Christmas in September

Today is the first official day of fall, although it is suppose to be in the mid 90's. I can't wait for the brisk weather, bundling up, and the holiday season to begin.

This past weekend was not the best for the Trojan football team but it was fun for the O'Connell family....especially me. Sometimes I get homesick. Don't get me wrong, effective October 1st my sister and I will have lived in the bay area for 7 years. It has been an amazing 7 years and I love it....especially Marin. However, sometimes I miss home. I miss my parents, I miss my grandmother, I miss Pasadena, and I miss my friends in LA. It's funny because my sister sometimes feels this way too. We are however lucky because we have three cousins that live in Northern California and they all have amazing kids (and sometimes they even get homesick despite the fact that they have lived in Nor Cal for over 15 years). Well, when Susie and I need our family fix we can visit one of them.


On Sunday we went out to Alamo to celebrate my little cousin's Ella's 4th birthday. Baby Catie (as she is know by the kids) loved spending time with the older kids and watching everything that they did. She even had a cupcake which ended up all over her. It was such a fun party (great job Jenny and Kelly). Colin caught a glimpse of his future....15- 4 year old girls running around, crafts, face painting, pinata, bouncy house, etc. Ah, the future birthday parties.


After all of the kids left Colin, Matt and Kelly watched football and we (we being my three cousins Kirstin, Michele, Jenny and my sister) watched Ella open her gifts, had some wine, and spent some quality time together. We all stayed for dinner and then headed home. It was great to spend time with my family and as my cousin Jenny said several times, "It's feel like Christmas with us all here". One of the many reasons that I love Christmas....family.


Here is a picture of Catie having her Sunday night dinner. Such a fun day and a great way to end the weekend. xoxo

Summer is over

We have had a busy past two weeks and I can’t believe that summer is now officially over. Where did it go?

We spent the last official weekend of summer (Labor Day) in Pasadena and had a wonderful time. We went to the USC game with our friends Dana and CJ and had a blast, despite the 100 degree weather. Great win Trojans! We also went to the Jonathan Beach club, hung out by the pool, spent time with Little Nonnie, and had a lot of great food and tons of laughs. Thank you mom and dad for a wonderful weekend. We can’t wait to come back down.

Here is a picture of Catie wearing her game day gear (thank you Lissa for her tutu) standing behind the baby gate that Bampa made for her. We are still so impressed Dad!

On Sunday my friend Dana came over to take some pictures of Catie. She is an amazing photographer and I can’t believe how incredible the pictures turned out. I am almost through picking the ones that I like but in the meantime here is a glimpse of one of them.

Last weekend we celebrated Da (Tom) 60th birthday. B (Barbara) threw Tom a wonderful surprise party at Boudin’s Bakery Café in Fisherman’s Warf. Erin flew in for the weekend to surprise him and it was a great celebration. Tom was definitely surprised.

Catie looking out the window waiting for Da to arrive!

On Sunday we all had brunch at the Olympic Club and then Susie babysat Catie so Colin and I could see a movie (haven’t seen one in probably 8 months). We saw Julie & Julia and loved it!

This has been a busy week. We have had several showings of our house (it’s still on the market) so we have been leaving and taking Catie on walks in her new tricycle (which has a push bar for us until she gets bigger). She loves it!

Well, she also loves eating her toes.

We are home this weekend and looking forward to spending sometime hiking, playing in the park, and relaxing.

Have a great rest of the week!