End of Summer and Leibrock Staycation 2014

Wow, so the summer completely flew by, as summer's tend to do. We had an awesome time though and made lots of great memories!

Matt's cousin Shawna was married in August to a very sweet German guy named Florian and it was wonderful celebrating with Matt's family. They are almost as crazy as the Brennans! Almost :)

Although Brinley refused to sit still for even a second during the ceremony and mommy spent the whole time chasing her around outside in the back, it looked  like a beautiful ceremony, from what I could tell. Shawna was absolutely gorgeous with a radiant smile and it was so cute to see how happy they were together. Oh love!

And even though she wasn't at the wedding long (and big thank you to my mom who came up for the night to babysit for us so Matt and I could stay out late and party with the big kids!), she was seriously cute in her little pink dress. Her and mommy matched. Super sweet.

Then as the month of August wore on, we realized that Matt was most likely going to have a new job starting after Labor Day. We had already planned to take a week of vacation time and go to my parents cabin with friends and then up to Canada so we starting looking forward to that week as the last week where we'd have the blessing of one parent home. And I say blessing because now as I write this, it's been a month and a half of two working parents and my oh my, what a change. More on that in a later post though!

Anyway, we kicked off our end of summer vacation with a fantastic trip up to Butternut, WI with some great friends. It was a wonderful adults only weekend and we were so grateful for Nana and Grandpa for watching Brinley. She had a lot of fun too!

Then after we got home, Brinley was super fussy, not feeling too well and seemed to be paying us back for leaving her for a few nights. Also, we thought she was getting sick, but with our sights set on Canada, we got everything packed up and ready to go. I spent hours packing all of our stuff, the food, doing laundry, etc. and then the morning that we were supposed to leave, we decided to cancel the trip and stay home. It was such a hard decision but ultimately it was for the best. We knew that Matt would be starting his new job in a week, we had a lot to prepare for with two working parents and Brinley starting daycare, that we all needed to go into that new season at our best. But man, it was heartbreaking to unpack all of that stuff. Dreams of sleeping in, fishing and cocktails on the point shattered. It was truly one of those hard parenting moments when you realize it's not just you and your husband anymore.

Anyway, we were sad for a bit but then decided to get over it and instead have a wonderful staycation at home. We wanted to do all of those things that we never seem to have time for on the weekend. Go to parks, out to dinner, children's museum, etc. We really had a lot of fun just exploring all of the fun things that the Twin Cities has to offer and the bonus part was that both us and Brinley got to sleep in our own beds at night. We even all took a 4 hour nap one afternoon which was heavenly. Overall, it was just what the doctor ordered!

Looking back now, it was such a sweet time full of lots of families memories. We really were saying goodbye to a season of life and welcoming in a new, much busier one.

Being silly with Grandpa Rob before the wedding

Gorgeous bride in her gorgeous dress

Daddy and baby

Mommy and baby

Our best attempt at a family photo. She was not cooperating.

She looks exactly like Matt as a baby here

Always on the move!

Four generations! yea!

Enjoying Nana's chicken and beets

First time using a spoon herself!

See a resemblance? Haha!

So I think this pick is funny because I've always had double jointed elbows and now I know why I needed them. Apparently God knew I would someday have a little girl who would like to have her hand held in the car. :)

Crazy stalker ducks!!

Chocolate coma after the state fair

She loved visiting the farm at the fair

Daddy, Uncle James and Brinley

Love this next series of pictures. Uncle James still loves that little girl!

Tunnel at Teddy Bear park

She loved bouncing in the spider web

First time at Chuck E Cheese!

What a little bug!

Just hanging with her pal Barney

Loved riding on the mini-carousel. She got to ride the big one at the state fair!

Never too big to snuggle with Daddy

Her favorite part of the Childeren's Museum. Until she tried to eat the water. Ew! Matt on the other hand, HATED the Children's Museum. He said it was his personal version of h*ll. I guess Mommy will be going there from now on! :)

So fun!

We went over to our friends for a BBQ and the girls got to play together. These two are less than a month apart! Alissa and I were due less than a week apart but she went 3 weeks early and I was 2 weeks "late"

Hanging out with Nana at the beach and Grandpa when Mommy and Daddy were at the cabin

She liked Bucky! No fear of mascots yet. Who knows, she might be a badger or a gopher???