September seemed like it was kind of a struggle, although there was one big bright spot! Our kiddo turned one and we celebrated with a lovely party for him, and it was a lot of fun. We did enjoy some successes this month, but overall we’re struggling to make progress on our camper projects. As the weather turns cold, we’re being starkly reminded that the season for leaving Michigan is quickly closing, and we’re simply not ready yet.

We decided to have a cookout to celebrate Atlas’ first birthday, but there was one big problem: we don’t own a grill. We’ve kept our eyes out this summer but didn’t spot any good deals. We borrowed one from my parents for the party. Then one morning, Kyle and Atlas went for a walk. They were home much earlier than I expected, and Kyle said they’d only stopped in to get the truck and some money. They’d found a garage sale around the corner, and since the couple had unexpectedly sold their house very quickly, things were priced to go! We picked up an awesome grill and a decent snowblower for a steal!

Weirdly, the garage sale was supposed to be open all Labor Day weekend, and we talked it up to nearby friends and family, but when we tried to go back…the signs were taken down and the garage sale was nonexistent. So it seems like Kyle happened by at just the right moment.

We were hoping to have a neighbor come by with his tractor to dig a trench, because we had a contractor coming over to switch our house from propane to natural gas and they needed to run a line from the main to the house. Unfortunately our neighbor was busy, so we had to opt for child labor to get the trench dug. This was a really crazy week for us as we were struggling to prep for the party and had to deal with this as well, but it all worked out!

Our sweet baby has been climbing everything lately, so we wanted to get him a Pikler Triangle for his birthday. Having absolutely no free time, buying one was our best option. But most Pikler Triangles on marketplace are homemade, and it’s hard to tell the quality of the wood or the craftsmanship over the internet, and in the end building one ourselves was the only sure way to trust it. And then instead of a quick, bare-bones build, we ended up going all out. So much for our free time! A friend of mine had some non-toxic dyes that she let me borrow, so it ended up very colorful as well!

As expected, the birthday boy loves it! At first he needed a lot of supervision, and the grandmas were happy to provide help! He’s getting more sure of himself as he climbs, which has been really fun to watch. The birthday party was a lot of fun and we’re so grateful to everyone who came out to celebrate with us.

Kyle was the grillmaster for the day, and let me just reiterate how excited I am that we found such a great deal on this nice grill. It turns out we’ve never really owned a nice grill in our lives, so…we finally found out what we’ve been missing!

A few days after the party, we had a really lovely forecast of sunny, warm weather with almost no wind. I’ve made several attempts at completing a summer goal of flying my drone at the Glen Lake Narrows, and we finally made it happen. Every other time I’ve tried the wind has been way too high (and I’m particularly picky about the wind for this location, given that the drone will be over the water or worse, over the road – neither of those places are good landings for a drone falling out of the sky). Mission accomplished!

My garden started really producing this month – the hazards of planting everything late this year! But we got a ton of cherry tomatoes, some great peppers and cucumbers, and a handful of regular tomatoes. You can see my tomato supports are totally bending under the weight of all that fruit! We have one tomatillo plant and it’s completely loaded, but I’m not sure if we’ll have enough good weather left to let things keep growing.

A neighbor down the street thinned out his strawberry plants and offered us the freshly dug plants. Heck yes! I had to quickly clean out a garden bed to plant the strawberries so they can grow roots to survive the winter. I’m very excited about strawberries, and I’m already dreaming about that homemade jam next summer!

Seemingly overnight, our baby turned into a toddler. We went to a park and Kyle says “Okay, I’ll get out the stroller then we can get Atlas out of the carseat.” And in that moment, we both sort of realized that…we can just get him out of the car seat and set him loose. So we did! He doesn’t really need us to hover around him anymore, he’s capable and content to explore on his own. What a huge change!

In an effort to give Kyle a day to make camper progress, Atlas and I went to spend the day with my mom. It was a fun change of pace for us, and of course Grandma and Atlas had a blast hanging out! He’s not very helpful yet, but he is enthusiastic when it comes to projects, especially in the dirt!

So, while it felt like we spent much of the month spinning our wheels and not making enough progress, the kiddo made leaps and bounds of progress this month and it has been so much fun to watch. And we are trying to soak up as much of the last nice weather days as we can.

Next month will be the real challenge though. We’ve got to get out of here before the snow comes, and at this point, neither of us are sure we can make it.