last lunch of summer

On Tuesday Luke and I went over to spend some time with Calley and the girls.  I was thinking they didn't start school till after Labor Day, but wrong!  They start next week!  What?!

We spent some time doing a photo shoot, which I'll post later on.  Afterwards, we went out to lunch at Fatburger in Issaquah.  What you see here are their lunch leftovers.  They did a great job finishing their milkshakes, but somehow the chicken strips and fries barely got touched.  Isn't that always the case?  Anyway, here they are being the coolest models.





Now what?  School all day long for the big girls, and Claire is gone in the afternoons with preschool.  Lessons, sports, and homework after school and in the evenings.  I'm gonna have to get creative in finding time to spend with them.  But they're so excited for the new school year and I'm excited for them too.  I'm always grateful for all the moments we can squeeze in together.  I know its going to be a very fun school year.  And, I know this is soooo cliche, but they're growing up so fast!

goodbye toby . . .

Well, our other loss this week has been Toby (no, not that kind of loss!)  He recently got an apprenticeship with a company in Utah that he's been trying to get on with for a long time now.  We spent Saturday helping him pack up our trailer with all his furniture and stuff.  We thought we said our goodbyes on Saturday, but he and Stefanie ended up coming over to our house on Sunday night to put more stuff in the trailer and take care of more immigration matters (its never ending).  We were soooo happy to have them with us for just a little bit longer.  They left early Monday morning to drive to Utah.



We know we've been blessed to have him here in Washington for about the last 10 months, and we're so thrilled that he and Stefanie have been able to spend a lot of time over here this summer.

Its hard to have another of our children live far away from us, but we know this is great for his career and we're happy for him.  Besides, he and Tyler will get to spend a lot of time together.  We miss Tyler terribly and we're happy for both of them to have each other close by.

goodbye mrs snuggles

Last Friday we had to say goodbye to Mrs. Snuggles.  Let me tell you, this has been a hard decision.  We adopted her for Toby back in 2002.  We never could figure out how old she was, because she was an adult when we got her.

In spite of my complaints about her (scratching the furniture, the "accidents" on the carpet, etc), she's been a really good cat.  True to her name, she loved to snuggle.  And she's been pretty obedient, if cats can be obedient.  Toby was her master, but when he was away at school and on his mission, Keith was her best friend.

The past few years, she's slowed down, and went from loving the outdoors, to being an indoor cat.  She's stiffened up with arthritis, and struggled to jump up onto chairs and the sofa.  The past few months, I witnessed several episodes, which I will just call strokes.  She had short periods of half of her body being paralyzed.  It was alarming and just plain sad to watch her struggle in terror to try to move, when she could only drag her limp paws.  And then five minutes later, she'd be able to walk on all fours again.  With the paralysis episodes, would come total bladder loss.  NOT easy for any of us, and that meant constant cat-watch to prevent any accidents in the house.  I've watched her several times sitting crouched on all fours, only to fall completely over on her side.  Poor kitty.  We originally thought we'd put her down after the wedding, while Toby was on his honeymoon, but she had a good week then.  I'm glad Toby's been able to spend a lot of time with us this summer, and he's had quality time to spend with his cat.

One last picture.





Last week she was having more episodes, so I called the Humane Society to make an appointment to put her down.  Friday, Aug. 21 at noon.  Luke and I took her over, and I'm grateful they insisted we should NOT be present during the procedure.  We surrendered her to them, and Luke and I waited outside on the bench.  I could not believe how teary-eyed I got.  I got my composure back, but when they brought her out in her cat carrier for us to take home to bury, the girl said "I'm sorry for your loss".  Argh!!  Had to regain my composure again.

Toby was over earlier in the week and went around our yard to find a good burial spot.  Our ground is so dang hard, that he said "have Dad pick a spot".  Keith had the same problem finding some soft ground, but he was inspired when he remembered Tyler and Kelsey had helped dig out a dead tree in the orchard, and that would be perfect.  We had a little memorial service after dinner.  Keith made the hole a little deeper, I picked some flowers, and we each shared something nice about her.

I think I'm going to plant some beautiful spring bulbs over her grave.  I had talked to Toby about people  planting rose bushes and such over their pets graves.  I think some lovely flowers would be a nice memorial.







Rest in peace, kitty.  You were a good cat.

back to last tuesday . . .

