catchup

Hey.

So, the good news is that my brother is up here hanging out with us this week! (crowds cheering)  But, the bad news is that I'm spending my blogging time doing things like visiting with him.  Well, that's not bad news - but it is detrimental to blogging, which is unfortunate because there is SO much to blog about.  So, here's a bit of a catch all post. 

Let's start with soccer.  Last Saturday, Kyle and I took Elizabeth and drove down to Foxboro to watch the US Men's National Team play Spain (aka: the best team in the world)  Kyle likes soccer a little (read: understatement) and so he splurged and got us some great seats with access to the nice club level amenities...the most appreciated of which was air conditioning. :)  We didn't expect to win, but despite our 0-4 loss, we all had a great time.  

Beer? Check. Baby? Check. 

Happy Happy Hubby

After the game, Kyle had passes to go out on the field.  It's kinda fun cause you get to take pics and roll around in the grass and pretend you're being cheered on by tens of thousands of fans etc etc.  But, because the Spain team requested and after game practice session (really?) - our access was delayed from 15 mins post game, to an hour after the game.  But, of course, we waited.  Elizabeth did great all day - she spent a good bit of time in her sling of course, but also enjoyed being out and about getting comments and attention from the passers by.

Cuddled up with daddy

of course she had to be festive, too

 stadium at sunset

So, it was a great time.  We both enjoyed ourselves, and it was nice to get out of the house and treat ourselves to an event like that.  We left Abs at home (with her nanny of course) because we would have had to buy her a ticket and she would have been too restless and tired.  She had a great time at home though.

The next day, my brother got in to town.  He missed his first flight, which had a domino effect for the rest of the day, but he got here just before midnight.  Abby is very much enjoying having her uncle around and we've spent our days doing a combo of normal-everyday-stuf like grocery shopping, errands, the park, and playing at home as well as a few special things.

The other day, we went on a "treasure hunt"with Michael.  We walked around the reservoir and looked for things like rocks and acorns and sticks.  Great stuff.  Abby had fun wearing Michael's hat and I had fun capturing a few pictures of her in it.

We eventually found a big tree that was just begging to be climbed.  If you know my brother - it won't surprise you at all to know that he was up there pretty quickly.  It was an appropriate backdrop for some pictures of him for sure.

Later that evening, Kyle stayed home with the girls while Michael and I went to see the Boston Pops.  It was great.  The concert was a lot of fun, and it made me miss my french horn and it made me all nostalgic for concert season and such.

waiting on the show to start

during intermission, we took a bunch of silly pictures - this one makes me laugh.

After the concert, we strolled around the city a little bit and made our way to the cheesecake factory for apps and, um, cheesecake.  Michael hadn't been to one before, so it was extra fun introducing him to the peanut butter reeses cup chocolate cake cheesecake that we shared.

Michael in the city

Ok, so that's the really short version of a lot that's been going on here this week.

In addition - my dad officially retired this week!  He's still going to be working as a part time pastor for a church, but he will be spending more time on keeping busy with all of his other activities now.  I'm sad that we couldn't be there to hear him give his retirement speech at annual conference, but I'm super proud of him and wanted to give him a public shout out for all the amazingness he's brought to the table the past 35 years.  Love you dad.

There's still a lot to write about.  My sister and her husband had birthdays earlier this week, my dad's birthday is tomorrow, and did you know that we accidentally let Elizabeth get to be 6 weeks old??

ca-razy.