Summer Highlights

These are just random pictures from summer and a lot of repeats from my Instagram. 

Some of our fave friends, Ryan and Becca Christensen, moved about an hour north of us several months ago. We went up a couple of times during the summer and took advantage of their neighborhood pool. 

At a birthday party at the park this summer Taft took it upon himself to move all the trash cans to one location and lined them up in a pattern. Guess he thought the party was lame.

La Jolla  " Children's Pool".  Note Luke's Flinstone feet.

My mom had work in LA for a couple of days, so she drove down to spend her Sunday with us. 

A visit to Dad at work. Aren't they all so handsome?

4th of July Parade on Orange Ave. Our ward reserves a spot for the parade and usually do a breakfast. Unfortunately the last 2 years have been hamburgers and hot dogs at 9 a.m. It's the worst. 

Colie and Jed spent the 4th with us. We loved having them!

The best babysitters/kid entertainers of all time.

A lot of our summer was spent here because, duh.

The Hayes family came from LA to watch fireworks over the bay. Our boys have a great time together.

Pre-bedtime stroll.

Taft took tennis lessons this summer. It was adorable.

While Lukie patiently waits to get bigger to try new things too.

Celebrated Seth's 34th birthday. I don't remember what we did at all, but I most likely made his fave, Tres Leches. 

Oh yeah, I did make that cake and we took it to the Sunday concert in the park to share with friends.

Cabrillo National Monument "Huggy Hug"

Took Taft to buy running shoes and he did a great job testing them out and stretching in them.

Luke had his first real cleaning this summer and I was shocked, SHOCKED, that he was cool with it. Taft had his first set of x-rays done and no cavities! 

Our Disneyland passes were valid again at the very end of summer. Just in time to meet up while our  friends, the VandenAkkers (used to live in Coronado but live in Utah again) were there for their last summer hurrah.

These dudes like mustaches.

Soon to be Family of Five!

I have a list of blog topics I'm needing to do, but we'll just take it one and time. I think I'll put off the Europe one for a while because that's too overwhelming right now.

Most exciting news of late: Baby Herway Numero Tres is on his/her way! We are all very excited, but I think Taft might be the most excited of all. He tells people everywhere we go that his mom has a baby in her tummy. Taft knew something was up before we told him I was pregnant. On our the flight to Brussels he drew this picture on the iPad, at this time I was only 6-7 weeks pregnant:

I saw it and asked, "Is that a clown?" I didn't really notice the details of the drawing. He said, "No, it's a picture of you with a baby in your tummy." I got feeling really, really sick around the 3rd week of our time in Belgium. I was missing out on a ton of stuff, we skipped our trip to Switzerland, I slept for 15 hours straight one day/night, Seth and Anita did EVERYTHING for our kids from the time they woke up til the time they went to bed, and I was completely useless. Taft started catching on and asked why I was missing everything. I told him my tummy had been hurting a lot. He responded with a smile and  asked hopefully, "Is it because there is a baby in there?" He knew nothing about morning sickness or that mom's feel sick when they are pregnant. Seth and I looked at each other and Seth said, "Well, would you think that was cool?" Then I told him there was indeed a baby in my tummy. He responded with a slap to his forehead and said, "Are you kidding me?!" He's been pretty pumped ever since. 

Taft has been concerned about the baby's well being since we told him. Some of his questions/statements have been: 

"Will the baby be warm in the winter?" (Inside my belly)

"Will the baby be warm on our bike ride?"

"When the baby comes I will give her a pink gun or a pink car."

"How will the baby get home from the hospital?"

"Who will watch us when you go to the hospital?"

"Don't worry Mom, I'll hold your hand when you go to the hospital. Just don't squeeze too tight."

"What if the baby can't walk? I guess we can just carry her." (He's pretty certain the baby is a girl)

The boys came to my first appointment. I thought we'd just hear the heartbeat, but the appointment was a tad more invasive than I was expecting. It took some strategic placement of the boys to avoid traumatizing them for life, but it was really cool to get to see images of the baby already. Taft thought it was especially cool.

Thankfully, I am starting to feel better and have a desire to cook again. It was pretty rough for a while. Seth had frozen pot stickers for dinner more times in a row than I'd like to admit. Although it was a major bummer to be so sick during our trip to Belgium, it was a blessing to have Seth around during the worst of it. Anita and Tom too! I really don't know what I would have done if we had been at home and Seth was back at work. I probably would have seriously considered flying my mom or a sister out to help me. It was awful.

We find out whether we have a baby brother or sister the day before Thanksgiving. Can't wait!

Bluth Togetherness 2013

The ever growing Bluth family. First entire family shot in quite a while. This was the first we have all been together since Pete and Carissa's wedding over two years ago. We were together for Lanx's wedding in December but Seth wasn't able to be there.

My parents rented a house in Coronado for week, the same house that Seth's parents rent out when they come to visit with other family members. It sleeps somewhere around 12 people, so we stayed the week too even though we live just minutes away. It's fun to stay up with everyone after the kids go to bed. 

