Schaefer Family Adventures: September 2019

So I know October is over half done but I have had “Schaefer Family Adventure: September” on my to do list for so long and it feels AMAZING to check it off!! So a little late but hey it’s not November yet!

September was a seriously busy month! Between visits with family and photography sessions, it flew by! Matthew’s parents came to visit for a long weekend which was filled with baseball! We went to a Pittsburgh Pirates game with them and John had a blast in the kids area. It was so fun watching him enjoy the baseball game with Matthew. I love watching them do Daddy/son activities. John loves helping Matthew do everything, from running to Lowes to get stuff for the rentals, so working on projects around the house. He wants to be just like his daddy and that makes my heart soar!

Another memorable thing from September was when I made a spontaneous trip to Atlanta to shoot Katie and Jorge’s Mexican reception! That was incredibly fun!! I brought Grace with me and though it was a quick trip, I had an incredible time seeing the Hernon and Gamboa families again!! It was like a mini reunion!!

Later in the month we took a trip to NY for a week to visit my family. I got to see old friends, especially the ones I danced with for years. I stopped into my old dance studio with my kids and it was such a surreal experience. It was different, yet the same. I saw the walls I had helped paint and the awards my dance class had won, hanging on those walls. I saw pictures from my recitals and best of all, I got to see some familiar faces….my classmates are now some of the teachers at the studio! I also had the pleasure of photographing one of my fellow dance classmates, Alexa, and her sweet family at an apple orchard. You can see their adorable session here. Speaking of apple orchards, I went to the same apple orchard, The Apple Farm in Victor NY, with my family to pick apples with Grace and John. We used to go every year when I was younger and it was amazing to bring my own children to a place from my childhood. John LOVED apple picking and I’m hoping to continue this fall tradition with my own kids each year.

During my time in NY, I also got to visit with a friend from high school and we went for a walk along the Erie Canal to a park. She had asked me if I knew of this park and I told her, “ahh yes, I am quite familiar with this park…I broke my leg there when I was 6!” The park has changed a bit since then and yet I could still point out the spot where I fell off the monkey bars and broke my leg, in front of my 9 month pregnant mother. My poor mom! It wasn’t until I was 9 months pregnant that I fully grasped the craziness of the whole situation: Mom is 38 weeks pregnant with a 6 year old who broke both bones in her leg and a 2 year old who is upset that she can’t go feed the ducks because we have to go to the hospital. Not how any of us thought an afternoon at the park would go. But luckily no broken bones for any of the kids during our trip to this park. There was a HUGE slide that was crazy steep and John wanted me to go down it with him. I love the picture my friend Bre got of us coming down the slide! It was so fun to have a playdate at a park with a dear friend. She and I used to have sleepovers and go to the movies and mall together (you know, classic high school girl stuff) and now we are moms and we get to catch up while chasing our kids around a playground!

I feel like both kids grew in leaps and bounds during September. John has been continuing to add new words to his vocabulary and I love watching him sit and read books aloud to himself. He loves lining up his cars and playing with his Duplos. He is really into colors, counting and letters. He loves working on cutting paper with scissors at Montessori school and he also enjoys helping me with the laundry and cracking eggs for breakfast. Grace has begun cruising along furniture and she all about pointing at people and things. It’s so cute!! She also cut her first two teeth and gosh they are cute but boy do they hurt when she bites you!! All she wants to do is play with whatever John is playing with….and all John wants to do is play by himself. And so my life as a referee has begun. Though the days can be long and draining at times, I am soaking in all the snuggles and kisses that I can. I think now that I’ve begun taking senior photos, it’s really made me aware of just how quickly those first 18 years go by. So I’m taking in these days and weeks as they come with all the laughter, tears and exhaustion that they bring.

I hope you enjoy looking through the photos from this past month!