August & September Fly By

Well it has been a busy few months in the Grimm household. Mommy went back to work at the end of July and I went back to daycare. It was a little rough getting used to the one year old classroom routine, but I adjusted well. The biggest change was that they took away my morning nap! I was NOT a fan. However, now things are going great. I spend my days making animal sounds, doing art projects, naming body parts, and learning colors and shapes. I get to go outside and play on the playground and I DANCE, DANCE, DANCE! Life is good. Mommy and Daddy are also impressed with all of the things I am learning these days. At home things are going great too. I am very helpful with throwing things away, picking up my toys, and trying to act like a big girl.


Fun at Home
Here I am being just like Daddy. I don't know how he can walk in these things!

Reading my favorite book "Moo, Baa, La La La"


Having fun in the tub!



Traveling
We also took a few trips in in September. That meant more airplane rides and seeing more friends. What a great time!

Texas
Over Labor Day we went to Dallas for a wedding and to see all of Mommy and Daddy's old friends. I got to meet all sorts of babies, which was lots of fun and good practice (keep scrolling to learn more about that one) and I got to do a lot of dancing at Nathan's wedding.

Here is Daddy having fun with Uncle Doug and Michael playing the Wii. I guess grown-ups like to play also!


All dressed up for Nathan's wedding


The wedding was outside at a vineyard and I had a blast!


Checking out the dance floor


Showing off my dance moves. If you could only see me in action!

California
After our exciting trip to Dallas, we came home for a weekend and then it was off again on another airplane. This time we took a much shorter flight to California to see Uncle Gary and Aunt Jackie and their wonderful kids. Again I met another baby and still thought they were pretty okay. Although we did get to leave that baby back in CA! Mommy and Daddy even got to have a date night. I hear they went to a K-State game. Unfortunately, K-State lost to UCLA, but they still had a fun time.

Check out my ride!

Our morning at Laguna Beach. It is beautiful!

A family picture at the beach.

Keeping up with Daddy and Aunt Jackie

Breakfast at the beach

That weekend I got to hang out with Aunt Jackie and Uncle Gary while Mommy and Daddy went to see a game at the Rose Bowl. I tried to find them on TV, but they sat WAY up at the top.

KSU vs. UCLA

Finally it was back home. Although we have one more trip coming up tomorrow. We are headed to Kansas City to meet some more family and see some old friends. Should be fun!

At home things are still going great. I have noticed that Mommy is getting a little bit chubby these days. I keep hearing baby talk and I don't think it is about me anymore. Actually they told me I am going to have a baby brother or sister at the end of February or beginning of March. We get to find out on Oct. 8th if baby will be a brother or a sister, either way it should be lots of fun and BUSY around our house!

Baby's first picture

Our Trip to the East Coast

Well July has been a busy month for the Grimms. We decided to escape from the heat of Arizona and headed to the east coast for a few weeks. The weather was perfect...rain, clouds, only in the 70s, and even some sunshine from time to time. Shaun's good friend, Doug, was getting married in Maryland so that was the initial reason for our trip, but we decided to enjoy some time up east so we spent a week in Vermont with family first! What a wonderful time we had. Shaun's sister and her family (that is one husband and four kids, yep four kids) even drove up from Kansas City to surprise us and spend the week with us. Larkin got to meet all of her cousins and her wonderful Aunt Tara and Uncle Dan. She also got to meet her Great Gramp and see her other aunts, uncles, and cousins again. Here are some highlights from our trip.

Our Week in Vermont!

Meet the family! There is of course Gramp, Shaun's Aunt Paula, Uncle Mark, and Uncle Gary, their spouses, 8 grandkids and their others, and 5 great grandkids. This is the whole clan, except one cousin who couldn't make it. It had been quite a while since everyone was able to all get together. What a fun family!!!!!

Here is Larkin with all of her first cousins: Garrett (4), Carson (8), Phoenix (11), and Kaycee (6).

Larkin with Daddy, Aunt Tara, and Great Gramp

The Vermont Teddy Bear Factory

All the adults having fun!

Look at those cute cousins!

Getting ready to go on the Teddy Bear Factory tour.

Family Fun

Larkin learned how to play Connect Four on game night at Aunt Mary and Uncle Mark's house. She was quite impressed with herself!

At the arcade Larkin got tired of her turn on the school bus, so Uncle Mark decided to go for a spin!

Shaun and Uncle Gary playing a mean game of horseshoes at the camp where Tara stayed. For all of you who don't know what a camp is, it is like a cabin or summer house by the lake. Those Vermonters have crazy terms. Sometime ask Shaun to tell you about kreemees, hamburg, and fried dough if you want to learn some other Vermont lingo!

Smore making time

Uncle Gary busy at the grill making dinner for more than 20 of us and Shaun, Uncle Mark, and Phoenix trying to help out.

