hurricane irene

a little storm named irene ruled our weekend. a hurricane means good surf so on friday we enjoyed a beautiful day out on long beach.

we stayed the night before returning early the next morning to the city to pack up a few necessities as we were under a mandatory evacuation order (1st ever in nyc history!) since the hudson river is our backyard.

we headed to higher ground to the apartment of very generous friends in brooklyn. william was a trooper in the many new environments.

luckily our neighborhood didn't have any major damage so we were able to return home sunday afternoon. we took a walk and while it was still quite windy it was good to be home and to see the sun.

goodbye irene.

shafer visit to nyc

grandma and grandpa shafer came to visit us following our stay in california. we did lots of eating and walking. all around downtown, central park, soho, the high line,

and the brooklyn bridge.

and while we had family in town we advantage of the free babysitting! on saturday morning ben and i biked up to central park and then park avenue which was closed to cars for summer saturdays.

and we had a date night to be tourists in our own city and went to the top of the rock at sunset.

thanks for coming grandma & grandpa! thanks for carrying william so much, spoiling him & us, and making him a fantastic cradle.

8 months

8 months might be my favorite stage yet. william sits very well without support, he also loves to stand with support. we see no signs of a desire to crawl. over the past month he's learned how to bang things together and when he does so successfully wants you to acknowledge said accomplishment.

he cut his first tooth. he loves to laugh. his new favorite food might be oranges thanks to the introduction by grandma shafer. he basically likes all food (except avocado). if you eat in front of him be prepared to share. he saw president obama, again. he still loves his bjorn and does lots of kicking and jazz hands when he gets to go for a ride. he likes to splash in the water.

and sadly we had to move him from his favorite cradle to a bigger crib, it took a few days to transition. must mean he's growing up.

we love our goose.

shafer cousins

on either side of the forrest family reunion we stayed at grandma and grandpa shafers. cory and new baby calvin were visiting as well. and we convinced john and kristen to bring jacob up so all the boy cousins could meet for the first time.

we had a great time playing in the backyard, feeding the fishes and trying new shoes near the fire pit.

one day all the girls and the babies headed to the beautiful filoli gardens on the peninsula. we found a bench just for babies.

and enjoyed the many gardens and flowers.

we even survived lunch (barely).

as usual, california was perfect.

avila beach

the forrest side of the family recently got together for a great family reunion in avila beach. we never mind going to california, it's especially nice getting away from the humidity in new york in july. it was fun seeing lots of family including grandma forrest,

aunt katie,

great grandpa hutchings,

and cousin madeline.

we also had lots of fun at the beach playing in the sand,

surfing,

and paddle boarding in the cold cold water.

we even managed to get in a family picture at sunset.

i think william would be happy being a california beach bum.

visit from josh

one of our favorite people, josh, came down from boston for a visit a few weeks ago. we were all very excited, especially william as we headed out for the beach.

william loved having a new friend who would play with him.

it was a great weekend - come back soon josh!