First Day of School - August 27, 2008

I now have a 6th grader and a 3rd grader. I'm still in complete shock at this. Where did my babies go? Josie has this last year left of elementary school. I can't believe it. Annabelle was more excited than Josie about starting school again. Jos was enjoying sleeping in and eating an endless amount of food while lounging in the recliner and playing her Nintendo on our "off" days of travel and camping.


The girls were extremely goofy as they usually get when I pull out the camera. Today has been drizzly and cool which I guess is better than warm and beautiful as we are not ready for summer to end.

Summer 2008 - By The Numbers

What an amazingly fun and adventurous summer we had this year. Other than softball and soccer at the beginning of summer we had no ties to keep us in one spot for too long so we made the most of it. Here's highlights of our summer - by the numbers:

4 - lakes we swam in and stayed at with friends
1600 - miles put on the mini van since July 18
4 - states we visited this summer
2.5 - gallons of Captain Morgan consumed since June
1000+ - times we listened to the song "Lolli Lolli" cranked up to 11 in the mini van
3 - puzzles completed
8 - pounds I've gained this summer
11- nights camped in Trudy - with more to follow this fall
2 - nights camped in a tent
4 - bee stings
$100 - for 2 bottles of wine at the B & B - Ouch!
16 - geocaches found
2 - church camps
2 - tetnus shots
4 - times Nate took the girls out fishing
56 - episodes of the X-Files watched
1 - X-Files movie
100 - gallons of movie popcorn consumed - no popcorn lung....yet
50 - SPF sunscreen
13 - times we made it to the pool
1 - book read all the way through - we started a bunch
0 - times we made it to the library
4 - times the lawn got mowed
73 - days of complete laziness and sheer happiness by all of us

Summer 2008 was incredible and I'm very sad to see it go.......

One Last Hurrah!

This Monday we took our annual "Last Fun Day Trip Before School Starts" adventure. Paige Beuhler -rallied the troops and told us to to be at Boyer Park. We scurried around the house Monday morning to gather our towels, swimsuits, lunch and beach toys and made it down to the park at noon. By 12:30 the clouds were coming in. At 1 it started to sprinkle with a downpour hitting us by 1:30.

When we arrived at home, both girls threw on their fleece footy pajamas and snuggled into their beds leaving me to do the paper route in the cold rain.

RIP: Leroi Moore

My brother shared with me the sad news of LeRoi Moore's passing. He was the saxophonist for Dave Matthews Band and we had the privilege of seeing him in concert many times. I thought he was the most talented musician in the band although Nate would beg to differ given that he is a huge Carter Beauford fan - those drummers tend to stick together (no pun intended).

Nate and I were just listening to one of their concert CD's and saying we needed to get back to the Gorge to watch them. Heaven is ringing with beautiful music today.

Olympics Fever

Yay! The 2008 Summer Olympics games are here! I love watching the Olympics on NBC. I'm all about the pagaentry, tradition and sheer wonderment that makes up the Opening Ceremony. I love the back stories of the athletes and learning about the countries they come from. I sit in my chair with Josie's $10 globe in my lap feverishly trying to find the countries before the next nation is announced (just where is Borneo and Latvia?). I can't wait to find out who will be lighting the Olympic torch and the new creative way it will be lit. Unfortunately for this years games I missed out on that as it was apporaching 11 pm and I fell asleep. I was going to make up for it today though by turning on the tube and watching all the coverage I possibly could. Three hours into beach volleyball, a bike race and a few swimming events I got my bi- annual "Olympics eye-strain headache" and had to shut down the action. Bummer.......