October

Since it's the first of October, I thought it would be the best time to write my official "what I did this summer" essay.  Joking.  Oh, about which part?  The part where I said it was the best time.  Not the part where I tell you about my summer a few weeks into fall.

This summer I struggled big time.  I felt completely out of commission the entire month of June.  Wavy turned three this summer.  I hit the six month mark of when I had last seen her five days later.

This new month of October marks the beginning of The End for me.  We found out late last October that we had lost our case at the hands of the Supreme Court of Kansas, thus essentially meaning we had lost our daughter.  This month the pumpkins, the fall decorations, Halloween costumes all remind me of the last weightless memories I have with both of my girls.  We could enjoy ourselves, family in tact.  It also starts the memories of the weight of grieving that ruling, preparing our family for loss, going to court a million last times, and trying to act normal and savor our last precious time with our girl.  I decided to try to fight the sadness of those memories tonight by posting some of the things that were fun for our family this year.  We have had some really hard times behind us and in front of us, but some great ones too.  Even while I was busy with my sadness, we had some significant family memories form.

And so we have, "My Summer Vacation" by me, a 31 year old lady with no apparent shame at this random post.

1.  Our anniversary.  9 years.  We had a great night.

2.  The 4th of July.  Harper was braver than she had been in past years and we actually took in a fireworks show.

3.  We house sat for some friends we love who have relocated to the inner city.  We spent about two weeks there which allowed us to spend a huge amount of time with some of our other friends who have relocated to that same street.  We spent a lot of time working on Harper's 5th birthday party which we were having with these friends.

4.  The Friend Family and Matt and I threw  bigger birthday party than we usually would.  It was fun to have the distraction of it, fun to do with friends, and fun for a milestone-ish birthday (5?  Does that count? I'm saying it does.)  Next year she's just turning 6.  So we'll probably just invite a few friends to an empty parking lot and give them each a piece of candy and a balloon and let them play for 20 minutes.

Invite

Sack races

Beautiful people that I know.  Always invite attractive guests.  It makes for better pictures.

Individual 5 cakes for the birthday ladies.  The girls are each wearing a corsage from a young male guest.  That's right.

Pictures of more adorable guests inside the Birthday Mamas' wall of fame.

 Cupcakes.  Yes, we threw an outdoor party in terrible July heat.  Yes, we had brought out these cupcakes 5 seconds before this picture was taken and 5 seconds later it was only on the table and not on the cakes.  Yes, we had tons of water activities that are not pictured because my computer ate them.

My dear friends who always make me happy that were nice enough to have a baby 9 days after Harper was born so that when we met we would have a great excuse to become friends (for the children) and then they would feed us a lot and throw parties with us.  Thanks, guys.

 A couple of weeks later we had a small family party for Harperlooti and opened presents.  Matt picked out this cake by himself.  Nice, right?

We went to California to visit family.  Harps loved the beach.

Lastly, a picture of Harper where the lighting is bad, and with that rad pose she is doing she looks like an ad for a cheesy 80's sitcom.  

Finally, I would like to say to those of my friends and family pictured here without their permission, I am sorry.  If you have to sue I totally understand.  I will be representing myself, and when I lose, you will be compensated with the only thing we own outright.  Our 1996 Volvo station wagon.  So yeah, I think we're done here.

If anyone besides my mom is still reading at this point (Hi Mom!) thanks for reading.  It always makes me feel better to write on this blog.  You are nice for humoring me, especially when the post is really random like this.

Love,

Molly