Summer Getaway

Well, now we're officially back to reality. All summer vacations are taken and I'm reluctantly shifting my focus to the fall. Growing up in South Texas, where summer typically meant 6/7 days a week were spent living like a vampire during the day and venturing out only in the early morning or evening, or maybe to the pool if it was shaded, I never loved summer. But up here it's really become one of my favorite seasons. Beaches, sand, salt water and fresh, pools, bbqs, picnics, boats, laying out... bring it on!

A few pics from my day working from home first though. Dinner is all prepped for Bill so I can hit the gym.

Mango decided she wanted to make something as well.

But first, she had some pasta and sweet potatoes

Going through the pantry, her favorite cabinet in the kitchen

Moira is now clapping all the time and in clapping appropriate situations (like when we're done changing her diaper!), I'm teaching her to blow kisses, she is chatting up a storm, stands on her own, can climb off the bed or couch on her own and not only walks with a walker but will scoot her walker along when it hits a dead end. She eats like a champ: chicken, meatballs, turkey, meatloaf, cheese, pasta, all grains, breads, tons of veggies; she's almost completely on whole milk and loves her sippy cups. She really is fantastic!

This month at school they're teaching about textures so she's playing with lots of paints, crumpling paper, and getting a sense of how different things feel. Her favorite toy is the walker, she's started stealing other baby's food, she loves dancing, art and storytime. At home she loves to go through her toys and sit in her chair but also climb on anything she can and push around objects. She loves watching other kids, and is fascinated by older kids especially. She was also very interested in making friends with a baby at my core class a few weeks ago. She doesn't gravitate to any one of her dozens of stuffed animals and really prefers to play with books. I can tell she's going to have a vivacious personality, a temper (we've already had a few mini tantrums) and be a girly girl who likes to get her way. She's been such an easy baby that it's interesting to get into the toddler phase but at the end of the day she's such a sweet, happy kiddo that I think we'll be all good.

LOVES her books!

I can just tell in this pic that she's chatting.

Check out that walking!

Getting along!

She's looking more like me as she gets older, that's definitely a baby expression of mine.

Charlie was asking for Mo on Monday when he got home from school, very sweet!

We had an excellent time as well this weekend and it flew by way too fast. After a quick lobster roll stop at for possibly the best lobster roll I've ever had at The Barking Claw, we hit the beach the minute we got in, and stayed in the private beach area all weekend. The beach there was much better than last year. Combed of the rocks and not nearly as seaweedy. We chilled on the balcony and drank some rose then hit up the local Mexican hotspot in town.

Our private balcony fron our room, and a little rose

Before heading out the first night

And because I love posting pics to instagram (and therefore facebook and twitter) and because I'm friends with half of Bill's friends, his Boston guys got wind that we were out on the Cape and invited us to join them on Saturday. It turned out his friend Tom had just bought a beach house in the same town we were staying in, just a few blocks away. He also has a boat membership (like zipcar for boats) and invited us out with their friend John, who we last visited over Memorial Day, and some other local buddies. He also has a jetski so we took both out to a little sand bar beach, hung out all day, possibly killed the jetski and then came back to a nearby raw bar for a last drink before heading home. That night we just did a simple wine bar and crashed early.

Oh, Obama was in Martha's Vineyard that weekend too, we think those 2 blips in the sky are Marine One. 

My "I'm on a boat" selfie

Oyster farms... yum!

We spent all day Sunday at the beach, in and out of the fantastic water, and then that night headed back into town for a really amazing Italian dinner, then local ice cream after. Monday we hit breaskfast early (did I mention this place had an amazing spread for breakfast?), then hit the road to pick up Mo and head home. Short but very very sweet and relaxing.

The short path to the beach

View of the private beach

Love this guy!

Our last night... I even curled my hair!

Just one of the amazing breakfasts'!

And back to reality. It's been another slow week at work. I'm heading back to my spin place tomorrow (loved the place and the class last week, btw!). We got 2 quotes for the bathroom and one is very doable so I think we're going in that direction. I've been spending the day looking at bathroom vanities and tile and think I have it narrowed down. The reasonable contractor even said it'd only take him a week to renovate so this is really much better than we had expected (plus my dream house is still on the market... !).

Everything is basically set for the party, tons of supplies arrived last week and I naturally (OCD me) have grocery lists and daily itineraries already planned out. We're also planning to have a mini birthday dinner for Mango on her actual birthday with both Grandparents, Aunt Joanie and Bill and I at the Brunch with my Baby approved Lupa. It's all going to be great. After that it's concerts (Gaslight Anthem in Jersey, Tom Petty at MSG), my birthday (yikes!), my busy season at work revs up and then the Texas tour in October: flying to SA for Teresa and Chris' Texas reception, ACL that Sunday in Austin, possibly a hill country winery tour for Bill and I, then driving to Dallas the next weekend for an SMU game and hanging with Brenda, Brandon and Sophia in their awesome new house! My goodness...

Trying to figure out who we were on Monday....

Upcoming:

• Everything I just wrote above... 
• Still planning to have a playdate with Jade and Luna
• Birthday!!! Family birthday dinner then the party the next day!
• My birthday week is unintentionally turning out to be quite an affair already: the Friday before one of my reps invited me to a Long Island winery tour, that Saturday we head to Jersey for the Gaslight show, that Monday I have a wine week lunch with some reps and buyers I like, and Tues we're heading to MSG for Tom Petty (my birthday present to Bill).
• Oct it's back to Texas... the Texas tour!
• Houses! Bathrooms renovated! Apt on the market! Finding our dream place!