Joolaye...

I love it: now that I'm retired, every month means vacation... until October, of course. A lot of things will be changing for us soon. New house. (No money.) New baby. (No sleep). New job. (No pay). But we're thrilled. Ecstatic, actually. July was a great month and we were happy to spend a lot of quality time with family. We celebrated the Fourth in Atherton with the Nicholsons and a few weeks later headed to Aptos for the "Sorbello (and Armstrong) Family" vacation. Now we're settled back in D-Town, Shiloh started the biggest jury trial of his life on Tuesday, and we close escrow on our house tomorrow.

Here we are poring over crosswords at The Prolific Oven in Palo Alto. This is a regular sight on our Atherton visits (and an almost daily one for the Nicholsons!). We're not allowed to go home until we finish a puzzle. Gracie came down with us for the weekend and much fun was had.

Mom and Kate are good at crosswords too, but it looks like Copper was feeling a little neglected so they took a break to pet her. She was kind of smelly that weekend, but we still love her.


One afternoon we went out to Lake Lagunita on Stanford campus for a walk. Laura has just finished showing us how strong she is by doing pull-ups. I know I was impressed!


Here's Laura again, holding a cute little toad. They were all over the place and we couldn't resit taking pictures of them...


...in Shiloh's hand...

...even on Copper!

TJ found a cool hiding spot in a tree.

Shiloh found a cool hiding spot in an even bigger tree.

Gracie and Laura were content to just swing. I stayed on the ground with Copper. :)


This is why Copper was smelly: T lets her play in the nasty lake. Can you spot her? Click to enlarge.

Aptos pictures are coming soon, but they're currently stuck in Atherton on T's camera where Sam left them by accident. Stay tuned.

Baby update: Siena continues growing and has increased the frequency of her wiggling and worming. We're anxious to meet her, but it looks like she's going to hang out for another few months. I wish she would consider putting off growing until AFTER she came out, but alas...

This is the 7 month (28 week) photo with a belly decidedly unable to be hidden. I try not to let it slow me down, but Shiloh insist that I cut back on ultimate and just stick to softball catcher. Sigh.

The sign reads, "Baby could survive if born now, but I'll let her stay 'till October, even tho' she's been kicking me in the ribs."

After a week in Aptos, Shi does a pretty good pregnant belly!

His belly wasn't the only thing he worked on growing, though. A week of no work = a week of no shaving. This is actually taken after a week and a half of progress. He went into work with it on Monday morning to impress all the office ladies (sadly, Dee missed it) and then he shaved it off right before the big trial started on Tuesday. You've probably heard the story (maybe MANY times, like me)... Shiloh is the head prosecutor for a case against a Marysville police officer who ordered an illegal strip/body cavity search of a female parolee on the side of a busy road at 4:00 in the afternoon! The local press has been tracking the progress daily in the newspaper (check out appealdemocrat.com). The Yuba County DA has been giving him great opportunities to learn and he's growing to be quite the justice seeker. Closing arguments and jury deliberation concluded today, and the jury got it right. See the article here.

Coming soon: Aptos and HOUSE!

Summer Days

Siena is doing great and finally made it to six months! This process seems really slow sometimes, but I guess it's good for adjusting to a slower pace of life. She's been kicking a lot - sometimes harder than I like, but it's fun to feel her little knees and feet and fists through my ever-growing belly. It's also nice to look legitimately pregnant so people don't wonder why I'm getting chubbier. Just in case people can't tell, sometimes I'll push for a couple extra inches.



Shiloh has been working hard, too. Here he is showing off the work he's been doing. His monthly attempts at sticking out his stomach don't seem to be making his stomach grow as quickly as mine...

Weekends have been busy because summertime means weddings! Here some AIA girls representin' at Katie Griffin (soon to be Reece)'s bridal shower.


Natalie Russell (soon to be Smith) is about to kiss a crab at her Bachelorette party near Fisherman's Wharf...


Gracie is finally home for a visit! She came home full of stories and ready to "play." On Monday we went to Arroyo pool for a swim with Bethany and our favorite nephew. Luke was super-cute, trying to kick his basketball that was floating way above his feet and out of reach of his little legs. He's a brave water-goer, and he also has a knack for laying down on random peoples' warm towels (without asking, of course)! He's cute enough to get away with it...