Straw House: September

September began with a holiday! The 1^st of September was Labor Day, so we both had the day off work. Yippie! Since all of Chase's coworkers also had the day off, we decided to take them boating with us. Lindsey, Jacey, and Frank met us a our house in the morning and off we went to Utah Lake. We had some pretty good water in the beginning before there were too many boats on the water, but as the day went on, it got more crowded. We had a good time, even though we seriously thought we were going to drown Frank. He grew up in Africa and literally had never been boating before. He had a great time though! Chase really does have very nice co-workers.

September 4: My mom had surgery today. She noticed a lump under her jaw a month or two ago and was finally diagnosed with a parotid gland tumor. They did surgery to remove the tumor, which also took most of her salivary glad. As a dental hygienist, I know how terrible this is. Your saliva helps neutralize acids in your mouth, helping prevent decay. So without most of her major salivary gland on the right side, I knew it was a terrible surgery to have. She got through the surgery just fine and has since healed quite nicely. She was numb and droopy faced for a while, but the only lasting side effect is the decreased salivary flow. I was very relieved they were able to remove the tumor. Yay for modern medicine!

I also took Colton in for his 4 month checkup at the Dr. He weighed in at a healthy 18 pounds 13 ounces (97%) and was 26.5 inches long (93%). A big healthy, happy baby boy! He got some immunizations this time, but did great.

September 5-11: We went on a vacation! See post about Disneyland for more details.

September 13: Learned about making honey from a bee hive at the Thanksgiving Point Farm. Then we went boating when Chase got off work.

My sweet surface 180!

September 20: Another lake day. This time we brought along Chase's good buddy Jake Blackham and two of his boys. We had planned this way in advance, so we went even though it was pretty windy outside. Well, that turned out to be kind of a mistake. The was was so rough, we could hardly even wakeboard in it. We all took turns and could do it, but it wasn't much fun doing all we could just to stay out of the water. We sent the tube out quite a bit instead and the boys loved that. So it didn't turn out to be the lake day we thought it would be, unfortunately.

Juliet playing peek-a-boo with Colton after we got home. He thought it was hilarious!

September 21: We gathered together as the Straw family in Daybreak to take some family photos. We all wore color coordinating outfits and got individual shots of the kids, each family, and took about 50 shots of the entire group. Melissa brought her entourage of friends to help us out by snapping the photos for us. We never did get a perfect picture of the group, but Melissa found someone to photoshop heads and created a perfect portrait to be printed and hung on the wall.

The traditional "mother hen" Straw family photo

September 25: Juliet turns 2! Chase took her to the Curiosity Museum while I was at work.

Emmy brought Juliet some birthday cookies

September 27: I took the kids to the Water Tower Plaza at Thanksgiving Point to watch the Harvest Festival and the giant pumpkin weighoff. We got to see some really big pumpkins! We didn't stay long because it was raining off and on. That night, we joined together with the Straw Family again to celebrate all the September birthdays.

September 30: Chase took Juliet to her 2 year checkup at the doctor's office. She was very healthy and was growing well. She weighed in at 28 lbs 14 oz (77%) and was 35 inches tall (87%). She had one immunization and did great. She's always been scared to go to any doctor, so Chase told me he bribed her with ice cream afterwards if she was good. He was happy to report it worked wonders.

More September pictures: