Visitors

The skateboarder at the fair.

Mom and Lyla on the big slide at the fair.

Phil and Dad at Chamber's Bay.

We loaded up on cotton candy before heading home.

Mom and Dad came into town last week and stayed with us for a few days. We had the inside of the cabin finished for them to stay in for a little trial run. We went to the Puyallup Fair Monday afternoon once the kids were out of school. Nothing like fair food to help with a girls diet, but it was fun and the kids loved all the rides and treats.

Phil and dad hit three different golf courses in the area and finished the rounds with a day at Chambers Bay golf course. They paired up with two Canadians that made for an interesting day of golf.

I finished off the week with the Army half marathon. It rained really hard the entire run, but I finished well ahead of my goal time. I was hoping to finish at a 9 minute/mile pace and made it with a 8.25 minute/mile and finish time of 1 hour 48 minutes. Phil and I will be running the Seattle half in November and I hope to shave a few more minutes off my finish time. The course has a ton more hills so we will have to see how things go.

Concert

Two of my favorite things are being with Phil and going to concerts. For Phil's birthday I got tickets to the Mat Kearney and Owl City concert. We were the old people at the concert, but I was totally dancing around and got nice and sweaty. We LOVE Mat Kearney and Owl City was great too. The guy in Owl City did these really funny crazy dance moves that at the end of the concert he commented on how he knows he is a weird and horrible dancer, but he can't stop dancing while he sings. He was super humble and sweet. Plus there were these kids with their dad standing next to us and they were singing all the words to every song, with their eyes closed and with feeling. Phil and I loved watching them, they were so cute.

First Day of School 2011

Well school started yesterday and Miya and Cannon were pretty excited. We did hair cuts and blessings on Tuesday and got them to bed way earlier than they had been for the whole summer. Miya really likes her new teacher and Cannon is happy to have the teacher Miya had last year. They are getting ready to head back to piano lessons next week and start soccer as well. We have jumped in with both feet and are excited to be back to some sort of schedule. I am the new Activity Days leader so Miya with actually be attending so the school year should be busy and fun.

Tacoma Rainiers

(I think Rachel and I look like we could be sisters)

We finally made it to a Rainier's game last weekend before the kids started school. It was the last night game of the season so they did the firework show and the kids loved it. This year they didn't even have to cover their ears the whole time. They also loved the cotton candy, free hats and free crazy bread. Miya had been at Wild Waves all day for Cora's birthday party so was pretty tired by the time we got home. They all seemed to be great until church the next morning.

Labor Day was fantastic. It was in the 80s and we were able to play volleyball, swim and have a BBQ. Oh, and we worked all morning on the cabin in order to truly celebrate LABOR day. The cabin is SOOOO close to getting done, but it seems the small finishing touches are taking forever. We have picked out the colors for the outside of the house and hopefully we will be able to do the outside work in the next few weeks while the weather holds out.

Cousins

With Ashlee's girls before they headed out of town.

With Tamara's and Andra's kids.

This summer we have been able to spend time with cousins and I am just now getting pictures off my camera. I love to see the kids play together and forming friendships with family. We had family reunions with everyone and the kids talked about it all summer long.

Last week of Summer

The kids have been enjoying the last week of summer and the wonderful Indian Summer weather we are having. They have been swimming and lately they got out the sleds and going down the hill of dead grass. The rest of the US has started school, but my kids are enjoying these last few moments of freedom. I will be sad next week when they head back to school and Lyla wont know what to do without someone telling her what she should be doing all day. It is time for hair cuts, cleaning out drawers of clothes that are now too small and scrubbing down this house that has been sadly neglected the last few months. It has been a wonderful summer that has flown by way too fast.

PS. the cabin is almost done and we hope to finish it this weekend with the holiday time off.