Soaking it all up

All ready the end of summer feels like ages ago...

We had such a good summer, even with the hiccup of CJ's arm!  Lots of time by the river and lakes as well as plenty of pool days.

Piper got to fly by herself (next to my friend Sara, who happens to fly to Seattle every week for work) to see Grandma Linda for a week.  They had so much fun with all the quality time and also got to see my sister and cousins family.

Then it worked out that Gma Alice was in Seattle visiting Uncle Topher, so they arranged a train ride back to Bend with a stop over in Portland too.

What a lucky girl to have special time with her Grandmas!  For us it was weird not having our girl home for that week, but we knew she was having fun.

We, also got out for lots of fun as a family of four!  We did hikes and paddle boarding, lake days and generally kept up with our everyday exploring of our beautiful Central Oregon surroundings.

We revisited the monkey bars where CJ broke his arm and ate ice cream and went out for pizza.  Not a bad life for these buddy boys as well.

Once Piper and Grandma Alice returned to Bend, we celebrated her 70th bday with an all day flat water float down the Deschutes River.

David and I were able to sneak in a few "pre-anniversary" celebration dates.  One all day hike up in the mountains and evening concert date in our boat for the Michael Franti show!

Then we snuck in one more camping trip to Crescent Lake and had the best time exploring a new spot that we hadn't been to before, but fell in love with!  So much so that we went back for a day trip on the absolute last day of summer before school started.  We had the whole place to ourselves and stayed as long as we could before packing up and kissing summer goodbye!

Facing and retelling of the story of how CJ broke his arm. 

Our fun outing to Proxy Falls.

Day hike date up and around the Green Lakes near Broken Top

Hot enough for alpine lake swimming!

The anchored boat date for Michael Franti concert.

Celebrating Alice's 70th on flat water float of the Deschutes.

Crescent Lake camping!  Complete with boat rides, rock balancing and even karaoke at the resort.  

Family shot!

My girl!

Yes, he is this sweet!

Yes, he is this mischievous!

My brave evening skinny dipper!

The puppy.

Kissing summer goodbye!

Piper Vida, headed to 2nd grade - Mrs. Greene

Jett Everett, Kindergarten - Mrs. Hildebrand

Calvin Judah, Kindergarten - Mrs. Chambers

We did a mid September trip to Seattle to see my mom and show up for my 20 year high school reunion! First we did up the science center, walked around the space needle, visited my Grandma Poletti and hung out with my sister and Garret.  This was my first trip back to Seattle since my dad died.  =-(  Emotions hit me pretty hard as we were on the drive to Seattle and yes, it felt different when I walked in their house.  Once there though I felt comforted and really just happy to be spending time with my mom.

My favorite part of the reunion was seeing the old friends that I had known since elementary school! I think I literally hadn't seen any of these faces in 20 years, except for Shannon Tapp, now Shannon Tyler....Thank goodness for that, because at least Dave had her husband Kyle to chat with all night!  It really was fun to hear how people were doing...what they were doing...the night went fast, I didn't get to say Hi to everyone there.

 While the kids are in school, I am finding moments to get out with the puppy!

Best Hiking buddy ever!