Our Busy Summer: Catching Up on My Blogging

Hi!  Using this weekend to catch up on the goings on this summer.  It has been a busy one--mostly with work.  But we and maybe more so my family have been doing a few other things.  After I finished Tom and Maddy's album, I started working on other photos from the summer.

My nephew, Graham, graduated from high school in Ohio on May 30th.  So proud of him and his accomplishments.  He is at the Air Force Academy now.  In fact, Sherrill and her family are visiting him this weekend.

We were so thrilled to have Tom, Chris and Maddy with us for Father's Day.  I got a lot of one-on-one time with Tom and Maddy so it was like having Mother's Day for me too.  I took them wine tasting at a couple of our favorite spots which was a lot of fun.  That evening, we took Bill to the Kennedy School for dinner.  I thought Maddy would get a kick out of eating dinner there with her being a teacher and all.

Meanwhile back in Tomah, Darren and Dane were helping Dad celebrate Father's Day.

Tom and Maddy actually spent most of their time in Washington in either Seattle or Winthrop getting ready for the wedding but they did go on this tour of Safeco Field with Maddy's dad.

And they took a trip out to Ellensburg to pick up Maddy's wedding ring and visit their old haunts there.

Right after the wedding, Tom and Maddy went to the Bahamas for their honeymoon and had a wonderful time at the beach, snorkeling, and touring Nassau.

 Lots of time at the beach.  Both on Paradise Island.

And Blue Lagoon Island.

And they thought swimming with the dolphins was such a blast.  Especially when the dolphins pushed them under their feet at 15 miles an hour.

Tom got back home in time for his 26th birthday.  

Tom and Maddy adopted a new dog from the animal shelter.  Her name is Sadie and she and Ariel seem to be getting along very well with each other.

Darren does a lot of fishing.  And sometimes Tess goes along.  They had a great night of fishing on this particular night catching muskies.

They go to a cabin up north every summer so these are the pictures from that trip.

This summer was a big one for the Packers.  Brett Favre returned to be inducted into the Packer Hall of Fame and have his jersey retired on the same day.  That has never happened before.  It was pretty special.  A sold out crowd at Lambeau Field just to see Brett Favre--no game.  Just see him.  Darren drove over to Green Bay a few weeks later to tour the stadium and watch a practice although he said it was so crowded, he couldn't really see much.  Here is hoping to a fabulous season for Green Bay this year.  GO PACK GO!

Bill and I celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary a couple of weeks ago.  We went to Roots on Friday night and got this nice surprise when we got our dessert.  On Saturday (our actual anniversary), we went out to Black Angus for a prime rib fix.

Chris is home for a couple of weeks so that he could spend some quality time with Mom and Dad before starting school again.  He got home in time for his birthday and we took him out to Beaches that night.  He was treated like a king getting his crown and carmel corn.  He is trying to learn to cook and eat less meat.  He isn't trying to be a strict vegetarian but trying to figure out how to eat more healthy with less meat so he has been trying a lot of vegetarian and vegan recipes this summer.  He asked for a cookbook and some items for his kitchen so I happily obliged.

Labor Day weekend so far is consisting of hiking.  We took Chris out to the Mosier Twin Tunnels trail yesterday.  I let them to the whole trail (or most of it anyway--they turned around at the tunnels).  I took my time and hiked about 4 miles of it and took a few pictures.  I like seeing the remnants of the old highway like the barriers along side the highway and the mile marker in the pictures above.  After we went hiking, we drove to Stevenson for lunch and to pick up some beer at a brewery there.  Today--Bill and Chris went hiking in town--in the rain.  But happy to have it since we have been in such a drought this summer.  It has been so disconcerting to see the trees so stressed that they are changing colors already.  But it isn't in a good or beautiful way.  I don't think we are going to get the beautiful fall colors this year if early signs are any indication.  So hoping for more rain and snowpack this winter so we can get back to more normal Pacific Northwest weather.

So that is what we have been doing besides going to the wedding.  Hard to believe summer is almost over.