Summer 2010 - August

Sometimes this blog is just ONE MORE THING I have to do. And then it's no longer fun. But, just like laundry and peeing, do it I must. So here is my last installment of Summer 2010:

The month began with Jared leaving at 4am for a week-long, bzillion mile bike trip with his Scout troop. I tried to bribe some of the adult leaders with the dessert of their choice if they would provide me with some pictures of the trip. But apparently, what happens on Scout outings, stays on Scout outings. And that's probably for the best.

That same week, Emma participated in a Girl Scout day camp at one of our local parks. She had a blast - doing crafts, learning silly songs, and hanging out with her friends all day, every day. Again, no pictures. But I do have a shot of Adana at the "Family Picnic & Show" at the end of the week:

She's pretending to be me. Nice.

Nathan spent much of the month of August working on his next big project. He found a killer deal on a hot tub on Craigslist (the caveat - it was 2 hours south of us, on a guy's back deck, and the buyer had to rent a crane to LIFT it over the house). Apparently it was enough of a deterrent that the guy couldn't find anyone willing to buy it, even when he kept lowering the price. But little obstacles like that don't intimidate my man!

While the transportation of the hot tub was being worked out, Nathan, Jared & our friend Ryan prepped a spot for it in our back yard.

On the day it arrived, I sent Jared out to snap some pictures of the moving guys. I was NOT expecting it to be so stinkin' huge!


These guys are going to need some major back surgery in a few years. That hot tub had to be close to 1000 lbs.


But we sure are happy to have it! Nathan has grown a few more grey hairs trying to stabilize the chemicals, etc. But I love how it relaxes him in the evenings. Totally worth the money & effort (which is easy for me to say, since the only effort I've put into it is blogging about it).

Toward the end of August, things got really busy. We went down to Portland to cheer Jared on in the Mt. Hood Challenge soccer tournament. We also took advantage of the tax-free shopping in Oregon to get our back-to-school shopping done.

And of course, we couldn't leave Portland without a trip to our favorite donut shop.

I couldn't stomach more that a little nibble from these sugary, gooey delights. But my kids went nuts over them!

August 22nd was Nathan's 39th birthday. The poor guy had to spend most of the day at Travis AFB for his Reserve weekend. But we celebrated when he got home.

August 25th was our 15th anniversary. We had already had our "official" celebration at Canlis, but we were able to spend the day together (plus Adana), shopping at IKEA and going to a Seattle Sounders game. I sure do love my husband. His gift to me was roof racks for my car!! Yeah! (I've been begging for them for a loooong time). My gift to him was - well, it was a private surprise. ;-) (No, nothing kinky! Clean it up, people!)

August 27 was Micah's 12th birthday. He invited a great group of friends to go bowling. It was a really fun party - he's got some super nice friends.

He decided that, instead of bringing a birthday cake to the bowling alley, he wanted a big bowl of "Candy Salad." This is an invention of his Aunt Katie. The quantity of sugar in that bowl just about made Nathan & me heave, but the kids sure enjoyed it!

Later, at home, he had his birthday cake. He requested a soccer ball cake. Yikes! I made the cake, then assigned Nathan to do the decorating. He got so frustrated, but Micah was thrilled with it. Bravo Nathan!

And that's about it. Summer 2010 is officially over. And now my favorite time of year begins - fall, back-to-school, colorful trees and crisp days, hot soup for dinner, sweatshirt weather . . . Ahhhh, bliss.