First Day, Second Grade.

And, oh, SO excited.
I LOVE this girl.

August: Family, friends, food, fun and..... surgery??

Here we are at the end of AUGUST! Yikes. I can't believe how this summer has flown by. Maybe it was the lack of summer that came with it, or the busy days, but for whatever reason, I am not ready for Sophia to be back to school and the end of my sunny days to be in sight. This month has brought a lot of fun and positivity, along with a lot of emotion and stress.

Sophia and I spent a weekend flying to California for a family (bittersweet) memorial. We mourned the loss of Grandparents, while spending some wonderful time with family. We crammed some great quality time in two days for instance:

Nature walks to the skinny dippin' hole

Time with Brother John and his beautiful wife and baby.

The Fasana Posse dinner.

And some much needed, dirty play time with the Loosh.

On the way out, we flew out of a tiny airport in Santa Rosa. Good thing we got there two hours early to sit in the one room airport with the other 20 people. hmmm. Lucky for us, it was the Charles M. Schultz airport, so we had some friends to visit/pose with while waiting in the sunshine!

Charlie Brown, Linus and Sophia!

So, following a weekend in California, we returned to spend 2 days in the hospital. We had a planned procedure, Sophia had a minor surgery and we had to spend the night. She is great, healthy, healing up wonderfully, but it brought a lot of stress for parents! Yikes. Of course, in Sophia's social way, she made a great new friend. We shared a room with another little girl that had the exact same procedure done about an hour prior to Sophia. She was 5 and the two girls had a great time together... considering they were each bound to a gurney.

This is right as we were released to head home - Sophia and Kirsten.

To top it all off, Trav and I celebrated our 1st (married) anniversary yesterday. We hit the beach for breakfast, brought Sophia home and then went back to the beach for shopping, dreaming of lake houses and Thai food dinner. Happy 1st, we made it.

The Dexters

Well, I spent the weekend helping one of my dearest friends to start a new chapter in her life! Congratulations to the most beautiful bride EVER, and her husband: Albert and Vanessa - Now they are off to Antigua. I wasn't sure what this looked like, so I had to check out some Google images, I am so jealous. I hope you guys enjoy your honeymoon and many years to follow!

birthday wedding birthday

We had an eventful and fun weekend, however, I am so glad I took today off to recuperate! My mom had a beautiful bbq on Friday for the July/August Birthdays. We celebrated about 5 birthdays in one night, it was quite the celebration. Because of all the events this weekend, we got an extra special treat of family in town. My brother John and his wife and daughter came up from Reno. Skylar is about 20 months old and pretty dang cute. She is such a little person, with more attitude than I would think could fit in her little body. But she is SO darn cute! I am horrible about taking pictures, so here is the one I got of her, with my phone:

She is handing me a plastic pizza cutter :) so. so. cute.

We also had a beautiful wedding on Saturday - Lydia, my step-sister got married. What a beautiful wedding, at a gorgeous setting. They held a small wedding at the groom's parents house. Lydia looked amazing and was glowing with happiness, which was wonderful to see.
Congrats Joe and Lydia - love you guys!

Sunday morning we woke up and began the big birthday for Sophia, she is officially 7 today. Wow, where did that time go. We had a great birthday at the park, it was hot and the fountains were much appreciated by the kiddos! She is growing into quite the young lady. Sometimes I catch her being a kiddo, sometimes she seems more like she's 17, and I am not ready for that! We had 3 girls sleep over last night, plenty of giggling filled the house until I had to crack down and quiet them. Finally, we all slept and there was peace in the house.

Happy Birthday to my sweetest gift ever - I love you Sophia! Here's to another great year with you --

Oh I still love you, New York.

Well, we're back. New York was great - so much walking. I was wishing I had worn a pedometer for a couple of the days, it would be interesting to know what kind of mileage I put in. My legs are still aching. This year, we didn't hit nearly as many museums, but we had a blast. I saw Coney Island for the first time and rode the rickety old roller coaster there - yikes! It was quite scary, I wish I could've stayed for this weekend, Coney Island had a mermaid festival yesterday that I would love to see one day. Holy nudity:

We also hit Six Flags in New Jersey this trip. It was a fist-pumping, Jersey Shore, guido-filled day of fun. I fit right in! :) Now, I have never been to a Six Flags. I was expecting 2 good roller coasters and a bunch of other mediocre ones. Nope. Not the case at all. This place is full of fright! We went on at least 10 roller coasters, all of which gave me massive anxiety prior to loading. Never have I felt so excited and stupid at the same time. It was so fun - muggy and hot, but super fun.
One other thing that Travis and I had on our to-do list this year was see the bamboo exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Travis has built this pretty heavy obsession with bamboo in the past few years - it will be taking over our house in about 10 years, I am sure. So, with this love, how lucky for us to land in NY while this exhibit was on display. WOW, and what a job. These guys just sit around tying bamboo together, listening to music all day. They have created this structure that is crazy. Huge. And, it has a complete walkway that you can take a tour and walk through.

The steps -

up close -

From Central Park -

and happy to be home ~

My princess, among other things...

As the end of the school year wraps up, so does ballet for the season. Sophia's ballet class is putting on their final performance this weekend - yes, ALL weekend. She has ballet coming out her ears, from Wednesday to Sunday. This year, they are performing Giselle. Travis and I went and watched last night, she was wonderful. It never gets easier, I try to not cry, and I am SO filled with pride. Wow, amazing what that girl does to me! Well, here are a couple of photos that we took on Thursday during dress rehearsal, not on stage, but in her costume.


I didn't realize until now, she is quite tall, wow, she is growing fast!

In other news, I had to make some posters for a literacy project that I participate in and for one of them, my family starred. Here's the final look! Travis hates it, but look how happy Sophia is, and Nico is pretty cute too!

Life - so far 2010.

Well, so far, 2010 has been rough. I have mentally decided, I am getting OUT of this funk, sunshine or no sunshine! With the loss of both Grandfathers and one Grandmother since last September, I have definitely been falling, physically and mentally. I have been sick now for about 6 weeks straight - 3 body infections, pinkeye and some crazy sore throat that just won't quit. I went to the Dr for the sore throat and she called the next day to ask if I wanted anti-depressants... ummm, that's weird! Do those help with sore throats? haha, anyway, um no thanks. I think the best thing I can do and the thing my body REALLY needs is for me to chill it out. Find some time for me, relax. Lose the stress and I think I will lose the sick. Most of the stressful situations have passed, we have survived all of them, my grieving has slowed and am finally at the point where I have taken responsibility and decided, if something needs changed, change it. The only thing left is Sophia's surgery, August 16th. I am nervous, but I know the idea of not having it done is SO much worse than just sucking it up and getting it done. Once that is over, no more excuses, I am getting out of this funk once and for all. In the meantime: naps, shrink, positive thoughts.

Oh, and vacation to New York: countdown is 2 weeks. YIPEE!