Still catching up here on what we've been doing lately.  Last Tuesday morning I babysat for Calley.  Summer was only there a short time before she went over to play at the neighbor's for the rest of the morning.  Of course I brought along some coloring projects and some watercolors, and some of Claire's favorite toys.  They've been trying to limit the screen time they have, but ended up watching a movie first before turning all electronics off.

I've posted pictures (and videos) before of Claire playing with her toys in the windowsill.  Actually, I think back to her older sisters loving to line up their toys in the windowsills too.  Here's Claire in a different room with a different windowsill.  I've also shared that one of her favorite things is for me to film short little video clips and she lovvvvves to watch them over and over.  I honestly can't decipher what she's saying as she's having her little fairies have a conversation, but I want to keep this clip specifically because she says "grandma" in it.  Love, love, love.



After lunch, we went out in the backyard.  Claire wanted to go out as soon as I got there, but I stopped her because she was still in her pajamas with her new Elsa costume over it.  I wanted her to change into her play clothes.  Well . . . not happening!!  She broke down in tears, just heartbroken about either not being able to go outside or having to change.  I ended up just holding her forever until she was distracted by the movie we watched.  You can tell who won out with not changing her clothes!



Abby's hair is getting so long again.  When she got it cut short about two years ago, at first I missed the long hair, but then I fell in love with the shorter hair.  I love it either way!



For the life of me, I couldn't get Claire to smile for me.  But Abby asked if she could take a picture with my camera.  I was cautious because it weighs like 10 pounds!  But since she was really interested and excited, I showed her how to look through the viewfinder and where to push the shutter.  And look, she can get Claire to smile (or grimace?)  Good job, Abby.













Back inside (and after getting wet from the pool), Abby went back to work on the fairy bunk bed she created for her fairy house.  We took an empty toilet paper roll and cut it in half for the beds.  She went out in the back yard and got four equal sized sticks and taped them on the sides.  She decorated it with stickers and made blankets out of paper towels and pillows out of some Christmas puff balls (pompoms) she found in the drawer.  I also gave her the light for the fairy house . . . but she still is waiting for the fairies to come and sprinkle some fairy dust on it.  (come soon, fairies!!)





I'm loving these summer days I get to spend with Calley and her girls.  School's starting so soon, and all three of them will be gone.  Summer and Abby are both in school full days, and Claire got into a preschool program at their school too, so she'll be gone half a day.  See why I'm trying to soak up all the time I can get?

lake cushman

I think the internet problems have finally resolved themselves.  I hope.

All righty then!  Back to MONDAY . . .  Keith had the day off, Toby was off work, and we decided to go to Lake Cushman.  We had big plans of taking the boat out last Saturday, and going to Lake Sammamish and meeting up with Calley and fam.  But it was one thing after another (not to mention the weather was less than stellar), so that didn't happen.  But everything came together on Monday and off we went.

We haven't been to Cushman in years.  Probably not since Tyler and Toby were both home together.  It had been our "go-to" place for a long time.  Most trips we were joined by friends (Uffens, Russells, Frandsens), and we'd make a big day of it with tons of food and just making camp on the beach and having wonderful days.

Monday was amazing.  The weather was perfect.  We had quite a late start (got there around 3) and pretty much nobody was on the lake.  I don't think any of us had ever seen it like that.  Maybe two other boats were out besides us, and the water was smoother than smooth.









This was Stefanie's first time on the tube.  Keith said we'd just putter around the lake, but he managed to throw in a few sharp turns for fun.























Our guys are wakeboarders, but Toby decided he wanted to waterski instead.  Slalom skiing here.





Luke was on flag duty.















Then he went to two skis.







Stefanie gave it a whirl.  She got up!





You know those little dandelion or fluff things that fly/float through the air?  There were tons of those out.  It was so peaceful and quiet and kind of magical with all those in the air and the water was so sparkly.  I tried to get a picture, and if you look reallly close, you can see them.  We called them pixie dust.



On to wake surfing.

























Some super short videos.





Early evening, and we explored my favorite little cove at the end of the lake.





Picking out our favorite lake houses.







Our old hangout where we'd spend the day with our friends . . . waiting here on the shore while people took turns riding on the boat or using the jet skis (Keith always says how much he misses those).



And wiping down the boat and packing up to go home.





Best day.  I think that is probably our last boating day of 2015.  Till next year!