It’s hilarious really that the last time I wrote about the going ons around here was right before school was out for the summer and here we are, yesterday we were back to school and back to a new year (by the skin of our teeth I might add thanks to the contract negotiations of the teachers union). But SOOOOO much has happened. I’m not even sure how to approach everything, so here we go…
Reese’s summer was a great one, I would say. She enjoyed all of the camps that she was in. She spent a lot of time with her friends. We had some late morning departures to camp, with her on bike and me on foot for the half mile or more to her camp. She slept in and stayed up late. Reese spent two weeks in Girls Rock Math, two weeks in Galileo stem camp, a week at Kids Club for their two-night overnight to Camp Burton, her first full week overnight camp with five friends at Camp Sealth on Vashon Island (she departed and arrived by Da Boata, a ferry for just the campers), and she really enjoyed a week long soccer camp at the Arboretum. Her gymnastics continued, with the exception of overnight camps and August when we were in Michigan.
Brooke’s summer programming at school was also a lot of fun for her. Her school continued but spent a lot more time just playing outside and they had multiple field trips, including: Aquarium, Pacific Science Center (which I chaperoned), Volunteer Park multiple times, and Miller Park. She enjoyed the Volunteer Park concert series like we do every summer, although without her sister because of gymnastics conflicts. She learned to ride her bike, as easy and breezy as can be, just like her sister did on Lake Washington Boulevard when it was closed to cars. She enjoyed some time with just Bryan and I while her sister was away at overnight camps. She also continued gymnastics and was even just recommended to join the Pre-Team. Brooke also made good progress in her swim classes and did a great job in her end of school party.
My summer was brilliant! I finally got the pass that I needed for the SE so I can finish that book and stow it away. This also came with a nice bump at work and I’ve also handed over a lot of my sealing responsibilities to one of my employees so I truly can focus on other tasks at work now. I have not gone on any more bike rides but might try to this fall. I have continued to play soccer when I can and am losing a toe nail as we speak to prove it. I mostly have been trying to keep sanity with all of the various schedules and activities that take place every summer.
Bryan also had a wonderful summer, getting a job he really wanted and has been quite patient for some time. Now he has a bajillion employees and giving his all to each and every one of them, as Bryan does. Bryan just converted our garage to a workout space and it is excellent. I don’t even know how he did it with all of the stuff that we had in there before. Bryan has been a great friend ito those that need it and great dad and husband at home too.
As a family, we shared many trips together this summer. We were invited out to Mira’s family’s cabin on Vashon for a weekend in June. This was pleasant and relaxed with great food, a trip to the farmers market in town, and a paddle to a hike ashore.
The very next weekend we spent one night for Fourth of July at Georgie’s family’s cabin. The kids had a great time paddleboarding and swimming off the lily pad. We got some paddles in and shared more good food. The fireworks show was spectacular and we watched this from the raft in the middle of the lake and then enjoyed a campfire before bed.
We took our annual trip to Chelan and it was a great trip all around, minus Bryan having to end his trip short by two nights to get back to work. We stayed at the Lookout again and the kids were great. We spent so much time in their two pools and one afternoon down at the lake playing on the beach and the water trampoline. We got the whole group out to Succession Wines for an afternoon of sipping alongside the live music. We enjoyed a full day at Slidewaters water park and finished that night with pizza. And we had a lot of fun playing on the grass with whiffle ball, frisbees, footballs and beach balls. We caught one of the evening concerts and finished the trip with a DJ pool party at night with smores.
We’ve been trying to make use of our boat share membership and have taken a boat out a few times, just us and with friends. We even took one of the Ranger Tugs out in the San Juans overnight in July. We had a tentative plan that mostly worked as we drew up. We set out for Rosario Marina on Orcas Island, docked there to get dinner and then found a mooring buoy to tie up to off of Obstruction Pass State Park. We woke to a rainy morning but were protected from the weather thanks to our boat and made it safely back to Bellingham where Bryan expertly docked the boat.
We celebrated SeaFair in our general fashion, with one afternoon tugging all of our fun toys to the point at Seward Park. Our friends Anne and Phillip joined us, as usual, and Allie and Marius did as well as they were visiting Seattle at the time. Unfortunately, it was too windy and the Blue Angels were canceled that afternoon. First time canceled for weather ever in its history here. We still had a good time but missed the show. We caught it on Sunday from the overlook above the I-90 bridge instead, which was easy to get to but definitely less impressive. We spent one of the nights at Bryan’s coworkers pool party on the Eastside, which was a lot of fun, with catered food from Paseos, a claw machine, tetherball, shuffleboard, and of course swimming and ice cream.
We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary! Bryan got me 10 roses that were beautiful and we enjoyed a night out just the two of us at the Corson Building in Georgetown to a delicious dinner and good conversation. We were also able to go to a World Cup game just the two of us and a friends birthday party one Friday night which was very fun.
We went to the mariners game for Father’s Day with some friends from Brooke’s school and we enjoyed the annual Stevens Carnival.
Shortly after our anniversary and picking up Reese from her week-long overnight camp we packed our bags for three weeks to Michigan. More on that soon…
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Chelsea
