A Taste of Fall

Earlier this month we ventured up to Butler's Orchard in Germantown, Maryland for their Pumpkin Festival. We went on a hayride, played in the hay barn, road on a tractor, went down a huge slide, and even fed the goats. Liam absolutely loved the afternoon and had fun doing all of the activities with no fear. We played in the pumpkin patch and brought home some apples that actually made it into a pie!! We had so much fun we are planning a trip back next weekend to share the fun with our cousins Caden and Abey who are going to be visiting from North Carolina.

Liam's 1st Nursery

I know this is another long over due post but I didn't really get around to take pictures of Liam's nursery until just before we moved. I absolutely loved his room from the beautiful bedding and curtains handmade by my mom to the blue paint with fancy striping behind the crib done by my husband and in-laws. My mom and I designed the bedding together and then she put lots of long hours and late nights into making sure it was perfect for her sweet little Liam! I am really happy I took lots of pictures of the room because I know Liam won't remember it at all but hopefully I will be able to share the pictures with him one day.  

Semi-Annual Update for Family & Friends

I know, I know it's been a really long time since my last post but we have had a lot going on here in the Graning house in the last six months! I will skip all of the excuses and just get to the update. Since I have missed six months, almost seven I thought I would just give you the highlights from each month. 

April

April brought warmer weather to Portsmouth and lots of preparation for our big move to Bethesda. We celebrated Easter with a big Sunday lunch and egg hunt with family and friends at our house in Portsmouth. We made a trip up to Bethesda to house hunt and then spent the rest of the month doing all of those things in Hampton Roads that we always said we wanted to do.  

Easter Sunday with Family & Friends in Portsmouth

Hunt Club Farm Petting Zoo in Virginia Beach with Great Friends

A Play date with the Duncan boys in Raleigh, North Carolina

An evening bike ride through the Norfolk Botanical Gardens followed by ice cream at Doumar's "Inventor of the 1st Ice Cream Cone"!

A Day at the Virginia Zoo with Mommy & Daddy

May

For us May was a month of celebration.

Celebrating Mother's Day in Lumberton with my boys and of course my Mommy, too!

  Celebrating my sister Laura's graduation from Campbell School of Law and her 25th Birthday!

Celebrating our survival of Internal Medicine Residency

(the hubbies were there too!)

Celebrating 4 Generations of the Farrell/Graning Family at Carolina Beach Memorial Day Week

June

For us June was a month of mixed emotions. We were excited to start a new chapter of our lives, excited to be moving back to a city that we love but sad to be leaving our first home (Liam's first home) and lots and lots of great friends.

Moving Day

Celebrating Papa's 70th Birthday & Father's Day

Celebrating Father's Day with Daddy at our new house

(This was the first time Rolf had seen our new house in person!)

Rolf's Graduation from Internal Medicine Residency 

 Hiking the Billy Goat Trail on our first weekend in DC

July

We spent most of July getting settled into our new house, our new neighborhood, our new city, and our new life. Rolf started fellowship on July 5th and luckily for us his first month was a relatively easy one. We were able to spend a lot of time as a family and even got to take a few little weekend adventures to visit family and friends.

Our first trip into DC to meet friends visiting from Portsmouth

(We took the metro or "train" which Liam loved and since it was only 100 that day we had a great time.)

 A Trip to Roanoke, Virginia to visit Uncle Charlie and celebrate Catherine & Tack's Wedding

 Exploring our big "back yard"!

(We have a field behind our house which provides endless hours of enjoyment for Liam and Sadie)

 Visiting Dode & Doda, who also live in Maryland

A Few Days at the Beach with Mimi & Papa 

 Gina's Weekend 2010

(my first weekend away from Liam)

August

In August we continued to try to settle into our new life which meant longer work hours and weekend call for Rolf.

Helping Daddy around the house

 Waiting for Daddy to come home from work

 Continued exploration of our big back yard & neighborhood parks

A Night at the Montgomery County Fair

September

September brought more celebrating, more traveling, and a lot more fun!

Celebrating Mary Anne's 60th Birthday in New York City

 An afternoon at Butler's Orchard riding tractors, playing in the hay, and picking pumpkins!