Wrapping up the summer

Hi Friends!

I woke up this morning thinking about the blog and the fact that I have posted so very little recently, so I thought I would just take a minute and say hello and give you a quick update.

We are still doing OK. The summer has sort of dragged on, but in a good way. We have taken some short road trips, but for the most part our days have been spent at the neighborhood pool, playing with friends, doing arts and crafts projects, going on nature walks, going on walks for ice cream, really, just nice easy summer activities.

We talk about Oakes daily. Isla brings him up often. She has told us that she has a pretend Oakesie and he plays with us daily. Truthfully, pretend Oakesie has been playing with us, riding in the car with us, and snuggling at bedtime with us for over a year now. It has always been sweet and comforting, but now I hang on to every word in her little Oakesie updates. He has taken her to heaven at night, he rides our Yellow Lab, Ashby, he will not put on a seat belt in the car, he can pee in the potty, Isla imitates a silly dance that he does and just recently he did dumped sand in the living room although I thought it was Isla! We all miss him so very much, but we all feel him around us, which feels like an amazing gift.

I just walked Isla up to school for her first day. It is rainy in St. Louis today so we had a fun, wet walk with our umbrellas. I am excited to get back into a routine with that little lady, and am more excited to have some time by myself. It has been years since that has happened, but I think I am ready for a little Becky time.

One project that I have been working on is the MOHF run coming up on October 6th here is St. Louis. It should be an amazing event. I hope to walk the 1mile course with Isla in between my volunteer duties and Greg is training for the 5K. Will we see you there? We have heard from a lot of people that are planning on coming, but we have not gotten registration forms from everyone yet, and the deadline to register is coming up. If you want a fancy dry-fit shirt then you have to register by September 14th. Unfortunately, we won't have extra shirts for walk up participants on the day of the race. If you plan on attending, please send us your registration!

I have taken some great pictures this summer and will start sharing some of the best. Here are a few for now.

Hugs to all of you,
Becky

We are always looking for hearts on our nature walks and this is one of my favorites. An imperfect heart is still a beautiful heart. 

Little fish Isla, swimming underwater!

Walking to school for a play day last week.

Isla has a trained eye for heart rocks. 

 Isla and her new heart rock. 

A heart leaf right outside of her school. 

Our Oak trees have been raining little baby acorns all summer long. It is likely because of the crazy heat that we have had and lack of rain, or maybe it is a sign from Oakes. Either way, we have loved finding them!