Fun at the Farm

We had to stop by Uncle Jeff and Aunt Paula's farm while we were in Vermont. It is the PERFECT farmhouse and just screams Vermont. It is absolutely beautiful and they have done so much to fix it up and make it super cozy.

Shaun and Tara by Uncle Jeff''s awesome Model T Ford!

Larkin hanging around on the old wheelbarrow.

It's picture time

Larkin and Daddy having a little fun!


A Day with the Family

We stopped at a little malt shop for lunch and tried to get all of the cousins to cooperate for a few photos. This is about as good as it got.

Mommy, Larkin, and Cousin Kaycee ready for lunch.

Uncle Mark and Garrett getting ready to go down the Alpine Slide. This was awesome! You ride up ski lifts to the top of the mountain, get on these sleds, and then race down this concrete curvy course. This time Kaycee and I raced Uncle Mark and Garrett. It was neck and neck the whole way down, but the girls won in the end!

Meet the Cousins

Garrett: four years old, running with sparklers, all boy. Don't need to really say anything else. Garrett is such a blast!

Kaycee: six years old and sweet as can be. She is surrounded by her brothers at home so I think she loved having a little girl cousin to play with. Larkin loved it too!

Carson: eight years old and so helpful. He always wanted to make sure Larkin was doing okay. Here they are taking a little nap together!

Phoenix: 11 years old, and really good at sports. He took some time out though to read to Larkin and helped keep an eye on her!

Brother and sister and their two little girls!

Larkin's First Parade

Here we are at the big parade in Milton, Vermont. It really was a lot of fun! Larkin loved the horses and all the candy that was being thrown. I think all the adults liked the riding lawn mowers the best:)

Getting ready for the parade to begin!

Fireworks Over The Lake

Here we are all bundled up for the big fireworks show on the lake. People come from all around to Burlington to see them put on quite an impressive show. In fact, it is so crowded that you might end up spending about an hour and a half trying to get out of a parking garage after the big show. It was worth it though! It was a little cool and rainy, but the fireworks were great and Larkin loved all the lights!

Doug's Wedding in Annapolis

Shaun and BJ all dressed up for the big celebration!

Doug and Emma's sword ceremony after the wedding

All the fellas hanging out at the rehearsal dinner.

The dinner was at the Naval Academy Football stadium so of course everyone ended up out on the field by the end of the night horsing around. Everyone had a great time and Larkin loved being able to fun free with the other little kiddos!

Larkin practicing on the football field

Finally it was time to call it a night!

Swim Lessons!

This is how both Mommy and Larkin felt about swim lessons the first week. We were so excited to start our lessons last week and then were SO disappointed once we got there. Unfortunately our swim teacher did not understand that she was actually supposed to TEACH us anything. We went to three of our four lessons last week and the instructor did not even talk to anyone. No instructions, guidance, hellos, or anything. However....

This is how we felt about swim lessons this week! We had a new instructor and he was GREAT!!!! We learned how to blow bubbles, float on our tummies and backs, kick, and jump off the side. We also learned some CPR and some other great tips. This week was much better and Mommy was MUCH happier!

Larkin did have lots of fun hanging out with her two favorite fellas for the past two weeks, Brody and Liam. Brody's mom works with Mommy and Liam goes to the same daycare.

Larkin and her swim buddies posing for a picture

And they are walking

And they are off. Notice how they all decide to go in separate directions, us Mommies think they planned this escape!

Getting ready to make a splash!

After all that hard work at the pool Larkin was ready for a nap. Too bad she couldn't make it through a meal first!



I Can Do It All By Myself!

Larkin is getting quite the personality. She wants to do more and more things by herself. Right now she is trying to master how to use a spoon to feed herself. She is definitely still "mastering" this. Until that actually happens we are going to buy stock in stain remover. I am pretty sure we can keep them in business by ourselves!

What We Do All Day

These days Larkin is a pro at walking and even getting back up on her own. She keeps us busy chasing her all over the house.

Mommy's little helper. This is Larkin's attempt at putting away laundry.

It is reading time. Right now we are a fan of Sesame Street books from like 30 years ago.

Larkin and Her Daddy Pre- Father's Day

Larkin and Daddy before his big roadtrip

Obviously she already has him by the collar!

Father's Day Getaway

This year Shaun had a little getaway over Father's Day weekend. His good friend Doug is getting married next month and so Shaun and about ten other guys headed to San Diego for a little bachelor party weekend. Of course I sent the camera with him so that he could capture everyone at their best, and yet it came back with NO pictures on it. He did attempt to show me a picture or two caught on his cell phone that were supposedly a baseball game (they saw the San Diego Padres play) and then some NFL players they hung out with one evening out on the town. Those pictures were pretty much a blur so I am just taking his word on what Chargers they really were. Overall he came back in once piece and had a great time with his buddies!!!! This was the only picture I could come up with for that weekend.