Hawaiian Adventures

Sorry that we've been away for a little while, but we were actually away for a little while. Matt and I, that is. Thanks to Steve, Linda, Lindsay and Aubrey, we were able to travel to Maui to celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary two weeks ago (has it been two weeks already?!) and it was fabulous. Brady had a great time reconnecting with Matt's family while we were gone, which made it easy for us to enjoy all of this...

Amazing view from our balcony

Our pool

The beach at the Ritz, Kapalua

At the Feast of Lele luau

Kapalua Bay

Matt at Keanae Village

Hamosa Bay

One of the beautiful island flowers

Sunset

It was hard to come back to the real world, but we missed the Bubba and couldn't wait to see him. Next up... Halloween!

Pumpkin Patching

Brady is so excited for Halloween this year! For his first, he was only 10 months old and couldn't even walk. He had zero tolerance for his costume, which made for a really angry lion, and not in a good "in character" kind-of way. This year, he's running around pointing out all the pumpkins, bats, ghosts, spiders and black cats. He likes saying, "boo!" and he puts his hands over his mouth in an "oh-no" fashion when he says, "scary!" We're working on getting him to say "trick-or-treat", but so far only "treat" is coming out (which is the important part anyway). I have a feeling he'll get it right by the big day though :)

This weekend we took a trip to Half Moon Bay to go pumpkin patching and had a great time at Pastorino's Farm. They had a small petting zoo, pony rides, train rides and plenty of pumpkins to choose from. Brady had a great time running from activity to activity; you couldn't wipe the smile off his face. Sadly, there was no hot chocolate to be had... just too warm out!

Mommy and Brady riding the train

He rode the pony all by himself!

Feeding the goats, ewwww!

Trip to Big Sur

We had a great summer. At times it seemed like it would never end (it was 96 degrees and sunny last week!), and we liked that just fine. But we also like fall, and we've been yearning for some good old-fashioned football weather since the first kick-off back in August. Today we got it; it rained for the very first time since June. Seriously.

And it was "chilly".

I wasn't a very good family historian this summer. There are a lot great memories that we never got a chance to share. To try and go back and catch you up on them all would be painful for both sides, so let's just move on, shall we?! Going forward, I'll do my best to keep you updated on all things Eatherton, because it helps bridge the distance. Plus, I want this to be a kick-ass baby book for Brady one day!

So, our first fall post...

Two weeks ago, my cousin Aubrey came for a visit and we decided to take a trip up to Big Sur. Simply put, it was a beautiful drive! The fog rolled in and off the road the whole way up and we got out of the car and took a few pictures of the amazing view.

Along the coast on Highway 1

Brady giving "the look" at lunch

Brady and "Aubrey the lady"

Pfeiffer Beach, Big Sur, CA

5 Years... Wow!

Today we celebrate 5 years of marriage. Many of you were there when we took the plunge, and we thank you for your love and support over the years. Here's to the next 5... and beyond!

What an amazing day!

21 months

Tomorrow, Brady will be 21 months. I don't know why, but it feels like a big deal. The next milestone is his 2 year birthday, and it's just around the corner. That's when we start describing him as a "2 year old", like, for the whole year. Pretty soon, the "monthly aging system" will be just a memory. He won't be our little "x month old" for very long.

*Tear*

Matt and I can't believe how much he has changed in the last few weeks. Especially when it comes to his communication skills. I wish I could say it was his size, but the poor kid is still wearing his 12-18 month clothes, no joke...

Brady has always been a good talker; words have just come naturally to him (wonder where he got that from?!). You only have to name an object once and he remembers it. Hence his immense knowledge of sea creatures and trucks, such as clams, seals pups and octopuses, and grapples, bulldozers and milk trucks... Anyway, when it comes to single words, I'm pretty sure he can say just about everything now. But it seems like almost overnight, he went from one or two-word descriptors to broken sentences.

For example, we usually start each day with this conversation over breakfast... "Bob. Help! Anmal. Jungle. Crocile. Pond. Stick." Translation: "On Bob the Builder, there's a jungle crocodile in the pond, that turns out to be a stick".

And they say TV is bad for kids!

From morning 'til night, the words fly like bullets. We put him down to bed around 7:30/7:45pm and sometimes he'll babble to himself until 9. We listen in on the monitor and just laugh and laugh. He's just a riot!

If it weren't for all the tantrums, this would be my most favorite time of his life!

We'll get a video of his antics up on here soon...

Playing with pudding!

White Sox in Oakland!

I need to catch y'all up on all the things we've been doing over the last month or two, because I'm still way behind. In today's installment of "All things Eatherton"...

The last weekend of July we went to the Oakland Athletics game vs. the White Sox, yeah! We got amazing seats for the game from Matt's parents (about 18 rows behind the Sox dugout), but because we got there about an hour and a half before the game, we met some really nice guys who offered to give us their seats right behind the dugout because they had to leave early.

We never thought that Brady would make it long enough to get the great seats, but he was a champ, even though it was a million degrees out. One hot dog, nachos, ice cream and a bottle of water later, we got down close enough to touch the players (if that sort of thing was allowed).

The whole day was awesome, but the highlight definitely came at the end, when Mark Buehrle tossed Matt a game ball for Brady. He was over the moon! Brady too :)

The Sox ended up losing, but what can you do?!

Mom (reluctantly) shared her nachos

Most of that water ended up on his shirt

Needed ice cream to cool off, it was 85 degrees and we were in the direct sun

"Ozzie, stop checking me out!"

"Aye Yo, Paulie!"

AJ had the day off

Brady get up close and personal with the players

Kissing his game ball... mwah!