July in pictures...

Oh man....it's almost September. This is CRAZY! Although, I'm such a lover of the fall that I'm secretly just a tad excited. Cooler temps, football, sweatshirts, yoga pants instead of yoga capris, crock pot meals, red wine...the list just goes on and on. 

Let's take a step back in time for a moment and look at all we did in JULY! 

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Family pictures:

Twice after the puppet wagon on Monday, we continued on our journey to our favorite park near our house. Well, somewhat near...takes about 10 minutes to walk there. When you're pushing a 30+ lb child in a stroller and carrying a 16+ lb baby in a front carrier, it can feel much, much further. There was one day I had Conrad in the carrier for over two hours (he fell asleep and she played) and came home and could barely move. Gwendolyn had to make us all lunch and get me some Advil after that one.

I kid. I kid.

But we do love the park!

Tom turned 30!!

He went over.the.top for my 30th birthday, remember this? So naturally, I wanted to bless him and honor him on his big day. I got a baby sitter for the night before his birthday and off to dinner we went. He was all quiet on the way there and I asked him why and he told me that he was nervous because he thought I had something up my sleeve. I giggled and assured him that that was NOT the case, and this was just dinner with the two of us plus our little man, Conrad. I acted all sad pretending to feel bad that I hadn't planned anything, when really there was a table of friends waiting at our favorite local restaurant for our arrival. We walked out to the patio and he was so busy looking around for people that he knew that he didn't even notice all of them covering their faces with their menus (the below picture is a reenactment.) Upon our arrival at the table, they unveiled themselves and everyone started singing happy birthday to him. At the moment, it seemed like the entire patio had joined in. People stood up and walked over to our table. (Dana had gone table to table to let people in on it.) Tom said he felt like he was being flash mobbed. It was so great.

Nothing like flying my sister in from another state, but I think he was happy and we had a great dinner *smile.

Of course John caught it on film...

The next day we dropped both of the kids off at Miss Kathy's house and we were off to Valley Fair together! We had an awesome time, but are definitely not as brave as we used to be. We rarely had to wait in line longer than 5 minutes, and had a beautiful day. So fun!

Tom with the kiddos on his 30th birthday!

Brother + Sister = BFF

Had a Sunday night BBQ with some mommy friends and finally met husbands!

Love this picture of Tom with the kids, especially the closer one.

Love it even more in black and white...

We had Ceci and Louie over for a few hours one morning...

Four kids under three years old. I got this.

The girls sharing nicely.

Sunday evening swimming with "TrishyJohn" as Gwendolyn calls them.

Our church friend, Kyrkja, came over for a play date too so her mommy could get some work done on their garage sale. She loved Conrad and held him so nicely and just got a new baby sister herself!

Aaaaaaand that would be Gwendolyn throwing a fit on the floor because she wanted to hold her brother.

So we got a lesson in sharing and being patient that day.

Ok, Gwendolyn's turn!

Two sleeping kiddos...which means mommy was able to get ready before everyone woke up!

Grandma and Grandpa Sinclair stayed for a night on their way home from a trip to Canada, Michigan and Duluth. Park and pizza!

We made a trip out to Minnatonka for dinner with my cousin, her husband, and their four adorable kids. She's technically my second cousin, which would make the kiddos third? Either way, it was so sweet to see them together. I love family. 

Me and Gwendolyn "dancing with our babies."

And this is old, but it missed the June in Pictures post...Sophie and John came to visit! They were in town for a family reunion and made the effort to come over for a few hours to catch up. We loved seeing them!

Gwendolyn:

She had her last dance class. It was a fun experience for all of us!

We thoroughly enjoyed the summer concert series on Wednesday mornings put on by our local outdoor mall. 

And another concert on a random Friday held at Ojibway Park!

Shhhhh...they're "hiding."

I don't see Gwendolyn...do you guys? Hmm...where could she be?! I could have sworn she was just here....

My turn to get in the cold water for swimming lessons...oh, fun!

Wasn't so bad after awhile. She's come a long way and passed so we're on to Toddler Swimming B this fall!

Sometimes I really wish I knew what went on inside of her head. Like when she carries almost every.single.toy over to the corner of the living room and barricades herself in. 

Can't wait to watch these two grow up together!

The girls "sleeping" on the trampoline.

CC high school girlfriends....remind you of anything?! *smile

We met up with Missy and her kids at the Como Zoo. Sparky the seal was pretty cute!

Gwendolyn insisted on Missy carrying her most of the time at the zoo. It was hot and Missy had a double stroller to push so we often traded so she could carry my daughter and push my single umbrella stroller instead. Not that that was much easier. Bless her heart.

Gwendolyn and Rowen thought they were BIG stuff riding this all by themselves. 

(Gwendolyn held on to the reigns like that the entire time.)

This is kind of sad...Rowen decided not to ride the train at the last minute (it was past nap time) so Gwendolyn rode alone. She didn't care one bit.

I love her sleeping face...

And then she rolled off...

Gwendolyn will often help me test my light before a session in our living room. These were only practice shots, but the black and white one may just earn a place on our wall. (If I ever get around to enlarging anything.)

Conrad Cross:

Conrad's first day of daycare was July 2nd!

We knew Conrad was officially a thumb sucker when we came home from Valley Fair and found him laying contently on his tummy sucking his thumb. It was only his second day at daycare and he had eaten barely anything that day (4 oz maybe). It was pushing 7 pm. He was fussy. There wasn't much John and Trisha could do to help him since he was refusing the bottle for them too. Until John tried putting him down on his tummy on our bed. Thumb in. Quiet and relaxed baby. SO precious.

Good work, Uncle John.

Sleeping...something he's really good at.

The picture on the right...I had set him there (awake) so I could make lunch for Gwendolyn and when it got quiet in the living room, I returned from the kitchen to find him snoozing away. Must have been one tired boy!

Daddy snuggles...

Pink bumbo and rattle? NBD.

Love these pictures taken on July 14th.

Love the wrinkles in his forehead...taken July 21st.

Another great month. Hope to do a separate post of our visits to Grandma and Grandpa's and Mimi and Papa's house. Look for it before the end of the year.

Ha. Hopefully before the end of the week.

Happy WEDNESDAY!!