Grateful for this Fall...

- Baking fresh peach and apple crisp
- Beautiful fall wedding on University of Chicago's campus
- Boots, sweaters and wraps
- Warm sun on the porch in the mornings
- Pool, pretzels, drinks and laughing with twenty-somethings who graciously included our three year old
- Family-made empanadas and truffles just down the block
- Soft blankets, nose nuzzles and cuddling
- Bedtime with Eva
- Finally making friends with the local UPS store
- Puddle jumping
- Morning prayer in Celtic prayerbook
-12 years of marriage to an amazing man
- Berenstein Bears books
- Lots of new babies being born into the world this season
- Crunchy leaves at the playground
- Eva's declaration that she wants to be a ballet teacher when she grows up
- Free training sessions with fun strangers at the gym
- Lasagna, chili, and homemade soup
- Striped umbrellas and jean jackets
- Discovering Almond cake
- Afternoons in Evanston
- Eva putting her arm around my neck on the couch to pull me close
- Laughing in bed in the mornings
- Getting into a preschool routine
- Bookstores and lattes
- Fresh new season full of fall energy

August into... Fall!

The end of our summer was filled with so much fun - trips to the pool with friends, gardening and biking out in the sun, great softball games with the Ainslies (church league, we lost by one point in our playoffs!), and some other memorable events too.

Over Peter's birthday weekend at the end of July, we traveled to Cedar Point Amusement Park with almost the whole VerHage clan and with the Teranella family. So much fun! Highlights included road-tripping with Josh, Kara and Michael; Lego store trip for fun while in town; Eva finding fast friends in both Jaxson and Lincoln; Eva going on her first roller coaster, car rides, swings, boats, etc. etc. - and loving them all; playing games at night in our cool cabins; walking up the street to the pool with the kids, I think we made four trips there in two days; climbing up to the loft to play with Alicia and Dave; meeting Julia, and catching up with Lynn and Steve; birthday cake and big bbq dinner for the whole crew; sprinting the entire length of the park on the last night (with Josh, Michael, Alicia and Dave), to try to get to the last ride before we were told the line closed, and then realizing that we wouldn't have had to. :)

For Peter's birthday we also saw our first Chicago Fire game, which we had been meaning to do forever! We got fab front row seats, had fun watching all the action up close on a great cool night, and enjoyed ourselves even though they tied - again.

We also made a trip to Michigan in August to see Namma and Napa and had a great morning with Hannah and Jacob on their farm again (thanks Amy!) We fed the horse and rabbits, swam, picked peaches off the tree, and ran around their big property - ah, such fun in the country!

Other highlights as our summer drew to a close were visiting with Verdoorns who were in town for the weekend, finishing Eva's first ballet class with flying colors, going to Ravinia for my birthday, hanging out with friends, seeing Jazzin at the Shedd, and having my mom come babysit during the week while we all prepped for the school year starting up again and meetings getting into full swing again.

We also moved Eva into a big girl bed (thank you Craig's list!), because she was already too long for her well-loved toddler bed (thank you Danielsons!) She loves the extra reading and cuddling space and so far has not fallen out once. Between getting ready for preschool this fall, her new big bed, and wearing size 5 and 6 clothing, Eva seems oh so much bigger and ready to take on the world somehow. We're ready - bring on the fun! :)