My aunt Teresa and uncle Jack watched Xander while I explored my old habitat. I took a tons of pictures. Somewhere around 250. They are meaningless, I'm sure, to anyone other than me and possibly my college friends, but feel free to peruse!
I took advantage of being up in Michigan for a long time to go see Angela for the first time since she moved to Rochester. The kids played a little bit, and Angela and I got to talk a lot. It was great!
That night, Xander and I went to Independence Lake with Mark and Kira. Xander had a blast! I'd never seen him like that in the water. He was a little fish!
Xander and I went to Independence Lake with Grandma. He had a great time playing in the water again!
Thursday, August 04: Visiting Whites - Lunch with Grandma, Volleyball and Eberwhite Park with Grandpa
Xander and I went to lunch with Grandma at Olga's, then Grandma and Xander played at the kid area while I shopped. That evening, Xander and I went to watch Grandpa play volleyball, then we went to Eberwhite Park, which is easily the coolest park I've ever seen.
I went to Chicago rather spontaneously, to have one of my last weekends alone before the new baby comes and starts using me as a constant food source for at least at year. Why Chicago? I like it there, I'm comfortable there, and my high school friend Javi was there for a convention. On Saturday, I had lunch with Javi, then later went out with him and his minions. That's the group of pointing people. After that, we went to see "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind".
Boring pictures, here. The concrete trucks showed up at about 5:45am to pour the foundation of a house on our court. I took pictures so I could complain, but I never did.
13 members of MOMS Club came over to my house to relax. We got massages from a professional masseuse, ate lots of good food, made our own lotion, and gave ourselves facials. It was lovely!
Troy and his family are heading to Japan for a year, so we went up for a whirlwind trip to say goodbye. My aunt Kathi and her daughter Morgan, as well as my aunt Nancy's son Brett were also there, just for the week, so it worked out perfectly!
Just some pictures of me pregnant, including 28 weeks pictures, bikini pictures, and some cute ones of Xander and my belly. Also some cute pictures of me and Xander!
Friday, August 19: Julie's Wedding Weekend - playing outside at our house
We took it easy this day. We spend a lot of time outside with the kids because it was gorgeous out, and they loved playing the pool. The battery-powered motorcycles were a big hit, too!
We had the clever idea to split up the parents, so that we took turns with the kids. Half of us took the kids to the park and McDonalds in the morning while the others played Game of Thrones. In the afternoon, we played Settlers of Catan while the other half wrangled the kids until wedding time.
The wedding was beautiful! The ceremony was lovely (no pictures of that) and we had fun afterwards chatting and even dancing a little bit. I got to meet Declan, but failed to get any pictures of him. That's all right, I guess, I'm sure he's not lacking for photos.
Sunday, August 21: Julie's Wedding Weekend - hanging out at our house
More pictures from our weekend hanging out with everyone. This day was mostly spent with Mark, Kat, Mike, Dave, Holly, and Delia, because the Pittsburghers headed home pretty early. Cute pictures of Connor and Kira in Xander's car!
We had a neighborhood picnic, which was a lot of fun! It was a great way for us to meet all of our new neighbors, and spend some time with the ones we already knew. I had a lot more fun than I did last year, probably because I knew a lot of people. Xander loved the firetruck and the police car that came to visit!
We celebrated Mackenzie, Cassie, and (little) Megan's birthdays at a party at Megan's house. The kids had a great time splashing in the pool. It was pleasantly cool (~80), so we all enjoyed ourselves.
Nancy and I went to a bridal expo today, and the dress that she's been drooling over on the internet was actually there! She's been carrying the picture of it in her purse for three months now, so I got a picture of her with the picture with the dress.
Nancy and I shopped for wedding dresses and had a great time! I fear that the 'perfect' dress that we saw at the expo may have been edged out, but we'll see! There were many that were beautiful on her, so she has plenty to choose from
