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Every year, at Keegan’s school, a photography company brings in a real pony, and the kids pose on it, and even take small rides. It is a very fun event and most of the kids like it. Most kids over a certain age, I mean, since most of the smallest ones are a little afraid.

Well, third time is a charm and we finally have a smiling photo! We saw a gradual improvement last year from the “crying cowboy” picture of the first year and this year, we have finally something we can give the grandparents.

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This year, summer flew by. Maybe it was because it felt like summer never really started. The weather has been horrible, with marine layer extending in July and August. And we are talking about a thick marine layer, that never broke, even at midday. These photos, even if  shot in September, show how the weather looked like for most of the summer.

bubble fun (he can now do them by himself!)

We could not even make it to the beach, it was so cold and grey. We probably went only a couple of times to let Keegan splash in the frigid water.

a rare sunny day at the beach

Anyway, we still found some time to have fun. We now have two inflatable pools so we had plenty of splashing at home. Plus, since the garage is pretty close to the front yard, we could fill it with warm water, so we could use it even with bad weather.

The Shamu pool, spraying water§

Keegan has been hanging out with his friends a lot: it becomes more and more obvious how much he NEEDS social interaction. Even after a full day playing at school, he still needs more. So, I try to plan more activities and playdates. Fortunately, San Diego really is a great city for children: so much to do and so many beautiful places to play in.

dinner with Hannah

On Sunday evenings, during the summer, a nearby park had some free concert, so I took Keegan one time when his buddy Jada was there. it was a success. The kids loved the playground, but the biggest hit was the band. Keegan and Jada danced the “night away”. They were so cute.

He even made a few new friends. He is really getting along with one of the new kids at school,Van, and we had a couple of playdates with him. We played at the park and at his house. Keegan loved his house: he has a nice big pool, and he had a blast swimming with Van and his brother. They even had some dinner together.

after all the swimming we all need a good snack!

Talking about swimming, he continues his swim lessons. He loves it and he is getting much better. He now swim without me in the water, and he now can swim under water, moving hands and feet for a few seconds. He does not move forward much, but it is a start. And most importantly he is having a blast and he is not afraid of the water.

We also started Birthday season with Mila’s birthday. It was a mellow affair, but lots of fun. Keegan, Mila and Hannah really get along, so they played in harmony for a while, while we adults, got to chat and relax.

Dinner together was fun, but not quite as fun as eating the birthday cake.

time to say: goodnight!

Progress on the house has been steady, if not very fast: we have almost finished the demolition; the pool is in storage, the jacuzzi in in the front yard, the retaining walls have been removed and so have the trellis. Now we need to re-vegetate and add railings and final boundaries. Also, the demo guys, need to fix all the damages they did; they are not called demo guys for nothing: they destroyed a bunch of plants and ripped away our irrigation system. As for the house, we have finally passed a major inspection (plumbing, electrical and structural) so we n now move on and insulate, drywall and stucco. The front door arrived, so we can finally stop using the garage to enter.

The last two weeks of summer have been particularly hectic. I was leaving for Italy on September 10, and even if I stopped working on August 27, I did not stop moving a minute the whole time. To make things crazier, my old friend from Italy (and now Germany) came to visit us with her family just before my trip, so it has been a mad rush between trying to make the house presentable-as far as it can be as a work in progress-, making millions of design decisions to have everything arranged before I left and preparing for the trip. Add to that the even less sleep we got (because of all the new situations, Keegan slept less than usual) and you will understand how exhausted I made it to travel day.

hoping a new pj will bring us good luck

However, it has been great to see my friend Giada, and her family. It must have been 5 years since last time I saw her, and I really missed her. She is my longest friendship: my mom met her pregnant mom when I was a few months old, and we have been friend since. She has two children, and while they are quite bit older than Keegan (6 and 8) they all got along great and played wonderfully together. Keegan loved the company.

They did some stuff on their own, but we also get the chance to spend a lot of time together. On Sunday night we had a great BBQ, and we all ate together. On labor Day, we went to Seaworld; it was actually not bad. We went at opening so parking was easy, and for most of the morning it was pretty empty. The overcast skies helped. We were able to watch many shows, beside the mandatory Shamu show.

Keegan took a nap around lunch time and I left him with Matt and went to the New Horizons dolphin show. It was fun, and definitely different from their basic shows.

big muffin: 10 minutes line to get the overpriced muffin, 3 bytes total consumed.

a rare family photo

After Keegan woke up, we checked out the sharks and stopped at the toddler play area, and went home, exhausted. Giada and her family stayed on for a few more hours. We met again for a nice dinner, and the next morning they left for Las Vegas. We crossed paths again on Thursday night, before I left on Friday.

group photos

I spent the following two days packing and preparing everything for my trip. Amazingly enough I got everything done by dinner time, so I had a couple more hours to spend with my friends, before my 3.30am wake up time.

So, all in all, we had lots of good times this summer and we are sad to see it gone.

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