It was a pretty chill week, but still went by very fast. We hung out at the beach, played tennis, checked out the tide pools at Sunset Cliffs, paddleboarding races in Mission Bay, rented jet-skis in Mission Bay, celebrated my dad's birthday with the most enormous breakfast ever at Hash House followed by a Padres Game that night.  

Paddleboarding in Mission Bay. Of course, the only clouds in all of San Diego this day were stuck right over the bay. 

Paddle races. This was hilarious. Right after this shot Tates turns the wrong way and runs over snorkelers. We were all laughing so hard back on shore.  

Myles and Tay Tay. Aren't they cute? 

Taft loved the jetskiing. His response when we started going fast, "YEAH BABY!" 

Jayda is a Trooper, with a capital T. She played with these boys non-stop. She the sweetest. 

I think their record was somewhere around 400?

Buzzy loved the beach. 

The pools weren't as good as some of the other times we've brought cousins. It took us a while but we did end up finding a few sea creatures. 

Coach Lanx and Taft

Jayda is a natural at tennis! 

Concert in the Park. One of the best bands of the year came just for my family! 

Cuzzie's wrestling match.

Grandpa, Lukie, and Kazoo.

Giant Pete, Little Pete

Fudgsicles at  10 am? Sounds about right. 

We all just love this cute boy!

Breakfast at the Hash House for the Old Man. The portions are completely ridiculous. Pancakes 3x the size of your head. I'm not a huge breakfast person, but I had the best French Toast of my life. 

Padres Game!

And that's about it for this marathon of pictures. It was a really great week spent with family. We ate so so well. Travis is a master chef. One Lanx and Trav's night they served smoked pulled pork and brisket (that he smoked at home with his own smoker), his own BBQ sauce, and a bunch of other delicious food. Everyone's dinner was bomb. I think we also pounded 3 costco sized bags of Peanut M&Ms and 2 or 3 giant bags of Twizzlers and about 1,456 cans of Diet Coke. Tates described the Bluth soda addiction like this: "If Diet Coke were beer, we'd all be wasted ALL of the time." Good thing it's not and is just slowly poisoning us! ;) 

Thanks Mom and Dad for such a fun week. You spoiled us as usual! 

Herway Togetherness 2013

At the end of May we loaded up and headed out for 10 days of Herway togetherness. We drove half-way the first night and stayed in Phoenix with friends from Seth's intern year. While there, the boys got on their trampoline and we realized it was probably the first time they'd jumped on a tramp (parenting fail). I guess that's what happens when you live in a place where nobody has a backyard bigger than a patio.  

Next stop was in Farmington, NM. Seth's grandma turned 90 and her children organized a party and reunion for her. All of Seth's siblings and nearly all of his cousins (and their kids) were able to make the reunion. There were a LOT of people. It was so much fun to celebrate such an amazing woman. We spent the weekend visiting with family and hearing stories of Grandma Packer's life. Seth's brother-in-law made a wonderful video about her that had both Seth and me very choked up. (surprise, surprise)

Once the big reunion wrapped up, we (Seth's immediate family) headed to Durango, CO for Colie and Jed's wedding. The wedding was beautiful and super fun. Durango is GORGEOUS and I want to move there. As usual, Taft had the time of his life with his cousins. Every time we leave these things, I feel guilty that we don't live near family. Cousins make the best friends ever. I know Seth had the time of his life getting in bike rides most mornings with his brothers. I had a great time too, even though I think weddings give me anxiety, regardless of how much or little I am involved in and I have no idea why. I am terrified for wedding planning if I ever have a daughter. 

Post-Farmington, Pre-Durango. Mesa Verde-I love this place. 

Pueblo cliff dwellings.

Pretty sure this one ended with a belly flop.

Sorry we're all half naked.

Just all the Herways, basically taking a bath together. 

The morning before the wedding we had a girls morning. Yoga taught by Grammie followed by brunch at a French bakery. 

The boys on their mountain bike ride. (Remember how they were gone for like, EVER? I'm glad they made it out alive.)  

Daphne, Zane, and Grammie

Grandkids with Grammie and Pop. (missing Scarlet, Levi, Brauer, and Tori)

The buddies attempting a jumping shot. Good job Tommy :)

Taft, the cutest and most serious ring bearer there ever was. I also have to share how excited his cousin, Brauer, was for him. He was pumped for Taft. At the end of the ceremony Brauer came up to Taft with a huge smile and said, "Good job Taft!" It was the sweetest.

The AMAZING backdrop.

We tried. 

I wish we had pictures of the actual bride and groom....The photographers got amazing shots, so...just take my word for it that they looked stunning.

Four Corners on our way out of town. Woop woop!

We stayed a night with Seth's parents in Sedona, AZ at the end of the week. Sedona is incredible. Most gorgeous desert scenery I've ever seen.