Fall!

I found an old movie on my computer that I made...just a series of photographs all about my dad. It was fun watching it again. Here are a few of the pictures I included:

This pic is me standing on the shore of Silver Lake with my dad and my brother behind me. I must have been four or five so that would be 1978 or 1979.


This is my dad and me on one of the passes on Highway 20 in 1979 or 1980.

Dad and me in 1975

Dad and Jeremyah in 2000

This is my sister and me, taken about five (or more) years ago.

We had a little get together at our house for the kickoff of the regular football season. Here are Cecily, Griffin, and Jaden eating hotdogs on the front porch

Molly took this beautiful shot of Griffin looking through the cross bars of a chair

There's most of the party crew. My brother is standing behind me and my (other) friend Kim wasn't there yet. I found out that she is pregnant and I'm so excited! They (Kim and Brett) are going to be such awesome parents.

Meanwhile, Jeremyah is playing tackle football and is having fun. His team got stomped in the first two games they played (30-something to zero), and after the second game he held my hand and said, mom, that was, like, 3,000 percent fun! I was so proud.

Here are James and his parents watching Jeremyah play in his first game.

You can kind of see him in the middle of the picture, white jersey, yellow facemask.

Jaden was having so much fun climbing on his Uncle James!

My fifth grader and my sixth grader on the first day of school

My employers decided to take all of the office staff and team leaders on a Leadership Retreat. We went to Sun Mountain Lodge just outside of Winthrop. It was absolutely amazing. We still did work stuff, but it was a lot of fun and we built bridges within the team. I definitely feel closer to them than I did before. It even helped to ease some tension between me and another person there. It was healing.

This is the view from the end of the dock at the lake on the Ranch. The cabin just off the left side of the end of the dock is the one I stayed in.

The view to the lake from the front porch of the cabin. Two of my co-workers (one of them my cousin!) are doing yoga at the end of the dock.

On the way there we had to take pictures representing each of the words from the acronym, CASTLE: Courage, Authenticity, Service, Truthfulness, Love, and Effectiveness. This is my team. We traveled over the mountains together and had fun along the way. This is just a fun picture of us with Crater Mountain in the background.

Me and the boss lady on horseback, making our way to the Cowboy Dinner at the ranch.

It was fukkin dusty!! I was pulling dirt boogers out of my nose for days! Weeks, even! I swear!

A view from the top of my mount. I for get her name. She was awesome, though. Oh, it was Christa.

Our cabin. I stayed in here with two of my teammates and a few other friends. My cousin was the only guy among 15 people. He handled it well. Especially considering the fact that he had to stay in the party cabin with me and four other ladies! He's not exactly a partier. But he likes to have fun and laughed at most of our antics.

So, things are good at work. I have two births coming up--one very soon and one in early to mid December. I'm excited about that. James and I are wonderful--coming on 11 years this February (holy shit!); the (younger) kids are great; and the older kid may just be on a path that could take him somewhere positive.

His story is not one I can tell right now.
Maybe next time...

Reflection

Well, summer is drawing to a close. Darker days and colder nights are coming...



It seems like summer was too short. It doesn't feel like we got many hot days and it was definitely wetter than usual. I'll miss the sun until next year...



We did have a pretty great season, however. We did a lot and had some awesome visitors.



Our first visitors were Auntie Tami and Uncle Marlon. Tami, Meadow and I took a day to pamper ourselves and each other. We went to tea and had tiny sandwiches and some yummy tea called Evening in Missoula.





We visited a local beach when the tide was very low and saw some marine life. Marlon was excited to have crab in his hand as well as on his hoodie.






We went to breakfast with my dad.



Marlon is from Cuba and hasn't seen the same kind of wildlife as we see commonly in the Northwest. He got very excited to see the deer that come and eat all the plants in our yard. It actually gave me a new appreciation for thing around me that I often take for granted. Now, whenever I see un venado, I smile remembering Marlon's excitement. This picture is pretty blurry but I had to capture the moment. If you look closely, you can see un vendao through the window behind the guys.



We went to a local park.

And visited the Village Green.



And a Japanese Sculpture garden








Last Wednesday, I received a message from a friend that I went to midwifery school with. She told me of an adventure she and her husband are on and asked if I had time to have coffee and could they pitch a tent in our back yard. I immediately responded that I no longer live at the house with the awesome yard but if they didn't mind staying in a guest room, we'd love to have them over for dinner and to spend the night. And so they came over to our house on Thursday evening. They're riding their bicycles from Vancouver, BC to Santa Cruz, CA. They rode 50 miles the first day in the rain. I was so impressed and excited to have them come and stay with us. At this point they must be getting close to Oregon. They were thinking that 60 miles per day was what they'd average, which would put them between Olympia and Portland tonight. Here are Dana and Greg as they were leaving our house Friday morning.

Poker has been my weekly ritual this summer. I play with three to six other ladies at a friend's place. We have lots of fun and talk lots of shit.





My good friend, Addie is getting ready to have a baby. She is 26 weeks pregnant tomorrow and has had a little bit of a rough go of it, complete with nausea that just isn't letting up! She's positively glowing, however, and I was thrilled to take some photos of her a few weeks ago.





Jeremyah is playing football again this year. But this time it's tackle football and he's so excited. Such a little man. He had his jamboree this last Saturday. Here is a shot of the football boy with a couple of friends from last year's team.



These next couple of shots are from two years ago. I think they were taken exactly two years ago today. I was on a road trip with my now former friend Bree. We drove from Boise to Boston in two weeks. We stayed at my cousin's place in Colorado before heading to Chicago; Niagara Falls; Seneca Falls, NY; New York City; Cape Cod, MA; and finally to Boston where I stayed the night, went to Cheers and headed home.


Here is an awesome trumpet player in Battery Park

So, summer is coming to a close. The kids are both starting new schools this year. Meadow is going to middle school and we moved out of range for Jeremyah to continue at his old school. I'm excited for them to go back to school. They need something to occupy their brains instead of TV and bitching at one another.
Ruby and Sprocket got the most out of summer they could. Here they are, resting after a day of frolicking.

Couldn't resist throwing this one in. Meadow and Sprocket!

Hope your summer was delightful and here's to next year!