Summer round-up

Today is officially the first day of autumn! I love the fall. I have better clothes for the fall. And autumn means soup season. Yesterday was a hearty 13 bean chili and today shall be a beef stew. This also marks the beginning of hot cocoa and peppermint tea in front of a cozy fire. Oh, I love this time of year....EXCEPT the part where I get to rake bags upon bags of leaves. But it's worth it, I suppose.

Just to catch everyone up on the summer's news... My belly has been growing--that's right--I'm pregnant and baby is due mid-February. We're planning on a home birth. I have a wonderful midwife and am very excited about this decision. We also are not finding out the gender until birth! What an exciting surprise it will be.

Thayen has also been growing. He's jumping and playing with "swords" and "guns" and this is not something we taught him. His carrot is a gun...the markers can be put together to make a sword...His bunny can be used as whip or a club. I guess boys just figure this stuff out on there own somehow. And he is all boy! His vocabulary has expanded and will repeat anything you say these days. His first sentences were, "Where did it go?" and "I don't know." Kind of interesting...

Lots of days were spent on trips to the park, hiking, and days at home playing in the whale pool. Tim and I celebrated our birthdays in July. I turned 26 and he is now 27. So young still! To top off our summer (where weekends were spent on house projects) we took a two week vacation to Italy! My next several blogs will be about the trip and it might take me a while to get it all up, so be patient with me.

Here are some pics from the summer:

Birthday date at the Melting Pot (overpriced fondue joint, but extremely good food and kind of a fun place to eat)

A hike above Spokane Valley

The hit of the summer--the whale pool

A morning at the park

That is my brave little boy in the front with dad! He marched right up to the front of the line to ride this elephant and was so excited.