Dog heaven

A good time all around, but I'd say nobody enjoyed the stay more than G & M who had free reign around the clock to take in all the sniffing, exploring, swimming, sun bathing and dock jumping they could handle.

*"Air Bud" photo credit to BLF.

Mille Lacs

It just wouldn't be a Minnesota summer without a weekend "up north", so the whole fam' trekked up to Mille Lacs for few days on the lake with the Furber and McNerney clans.


As always, it's great to get off the grid and connect with the crew... and watching 'next generation' got in some quality bonding is icing on the cake.

Sunset

As if to apologize for being a bit too rocky and cold to be kid-friendly during the day, Lake Mille Lacs offered spectacular views at dusk.

San Diego

Linds and I celebrated our five year wedding anniversary with a kid-free weekend in beautiful San Diego, CA.  We stayed in the historic Gaslamp Quarter and took day trips to the beach (La Jolla), wine country (Temecula), Coronado Island and various "must see" pockets of the city.

Our most memorable moments were definitely the tasting at Ponte, George's rooftop in La Jolla, discovering some new music talent, Madi Diaz, at Bar Pink in North Town... oh, and watching the CA natives sitting under heat lamps bundled up in parkas and scarves each evening as the temperatures dipped into the mid-60s!

10 months

On August 13, Sawyer Rose turned 10 months.  Here's the monthly update:

A few of Sawyer's latest tricks are...

• Walking (not far, but S will take 3-4 steps pretty routinely these days)
• "Soooo big" (followed by her proudly clapping for herself)
• Repeat-after-me (she's better with sqwawks/raspberries/et cetera, but she'll do the da-das and ma-mas occassionally as well)

A few of Sawyer's latest favorite things are...

• Climbing (on steps, on chairs, on the dogs... you name it, she'll climb it)
• Pasta (she'll out-eat E anyday with this stuff!)
• Anything her big sis' gives her (toys from E are 10x cooler than toys from Mom or Dad)

Maxwell Family Reunion

It's not often that we get the whole, extended Maxwell clan together... but it looks like if we want to pull it off again, cupcakes better be on the menu.

Second cousins pictured (L-R): Lauren, Olivia, Sophie, Meg, Evie, Emma, Maddie (missing: Sawyer, Addison, Zach, Brandon, Ava)

She walks!

Just shy of 10 months, SRB took her first (Radio Flyer assisted) steps at Little Beans in Chicago, IL.   

She's standing solo for several minutes at a time these days and often shifting her weight from leg to leg, just dying to take off on her own.  We'll have two miniature bipeds on our hands in no time!

Uncle Joe

En route to Fort Wayne, IN for a Maxwell family reunion, we took a pit stop in Chicago where Evie (and Sawyer) got in a quick dose of bonding time with Joe (and Tisha).

Happy birthday, dear Maya

On August 1, little My turned four and celebrated her big day with a long swim in the Mississippi.

Cohen's 3rd

On July 31, "the boy" turned three.   

MN Zoo

On a recent trip to the Minnesota Zoo, E admired the gentle giants of Russia's Grizzly Coast.

Daniel's sons

Dan & Sarah, friends for our Indy days, paid us a visit last week.  Our respective family populations had essentially doubled since we last got together.  It was great to catch up and meet the boys, Landon and Blake.

D & S, wonderful to see you... hopefully it won't be as long next time!  Evie keeps asking if "that guy" can come play with us again sometime soon!