Major Milestones

Some very exciting things have been happening in our family lately!

Ryder has gotten to be a part of so many important events since he was born, and I definitely want to highlight some of them here before the first few blurry months of his life on earth fade completely from my memory. Sleep deprivation can do that to a person... 

Something I mentioned before but did not give enough attention to was my brother AJ's graduation from Saint Martin's University. He graduated with a teaching degree after years of diligence and hard work, and I am so incredibly proud of my little brother. I can't believe he's actually a grown up and has a real career! I still see him as a kid most of the time, but in reality he's a mature, intelligent, hard-working, fun-loving guy who loves kids and is going to make such a great teacher.

Congratulations, Buddy!

Unfortunately Stew and I couldn't make the graduation ceremony because it was just a few days after Ryder was born, but we were sending AJ congratulations and well wishes from afar!

Stew and I also celebrated Mother's Day and Father's Day for the very first time this year, since both occurred shortly after Ryder was born. We didn't do anything major since we were still adjusting to life with an infant, but I did finally get to eat my fair share of all that sushi I missed out on during my pregnancy! Ryder joined us for his first outing at a restaurant, and it went great!

A quick shout out to our parents, the best Moms and Dads in the world!

We only hope we can be as good to our baby boy as they were to us.

And in one of the most important milestones of the decade, my grandpa turned 80 years old! Of course the family wanted to do something extra special to celebrate, so my dad and his sister spent months planning a weekend getaway in Port Townsend, our special family vacation spot. They rented a historic house at Fort Worden and invited the whole extended family to a big party to celebrate Grandpa's epic life thus far. 

Stew was unfortunately out of town that weekend, but my mom was able to help me take Ryder over to Port Townsend for the day so we wouldn't have to miss the party. It was a fun adventure!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

And ironically, that same weekend in Port Townsend, my aunt on my mom's side was hosting a party to celebrate the sale of their family business. Mom, Ryder and I built some time into our trip so that we could stop by and visit for a while. Ryder was so excited to meet all of his aunties and cousins!

It was kind of a bummer that we had to try and fit two parties into one short trip, but we made it work and as per usual Ryder was an amazing little traveler, even without Daddy along to help. So there you have it... some of the more major milestones in our lives as of late.

I'm sorry for the blog dump, since really I should have written individual posts about each of these events, but life as a Mommy (even one who is still not back at work) is pretty time consuming! But I've really missed everyone here and I hope to be back on a more regular basis... soon-ish.