aaaaaand it's august.

Holy time warp. I seriously don't know where the time is going. Just when I think things are going to slow down, they seem to go hyper speed. 

Some August highlights:

• My advertising retirement. As of July 29th I was officially finished with work. While I enjoyed my work (most of the time) and cherish the friends I met at the agency, it was time for me to move on. While I am enjoying my freedom/time off I am not retired from work forever. This is why it has been deemed my "advertising retirement". I am pretty sure it also makes Scott's skin prickle whenever I say retired :-).  We have always intended for me to stay home with Baby R and one of these days I will return to the working world...just hopefully as a teacher. That's the 5 (or something like that) year plan, folks, teaching. I haven't determined what age fully but I am leaning towards elementary ed. Time will tell...
• Visitors. I am pretty sure that we are running a Bed and Breakfast here in Menlo Park! Not really, but we did have back to back visitors before we headed out on a vacation of our own. First, the Berrys came to visit and then Derek & Sarah stayed a couple of nights during their NorCal getaway. It was fun to play host to both and I also got to become a tourist in SF again which is always enjoyable.

Derek and I on the bridge. This was the only foggy moment we had. Derek & Sarah lucked out and we had blue skies their entire visit!!

Sarah and Derek at Twin Peaks. See, gorgeous day!

View of the city from Alcatraz. I love playing tourist!!

• Visit Home (aka St. Louis). Is it weird that I still call it home even though I haven't lived there in almost 10 years? I guess it will always be home. This trip was a very nice one as we didn't have every moment of each day scheduled. Usually when we get back we have a packed agenda but this time we managed to squeeze in a day of touring around the city and some much needed down time at the house. Of course, we had our fair share of visiting but it was much more low key than usual. 

Our welcome home table setting. Can't imagine who all the blue is for ;-).

Scott and Derry on their first visit to Ted Drewes.

I have been trying to get Scott here for YEARS. It was perfect!

Baby R is a fan too!

Sightseeing downtown! Scott's first visit to the Landing.

Lewis and Clark have had better days. The Mighty Mississippi is running quite high.

Gateway to the West.

View of the stadium from the new 360 bar. If you are in St. Louis you must pay a visit...it really is a spectacular way to see the city.

There were MANY other sites on our tour but we didn't capture them all on camera. Let's just say Scott has now officially seen all of St. Louis. Well, not Crown Candy. We'll have to go there with Baby R next visit :-).

Baby shower! It was wonderful to see all my family and friends and celebrate the little man's pending arrival.

Baby's first Cardinals outfit! It must be noted that this beat any Giants gear into the house ;-).

Things got crazy at Toni's post baby shower. While the crazy is standard, the impromptu floor auction and "fashion" show by Tiny were new to the mix!

Traveling is fun but it is always good to get back home to this little face (and of course AP too). Lola is also a big fan of my Snoogle!

Still much more to come this month and coming soon to a blog near you...Baby R's room painting extravaganza! As a teaser, I will tell you that we are officially embarking on day 3 of this craziness.