Social Butterflies

Sometimes I amaze myself at how much I pack in while I'm home, but there is nothing more I love than catching up with family and dear friends. There was not one day that we didn't have multiple gatherings to attend. Bennett enjoyed all the action and I think I may have created a mini version of myself on the social curcuit. :) This is going to be a looong posting, so I apologize, but I wanted to capture all the moments of our wonderful trip home. Definitely one to remember.

Mom's 60th Birthday Dinner on June 26th. Happy Birthday Mom!! We love you SO much!

So nice to have an adult night on the town to celebrate my incredible mama minus the kiddo. We hired our first paid babysitter (a good family friend).

Mom and Golden Boy



Baby Elie arrived on June 26th, what a special day. I was so happy I was in town to meet her! She is so sweet.


Out for a morning stroll.

Helping Papa water.

At Grandma's on Sunday, Carter ran up and jumped into Justin's arms to give him a big hug. They have such a special bond.

The cute cousins

Justin and his two favorite guys

Uncle Kyle adores his Godson Grandma was on feeding duty, diaper duty, bathtime duty, bedtime duty....you name it....she did it. THANK YOU mom for a much needed and appreciated break. :)

Auntie Katie and B during lunch at Peg's

We celebrated Kennedy's 1st Birthday a week early since we'll miss her party. So sad to miss it, but what a treat to watch her open her gifts in person.Bennett showing Kennedy her card.

Her new baby doll from cousin Bennett.

My friend Meagan drove down from Olympia for our GU girls dinner and then came over to meet B for the first time. He pulled everything out of her purse and chewed on it too.

Portland Playdates

Bennett and I arrived in Portland on Monday and boy, what a busy week we've had visiting friends and fam. We've had playdates scheduled everyday which has been fun not only for B, but mommy too!

Leaving PDX with the kiddos in tow. Don't worry, Katie and I stopped for coffee along the way.

Monday playdate with the cousins. And no, we did NOT plan for them to be in matching green and white stripes, but they look pretty cute don't they? :)

Little C playing some tunes for us. He is full of energy and pure entertainment. He told me he was 3 about 10 times. Being 3 and a big boy is important to remind people.

Ahhhh how sweet are they? I always cherish the times we get to spend with Kennedy and Carter. We miss them very much.

Tuesday playdate at Katie and Jack's. While we were there Bennett crawled for the first time! He took about 6 crawls forward to Katie who was sorting through all her baby girl clothes (she is in labor delivering her baby girl as I blog this morning). It was so exciting to see B crawl forward finally! Of course he performed for the pediatric OT. Did they plan that?

Jack and B spent most of their time playing under the kitchen table. Jack was very helpful and loving to B. He loves to laugh and liked following me around everywhere. It's probably b/c his mommy and I talk on the phone everyday. He calls me "CiCi". He is so cute!

Wednesday playdate at Molly's with Jack and Lauren. Jack and Lauren are adorable and have the sweetest personalities. They are very busy and full of energy.

Jack got hot and wanted to take his shirt off while we were playing outside- he's so funny. He was so protective of B. He is such a good big brother.

Lauren was always right by B. I think they were kind of flirting a little. B knows a pretty girl when he sees one. :)

One of my favorite pictures of the week with Lauren and B.

Every afternoon we play out in Papa's backyard.

Relaxing with Papa.

Thursday playdate at Auntie Val's. They have so much fun together.

Thursday night two of my college friends, Jill and Fin, came out for dinner. So fun to spend time with them.

Father's Day

Happy 1st Father's Day to my wonderful hubby! Watching Justin with our precious son everyday makes me so incredibly happy. He is such an amazing, loving father to Bennett. We are truly blessed.

We took Justin to the beach yesterday for a picnic lunch to celebrate his first Father's Day and had a great time. The weather was perfect and B LOVED the sand. In fact, I'm still finding sand in things today and probably will be for days. :)

Of course we can't forget to give a shout out to our two awesome dads and my hilarious Papa. We'll be celebrating with Julius this afternoon at our BBQ and then tomorrow with my Dad and Papa. We love you so much and are so grateful for all your love and support.

I love this picture.

Riding on Dad's shoulders is a favorite.

B loved digging in the sand.

I packed a ton of toys for our picnic, but what does B like best.......a carrot!

My cute little beach baby.

B delivered his card to Daddy in bed this morning.

Wearing Daddy's favorite Giants hat.

What Happened to My Baby?

I can't tell you how much I love watching Bennett explore and discover new things, but sometimes I feel like he's growing up too fast. It seems like he's doing something new everyday and it's so exciting! This afternoon he was watching me eat an apple and kept opening his mouth imitating me take bites, so I thought what better time to try giving him crackers again (The Gerber graduate rice puffs - we've tried multiple times before but he wasn't interested). He started chowing down on the crackers and then insisted on having my apple so I let him have it! I ended up cutting him small bites which he seemed to enjoy, although it was quite tart. The faces he made after each bite were priceless!

Trying so hard to take a bite.

This feels good on my teeth Mom.

After he was done with crackers it was time to chew the container. :)

And then the lid........

Day at the Zoo!

This past week poor Bennett and I were stuck in the house sick as dogs. Little B had a fever, cough, cold and double ear infection (for about 9 days) and I caught it from him. Bennett was such a trooper through all of it that we wanted to take him someplace fun when he felt better. So today we took him to the SF Zoo to see the new baby gorilla. Bennett seems to love ALL animals. We got the biggest reaction out of the animals that he could see close up. It's so neat to show him the animals that we read about daily.

All bundled up and ready for the zoo.

Justin was so good about pointing everything out to B. Such a good Dad!

Smiling at the bunnies in the Children's Zoo.

Bennett's first carousel ride. He never let go of the pole.

We carried him around a lot of the time. I don't think I've put B down much in the past 2 weeks. I couldn't spoil him enough while he was under the weather.

Watching the tortoise eat lunch.

We ate lunch by the pink flamingos.

Hasani, the baby gorilla, is in the back of the picture. She was tiny and so cute!

The giraffe was one of the only bigger animals Bennett could see close up.