Our Vacation & August Randomness

August has been a busy and fun month. We started off the month by enjoying a week of vacation. It was much needed for sure. It was also my 33rd birthday while we were off, so that was convenient (and nice for me) as well. We stayed home most of the time but we did manage two weekends away. The 1st weekend we went to Pacific City with our friends, James and Dori and their son, Issac. We stayed 2 nights and had a great time. Wish we could have stayed all week. The kids had a blast together and John did really well, even slept until 7am both days - which he hardly does at home! The weather could have been better, and we did have to skip doing a fire Saturday night, but all in all, it was a great time. We headed back on Sunday afternoon and were home until Thursday. During the time we were home we really just tried enjoying being home, which we did. It was nice to just not have to do...anything. Mel was in her last week of reading camp, so she was gone the 1st half of each day which allowed us some one on one time with John. We ran some errends, took advantage of quiet time to ourselves during his nap and had a little "margatia party" one evening (Mark and I). Great fun. I got lots of birthday well wishes and snuck away one morning for a pedicure. I got some moola as well, so did a bit of shoe shopping. Thursday we drove to Mt. Hood for Part II of our vacation. Let me just say, we are NOT mountain people. The ride was hot and stressful for some reason and by the time we got to Resort at the Mountain we were just exhausted. The kids were tired, we were tired. BUT, the place was BEAUTIFUL! Very nice. We scoped out the pool and the kids seemed interested and we needed a change of pace so decided to go in. It was outdoor and freezing! But, they seemed to enjoy themselves. After that we made a run to the store for goodies, pool toys and WINE! The place wasn't exactly kid friendly so we were on defense the whole time and the kids were just bouncing off the walls. We were all asleep by 9, and thankfully John went to sleep pretty easy. He was up the next morning at 5:30 am though and by 8 when Mark said, maybe we can see if we can get a refund - I was like - YES!!! Thankfully they did (it was supposed to be non-refundable). We made another pool run, packed up and went home. We didn't even do anything on the mountain. A hotel room just isn't fun at this point in John's life. We need more space than that and really, I was SOOOOO happy to just be home. We all were. We made it home and hit our local pool since John seemed to all of a sudden like the pool (which was great fun) and had a few days left to just do whatever we wanted before we had to head back to work again. The weather shot up to the 90s so we just stayed inside a lot. Played in the water with the neighbors and Mark even put up a tent in our bedroom one night so him and Mel could have a little camp out. It was a great week and we had a lot of memorable family time together.
I can't believe they can play in that water - FREEZING!

I'm on top of the world!

It took a bit for John to warm up to the sand, but after awhile he was loving it.

Mel and Issac

Love this pic. . .

The week before vacation we went to the Washington County Fair. Great time, but man,

they rob you!

Mel LOVED the rides

I actually got John to look at the camera and smile. It's been hard to get pictures of him lately where he will look at you what a sweet face.

Washing the car.

I have been working frantically on my 2009 scrapbook over the past several months. It had been overwhelming my brain over how much I had to scrap and I just got on a big kick and started getting so much done. It probably helped that I started getting together with my neighbors (friends) for scrap nights and a bit with Rachel and Alicia. I "dreamed" I might get it done while I was on vacation, but didn't really think I WOULD, but I DID!!! So, I am offically done and have already started 2010. Great feeling!

One of my favorite pages of Mel.

One of my favorites of John.

Another obsession lately, and there have been several for some reason...I seem to have gained all these bursts of energy lately...I have been on a cleaning and organizing mission. Well, I guess more like organizing which will hopefully lead to cleaning. :-) One was to organize and clean out my yarn bin. Which I did - but in the process I dug out a crochet pattern I had tried before John was born. I knit but could not figure out this crochet thing. I pulled out what I did and brought the pattern to work and had a lady there show me how to get going and amazingly I just took off! I modified the baby blanket above a bit and I REALLY love it! I just got it all finished today! No one to give it to so I may have to keep it, but maybe some special baby will get it some day. Next on the agenda - cause you know I am not busy enough with just normal day to day things - is a purse! :-)

Other than all that, I am continuing to go through every nook and cranny of this house and purge. It just seems never ending though, but it feels good nonetheless. We are working on the office at the moment. My dad laid carpet this week and we are in the process or setting the office back up and we want to make a big memory montage wall over the desk, so can't wait for that to all come together - and BTW - loving the new carpet and fresh cleaness of it all! Need to do a bit of paint touch up on the walls and should be done!

And last but not least - I am training for a 5K. Yeah, yeah, whoopy dooo! Well, for this chick, that would be an accompishment. I just finished Week 1 and although in essense, jogging for 2 minutes is pretty easy, looking even at Week 3, knowing I will have to jog for 5 and 7 minutes at a time - EKKKK! I am excited though. I need a big kick in the pants for sure. I am set to run The Jingle Bell run on December 3rd - anyone want to join?! This is a 10 week training program so by December I should be all good - wish me luck!

Summer is almost at an end and Fall and the start of school are nearing. Went WAY TOO fast. I have been slowly buying new school clothes for Mel and winter clothes for John. Trying to take advantage of all the awesome back to school deals going on. Need to save every penny I can, these kids are expensive! :-) With that being said, I have to make room for the new stuff so have been going through their closets - again - and seeing what they can wear again this winter and giving away the rest; bitter sweet for sure.

So another chapter is upon us - looking forward to Mel starting another school year and what the rest of the year has in store for us - already lots upcoming - more to come on those matters - but I am also content for our summer to drag out a bit - that would be fine with me! :-)