Summer 2023 Highlights

Summer 2023 was a bit of a unique summer for us because we actually were home and low key more than usual.  The biggest highlight was we got a new puppy in June named Ollie!  More on that in a future post.  He was unable to be out and about a lot the first few weeks of summer until he got his full shots, so we spent a lot of time at home getting to know him, doing puppy training, taking short walks close to home and getting used to life with a puppy.  Even though we stayed closer to home, we were still able to do a couple fun trips and made some wonderful memories.  

Winthrop

Even though our anniversary isn't technically in summer, I still wanted to document the fun anniversary trip James and I took to Winthrop, WA in May. Winthrop has been on our desired trip list for awhile especially because James has always told he me he wants to retire out in the Methow Valley.  So of course I had to check this area out. How beautiful!  I can't believe it took me so long to get up to the northern Cascades area.  We had a gorgeous drive up along the North Cascades Hwy.  And stayed in a cute little bed and breakfast place that had individual cabins.  We brought out mountain bikes and explored a couple of the numerous amazing trails in the area.  We explored town and even saw a little bit of the annual town rodeo event. It was relaxing and naturally beautiful and it was a really great time--especially because it was kind of our "puppy moon" too to relax and enjoy each other before the busy-ness of getting a puppy.

What a cute cowboy!

James' Golf Trip with the Guys

James traveled to Lake Chelan with Jesse, Brandon and Carter to do a weekend of golfing including at one of his most favorite courses--Gamble Sands. They played 36 holes of golf in one day! :o   Such a great time for him with amazing friends.

5th Grade Graduation

I can't believe it, but Nathan is officially graduated from elementary school! He is off to middle school next year. They did a fun celebration on the last day of school where all the 5th graders walked through the school one last time and all the other kids clapped and cheered for them. Then they came out the main entrance and all us parents were waiting there to cheer them on. It made me cry! Can't believe he's getting so old! 

Camping with Spauldings & Antis' at Lake Kachess

Our annual camping trip looked a bit different this year because we weren't quite ready to bring Ollie with us on such a physically intense trip. Plus we didn't want to expose him to too much not being full vaccinated.  So I decided to stay home with Ollie and James took the boys up on the camping trip. I did bring Ollie up for one day though to visit everyone and he got his first water experience in the Lake Kachess. So fun to watch his reaction. And the boys and family had a great time. Although I think James will be happy for me to be back next year as it's a lot of work for one person!

Seattle Day

We ended up cancelling our annual trip to Chelan because we didn't feel ready to leave Ollie at home with grandparents and the place we planned to stay couldn't take pets. We were so sad to miss out on one of our favorite summer traditions!  To make up for it we did a day in Seattle as a family instead and the Spauldings watched Ollie for us. It was a beautiful day and we explored Pike Place Market, went to Elliott Bay Bookstore, toured the Smith Tower (which we had never done before!) and ate dinner at Madison Park. It was such a great day filled with many of our favorite activities

Annual Idaho Trip with Friends

Luckily we did not miss our annual trip to Priest Lake at Stevenson's property with all our wonderful friends. And we got to bring Ollie with us! He did such a great job for his first trip which involved a lot of driving (6 hours each way) and camping in a tent for 3 nights. He was a little nervous with the other dogs that were there, but otherwise did great and it was fun to expose him to everything. And of course we had an amazing time with our friends as always--going on the boat, cooking food, laying and talking on the dock, kids playing in the water, celebrating birthdays, singing by the fire at night, etc. It's one of  my most favorite weekends of summer and I hope we continue to do it for many more years.

Hysterectomy

The not so fun part of the summer was that I had to get a hysterectomy at the end of August. I had a fast growing fibroid in my uterus that my doctor was nervous about so she suggested I do a partial hysterectomy (only remove my uterus, cervix and fallopian tubes and leave my ovaries) to remove the fibroid and take away the risk of more growing in the future. It was actually a very smooth procedure and not too bad of a recovery. It was kind of nice to have forced rest for a couple weeks. Not the ideal finale to the summer, but at least I didn't miss out on anything major. Thankful for my doctor that it all went as expected.

All in all a great summer and lots of fun stuff to look back on. With the biggest highlight of course being our new puppy! 

Nathan's 11th Birthday

We had fun celebrating Nathan's 11th birthday this month by taking him and a few of his buddies to the Guardians of the Galaxy movie and then dinner and arcade games at Lucky Strike.  What a great group of boys and it was so much fun! The friends that attended were Bud, Declan, Joe, Colin and Keller plus brother Cameron. We've started doing smaller parties now that the boys are getting older, but these boys have so much personality that it felt like we had a huge party! They were very entertaining.  My favorite part was driving half the boys down to Bellevue. I was playing music on my phone and they were making requests and belting out the lyrics. It was hilarious!

We spoiled them at the movies and everyone got a drink and a snack as well as we got some jumbo popcorns. We were nervous the movie might be too intense, but they were glued to it--even though it was almost a 3-hour movie!  They were happy to get their wiggles out downstairs at Lucky Strike. James and I got to relax while they roamed the arcade games and then we all shared some pizza for dinner. It was a really fun birthday party and I think Nathan will remember it for a long time.

