Patriot's Day

This past week, I've been kind of obsessed with watching 9/11 shows.  I know that I've probably seen them all before, but I just feel drawn to watching them.  Especially since this is the 10th anniversary of the attacks it feels even more important to remember everything.  I was there in NYC two months after the Twin Towers collapsed; my friend Tami and I went on a trip and stayed with my cousin Dani.  We were even able to help out a tiny bit by serving lunch to all of the people that were working at Ground Zero one day when we went to look at everything.  So that's my small contribution and connection to this event.  To honor and remember this day, we all dressed a little patriotically for church.

Brooklynn was super smiley for this photo session, but extremely wobbly.

I had Bailey hold Brooklynn in her lap; it seemed less dangerous.

This was Brooklynn's favorite pose--standing up.  I had Bailey hold her, which was pretty risky, but it paid off.  Look at those cheeks!!

Bailey got a little bit too excited for this one, but Brooklynn liked it.

Me and my girls

Brooklynn, Bailey, and Brian

It's fairly obvious by my lack of posts the last month that I am back in school :(  It will be one month this week and I think we're in our groove.  It's not so tragic every day when we get ready and go; I actually do like my job, it's just a hard transition from having 5 months off.  So here's a much needed update of the past month:

We squeezed in one last trip to Sea World before school started--

Bailey is showing Cookie Monster her ballet moves.

Even though Sesame Street is not her favorite show anymore, she still loves these guys!

She would love to take these giant stuffed penguins home.  I always feel bad for those parents who win them and them have to lug them around for the rest of the day.

We tried to get Brooklynn to stand with the penguins, but there was too much for her to look at.

I, of course, spent my last day of summer at the beach with my girls.  It was a cloudy day, but we loved it!

Big smiles!

She's thinking, "My mama is number 1!"

Cute Bailey--notice that she's not playing with the huge bag of toys I bring to the beach, but an empty water bottle that someone left.  I guess I can downsize my bag of beach toys for next year.

She really is a beach kid--thank goodness!

Her favorite thing to do this summer is to dig a giant hole (even better if the hole is already there and we don't have to dig it)and then wait for the water to come up and make her a private swimming pool.

To kick off our Labor Day weekend, we went to a Padres' game.  Me, Brian, my mom, Tera, and Brooklynn all watched the Padres lose, but it was a fun night.  Brooklynn loved looking at all the bright lights and she got to taste her first pickle.  Since she's related to me, I'm pretty sure pickles will be one of her favorite foods.

On Labor Day weekend, we had crazy weather.  It rained and was hot and humid.  The beach was out, but we did get a really pretty sunset one night.

You can kind of see the arc of the rainbow in the upper right hand corner of this picture--and we threw Brooklynn in there too :)  It was actually a double rainbow, but the second one was very faint.

A dark picture of all the girls, but a pretty sunset in the back.

Toni and Aaron came down for the weekend, so it's always fun to spend time with them.

Brooklynn is getting so big!  She grabs things now--especially faces.

Bailey did not want to get left out of the photo session.

It may be hard to believe, but we even survived the Blackout of 2011!  All electricity in San Diego, Riverside, Yuma, AZ, and parts of Orange County was out for 12 hours.  It went out Thursday after school, and didn't come back on until around 2:00 in the morning on Friday.  It lasted just long enough for school to be cancelled on Friday!!!  I thoroughly enjoyed our mini blackout.  We enjoyed our family dinner at my parents' house on the driveway lit by the moon and our fire pit.  Bailey thought it was the greatest thing and is looking forward to doing it again.  (I didn't have my camera with me, so I documented the night with my phone.)

Here's Bailey by our fire pit while we roasted marshmellows.

She was in her bathing suit because it was so hot earlier in the day and it was quite nice outside while we ate.(The flash on my camera is bright, so she closed her eyes.) 

On our power outage day off on Friday, we went to the beach.  It was a great day!  Brooklynn is so big; she tries to sit up all day.  I made her a little chair/bed in the sand so she couldn't roll around.

She is always either sucking on her bottom lip or playing with her tongue.  She was a dream baby at the beach and took a two hour nap! 

While Brooklynn was napping, Bailey and I got to play.  We found this baby crab on a piece of seaweed.   It was her pet for the day--I hope he survived.