Breaking bedtime to watch Bryce play Baseball

Adam has been talking for the past couple of months about how he wanted to take Jackson to a Nationals game to see Bryce Harper play in his rookie season.  So, when they rolled in to town to play the Phillies, we went to the Friday night game.  The weather was great and we had great first row outfield seats which meant a ball from the bullpen and a close view of Bryce when he was in the outfield.

Watching batting practice

Lots of stairs for a little boy to climb

With the Phanatic

Checking out the bullpen

Watching Bryce's first at bat

Bryce had two hits

Firefly

The weekend of July 20th, G-Daddy Phil descended on Delaware for the inaugural 3 day music fest in Dover called Firefly.

Adam and Phil went on Friday since I was in Chicago for work.  Jackson spent the day with Rosie, Adam's admin, and her two grandsons.  Adam, Phil and I went on Saturday to see the Killers headline and Jackson stayed home with Ms Janet, our regular babysitter.  We decided that at 2.5 years old, Jackson was ready for his first music fest, so on Sunday we took him for a few hours.  He was one of maybe 3 kids there, but he loved it!

Killers had a killer show

Mommy and daddy took a nap in the hammocks

Jammin' with daddy

GDaddy Phil and me

Bedtime Fun

While still an overall good sleeper and napper, Jackson has recently become quite pesky when it comes to bedtime.

It usually involves us putting him to bed only to have him reappear downstairs a couple of minutes later.  Once back upstairs, he spends time turning the light on, aligning his trains, asking for the iPad (which randomly started one day even though he has NEVER had it in bed before) and then inevitably he falls asleep.  Sometimes in his bed, sometimes on his bedroom floor and other times in the hallway.  Twice he has ended up downstairs without us even hearing him go down there!

Asleep on the floor

Before passing out, he made sure his trains were all aligned.

In his bed, but not without drama

Sleeping in the hallway

.....and we're back!

Well, hello there!  Did you think we had forgotten about you?!? Two months of no posting leave you wondering if Jackson had broken our camera?  While that is entirely possible, the truth is that we had a very, very busy July and then spent the month of August recovering from the summer of craziness.

Given it's Sept 1, we're wiping the slate clean, but to do that, we've got to go backwards before we can go forward.  So, with that - let's go back to the end of June when we took our annual trip back to WI.  

As usual, it was a whirlwind trip that has us up and down 94 - from Milwaukee to Tomah to Chippewa and back again.  Here are the highlights:

Grandma Hanson's 90th Birthday

An amazing accomplishment and one worth celebrating with the entire family with a nice diner.

Acting Like a Big Boy with Grandpa Bob

From pretending to drive all the different "toys" (tractors, forklifts, golf carts) in Grandpa Bob's "shed" to drinking kiddie margaritas, Jackson was acting like a true little boy.

Stopover in Osseo to see Grandma Great
We had a nice lunch, played the piano and went to see Toni & Chuck.

Chippewa for music, dogs, trains and fireworks

Playing the guitar with Grandpa

Boys watching baseball

Seeing the sculptures downtown EC

Fun with Mya Telisak at the EC Children's Museum

McQueen and Mater in the flesh!

Big Baby feeding Uncle Josh's dog 10 too many treats

Madison paid us a visit on their way to Mpls

Grandpa lighting fireworks for Jackson

Fun with Grandma at Irvine Park

Posing at Hank Aaron statue in Carson Park

Train time at Carson Park

Milwaukee wraps up our trip
We were busy here as well seeing friends, celebrating birthdays and going to Uncle Aaron & Aunt Jamie's baby shower!

Jackson didn't know what to make of Ellie

Jackson drives Honey on the bus at the Milwaukee Children's Museum

Aunt Jamie & Uncle Aaron at the Shower

Jackson excited about one of the baby's presents 

Poor baby doesn't know what a goofy family she's coming into!

Birthday celebration!

More pictures here!

Beach Baby

A week after I got back from Paris we went to Rehoboth Beach for a long weekend, as Jackson had no day care on Friday.

We had a great time hanging out at the beach, going to Fun Land, body surfing, the farmers market in Lewes and back to the beach again.  We may have even gotten a nap or two in on the beach - cue our wedding photographer's blog: Noel Hadley's blog  You know you have a winner when Noel posts it!

Jackson even surprised us by singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star while he was sitting on the beach.  We don't sing this song to him and had no idea he even knew it!  Apparently being at the ocean brings something out in him!

We switched sunglasses!

Paris & London

At the end of May I went to Paris to visit Auntie Andra for a few days before I went to London for business meetings.  And this is probably the first post that has absolutely nothing to do with Jackson, but as I learned in reading Bringing Up Bebe, a parenting book by an American living in France, (fabulous book that every parent should read), parents can have lives too.  And so for 4 days I was on vacation as a Parisian, sleeping in, drinking lots of cafe au lait, walking but not doing much of anything, eating dinner late, shopping and drinking wine with a great friend (who happens to be my sister-in-law).  It was divine and I cannot wait to go back.  More pictures here.

Nice view on our stroll

Andra and Jean Marc in Belleville Park

La Tour Eiffel

Notre Dame

Art work near the Pompidou

Olympic rings greeting me at the London train station

I was there the week before the Jubilee began

London Eye