Week of August 9-16

I'll just apologize beforehand. It seems like I haven't blogged in ages - so this is a little on the lengthy side.

I really can't believe that summer is coming to an end. While many mothers can't wait for school to start, I'm hitting panic mode. I'm not sure why this summer has been different, maybe because my kids are getting bigger, but I don't want school to start! We are having just WAY too much fun hanging out, staying up late, and sleeping in...boy we just aren't ready.

This past week has been pretty busy. First we lost our computer. I'm working on a loaner laptop from my husband's work, praying that we can figure out how to recover all of our lost files.

On Wednesday I rode down the river with a girlfriend. While I was a little worried about the rapids with the kids (er...slow - pids) we ended up leaving the kids and just us doing it. While it was extremely calm, it was nice to relax and it was definitely a new experience. I've done lots of whitewater rafting before, but not so much of the - if you want to move, you'll have to paddle the entire 5 miles.




We were graced to see two bald eagles and their nests right along the side of the river.

(There are two eagles in this photo but I took it from my phone and we were moving (slightly) so it isn't the greatest photo.)

We took the girls to the rec center a couple of times in the evening to do some rock climbing. They are such monkeys and love it. I don't think there's anything there that isn't too hard for our oldest. Our younger daughter is so strong too, but she gets scared about coming back down about 2/3 of the way up. That's been a fun and new adventure.

On Thursday, we headed down the road and the girls got hair cuts. Our youngest donated her hair (10 inches) to Wigs for Kids. She's got a super cute new do which I will post photos of in the near future. The other haircut was just a very minimal trim, but it is great to see healthier hair. After the haircuts, we did some school shopping. This year was quite the adventure as my kids are beginning to become much more opinionated (where could they have gotten that from?) about their clothes. They found some stuff they loved and all were happy.



On Friday I got to work and re-organized the food storage - even building some shelving. That was quite the project. From there I went through all of the girls' closets and drawers and sorted through the clothes that they've grown out of. That turned into a much bigger project as I ended up going through all of the kids clothes we've been hanging onto for years and finding people who could use it. My whole living room was strewn with clothes. The missionaries stopped by to introduce the new elder and I think he was scared. Later I found out they didn't have dinner, so I threw together dinner for them. We then cleaned all of our carpets and hauled away a couch and took the other downstairs. We then started a painting project. The beautiful red is now gone from both the bar and the dining nook. They are currently under construction. I'll definitely post some new pictures soon.

We've finally decided that after many years of marriage, it looks like it is going to stick. After many hand-me-down couches, we broke down and decided to get some real couches. Our first clue that we needed them was when my violin students started pulling the batting out of the holes in the old one. That was the clear message that we really needed another option. So, we were finally able to make it work this weekend and we are having a blast fixing things up and putting everything together.

Here's our white trash goodbye to the floral couch. That was after we moved it from the front porch :)

This next week we are having a family vacation. My husband is off and we are hanging out here (cause this is an amazing place to take a vacation you know) and besides cleaning up and organizing, we are spending some quality family time - that translates as lots of hikes, fishing, games, and laughter. Bring it on!

So - there's my narrative of my last week and a lengthy one at that.