To start the summer off, my sister, Rachele, graduated from TVCC. She and her boyfriend, John moved to Lewiston, where he's from. And we miss her very much.
That same week we bought a hot tub! We have used it almost every night since. It took us a couple weeks to really understand what we were supposed to do to keep the pH levels balanced and maintain the filter, but we've mastered it now, and we have absolutely LOVED it. My chiropractor bills were just reduced to 1/8 of what they used to be. So it will quickly pay for itself.
On a sad note, this summer we lost our sweet cat, Pip. Either he ran away or died. We miss him tons and are now in search of a new very sweet kitten if anyone knows of any.
In July we had a wonderful family vacation, just Todd, the kids and I. We did a road trip through Washington State. We visited Seattle, Port Angeles and the Olympic Rain Forest area, Victoria, and the Great Wolf Lodge. The highlights were the Seattle fireworks on the Fourth of July, the Bouchart Gardens in Victoria, the rain forest hikes, the best berries I've ever had at a Sequim U-pick farm, a brief little stop at a "Twilight" store in Port Angeles (couldn't help myself- I bought a Twilight sweatshirt to wear to New Moon's opening night, hehe), and the Great Wolf Lodge water park. That place was awesome.
On our drive home from Washington, I got a text on my cell phone from my brother, Devan that he was engaged! Such a great way to end a wonderful week! He and his girlfriend, Maura had visited a few weeks earlier and we loved getting to know Maura. They are getting married September 9th, so it's coming up! 09/09/'09. Yes, they chose that date for its special numbers. :)
Right after our trip I had a root canal done on the same tooth that has already had a root canal done two times before! It was finally done right. What an expensive and PAINFUL tooth!
My first Enrichment since being put in my calling was in July. It was on the book "The Five Love Languages". I love that book and highly recommend it for a great read on relationship skills.
This summer, we've spent LOTS of time at Grandma Lee's pool during the hotest parts of the day. Brielle learned to swim without a life jacket her first try. She's pretty good at it!
I spent my summer training (I use that word loosely) for a triathlon the first week of August. I began not being able to run AT ALL and built up to 4 miles. But I'm still very slow at running. I built up to half a mile swimming, and biking as long as I wanted to, as my bum doesn't get sore anymore. So I was ready when the race came to at least FINISH it. That was my goal, not really to be competitive. I did lose 8 pounds in the process, which was less than I had hoped, but something. Woo hoo! It's just so hard for me to lose weight when I'm nursing. So I'll take it! The race was SO MUCH FUN. I did it with my father in law, Rex, and his wife, Cindy. We had a blast. I had a goal of doing it in less than 2 hours which was supposed to be hard to beat since my practice run was quite a bit slower than that. And I did it in 1 hour and 49 minutes! I was so happy!
Todd and I are now training to do more races next year. Todd is also signed up to do a 50 mile bike race in WA with his dad in October. We both got new road bikes and love how much faster they are to ride. We just really enjoy the triathlon life style. It's so much fun to do a combination of work outs instead of strictly jogging. And the atmosphere at a race is so filled with happy healthy encouraging people. We've decided to make this a family hobby and get the kids involved in the kid events as they get old enough. Ashton got a bike and he LOVES it, so we're getting him started young!
We haven't done as much camping as we would like to have. Just one trip with the Elders Quorum camp-out which was fun. We're hoping at least one more trip in next month.
Ashton introduced the scissors to his hair for his first time. He cut it shorter than I though was possible so even his new buzz cut can't hide his work. But I do like his hair this short.
Ashton also got a big boy bed this month and he LOVES it.
And Lainey is getting so big!
That about sums up our summer. Which, sadly, is at its end. Brielle starts school on Monday. While she is super duper majorly excited, I am torn. She's my oldest, so I'm losing my helper half the day. I don't see how that will make home life any easier like I hear sending kids off to school does for some moms. I will miss her too. I think Ashton will too. That poor little guy is going to think our neighborhood is a ghost town! All but one kid will suddenly be gone for school! And that one is a little girl who he hasn't spent much time playing with. Maybe he'll make a new pal of her this Fall. I guess school shopping for Brielle was sort of fun. As fun as school uniforms are to shop for... Brielle looks stinking cute in her uniform clothes! We're headed to an open house tonight to meet her teacher, Mrs. Sitz, for the first time.
