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Day at the beach

Seth's friends Evan and Maya invited us to their Grandparents beach house in Hull, MA. Seven kids in total. It was a little chilly, but that didn't stop the fun. We spent the day eating, playing in the sand, playing on a beach themed playground, Seth riding his first carousel (video coming), and even going in the water (it was freezing!). Thanks for inviting us - we had a blast!

Justin Scooting...

Cute Brothers

End of Social Butterflies

Today, Justin finished his very first class. Social Butterflies has been so much fun to take with Justin. It really has been wonderful to spend an uninterrupted hour each week playing and singing with Justin. We have already signed up for the next class... Movers & Grovers.

Summer & Katherine's Wedding

What a fantastic time we had at Summer and Katherine's Wedding. It was held at this amazing b&b near Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The love, ceremony, party, food and seeing friends was all amazing. Jerald and I met Summer during our first year of law school. Summer quickly became one of our closest friends. She is fiercely loyal and was always able to make us laugh during our harder days. We were so thrilled to bring the whole family to celebrate with her, Katherine, and their four year old son Myles. Their was such a wonderful energy to the whole wedding. All the family and friends were just so happy for the couple and thrilled that in Massachusetts they were able to marry as they should be able to in their home state of California. Seth helped with the kazoo processional. We were so happy to get to spend time with Christine, Kevin, their new baby Isabel and Cat!
Seth hit it off with Myles right away. Seth spent most of the wedding running after Myles who was running after his bigger cousins. They all had a great time. This is the only family picture we could get. Seth is very interested in looking at pictures but not being in them.

9 Months Old!!!

So these pictures are getting much harder to take - we have many outtakes and the sign might not make it to the end. It has been another eventful month for Justin. He started out the month by enjoying his first time in the pool and his first time at the beach. If you are not paying attention - Justin will quickly grab a handful of sand and stick it his mouth! He did get to eat better things this month like his first bagel and now we have been giving him bread whenever we are out in restaurants. He loves it! The big news is that Justin can now push himself up and rock back and forth on his knees and to scoot backwards. We have his 9 month old doctor appointment next week where we will find out his height and weight. Any bets? We also are going to have him tested to see what food allergies he has.

Update...

Weight = 21 pounds 8 ounces - 50th-75th%

Height = 29 3/4 inches - 90th%

Staycation

Day #1 - Unfortunately, we didn't get to do a vacation away with Jerald's whole family, so we decided instead to do a short staycation with Nana, Aunt Na, Uncle Jason and Becca. The first day we all drove down to Aunt Na, Uncle Jason, and Becca's house in Sharon, met Nana, and headed to their town lake. It was a great morning at the beach. We all played in the water and the sand and had a nice lunch on the beach. It was very cute watching Becca following Seth and Justin trying to follow Becca. The boys are so lucky to have so much wonderful family nearby and it's fun to see the cousins grow up together! The little one's napped and then we had a yummy dinner at the Cheesecake factory (thanks Nana!). Then we headed back home for marathon unpacking and repacking.

Day #2 - The corn maze! Aunt Na told us a few months back about this giant corn maze in central Mass and we couldn't wait to go. Seth has been wanting to go to a maze ever since we saw a Curious George episode where he went to a corn maze race. It was a ridiculously hot and sticky day (as you can see from the pictures) but we had a ton of fun! Seth really enjoyed carrying his map and deciding which way to turn and since none of us really knew where we were going we didn't mind having him lead. Of course, Nana and Aunt Na wanted to stop and get all of the clues, but ultimately we pretty much guessed our way through the maze. There were also activity zones with climbing structures, zip lines and other fun stuff, which were a nice break from the maze. We stuck together and did the maze in an hour and a half. Seth had so much fun he didn't want to ring the victory bell at the end because he didn't want it to end. After the maze we had lunch and a water balloon fight, which was a great way to end the staycation. Thanks to Nana, Aunt Na, Uncle Jason and Becca - we had so much fun with you!!! Hopefully we can do a vacation with Jerald's full family sometime soon.

Scooting

With all of our traveling and fun adventures this month - we haven't had a chance to post about Justin kind of moving. For a week or two now - he has been able to push himself up and rock back and forth on his knees and to scoot backwards. This gets him stuck in some funny places. I think Justin is getting pretty frustrated about not being able to move forward.

Friends in NY

We were able to get to spend time with so many of our close NY friends. Thanks to everyone who came out to see us at my parents house. And we are sorry to have missed seeing some of you who were out of town. We will be back soon!

Stacey, Mikey (in my original baby playgroup), and their two sons Noah and Cole came and played with us in the heat. The bigger boys played in the pool, the McDonald's kitchen that my Mom got at a yard sale (Seth doesn't know what McDonald's is - so he keeps calling it "Old McDonald"). Lots of fun!High School friends Marci, Brian and Ben came out for a fun BBQ. It was really great to spend some quality time catching up and having fun. It had been way too long!One of my oldest and dearest friends, Rebecca, came to visit with her little boy Ben and her Mom! Her husband Danny came for a short visit later. Seth and Ben had fun in and out of the pool and eating lunch together. My friend Stefanie came to visit with her adorable baby Samantha and her Mom. Our Mom's got to have a playdate also! Her older son was at camp. It was so much fun to see them. Stef and I met at nursery school and then spent many summers at sleep away camp together. We were really able to reconnect when Seth was born and I turned to her on countless occasions for help and sanity!

Last but not least, my college friend Vicky came to visit with her daughter Lucy. The last time I saw Vicky I was pregnant with Justin and she was pregnant with Lucy - just two weeks from giving birth. I am sad that it has taken this long for us to see each other - but travel with kids is never easy. We vowed to try to see each other more. In the meantime - it was such a joy to see her and to give Lucy lots of hugs and kisses.

Family in NY

The boys and I are getting ready to head back to Boston, Jerald went back Sunday night. We have had such a wonderful time staying with Grandma, Pa, Great-Grandma, and Great-Pa. We have had lots of fun playing in the house, in "Pa's Pool," and with other family and friends who came to visit us.

My cousins Wilson, Catesby and her boyfriend Mateiu came by to visit. (you guys are on the blog!!! thanks for reading). We hadn't seen them in such a long time. It was wonderful to spend time with them!

It was really special to have Seth and Justin have such a long visit with my grandparents. I feel like they all really got to know each other. Every time Great-Grandma walks into a room - Justin breaks out into a big smile and raises his arms over his head. Very cute! Yesterday at lunch, Great-Pa spent a half an hour making silly noises to make Justin laugh. Wonderful memories!!!

Uncle Joshy was able to get some free time from his new job to come and see his nephews.

As always, the boys had an amazing time with Grandma and Pa. I don't think I can even remember all the wonderful times they had together. Just a great fun week - thanks for everything!!!