The Last Couple of Weeks

My dad has 2 siblings, one who lives on the East Coast and one who lives on the West Coast so it is a very rare event that they are all in the same place at the same time. But, during the first week of August everything came together and it happened! While they were all in town they came over to visit Brett & I, take a tour of our house, and (for my Aunt & Uncle from the East Coast) meet Corinne! Their visit was wonderful and Corinne warmed up to everyone much more quickly than I could have hoped for. I guess she's getting over her stranger anxiety and figures that if her people accept someone then she can trust that they're okay.

I officially turned 29 years old and celebrated with Brett, Corinne, my mom, my brother and his girlfriend (Hi, Hayley!) by having dinner at my favorite steak restaurant. It was relaxed and low-key which was exactly what I wanted.

For my birthday weekend, Brett & I left Corinne in the care of Grandma Chris and Uncle Scott and took a road trip to Chicago, IL to meet up with Brett's sister and her boyfriend, Jamie, to enjoy the festivities at Lollapalooza. This was my first trip away from Corinne and I was nervous about how I would handle the separation. I have to say that while I most definitely did not party the weekend away (what can I say, I am a slave to my routine - early to bed, early to rise...I think I was awake by 6:30 every morning) I had a great time and it was wonderful to spend so much time with Brett and to get to visit with Lindsey & Jamie.

Upon our return it was back to life as normal with the exception of some very special visitors in the middle of the week. We were lucky enough to be treated to dinner by Craig & Candy who have been friends of our family for many, many years. Craig & I share a birthday (separated by just a few years) and we have always shared a very close bond. I consider them my surrogate parents and Corinne apparently feels the same way since she started calling them Grandpa Craig and Grandma Candy while we were at dinner. I think they enjoyed meeting her and hope that we can get together on a regular basis in the future.

Some other announcements involving Corinne reaching BIG milestones are in the works so you can expect me to blog a bit more regularly (at least for a little while).