Nathan turned 11 just towards the end of his 5th grade year--his last year in elementary school!  Sad that he's done with elementary school (gosh that went fast) but also excited for him and the next stage of middle school.  

Here is what we want to remember about Nathan at 11 years old:

• Even as he 's now entered the tween years (and started middle school as I'm writing this), Nathan still has maintained his positive energy vibe and enthusiasm for life. There definitely are more moody days now than there were before, but generally Nathan is up and at 'em in the morning, ready and excited to take on the day. He laughs and smiles a lot, is always up for doing something fun with friends or family, and has a contagious upbeat nature about him. 
• Nathan is still obsessed with sports--statistics, learning about players, following various teams, etc. His favorite sports to follow and know all the stats about are baseball and football.  He is definitely following in his Papa's, Pops' and uncle's footsteps. He is our "go to" person for all the sports updates.
  
• Nathan got an iWatch for Christmas last year so now he has entered the world of texting. So far it's been a nice easing in without having a full on phone yet (although he definitely asks for a phone regularly).  It's been fun to watch him develop closer connections with his friends and have more of a social life.  Nathan's very easily distracted though so sometimes it's frustrating when he's lost in his watch.  I read the texts just to check up on him and it's very entertaining to see what 11 year olds talk about these days.
• He started club soccer this year and is playing for Cascade FC. He has practice 3 times a week and over the summer had about 3 tournaments. For the rest of the year he'll have games on the weekends all over Western WA. So far he's really loving it and he's improving more and more with his soccer skills.  He's mostly been playing midfield and some defense. He's a really fun player to watch and we're excited to see how much he grows this year. It's very official too--he has a full uniform kit and a backpack--everything with his number 24 on it. In the spring Nathan played baseball again with a very fun team. I love watching the boys play sports--definitely a joy to watch them improve their skills and have fun.
• The big video game obsession lately (and has been since last winter) is Fortnite. Nathan plays with his friends or Cameron. He's also gotten back into watching shows like Simpsons and some young adult drama shows. 
• Nathan's current interests are drawing, imagining creative sports teams and designing their logos, Legos sometimes, reading Sports Illustrated, watching sports, reading history books and young adult novels, and playing on Canva on the computer. 
• Since starting middle school, Nathan has been hanging out with friends a lot more. They all meet up at the top of the Ridge near the skate park. We are now giving him freedom to ride his bike all the way up to the top of the Ridge on his own (this is where the iWatch is very handy so we can communicate with him).  It been fun to watch him build new friendships with people from the other elementary school. Currently his good friends are Patty, Bud, Griffin, Carsen, Max Rooney (Max was actually at preschool with Nate!), Lucas, Leah, Violet, Abbie, Inara, and probably a bunch of other people but I can't keep track very well these days.  So far middle school has been much less drama than I thought it would be.  Nathan's 5th grade year was more drama than middle school so far. But I'm sure that won't last long.  Happy for him though that he's having fun and has a good group of friends.
• Nathan is even more so interested in fashion and putting together trendy outfits this year. It's all about Nike this year and he got his first pair of Air Jordans as a present from us for the start of school. He's also gotten into some preppy clothes like Abercrombie and J. Crew for dressier occasions. And he got a fun pair of Vans shoes for fall. It was fun buying fall clothes this year because he was much more into having an opinion and wanting his clothes to be trendy. 
• He told us a couple weeks ago that he is ready to get baptized! We're so excited for him and this next step in his faith.  We're still figuring out timing, but excited for him and this major life decision!

This kiddo just lights up our family and we're so grateful for him. Excited to see what this 11th year brings and watch him grow, change, be challenged, have adventures, and discover more about himself!

Maui 2023

I am way behind in blogging and plan to do some long overdue posts over these next couple of weeks to catch up.  This first one though is a little tough to do.  Back in April we traveled to one of our very favorite places in the whole world--Maui, HI again with Nana and Pops.  And actually this year Ryan's family also joined us which was so great!  Below I'm going to show highlights of the trip through photos.  But writing this post is emotional because in August--just a couple weeks ago, Maui had a devastating wildfire and it pretty much decimated Lahaina which is one of our favorite spots in Maui.  It's still very surreal and we just can't quite wrap our brains around the fact that Lahaina is gone and will never be what it was.  Our hearts break for the people who live there and lost everything and are suffering so much.  We're grateful for this trip because it's such a happy place for us with millions of wonderful memories and little did we know in April that it was going to be our last time experiencing it in its beautiful, pristine, historical and beloved way.  So this post is in a small way a tribute to the beautiful island of Maui as we pray for her recovery and hope for healing and restoration. 

At our favorite restaurant in the whole world--Lahaina Grill. Sadly the restaurant burned to the ground in the fires. So many amazing memories and meals here.

Visited the famous Banyan Tree in Lahaina which got burned in the fire.  Not sure if it will survive or not. But I read today that it is showing signs of life and new roots are growing!

Watching the NFL Draft!