Summer Summary

This is probably going to turn out to be a long post. I've been working on it off and on over two days time during breaks at work. For those of you not up for a long one, just read down through the bulleted list and you'll probably have the gist of it! :) For those who, like me, want ALL the details, read on further! There will be some photos to follow, but due to a computer virus at home, I'm not going to attempt that right now. Hopefully we'll get that issue remedied soon. At any rate, here goes!

It's hard to believe that the summer is quickly drawing to a close. It's gone by super fast this year. D and I have agreed that it's been a very different summer than we ever could have expected. It definitely hasn't been the easiest summer, but it's been good nonetheless. God continues to be so faithful to us. He provides for us and blesses us in the midst of it all. He continues to teach us even when we're not expecting to be taught. Here are some memories of this summer (some are still being made!) in no particular order:

• Seeing P's delight and natural abillity for riding a horse
• Potty training a three-year-old boy and hearing the proud announcement: "I pooped in Thomas!" (Thomas the tank engine underwear)
• N rolling accross the room to touch a dog's paw (and giggling!)
• D hiking to Mt. Pilchuck with Ted and Joe
• Kaler's visiting our home from WA--lots of fun times and laughs in 12 short hours!
• Regularly riding tractors and motorcycles in our front yard and down the block
• All five of us plus two Golden Retrievers up in the playscape tree house
• Watching K and P "work on" the broken tractor with Daddy
• Talking about heaven daily with the kids after the passing of Ted, Merlin the horse, and Itsy Bitsy Boo (Grammy and Grampy's dog)
• Dancing with all three kids at the local library story hour
• The whole family eating McDonald's sundaes in the van at 8:30pm and blasting rock and roll with the windows open
• Bandaging countless skinned knees and bug bites/stings
• Spending the last days with Ted before his passing
• K squirting Marilyn (Ted's Mom) with a squirt gun while she was on a phone call (she screamed!)
• Rocking to the Vacation Bible School band with the kids for a week
• Visiting with many friends from WA--hours and hours of fun catching up!
• Riding a WA state ferry to Whidbey Island--"Look at the seagulls floating on the wind!"
• Arguement between P and K: "Grampy is NOT a boy! He's a Grampy!" (K). "Grampy it too a boy! He is a Grampy AND a boy!" (P.)
• Bike riding, bike riding, and MORE bike riding! Especially inspired by Joe Kulper in WA who fixed the kids up with bigger bikes and got them so pumped up to ride.

Those are just a few of the many, many things I could mention. It's been a jam packed summer. Difficult at times, but also good. The losses we have experienced this summer have hit us pretty hard. The loss of Ted was huge, of course. Walking through that whole process during our stay in WA was incredibly impacting. Then, a few weeks after being back home we found out about the loss of Merlin, who was a VERY cool horse that we got to spend time with during our stay on Whidbey Island. The kids loved him and fed him while we stayed at the farm where he lived. Piper has had an especially difficult time with that loss. Then last week my parents had to put down their dog Itsy. This is another hard loss for Piper. Itsy wasn't the kind of dog that really liked kids, but she really liked Piper, and Piper knew that. It will be interesting to see how she does when we go up to Grammy and Grampy's next weekend. I'm sure it will be difficult for all of us. As I mentioned in the above list, we have had some neat discussions about heaven. God is so good in that I found a wonderful book about death and heaven at the library. I just happened to glance at a shelf in passing and there it was! It was a really good book to read to the kids; Piper especially. Thank you Lord! It was very helpful during this time of loss.

I also had a rough go of it for a few weeks with a strange rash of sorts. I saw four doctors and filled eight prescriptions for it with not much for answers. Finally it seems to be dissipating as I'm moving into my fourth week of it. No final diagnosis other than contact dermatitis. Not sure what I came in contact with, but I sure hope it doesn't happen again! I lost about a week and a half of "fun" as the Docs thought I might be contagious and didn't want me around people too much. (Not to mention the fact that the extreme heat and humidity outside made the extreme itching even worse). I'm just thankful that it wasn't as serious or contagious as they originally thought. Thank the Lord no one else got it!

We have spent the past few weeks catching up on things that we have meant to do all summer and are only just now getting to. I'm embarrassed to admit that we have only just visited the local library for the first time. (we've lived in the area about 2 1/2 years) Now that K is a bit older, I finally decided to try it. (I have avoided it for fear of him being too loud and boisterous!) Have we ever been missing out! I used to take P to the local library in WA all the time, but haven't taken the plunge since we've relocated here. Last week we actually made it to the story hour. It was so much fun. All three kids had a blast. Red Robin visited (in full costume) from the local restaurant and passed out free kids meal coupons. We checked out 21 books and 1 Clifford movie and had everything read within a few days. We went back again yesterday and checked out 30 books and 2 movies this time! We have plans to go back again next week, as well. I'm not sure I'll be able to carry any more than 30 books, so we better cut if off at that! K was excited to see the lawn mower guy both weeks in a row....I guess we'll shoot for next Wednesday around 10:30 a.m. again to see if we can see him yet a third consecutive week!

We also hit up the sprinkler park for the first time. That was a blast, as well. It features a great wooden playscape as well as a kid friendly spray We would visit again, but we've had rain all week....so, hopefully we can make it one more time before school begins after Labor Day. We also hope to do the zoo with some friends, but we'll see how it goes with the time we have left.

Lastly, we've been able to catch up a bit on playdates with friends over the past week or two. We've had fun getting to know people a bit better. We're excited about building community and making more connections here. Our whole family is feeling a bit more connected these days. God is good!

We are looking forward to the final week and a half of summer left. We're going to do some more fun things together, and then head up north to visit with the family. Due to the craziness and unexpected changes that have come up this summer, we haven't even made it up since April!!! So, we're looking forward to that. I hope your summer has gone well, and we'll be in touch as we head into Fall. Wow! Back to school, here we come! Hopefully we'll have some photos posted here soon.