get ready.

i haven't blogged in over a week! where does the time go? oh yeah, most of it gets sucked up by a certain adorable one year old, his handsome daddy, the new season of parks + rec, some play dates, some super fun projects, etc etc -- or, in other words, life. i'd been debating catching up with a zillion posts, but decided to just do it in one huge shebang. so here we go!

a. WEATHER & STUFF

it's been rainy + cloudy + gloomy for a few weeks now, with only brief appearances from the sun. i'm totally ready to embrace this, and we've been doing so thanks to the fireplace, homemade soup, snuggling w/ blankets on the couch, sweaters & scarfs, etc. BUT sometimes i start to really miss the sun. then out of nowhere we have a day like yesterday -- blue skies, sunshine, crisp fall air. it was amazing. washington is gorgeous. [however i've already rescheduled a family photo shoot FIVE TIMES (no exaggeration) due to inclement weather, so i'd really love to get a sunny weekday. is that asking too much?]

b. JACK

my favorite topic of course :) this kid is getting better every day. he understands what i say and i can't get over how amazing that is. you say "where is your ear?" and he points to his ear. you say "let's go outside!" and he brings you his shoes. you say "can you bring me the remote?" and he walks clear across the room, grabs the remote, and brings it back to you. you start cutting strawberries and he sees it and signs "please" to you from his high chair. [granted, it's not exaaactly the correct sign, but it's close enough.] life with a one year old is more miraculous and fun every single day. i am SO lucky to be with him each day and watch his little brain develop.

plus he's got some pretty kick-A rainboots :)

c. OUTINGS

last weekend we stayed close to home, watching the general conference of our church. yes it was 8 hours long [10 hours long for b] but there is NOTHING i'd rather have been doing. my soul soaked up every word and every song and i loved it. all the inspiration + motivation i need for the next six months was right there. [and did you watch two brothers??]

but anyway. between sessions we snuck out and visited the salmon days festival, the biggest thing to hit issaquah every year. or so i'm told. basically it was a bunch of artisans & food vendors, and these cute little tap dancing ladies:

jack was obviously thrilled by the whole thing. mostly he just liked the bites of elephant ears that we snuck him.

the whole festival happens because of, obviously, salmon. every fall the issaquah creek fills up with ginormous salmon trying to swim upstream. or, something. i'm not really clear on the whole thing, but i DID get to see some salmon!

the actual salmon sighting was a few days before the festival -- jack & i went to check it out on a little play date with friends. [YES! it's true, i am making friends!!] here's jack with his new friend rose. and yes, if you're wondering, i drew the titanic connection the day i met rose's mom. JACK AND ROSE!! meant to be.

we went on another random sunny day. i miss the sun. look how much we're squinting! ha.

yesterday we got to tour our local fire house at a community open house. jack has a little fire truck that he loves to push everywhere, so i thought maybe he'd connect the REAL fire truck with his toy...but alas, he did not. wasn't too impressed with the whole thing and even made me wear his hat.

d. CELEBRITY

i hung out with one of my idols, grace bonney, at a private craft night + book signing in seattle last week. i was reallllly excited. read more about it on my stationery blog.

and that's a wrap. hopefully i'll blog a lot sooner this time around :) thanks for making it to the end!