My Brother, The Eagle Scout

When we went back to Illinois in August to celebrate Myles' 2nd birthday, we also celebrated a huge milestone in our family's life; my brother officially became an Eagle Scout. This was really emotional for me as I have been really close to my brother since he was a little and I am so proud of him (and my mom for making him finish it!)

But enough talking.... 

(sorry for some of the poor quality pictures. I had a toddler clinging to my hip while I was trying to capture these.)

Mother pinning son:

Son pinning mother:

Of course Myles spotted the derby cars and had to play:

A special kind of love:

Aunt and nephew:

Best friend:

Some more aunt love:

The proud parents:

The best photo with everyone looking and the bro had to give the bunny ears!

My everythings (minus a few)

My mother and her sisters:

It was such a great day celebrating my brother and I am so glad we were able to be there to watch him become a man! Next stop.. high school graduation!

{A Day in the Life}: Grandpa and Grandma Day

If you missed Wednesday's post, I shared some pictures that I found when I started doing Myles Monthly update for 21 months. Along with our bestie's birthday party, I found tons of pictures from our trip back to Illinois for Easter. I already shared most of those pictures in the Easter 2014 post, but I also found a bunch that I stole from my parents from a couple days they spent with Myles. I am so grateful and blessed to have amazing parents. My dad is so close with Myles and my mother and step-dad are so amazing with him. The bond each one of them share with him is incredible and makes my heart so full. To see how happy they make him, just fills my soul and makes my life complete. 

Here is a day (April 22&26, 2014) in the life with grandma and grandpa through pictures:

Train time at the library:

Tea time at the park:

Checking out the geese (obviously my mom doesn't trust him lol):

Showing them his park moves:

Love at it's purest:

This is what Myles was doing with the rest of his time at grandma and grandpa's. If Myles was not on the trampoline, you could find him asking, whining, or crying about wanting to go on the trampoline. He officially became addicted this trip. Luckily his grandpa and grandpa love taking him out there... and I don't mind either!

Then they ended their time showing Myles his race car. He is still a long ways away from reaching the peddles, but this will be a blast once he can actually ride it!

What do your kids do with their grandparents?

A Trip to the Apple Orchard

Since moving to California from Illinois a year and 3 months ago, Myles and I have been so fortunate to be able to go back every couple of months. I usually reach my limit at about 2 1/2 months and so desperately miss my momma that I convince my wonderfully supportive boyfriend to send us back! So far we have been back for Myles' 1st birthday, Christmas, Easter, and his 2nd birthday. Typically after his birthday visit in August, I would plan on waiting until Christmas for our next visit. In normal people's worlds, 4 months is not a long time, but for me and my ever-growing 2 year old, 4 months away from my family feels more like 4 years. So when I was offered a week long trip back at the end of last month, I didn't hesitate to join! I kept it a secret from my mother and step-dad and surprised them at their house. After all was said and done, I could not have been happier with the week we had back home. We got to spend some great quality time with our loved ones and we packed our days full of great fun! 

One of those days was spent at the Apple Orchard and Pumpkin Patch. Myles is currently obsessed with 'punkies' and 'pooky' Halloween stuff, so he was in heaven. Today I am sharing the time we spent at the Apple Orchard. Look out for the rest of our trip over the next weeks or so.

With grandma:

Inside the barn, they have shelves and shelves stocked with the yummiest foods with tons of samples all over! Feeding mommy:

They have samples of all the apples they pick and sell. I always go for the honey crisp.. best apple around; unfortunately it also has the highest price tag!

Of course Myles picked out sour gummy worms as his treat:

Myles' favorite part was animals. He talks about seeing animals all day long, so as soon as I told him there were animals, he wouldn't stop talking about them until he got to see them. It was so cute too because all of their animals were named after Toy Story characters.

My jive turkey momma:

After the animals, Myles went to play.

All was well until he had a head on collision with another little boy. It didn't seem to hurt him, but scared him a lot. After that, he turned into crappy pants. We were ready to leave anyway, except I really wanted to get a picture of him with the growth chart. I love having yearly pictures with things like this, so even though he was upset, I asked him to stand in front of it. He was crying, but stood still long enough for me to snap a pic! Sorry little man!

I am so happy I was able to take Myles back this year. We first went we he was about 5 weeks old, but didn't get to go last year. It means a lot to me to be able to bring Myles to places like this because I went when I was young. And being that we have moved away, it is special to still keep that tradition alive!

What Fall traditions do you have with your family?