someday. Waterslide, kiddie pool, backyard games up the wazoo, prizes, grill, tons of great food, beautiful yard, home, etc. We even got to see Saturn from her kid's telescope...

...and of course, an awesome Germantown fireworks show.

We saw Wall-E, picknicked, and played Scrabble. Good times...

Our little yard apes.

On the way home, we stopped for a bit in Chicago...

This picture was significant not only for our love of the game, but also because Parker is playing on the "Cubs" t-ball team this year!