Andrew and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary on 10/2.  We took the bus to dinner at a new Japanese restaurant on the hill called Naka, and had the 15-course chef’s kaiseki.

All the extra pics from September…

Apollo’s birthday party at a place called “Pump it up”:

Sweater weather!

We were in Philadelphia for the week leading up to Uncle Tim and Aunt Liz’s big wedding day on September 19!  Here are all the pics.  Sarah cried and whined for much of the flight out there… I had to bribe her with crackers to get her to be quiet.

Both kids were thrilled to arrive!  Here they are sledding in the backyard, sans snow.

Blaine was obsessed with using the hose; he may have overwatered.

Sarah enjoyed this water toy on the patio.

More outdoor play, this time at a playground with Mom-Mom.

We also went over to my cousin Maureen’s house one day to play with Maren and Rafe.  Maureen also very kindly offered to watch the kids during the actual wedding festivities – thank you SO MUCH again, Maureen!

Blaine and Mom-Mom enjoying some delicious salmon.

Tara quickly learned that the best place to be was below Sarah’s chair.

We found out later that Sarah was working on three new teeth during this visit, so that explains some of her moodiness.  Mom-mom was always able to calm her, though.

Blaine had an awesome time playing with Aunt Jane.  Here are a few pics from the animal shelter they built in the living room, housing all the sad, abandoned animals from all over the house.

Friday night was the rehearsal dinner at the Old Bar, and it was delicious!  Here’s a pack of Mahoneys.

Doc giving an excellent welcome toast.

Aunt Molly had so much fun she fell asleep in her seat.

Saturday was the wedding, and I’m sad to say I neglected to take many pictures!  I was so focused on getting the kids through the ceremony and not messing up my reading that I did not get any pics!  I do have this one of Sarah with my cousin Clare.

And, I am borrowing this one from my Uncle Walt, since it’s the only one I have of our family!  I wish I had taken some more of Blaine looking so adorable in his little outfit.

The ceremony was beautiful (and so efficient!) and the reception was a blast, particularly since we didn’t have the little ones in tow (thanks again, Maureen!).  We had such a good time.  After the reception we did a walk-by of the College of Physicians to reminisce about our own wedding, 5 years ago.

The flight back to Seattle on Monday went more smoothly than the flight out, and Sarah even managed to sleep for a few hours.

Congratulations to Uncle Tim and Aunt Liz!  We’re so happy for you both.  Sorry I don’t have more pics of you two, so I am swiping this one from Facebook to show off the happy couple.

I am SO behind on these posts, it’s now 10/16 and I’m just posting about Sarah turning eleven months old, back on 9/10.  As I recall, at eleven months Sarah was getting a lot more mobile and was just starting to cruise while standing.  She also started eating a lot more solid foods.  She’s got a definite taste for salty food, she loves these round (Ritz-like) crackers, it was the only way I could get her smiling for the photos.  She started to assert herself more when playing with Blaine, so now they both cry and whine over the same toys.  Though on occasion they’ll play side by side, which is adorable.

The month by month series:

We took a family trip to the Locks followed by dinner at Chinook’s.  Yum!

Cute pic from earlier in the day.

Here are all the extra pics from August!  Ms Vanessa sent us these adorable pics of Blaine and his friend Lucy on the playground at school.

Blaine’s new favorite book is Curious George.

Dr. Blaine examining his patient.

Spreading some grass seed with Daddy.

With Mommy at a birthday party at Mt Baker beach.

Gorging on pizza once again at Serious Pie.

We tried out a new playground and Blaine loved this fire engine.

Sarah has started to enjoy the slide (she’s been going solo, feet first on her tummy), but she is not a fan of the swings.

She loves Blaine’s cozy coupe, though.

Sarah’s crawling a lot faster now and has figured out how to carry something while she crawls.  She started climbing up stairs the last week of August, and now she loves to go upstairs, yelling “up!” all the way.  After that she pretty quickly figured out pulling up, as well.

Here’s a video, which I particularly enjoy because it shows off her rolls in all their glory.

It’s starting to feel like Fall around here!

Happy Birthday, Gram and Grand-dad!  We’re so sorry that we couldn’t be with you celebrate, but we’re glad that we got to video chat with you and share the sign that Blaine and Sarah made.  When I asked Blaine what we should draw for you, he said we needed to draw a fire truck, with Gram driving, and Grand-dad riding.  So that’s just what we did!  Then of course we added a fire hydrant, wrench and hose for good measure.

Love, Blaine, Sarah, Sally and Andrew

I thought these were cute – after we’d finished drawing, Blaine wanted to “ride the fire truck” by sitting on the sign.

Uncle Tim was in town and stayed with us on 8/18.  We were so excited to see him even though it was such a short visit!  Can’t wait for the big event in September.

Sarah was 10 months old on 8/10.  She now has four teeth and is making the most of them on a wide variety of solid foods, though it’s still unclear how much she’s actually eating.  I was pretty sure she said “ma” at one point, but it hasn’t been repeated so perhaps I dreamed it.  She’s working on nonverbal communication… she recently mastered pointing at things, and she’ll gesture elaborately to get me to put some music on (bopping up and down, pointing at the Sonos, clapping her hands).  She’s also getting more dramatic and will cry and whine to get attention when she’s not happy (e.g. when I turn the music off).  She’s crawling pretty quickly now and loves to be chased, and she squeals with delight when she knows she’s getting into something that’s off limits (cords, fans, Blaine’s potty).  She’s started pushing up to standing on low objects like the bottom step and Blaine’s blue chair.  She hates when I am out of her sight, and she gets very jealous when I’m holding Blaine instead of her.  But she is also fascinated by whatever Blaine is doing and wants to get in on the action, and I’m pretty sure her “ba ba” refers to Blaine.

Month by month series:

Also on 8/2, we went out to dinner at the new Capitol Hill location of Tom Douglas’ Serious Pie.  It’s in a giant new Starbucks roastery that has a definite Disney feel to it.  But the pizza was delicious as usual!

The Dahlias are blooming in Volunteer Park:

Sarah has recently started pointing, and now it’s her favorite thing to do.

This picture shows off all 4 teeth!

The black-eyed susans look beautiful in front of our house.

Here are two pics of the two kids crammed into the cozy coupe (Blaine’s idea).