It's autumn already?

I'm not quite sure how summer floated on by.  Perhaps it's because I continue to hop through work and perhaps it's because Randal and Milo and I had several adventures, but either way, it's cold here today and the leaves are turning and suddenly it's October.

Here is a brief summer in pictures.  This doesn't capture the minutiae of our life, which is sweet.  It includes getting up with Milo as he cheerfully babbles about lights and dogs and Bogey and dad.  It involves going to work where the clinic continues to expand (check out our website at liveyoung.skylakes.org and get a sense of all of the cool things we're doing) and Randal continues to improve the building and start new projects.  It involves dinner as a family while the dogs hover around Milo as he cheerfully throws bits to them and laughs and laughs.  It involves cocktails with friends and hikes in the Basin and sunshine and sunburns and good things.  And of course, it also involves being stressed and overwhelmed and Milo teething and exploding diapers and dog fur everywhere and messy homes, because it's important to be realistic.  Life is certainly not glamorous and there's a weird smell in the basement and I forget to put on make-up before I leave the house too often, but all is well.

And here's our summer!

We went to Nashville for a grad school reunion!  Nearly everyone made it and it was a great, inspiring visit.  More partners, more kids, and more fun.  I LOVE these people.

Emily, Cara and Randal enjoy mimosas at breakfast.

We all had pretty sweet pants.

It was a cheerful, cozy, wonderful place.  We were so sad to leave.

 I have been fortunate to see Kristi and Andrew this summer and I love having them so close.  They came up for the 4th of July for Milo's first boat ride (he hates life jackets) and a mosquito-infested, very beautiful, very fast due to the mosquitos, hike.

The Wissels on our Varney Creek hike

 Randal and I sometimes venture out alone with our fancy backpack.  We tend to plan our hikes around the food that we can get afterwards though.

Milo and I on top of Soda Mountain.  There wasn't any soda.

 Our biggest adventure was our trip to Europe!  We dropped Milo off with Mom, Dad, Charles, Elisabetta, Daniel and Josephine in Ireland and then headed to Scotland for a three day trek on the John Muir Way.  Upon our return, we went to Dingle Peninsula with the family and had a wonderful time.  Again, we amazed ourselves about how well we get along, how much fun we have together, and how pretty we all are in pictures.  Case in point - see below.

Milo rocked his trans-Atlantic flights.  Pretty much, anyway.  I've blocked out the noisy parts.

The end of the John Muir Way in Dunbar, Scotland from John Muir hailed.

The Jochims and Popes in Ireland.  

This little one was so cute running around on Blasket Island.

These little ones were too.

I faked him out with the camera so I actually got a real smile!  This little minion loves to sabotage photos.

Few things warm my heart like this.

Or this.

Milo decided that the family photo time was a great time to melt down.

I miss this.

We look Irish, right?  

Back at home, we returned to real life.  Which includes fun in the bath.  I'm sorry that you can't hear Raffi, who always accompanies bath time.  

And Milo turned one!  The days are long, but the years are short is definitely true in this case.

For his birthday, we took him on a bike ride in the Burley.  He hated it.  It was a lot of effort to get the bikes and get set up and then the ride is hard!  Let's hope that wasn't his one and only adventure.

Of course, it was a trip for Randal and I too, so we enjoyed lunch outdoors afterwards and the whole trip was worth it.  Happy birthday, Milo.  Congrats to Randal and me for making it one year.

The lucky kid got two birthday parties: one with my coworkers and one with our friends.  At the first party, he had funfetti cake made from a box, which he loved.  At the second party, he had homemade apple cake that I stayed up late to finish for him.  He did not love it.

Funfetti is delicious.

In truth, he was very cranky at party #2.  So, he went to bed early and his parents had a fabulous time celebrating without him.  

Milo's facial expression sums up his attitude during his second birthday party.

 Randal went to Vancouver for a conference, so I took a quick trip to Reno to see the Wissels.  Milo got to splash in Lake Tahoe.  He is a lucky kid.

And then he got to splash in a summit lake outside of Reno the next day.  So did the dogs.  Everyone was very happy, pretty dirty, and satisfied.

Maizie LOVES the water.  Juneau LOVES to herd Maizie.  They had a great time.

We recently unpacked Milo's biggest birthday present.  His own workbench.  It was awesome and Randal and I love it more than Milo.  Really, Milo likes putting the plastic screws in the little bin and taking them out again.  He'll learn.

So, we've been parents for a year now and it's been pretty wonderful.  Granted, we hit the baby lottery with Milo, but I like to think that we've done okay ourselves.  Life is getting slightly less exciting - I have to dye my hair because the gray is so prevalent - hangovers aren't worth it anymore - my clothes constantly have some weird chewed up food on them when they're not coated with dog fur - and we're really happy.