Summer Update

Just some of the things that have been keeping me busy elsewhere. I see a lot of you still find time to blog even in the summer. I stand impressed:) I will just do a few updates and hopefully get back when things settle...or do they ever settle?

After baseball ended we had a short break. Action boy got to go to an EM's game with the coach and his son. That was neat for him. He got a free baseball cap that night too.

At the end of July we all went to Cedarville, Ca. My husband and I grew up there and graduated from the tiny high school there. We went back for a centennial reunion for the high school which was founded in 1907. It was a lot of fun. We met up with so many friends from our past.

The kids and cousins on the newly dedicated sign for SVHS

!!!!!!!!! BIG NEWS !!!!!!!!!!

While we were in Cedarville Monkey boy turned 13! That is just too much for me to comprehend right now. By the time I get used to having a teenager he will be 17!

Monkey boy blowing out his 'magic' candle.

We brought my yougest brother home with us to spend the following week. He is only 12 and is great friends with my sons who are in reality his nephews. We get a lot of great conversations out of that bit of trivia.That weekend my mom came up from California to pick up my little bro. She stayed for a few days to visit. It was one of the nicest visits I've had with her. We got to have lots of long talks without much interruption. Amazing really. All of my 32 years there have always, always been many interruptions :)

This is my mom, brother, nephew and family celebrating Monkey boy's birthday.

When mom went home she left my nephew with us to stay a week as well. We had fun hanging out with him too. One day I took the boys to the park and afterward they all fell asleep watching TV.





At the end of my nephew's week my sister came up to get him as well as go camping with us. We had my brother and his family who live here in the area, plus my other bro and his wife came down from Portland. Also my 'adopted' brother and his girlfriend from the area. It was a lot of fun. We only stayed out one night but it was a lovely get away, for the most part....

On the day we were to leave Doug and I took a walk and my sister was watching the kids as she was starting to fold up her tent. I guess Viking Princess and her cousin decided it would be a better view if they climbed up on top of our vehicle. I have a durango so it's up pretty high. Well to make a long story short, they fell off and VP ended up fracturing her collarbone!!We didn't know of course at the time and we hastily packed up camp and headed back into town and to the after care clinic. Poor thing, she did learn a lesson though. The way she tells it is, "Never climb up on Durangos." ( I did set her straight and tell her not to climb on any cars)

The girls pointing up to how far they fell from.

During all of this Doug and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary. We had a friend in from Texas during this time as well. He and Doug were supposed to go out and have a fun day together seeing the sights in Oregon. I had even told them the day that would work with our schedule...and then Doug and I realized it was our anniversary! (Weird, we must be too busy to not even notice it's our anniversary.) Anyway when we realized, Doug ended up cancelling his plans and then his friend even offered to babysit for us instead:)So we got to go out to dinner and have a date that night. (obviously we hadn't planned ahead for it;) Doug insisted on me picking out a ring to commemorate our 14 years together. (I told him I'd rather have a new washing machine, but he says I need to be spoiled) Here's my new ring for my 14 and 15th anniversaries combined;)

(The new ring is on my pointer finger, click on the picture to see it better.)

So as you can see we have been pretty occupied with many things. Some good, some not so good. But all of it is life, wonderful living, vibrant, breathing, changing LIFE.