October begins!

Declan made a bow and arrow with his dad. It was for a school project, but he's had the best time shooting the trees in our yard.

The first weekend of October is always General Conference for our church, and the kids and I had a great watching all the sessions and doing crafts and projects in the background. The kids painted pumpkins and I cross stitched a Halloween gift for a friend. We went to the park for a picnic between sessions on Saturday, and ate lots of yummy food as we watched all weekend. Spencer was in DC for work, so we missed having him around!

Spencer at the Natural History Museum in DC

We started getting the Halloween decorations out! The house always transforms in October. 

 

We also went to the Monterey Symphony outdoor concert as a family, picking up Subway to take for our picnic dinner. The orchestra was fabulous, and we all loved the performances. The theme was Love Letter to Carmel, and all the songs were either written by Carmel composers (who also happen to be famous), or feature Carmel resident film star's movie scores (like Clint Eastwood).

September

Labor day at the beach with friends--turned out to be a lovely day (until the fog rolled in, of course, but we were ready to go by then anyway).

Spencer and Declan tested for their green belts in karate--success! Spencer broke a board with an elbow strike, super impressive. Usually adults don't test with kids, but the other adults in Spencer's testing group weren't able to test for various reasons, so Spencer joined Declan's test.

(On our way to get ice cream--our post-karate test tradition!)

Spencer got veneers on his teeth to counter some enamel damage, and they look great. He's an amazing person, and I'm so grateful to be married to him.

These pictures are from a Saturday hike at Garrapata. So beautiful there.

Audrey and I went to see Dear Evan Hansen (the film). We loved it!

The weekend after our Garrapata hike, Spencer and I went back without the kids and hiked the whole loop, which was challenging!

(when we got to the top, the fog cover was so thick we couldn't see the ocean and it felt like we were in the clouds.

My three cute, sweet kids. Even though they bicker with each other, they are mostly friends and are generally delightful. I'm so grateful for them.

Audrey at a YW activity--she's part of a great group of uplifting women and girls at church.

 

August at the Brien house

 My kids' favorite thing is video games. Sigh. But we strive for balance!

I ordered some skeleton pajamas to get ready for the most wonderful time of the year!

Spencer and I framed our play through of Pandemic Legacy. We'll hang it up eventually. This is a board game that you play over the course of a year or so, changing the game as you go, adding things, taking things away. It's not replayable, but it also holds a ton of fond memories of date nights together playing through, so we cut the game into sections and framed it with some of the pieces in shadow boxes.

I can't even remember why now, but Declan and I had a nice date at Michael's Taqueria. 

Isn't he so cute?

We were invited to a Murder Mystery theme party and had SO MUCH FUN. I won best actor award, and we had a great time dressing up, playing the game with our friends, and enjoying a lovely party put on by the best hosts we know, the Orihuelas.

The kids had their first day of school. They are back in person (WOOHOO!) and doing very well. It's been a month as I write this, and they are thriving. They ride their bikes to and from school (new this year), and it's going well so far. Two minor bike accidents, but scrapes have healed and bikes been repaired, so we're carrying on. Audrey is in 9th, Ian in 7th, and Declan in 5th.

Youth activity sand sledding at the dunes in Marina.

Silly family time.

Audrey is in her first year of high school, and the only band class is marching band, so here she is! She is loving it, and we enjoyed going to her first football game. Spencer was in his high school's marching band, so it's fun for the two of them to share that tradition.

Audrey ALSO got Halloween pajamas--the Halloween legacy/obsession (that began when I was pregnant with her) will be passed down!

July part two

After Kelley and Lizzy departed, we welcomed the Bernards family for a week long visit, and it was heaven on earth!

Beautiful Claire

Berry picking at Gizdich (Declan and London)

(Ian, Boston, Adele)

(Claire, Audrey)

Day out at Point Lobos

Tide pooling, of course!

These kids all get along so well. Declan read to Adele, which was pretty sweet.

Beth and I had a girls night with Meghan and Cherie and we talked for hours.

Adele celebrated her sixth birthday with us! Claire and Audrey made the cake.

We can't wait to see them again! After that, Ian had young men's camp, Declan had WAVE camp, and Audrey had art camp. Audrey got her braces off! We got ready for back to school. It's been a very full month!