Just Another Day

Seems as though the leaves started changing with the flip of the calendar page, and suddenly there’s color popping up along side the highways. I’m not ready for it – I never am.

Lucky for us, we’re supposed to get a little extension to the summer season this weekend. Temps could reach the 80s, and we’re going to take advantage of it! We started today with a little playing on the lake.

Life is good.

Today Kate was baptized. It was a nice service and a beautiful day.

I thought Kate should wear this outfit for the occasion, but it didn’t make the cut.

After church we headed over to April and Jesse’s. After all, the babies wanted to play together.

Seemed like the perfect time to take a family picture as long as we were all together and looking decent. Of course, there’s always got to be one monkey in the bunch…

And then the guys had to throw the football around.

In other news – April and I made peirogis yesterday. Of course we spent lots of time talking about the days when Gram would make these with / for us. They’re not hard, but it’s a bit time consuming. Still… yum!

Today is gorgeous. Once I get this computer put away I think we’ll jump in the boat or on the motorcycle. It’s just too nice to be inside!

The more I want time to just stop, the more it seems to fly by. I’m trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I head back to work next week. Unbelievable.

The past week has gone by quickly – no surprise there. The guys got back from their camping trip, and Josh S. stayed with us until Sunday. I got to hear lots of camping stories and computer talk. Whew! We even made it out on the lake while Bill & Josh did a little water skiing and tubing. (I didn’t do very well as photographer… but here are a couple of fun shots.)

Bill and I decided to head to a movie after we dropped Josh at the airport. I talked him into taking me to The Time Traveler’s Wife, which I thought followed the book fairly well. And since then we’ve been trying to get into the lake as much as possible. (On a side note, I got to see The Proposal last night with Kerrisa and Kaylee… two of my favorite girls. Lots of Fun!)

My little friends Kate and Sawyer are getting so big. Today we all played at April and Jesse’s house and then stuck around for some yummy dinner.

Tomorrow will bring Bill to his school for a bit and me to Target to find some folders, crayons, and other classroom essentials. Then it will be back to the lake to pretend that summer vacation will never end!

You know those friends who are really just family that were born into a different set of genes? I got to go and visit mine for a couple of days this week. It was the perfect pick-me-up for the end-of-summer blues.

There was: lots of catching up, some unpacking in the new house, tons of laughing, good food and drinks… quality time together.

Thank you!!!

So, I’m awfully impressed with Horizon and the Portland airport in general. I happen to be sipping on my free starbucks while surfing the free internet… and I also made it through an express security line without holding any sort of airline “status”. The walls here are painted pretty colors as well. I think people would be far less stressed out when they fly if ALL airlines / airports modeled themselves after PDX.

(M0re interesting posts to follow… I promise!)

Bill’s grandparents drove up from Alden this week to spend a couple of days with us. Luckily, the weather was the best it’s been all summer. We were able to sit out on the front porch, get out on the boat, and do a little fishing.

It is about time I updated this blog. I’ve just been a little bit of a scrooge since summer decided not to arrive this year. But wait, the forecast says it’s going to be nice Tuesday through Thursday. Again, it’s about time!

Bill and I have been keeping it pretty low-key. (We’re quite good at that!) I did do a priceline bid on tickets to Vegas, but my bid was too low, and I’m too cheap to spend more. That was my attempt at spontaneity this year. Maybe we’ll make our way up the North Shore before August leaves us.

We did take a trip into the BWCA at the end of July. (It was my dad and Bill’s 3rd trip of the season, and they’ll head out again next week.) Bill’s parents joined us on this trip, and aside from a day with some strong headwinds and a bit of rain on our way out, it was a pretty successful trip. I really do enjoy being out in the woods. (I’m not much of a paddler, though. Much more comfortable in the “princess seat” in the middle of the canoe.) 🙂

I wish I had a more flattering picture to share, but this is the only group shot we got. We got back about an hour before Katie made it up to Cook for the weekend. We got to see pictures of her trip to Europe and catch up a bit.

We also made it out of the woods in time for me to catch Amy on the end of her trip up north. April, Trish, Amy, and I met for lunch at Country Roads – a distant second to our annual Dells trip, but definately enjoyable. Now we’ve got to make plans for an October adventure. Get planning, ladies!

There’s been lunch with my mom & grandma, visiting Gram and Gramp A, a motorcycle ride, Diggnation watching, and lots of other little tid bits to our days. Of course there’s been more time playing with my favorite babies. They’re both starting to smile and coo a lot now, which for some reason captivates me.

And now, it’s about time I get myself into bed and get ready for another good week. This time, with some sun!

Time is moving quickly.  It feels as though our trip overseas never happened; our days have been full. Of course there has been a lot of time spent hanging out with my sweet Princess Kate and my handsome buddy Sawyer. I celebrated the last birthday of my 20’s, and we stole Barb for a couple of days after visiting some of the Dunlap crew on Pike Bay.

We decided to do a little “bush-style” shopping for the upcoming months. The greatest part of loading up our car with 3 shopping carts of bulk items this time is that we didn’t have to follow the exhausting jaunt around the store with a boxing session and stop at the post office. Whew! We’re making it a goal to use some of the skills we gained (out of necessity) in Alaska to eliminate dumping excessive money into frequent trips to the grocery store. We’ll see how well we do.

There are lots of projects to get done around the house, but there is still plenty of summer fun left to be had. Maybe the sun will decide to come out and join us one of these days!

It’s finally feeling like summer, so Bill and I are doing our best to take advantage of that. The other day we decided to have a boat picnic and do some swimming up the bay. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon (aside from Bill getting a little red…).

Of course there’s been a lot of playing with babies (and their mommys) time in the past two weeks. Bill was out camping for a week, my friend Sara came to visit over the 4th of July, and we enjoyed swapping travel stories with the Rudstroms over dinner at their place one evening. Life at the lake is good. 🙂