Lawn Boy

Ok...has everyone out there seen Can't Buy Me Love with Patrick Dempsey from about a hundred years ago? Well yesterday, our lawn was so long, Ryan had to borrow a neighbor's lawnmower to get it mowed. Our little push mower overheated. I had no idea this was going on and when Abel and I walked outside to see this???? Well, let me just say I saw a whole new side of Ryan. It was one of the funniest moments of my life. I couldn't stop giggling at the city-boy academic riding the lawn mower....and I really couldn't help but to remember that movie. When Ryan's done with his PhD he'll be a whole different kind of Dr. McDreamy!

Door County 2

There was lots of playing with the cousins time! There are so many pictures, but these are some of my favorites!

Door County 1

Our trip to Door County was awesome. We visited with lots of family including my sister and her husband and her three kids, Hannah, Henry, and Harper, my mom and dad, my aunt and uncle, Nancy and Maury, and my cousin Christiane, her husband Joe, and daughter Lucy. Abel, Harper and Lucy are the new babies in the family and it's really fun to see them together. There was lots of playing and resting at the beach. Ryan got buried one day and Abel took a nap in a tent my mom got that we were all envious of. We also went to a horse farm one day. Hannah took her first horse ride with her parents and Abel got to ride a toy horse and play on a huge tractor with Mama!

Gymnastics Class!

I signed Abel up for classes at The Little Gym this summer. They have a whole curriculum for introducing kids to the equipment, encouraging playing together, and encouraging movement. Abel LOVED it. At the first class he absolutely squealed with delight...and I'm convinced interacting with the other kids, the balls, and the bubbles encouraged him to start crawling. Ryan will be taking him this fall (thumbs down to Mama having to go back to work!), and Abel will LOVE it!

The Stair Climber

While we were in Door County and he was moving around so easily, I took him to the stairs one day and after carefully analyzing each step and feeling all around, he proceeded to easily climb the steps. It was pretty awesome!

Crawling and Exploring

In 3 weeks, Abel has begun to seriously move. He's all over the place! He loves to explore (Wrigley and his food are some of his favorites to explore and I am determined to not move the food!) His favorite thing to find is a strap of any kind. You can put a thousand toys with him in his carseat and he plays with and sucks on the strap! He's now crawling everywhere (including stairs---that post to come) pulling himself up, moving around on his feet while holding onto something like the table, and playing independently. He also says "dada" regularly, and lots of "wow"s and "oh"s! He's officially 9 months old....I think the 3 months leading up to his one year birthday will be very interesting around here!!!

10 Year Anniversary!

It occurred to us that we never acknowledged our 10 year anniversary on our blog...and it's worth it! We have done SO MUCH together since we got married 10 years ago and I for one am very grateful to have found a partner like Ryan to spend it all with. We've taken great trips, went on an awesome adventure to NYC for 4 years where we both went to grad school, we made great friends, and realized we were truly city people, we've truly grown as educators together....and now we are in Madison where Ryan is doing amazing work and we added to our family! Anyway, I thought we'd share some pictures from our wedding. I had to actually take a picture of the pictures (can you believe that digital photography wasn't even really an option 10 years ago?) and then I added a most recent one from our trip to Door County. I know I'm biased, but I think we are an awesome threesome!