Back to Work

Well, tonight is our last night with Daddy as he is headed back to work early tomorrow morning.  We've had a great month with him home so having him leave won't be so hard this time.....I hope.  Today has been extra special for Ethan and us.  Usually after school we pick up Ethan and head home for some quiet time before his friends get home from school.  Today we went to Dairy Queen and got ice cream cones! For dinner we went out to Mexican.  Yumm.

Ethan will be the Star Student at school soon so we have a project to work on about him.  As a family we sat down to work on it and needed a picture of our family.  Realizing we didn't have a very recent one we decided to take one.

This one month has seemed longer because we've packed so much in.  Unfortunately Josh came home for Grandma Barbie's funeral.  So we traveled to CA for a quick weekend.

Josh enjoying the leg room on our flight to LA.

We had fun playing on the beach for a few hours, swimming in Uncle Jeff and Aunt Sharon's pool and seeing our family.

Manhattan Beach CA

Jeff and Sharon's pool - NICE!

Our ultrasound appointment was right after we got home from CA.  We had such a great time watching the tech trying to get photos of all the "important" things while our baby wriggled and moved around! Later in the day we had a party and found out we are having a girl.  Such a nice thing to share with friends and family instead of a ultrasound tech!

We were also able to take a few Fridays to see some things around town.  The first place we went was the Wings Over the Rockies.  It is an air and space museum on an old Air Force Base in town.  It was just ok for Ethan and I.  For Josh? He loved it and would've stayed for much longer if he wasn't toting us around.  (Likely why we don't have any pictures to show we've been there).

Of course there was a street-a-que here on Burberry Way one of his weekends home.  For those of you unfamiliar with that term, it is a BBQ shared with our neighbors (friends) in the street in front of the houses.  We fried up some chicken wings, french fries and all manner of unhealthy, oh so yummy food.  The kids played, danced and we all had a great time - as usual.

For Labor Day weekend (Josh's birthday weekend usually), Ethan and Josh went camping with friends.  Yea, Ethan and Josh.  I got a weekend off.  To myself.  Alone.  Josh was able to go Grouse hunting for the first time in several years and bagged two birds.  One HUGE one.

After they got back from camping we had Josh's birthday.  I baked up his favorite cake-German Chocolate.  We had our friends over, ordered wings from our favorite wing place (Wingin' It) and I fried up loads of green beans from our garden.  Josh would want me to point out that our friends got him gifts but I didn't get him one.  Yea, I'm a bad wife.  Sorry babe.  I thought baking a cake (from scratch), ordering wings, frying green beans (which aren't MY favorite) and having our friends over was gift enough.  Love you.

Several days we walked Ethan to school or rode bikes while he rode his scooter.  It was nice until the weed pollens skyrocketed! Since then I am trying to spend as little time outside as possible.

Ethan and Dad on the way to school.

While Ethan is in school, it gives Josh and I time to spend together.  Running errands, making plans for our house (mostly the baby's room), watching a movie, napping.  It has been a real treat to have those few hours in the middle of the day for just us.

Hammond's Candy Factory tour was another of our around town Friday activities.  We went with Amanda and Tavin (Ethan's buddy from across the street and his Mom-our buddy from across the street).   They make all their candy by hand there with machines from the 1800's! A pretty cool thing to watch!

Making swirl-pops.

We really should've taken some pictures in their store because it was OVERWHELMING to say the least.  The boys were bouncing all around asking for this candy cane, that sucker.  UGH!

This month has given Josh time to fall in love with Cucumber salad too.  We have them coming out of our....well, you know....so we've had to do something with them! He has made several different variations but seems to love them all.  I guess I'll be donating cucumbers for the rest of the season!

Variation 1 of many.

To say that it has been great having Josh home is an understatement.  He took charge of Ethan this whole time.  From waking up with him in the morning, getting him to school, reading stories and doing bedtime to waking up with him at night if he has an accident.  Taking that load off me solely has given me a chance to sleep in, keep up on the house, dishes, laundry, get caught up on mending, sewing for the baby, do some baking, and the list goes on.  Thank you Josh.

Carmel Nut Rolls.  Mmmmm......

Now when I say he has taken charge of Ethan that doesn't mean he hasn't had time for himself.  This last weekend we had a Shrimp Boil at a friend's house.  We wanted to get together with the friends who went camping/hunting Labor Day so that everyone could taste the Grouse cooked up in different ways.  So we used the Grouse as appetizers and had a Shrimp Boil for the main course.  Turns out everyone who COULD drink had a great time! It was pretty fun to just sit back and watch them all let loose.

CHEERS!

With that babe, I'm sending you off.  Drive safe, make lots of money and remember how much we all love you.  See you in about a month.