4th of July, Keith bday and summer vacation

Get ready for the longest blog thus far. I will start with the 4th of July. We had a lovely day and enjoyed the visit with Touis and his new family. The Swedish couple he is with are extremely loving and caring not only to all of their pugs, but to their friends and family as well. There were 8 pugs at the celebration and all of their owners were dog lovers. A couple of the owners started dancing with their pugs so Keith, Touis and Axel joined in on the fun. 

 I got to enjoy about 30 minutes or so of lap time from Touis. I got choked up thinking about all of the good memories with Touis and was glad that he is happy and doing well with his new family.

Keith asked for a mellow birthday because he wasn't ultra excited about turning 37. He went to a race and I made him a nice meal. We then went for ice cream because he didn't want a cake. Luckily, when we arrived the next day at his sister's house she had a cake waiting for him. His sister, dad and niece and nephew were there to sing him happy birthday, along with Axel and I, of course.

The next day we spent the morning in Boston. Hannah and Axel had fun playing in the 'Duck pond' and sitting on the fake ducks that were in a beautiful park across the street. I can't recollect the name right now, but it was filled with people lounging and eating lunch, along with several groups of kids from day cares and summer camp programs.

The next several pictures are all of Hannah and Axel.

They got along extremely well. They were absolutely adorable together.

It didn't matter where we were or what they were doing, they were always having fun together.

The only thing that is a bummer about how great they get along is the fact that we only see them every 1 to 1.5 years because they live across the country. We will just have to concentrate on the time that they do get to spend together and be grateful for their instant friendship.

Here is a cute picture of Alex and Grandpa Paul having a good time. It was great to have Grandpa Paul spend the week with us. All three kids enjoyed his company.

Almost every night we met up with one of Keith's high school or college buddies. On Tuesday night we met up with a college buddy, Brett, who had 6 year old twins and a 4 year old. They were a bit intimidating for Axel, but he joined right in on the fun. By the end of dinner he was punching them back (in a nice and playful way of course).

We went to a local farm that Josie is a member of. Here are the lovely siblings having fun pretending to ride horses. We saw a gigantic pig, learned how to comb horses hair and saw several rescued animals.

One of the highlights of the trip was playing candle pin bowling.

I look forward to this every time we go to Massachusetts. They have 10 narrow pins and a ball a little larger than a softball that weighs about a pound or so.

You get 3 balls per frame. We all enjoyed ourselves. This was Axel's first time and he caught on right away.

On Thursday night we managed to see our favorite couple and Keith's best buddy since 5 years old, the McCues. Their daughter is a month younger than Axel and they were instant friends, after a 20 minute warm up phase.

On Friday night Keith and I went out with a few of his friends. It happened to be the birthday of his friend 'Thompy' who deejays karaoke in his spare time. It had been a long time since we have been to a bar, but it was great sitting around chatting with his friends.

On Saturday, Keith got to catch up with most of his close friends from high school at the local brewery, Highlands. It was scorching hot and humid for us, but a good time was had by all. Here are a couple of pictures of him with his buddies and their children.

We ended the trip back at Brookline for Alex's 9th birthday. Keith was really happy to be able to spend the day with him.

Out of the 350 pictures, I unfortunately did not get any good photos of Keith's Aunt Lois and Uncle Paul, or Grandma Carol and Grandpa Kevin. Over half the pictures were blurry or had too much light from the sun. We had a wonderful time with everyone and were so glad to be able to see Lois, Paul, Carol, Kevin and all of Keith's wonderful friends! As far as the what is new with Axel. He has been through a huge growth spurt and grew over 1.5 inches and gained 2 lbs in 3 months. He is officially 3 feet tall and almost 27 lbs. He is still wearing 24 month clothing, but I think if he continues to grow as he has the first half of the year that we will be in 3T by the end of the year.

He continues to be Mr. Funny guy. He recently told me that he was born funny and that it is just in his bones. This is soooo true because he truly cracks me up. He continues to blow us away with his maturity, vocabulary and now his physical skills. He picked up hockey in just a few days watching Alex play. Ok, that is enough for now. Thanks for reading and check back soon!

Birthday, BBQ, Bikes and more

The summer is flying by. We continue to have a non stop busy schedule. I believe the day after I posted last time Axel and Rishaan beat the heat by playing in the slip n slide that Axel received for his birthday. They didn't quite use it for slipping and sliding, but they had fun running through it as if it were a sprinkler system. 

I have been getting together with a friend for weekly walks and afterwards her daughter, Sadie, and Axel play together. Sadie is 6 months younger, but they get along quite well. They are super cute together. Here they are riding bikes. Axel was being shy and didn't want his picture taken so he turned away.

We met my friend Tiffany and her daughter at a park in Menlo Park the other day. I captured a few pictures of Axel playing before they arrived and then somehow forgot to take pictures the rest of the morning. He found new confidence in himself with this rocking toy. You can just see how much fun he is having and how proud he is of this new accomplishment.

Thursday was my birthday and the boys spoiled me with Sushi and Cake. For those of you who know Keith he loves to bake. This was the first cake in six years that he bought instead of make because I REALLY wanted an ice cream cake.

Axel loved the cake and has had a piece every night for the past 4 nights. I just asked him for a bite of the last piece and he said that he wasn't sharing. That is my boy......claim your ice cream :)

Today Axel played with the "other Axel", Axel Gabriel, who lives down the street. They had a blast playing in the sand and mud. Axel Keith was the dirtiest he has ever been, covered in mud and sand, which required a bath before nap time.

Keith raced today and had a blast. He pulled off a 4th place in the Master's field and managed a good pack finish in a very fast pro field. It was really nice to see him working hard because it has been a long time since he has been pushed in a race and felt satisfied with just finishing. His legs cramped the last lap of the pro race, but I think that was due to the bottle of port he drank the night before at our first BBQ with our beautiful new grill.

We had a dozen friends over for some good times and food. We were having so much fun that I forgot to take any pictures. I wish I would have gotten photos of Axel playing with Louis in the yard because it was quite a sight to see. We had a great time seeing our friends and Auntie and Uncle Ryan and want to thank everyone for coming. We hope this restarts our past BBQ tradition of frequent gatherings with friends and families.

Next up is Keith's birthday next Sunday and our trip to Boston. I hope to write a short post before leaving, but I may not post until we get back.

I will leave you with Axel and Keith singing me happy birthday. Boy, does Axel love birthdays! And don't worry, we blew the candle out together and he was very happy!