Flashback Friday

Brad and the boys and I are in Iowa for my Aunt Joyce's funeral tomorrow. Here are our kids with Joyce and Kelly in the summer of 2003.

The Month in Cuteness and Some Adults Too

This post will have no rhyme or reason, just a bunch of random pictures of four cute babies from the past month. Here's Lloyd swinging in Denver.

Rosie was at the Warsaw Botanical Gardens last weekend with her newest prized possession: her backpack.

Rosie with some of her daycare buddies.

Owen turns 3 months very soon. He's found a new friend. Rosie also likes hedgehogs so they have that in common.

Freddie is 11 months and already driving. 

A crime scene? Or two brothers taking a bath together? You decide. 

It's summertime in Baltimore and Owen's ready.

Rosie turned 2 on June 2. This girl just wants to have fun.

Owen and Mary are getting a head start on some summer reading.

Bath brothers working side by side.

In Arizona, we had dinner in Sun City last weekend with Geneva, Barry, Wendy, and Kelsey.

I've spent the week with Geneva in Sun City. Yesterday she celebrated exactly one month since her spinal fusion. And today her 16th great-grandchild was born to one of our nieces. So it's been a good week.

Bye Bye Baltimore

We've had a fun month in Baltimore. When we got here on April 13, Owen wasn't even quite a month old. Now he's already 7 1/2 weeks old and many pounds heavier. I don't need to tell you that we loved getting to spend so much time with him. We left town yesterday and now we're on our way to Warsaw. But before we left we had a whirlwind last week in Baltimore.

On Saturday we gathered at Mary and Andy's house to watch the Kinetic Sculpture Race, sponsored by the American Visionary Arts Museum.

The alligator was my favorite kinetic sculpture. All sculptures had to ride on dry land, in the water, and in mud. We only watched them on dry land though.

Peter and Jessa's college friend Ana - also a Harrison family friend - drove down from Pennsylvania and spent the day with us. We always enjoy seeing her.

The next day our niece and nephew, Kelsey and Kyle, drove up from DC and we got to catch up with them.

That same evening, Andy's parents came over and we spent some time outside while Owen slept in the fresh air.

Other highlights from the week were that Owen and I got to be twins when we realized we had the same fashion taste.

And it was great to keep getting to spend quiet weekday time with Mary and Owen.

I treasure the time we got to be with this sweet baby these past four weeks. I wish we could spend even more time here, but with three cousins that we want to be with just as much, we've become a traveling grandparent road show. Which is a pretty wonderful thing to get to be.




 

Hanging Out With the Boys

I had fun spending some time with the Denver crew earlier this month. Freddie is already eight months old.

He has so many "looks" that I did a little collage.

Lloyd's not so much a guy with many looks as he is a guy with one obsession: his bike. He really loves to ride. One day while I was there John brought the boys on their cargo bike and I followed along on a regular bike and we went to a family bike event. Here's Lloyd at our destination, which included donuts.

Freddie was, quite literally, just along for the ride, and also some nice one-on-one time with his dad.

This is what I mean when I say "just along for the ride."

We met up at Breckenridge Brewery for a beautiful day outside with Kathy, Don, and Lauren.

The next day I took Lloyd to Wings Over the Rockies, also known as the airplane museum. He loves it, especially the helicopters.

It was fun to have book time with them every night.

On my last day in town John, Lloyd, Lauren, and I went out to brunch followed by a thrifting trip where Lloyd got a toy train. 

John and Troy and Lloyd and Freddie have a lot happening. Troy has her back surgery tomorrow. And then later in the week they move to this cute house very close to where they live now, and where they'll have a backyard and more indoor space. 

Flashback Friday

In the summer of 2003, the kids and I were at Aunt Joyce and Uncle Kelly's house in Rancho Bernardo. Earlier this week, Joyce passed away. She had lived in memory care here in Tucson for the past three years. Even though Alzheimer's took Joyce's memory, it didn't take her spirit. She was like a ray of sunshine: happy and loving and positive every week when I saw her. I'm going to miss her a lot.

Byyyyyye January

I haven't done one regular blog post all month. So here I am, making up for a lot of lost blogging time. Let's start at the beginning of the month. Or, more accurately, the very end of last month. We went to Pasadena for the Rose Parade with our friends Tucson friends Tim and Mary. Here we watched the floats being made.

We also visited the Huntington Gardens in San Marino. 

We toured the Gamble House, an arts and crafts residence in Pasadena.

And we went to the Santa Monica Pier. 

The highlight was the parade. It wasn't very cold, contrary to all appearances. The coda to this entire trip was, of course, the fires that came just a few days later. There aren't words for any of that.

After the parade festivities were over, Brad and I headed south on our way to the San Diego airport. One of our stops was to have dinner with the Reckinger crew. And we got to meet our great niece Ruby. Such a sweetie.

While in California I ran a tune-up 5k and received an unexpected first place medal among all females in the race. Not first female in my age group. First female. I have to brag it up, but to be honest it was a small and obviously not at all competitive field and it will likely never happen again.

After our time in California, Brad flew to Baltimore and closed on our first ever second home. While he was there, Baltimore got some snow and bitterly cold temps. He spent three weeks getting the house furnished and put together. I've yet to see it in person but I'm looking forward to a trip there in just a couple weeks.

Meanwhile, I drove home to Tucson. After a few days I was joined by our Wisconsin friends, Mary and Paul. They stayed at our house for three nights and we had a wonderful visit.

Meanwhile, the grandkids kept busy. Lloyd played peek-a-boo.

And he kept the bear well-nourished.

Freddie turned 6 months old and he started eating solid food.

He also started trying to figure out why his big brother is so interested in dump trucks.

And he worked on his standing.

Meanwhile over in Warsaw, Rosie worked on her standing too. Standing tall, that is, in an amazing outfit.

Slowly but surely the dark winter days in Warsaw are getting longer and lighter. But while it's still winter, Rosie's learning that a little pink - or in her case a lot of pink - really brightens up one's outlook.

Finally there's grandchild #4, who will make their appearance in about two months. Mary's 32 weeks along. She and Andy got to see a lot of Brad while he was in Baltimore as he stayed with them for two weeks. And our new place is just a few blocks from their house. Here is Mary, out to breakfast with Brad. It worked out that while he was there she had one holiday, around two snow days, and some late starts due to weather. Next month we'll be in Baltimore as we're hosting a baby shower with Andy's parents. And with that, I'm considering January to be caught up!