epic july: weeks 1 & 2

sooo basically i can never ever say a mean thing about b's employer again because of one incredible perk: he gets one whole month of paternity leave. that means he took all of july off to stay home and hang out with us and it has been a-maz-ing.

seriously. some days it's a little weird, like having every day be saturday with no routine or schedule -- and since my type-A self totally thrives on things like that, i had to adjust a bit to being so go-with-the-flow -- but mostly it's been pretty much awesome. being able to hang out with b all day every day -- not to mention having him here to help with the kids or let me take a shower at my leisure -- has been the best thing ever. a lot of my friends have told me they take it pretty easy during the first weeks with a new baby, but for me it's been the opposite. i've been so energized to go out and do lots of things and it has been the best month EVER.

so, here's a look at what we've been up to.

b's first day of leave was the 4th of july (my favorite holiday). we spent the day with friends, swimming, eating, jumping on the trampoline and watching fireworks (which jack hated, but granted it WAS three hours past his bedtime by the time they went off). b also participated in a fireworks-driven civil war where a bunch of grown men ran around shooting roman candles at each other...but luckily all survived without too much injury.

the next week, b's parents came to visit! we had so much fun taking them all over seattle -- having visitors is always the best reason to get out and explore. first up, we toured the gates foundation visitors center (where you can add your picture to a wall-size photo gallery) and swung by pike place for all of our favorite treats like mini donuts and beecher's mac & cheese.

we took them to a mariners game against the red sox (we lost in extra innings) and hudson loved his first game so much he slept right through it. :) 

friday was our birthday! jack turned 3 and i turned 29. we celebrated with waffles and presents in the morning. in the afternoon, janie and joel volunteered to babysit both boys (!) so we could have a little birthday date. we went to our favorite spot, agua verde, and went kayaking on lake union followed by delish mexican food. then we came home and took jack to the park (after all, it WAS his birthday too ;) and went out to dinner. 

saturday was the bulk of jack's birthday celebration -- we took him to see thomas the train in real life. this thomas thing goes around the country, dressing up engines at real train stations to look like the beloved blue train and making millions of pre-schoolers' dreams come true in the process. the whole experience wasn't quite as magical as i'd hoped -- not the best logistics, a little attitude from our newly-minted three year old, and sooo many kids running around -- but we still had fun. and now i've crossed that one off jack's bucket list.

(i had to bribe jack with a cookie just to get this smile out of him.)

more to come from our epic july...