Myles & Ollie Visit the Natural History Museum

As time permits, we are working on an LA area Bucket List of sorts. Stuff to see & visit before the move. Check off "Natural History Museum!" Uncle Charley & Libby joined us for dinosaurs & butterflies!

Myles loves dinosaurs, so we were very excited to see their great exhibit!

They have a Butterfly Garden! You get a ticket & 1/2 an hour to walk through. 

Myles could've spent all day in the garden. 

He loved finding butterflies & identifying them with Greg!

Buckeye Butterfly. These flew very close to ground, so they were easy for Myles to spot. He LOVED them!

Myles & one of many buckeye butterflies

Cousins entertaining one another at lunch

And lastly, this thing, proudly on display. I titled it "Cool, but creepy."

Suzanne Turns 40…aka "This is Bullshit"

I turned 40. Part of me is excited to enter a new decade & see what adventures it brings. But there's a small part that thinks, "This is bullshit." 

But hey, I got some purty flowers!

purty flowers

up close purty flowers

My birthday request was to go to a restaurant where we'd always wanted to dine, but had not had the chance. My brother was nice enough to stay with Myles & Ollie while I had my bday dinner at "Son of a Gun" - so yummy, but the teeniest portions. When we left, we said, "Let's go get something to eat. I'm still hungry." So, we did. When you turn 40, you get 2 dinners. Like a hobbit. 

Then, we took selfies.

Then, we decided with a move upon us and no more LA living, we'd take selfies making the most annoying "LA type" expressions we could

 (which, in reality, would be NO expression b/c this is a botoxed town.)

"Oh my God, this is the best time ever!"

"Oh my God, like, this is taking forever."

"Oh my God, I'm like, so soulful."

"quack." (aka Duckface)

"Oh my God, I can't even."

Moving, Moving, Moving On...

After 4 wonderful years in our first "real" home (you know, like a house-home, not an apt.), the SmithAldridges are heading east! We decided to sell our home in order to move to GA (by way of NC, temporarily) to be closer to family. We listed our home on August 11th. Within a couple hours, it sold…and for over asking! 

August 11th

August 11th, but like, a couple hours later.
(ok, technically the "sold" sign didn't officially go up
 for a couple weeks due to escrow,
 but still, you get what I mean.)

Cousins

Spent an afternoon in the Palisades hanging with Uncle Charley, 

Aunt Mollie & cousin Libby

Good at eating Cheerios. Obviously.

Cousin Booties.

Myles & Ollie, at the Beach

The SmithAldridges spent a few days in August playing in the sand & surf… 

or eating sand & avoiding surf, whatever, semantics.

magical sand toy…it leaves a golden trail in photographs.

Getting a good family shot is tricky.

sleepy Ollie

Beach Boy

Good Big Bro

Some of our beach adventures involved flying our kite…
which Myles was very proud to do all by himself!

Ollie 11 Months Old

Our little Ollie is 11 month old! He has 2 big bottom teeth and will chew ANYTHING. He can stand unassisted for a whopping 1.5 seconds. Like his brother, he likes to play instruments and dance whenever he hears music. And like his brother, his instrument of choice is the drums. It gets quite noisy around here.

Hot day, cool treats.

Bowl Full O' Ollie Ray!

Awake baby on the monitor

Boys
(Is it just me or does look like they're both punching their Dad in the crotch?
Guess he should get used to it.)

More Boys

Myles

Myles likes to help me cook and bake. He's like a cat that hears the can opener & comes running. When he hears me getting out pots & pans, he runs into the kitchen saying, "Stand on chair, help Mommy cook!" He helps with everything, but especially likes to bake cakes & make pancakes.

Big Plate of Little Pancakes

Myles doesn't like to get professional haircuts, but he's perfectly fine letting me do it. His hair was getting long again - we like the look of it, but it gets in his eyes. Sometimes I feel the need to clip it...

So, it was time for a trim…

Mid-trim…thought of leaving it like this.

Finished Product, no more clip!

I've been Spring cleaning & getting stuff stored away. I had a tower of boxes in the room that I heard crash to the ground. I came in & Myles was standing next the pile with a stunned look on his face. Then he smiled at me, made a surprised expression and asked, "Oh Mommy, what happened to this?" What happened, indeed.

"Oh Mommy, what happened to this?"
Myles. Myles happened to it.

Traffic jam.

 We planted a little garden 2 months ago. That papyrus began about the size of Myles. 

It is as tall as Greg now.