In the Summer Time.

I must admit that I haven't done a great job of keeping up with the blog this summer. Things have been moving very quickly around here and while it's nothing new for us to be busy... well, I'm not really sure how I've managed to neglect the blog so but here's an update with a few highlights from the summer thus far. There are loads more photos on facebook but here are just a few of my favorite moments.

One of the first sunny days of the summer (sometime back in June) -- Steven and I  decided it was time to venture out and see what (if any) good parks are around here. We visited Lake Wilderness in the morning. It was very peaceful and we even saw a bald eagle so of course that was a big hit with me. We spent the late afternoon walking around Deep Lake at Nolte State Park. Unfortunately, a week later the state passed a law that you have to pay to park your car at state parks -- $10 a day! We haven't been back since. Maybe next summer we'll just get the $30 pass.

Sunset from Redmond. I was at a stoplight and couldn't resist snapping a photo.

Steven and Tara and Nathan having way too much fun in the bouncy house! They actually tore it one point in time because Tara kept falling over and pulling the whole house with her -- it was really funny. I think this must have been late June also, after celebrating Father's Day at the Celtic Bayou in Redmond (Cajun food meets Irish pub).

Date Night -- Steven and I have had a gift card to the Adriatic Grill in Tacoma since Christmas! To celebrate Steven officially quiting his job with Rural Metro we decided to use the gift card (we had to drive to Tacoma anyway to drop off Steven's uniform). When Steven called to make the reservation they asked if we were celebrating anything special. He said, "Nope, just a date night." So they decorated our table for our date night. I thought it was really funny.

The first weekend in July I spent in Yakima for Lena's wedding (photos on facebook and in a future "Wedding Season" blog post) and Steven had his first day of the new job!! It was a very big weekend for everyone.

(Early July) The badge-pinning ceremony!! It was kind of a silly little ceremony but they really didn't have any other way for friends and family to formally celebrate the six new hires so at least they did something. It still kind of felt special and I got to pin Steven's badge on and give him a kiss on the cheek so everyone knows he's mine. So that's good.

Poor Baby. This new job really wares him out!

Celebrating the new job (and the completion of the first week on the new job) with brunch at Salty's on a beautiful Saturday morning! When you're waiting to be seated you can hang out in the lobby area and drink hot cocoa and eat scones with raspberry jam. Yum! But with the cocoa and scones and the fresh little doughnuts that they give you when they seat you... you're almost full before you even get to the buffet. We really enjoy going to Salty's. It's such a treat and especially fun since the only two times we've done brunch there have been to celebrate Steven's graduation from the Fire Academy and his new job with the Fire Department. Now I need to get a cool new job so we have a reason to go there again...

After our Salty's brunch we spent the afternoon with Tim and Annika at Blue Highway where Steven purchased a little present for himself...

Yes, the new Smallworld game. And he even asked them to gift wrap it! Ridiculous. I'm thinking with all of the games that I have been purchased this past year that maybe it's time for me to get a new pair of shoes or something... Let's go shopping.

Enjoying the sunshine with Lena! She and Aaron live a short walk from Greenlake. It was so fun hanging out with her and sharing a drink from Chocolati and walking around the lake and hearing all about her honeymoon and flipping through the proposal/engagement/honeymoon scrapbook that she has already made!!! (I only just ordered prints to start scrapbooking out honeymoon... ) So so SO fun to have another married friend!! I'm very happy for the two of them.

The third weekend of July Steven and I spent in Oregon. We had the pleasure of attending the Senff/Blikstad wedding. Well, we weren't just attending, Joy actually asked me to be her wedding planner and it was such great fun! I couldn't have done it without Steven though. He was a huge help. We arrived Saturday morning for the rehearsal and rehearsal picnic. Then ventured into Portland for dinner at Deschute's Brewery with Scott and Kristen, spent the night at Jeremy and Ronnie's new place -- Ronnie just recently moved in and was excited to have visitors -- then spent ALL of Sunday doing wedding stuff before making the long trek home. Shouldn't have been that long of a drive but there was some crazy weekend traffic and it was taking for-e-ver. We finally stopped for dinner in Southern Washington at Azteca. The entire journey home ended up being about 5 hours.

Hilde's in town!!! I love this girl. Actually, she just left for Norway last weekend but she was here for a few weeks and it so fun to get a bit of her precious time in the States. She stayed the night with us in Enumclaw (games and ice cream!!) and then we dropped her off at the train station the next morning. Followed by games at Card Kingdom (Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries. Love it!!) and lunch at The Counter in Ballard.



We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Science Center. They currently have an exhibit all about the science of fear. We tested out this falling machine thing. They video everyone so you can watch all of the "fear faces." It's so crazy to see the same things happening over and over again --- eyes get really wide, eye brows go up, some people clench their jaw together. It's strange to think of fear as scientific but it was a cool exhibit.

 The last Sunday in July I had the pleasure of attending Ronnie's bridal shower! It was a very fun event (and a good excuse to wear a dress). And that evening we celebrated my birthday a couple of days early with family dinner at my mom's house. We had BBQ chicken (I love BBQ sauce. It's the best.) and baked beans and grilled veggies and fruit salad and apple crisp!

Tara came over a couple of days later for a rather odd day in the kitchen -- we made corn ice cream first. Sounded like a great idea to me but it really wasn't. I'm not sure how long I'll let it sit in the freezer before I just throw it away. The ice cream called for 9 egg yolks so then we had to make something else with all of the whites. We settled on butterscotch meringue pie. Also not the greatest idea. The butterscotch pudding layer was actually really tasty when we were making it and it was still hot but was a little too sweet to eat in the pie.

Later that week was my birthday, which was a huge success as seen in the previous post.

This past weekend Mom and Tara and I took in the sunshine with a little walk along the Kirkland waterfront. It was gorgeous! and the sun felt so good. Steven worked a 48 hour shift last Thursday and Friday so I got to have a little sleepover at my mom's house. It's nice to be back in the girls house but always always good to come home to my husband.

We finished our sleepover weekend with a lovely fire and smores. The fire was mostly fueled by Tara's crumpled up old homework... this was the part where she threw in an essay she thought she wanted to keep. She quickly changed her mind as it was engulfed in flames. Mom stayed up all night packing and Saturday morning I dropped the two of them off at the airport bound for Mexico! I'm so jealous. Amanda is off to Europe in a couple of days and Steven's parents are going to Long Beach and Papa and Grammi just got back from Roche Harbor and are going to Montana next week and I'm thinking, what about me? We'll plan something fun soon though... I hope.

So now you should be pretty much up to date. Tomorrow Steven has to work and I get to spend the day with Sue Piehler. We're driving down to Portland to deliver a bed to Jeremy and Ronnie's new apartment. And this weekend we celebrate our first anniversary. Can't believe it's been a whole year already.

Hope the summer is treating you well!