July and August, POOF be gone!

 Here it is, in no particular order, our summer in a few paragraphs. We've been a BUSY family over here in the woods. I've been buried in trying to work two jobs, Alex has been taking a huge load of work as well, and the boys, well, they're great! But OH SO BUSY! And full of energy. And full of yelling and screaming and talking...and did I say full of energy? Oh yes. But then I think of what we all accomplished this summer and I am quite amazed. We managed to finally finish a part of our addition. The boys each have their own room now. WAHOOO! Talin has spent the summer growing like crazy. He never stops talking, NEVER! And, he is finally pacifier free as of a week ago. DOUBLE WAHOO!!!! Go Talin! At 3 years 3 months my baby is truly on to boy status. Forrest spent the summer going to his first big kid Summer Camp. Blue Lake Summer Camp, ages 5-13 was amazing for Forrest. For the first time he was expected to behave like a big kid, and achieved this with flying colors. We never ever heard of any behavioral issues with him at this camp. They spent the summer going on field trips to fun places like the HSU natural history museum, park scavenger hunts, bowling, weekly trips to the roller rink where our big kid learned to skate! He's having his own experiences out their in the big word. Very awesome! T-Ball ended so-so this last June, a bit to slow for our engaged Forrest I think, but soccer just started up 2 weeks ago and so far he is loving it. And, the big milestone, KINDERGARTEN! September 10th can't come soon enough. He is SO ready for this!(And his parents are too!)

Alex has had a great and super busy summer as well. We both figure we'll sleep in the Winter time, perhaps. He's been fishing in the ocean several times, (actually is doing just that as I write!), but has primarily working his tail off. And myself, oh yes. This week marks my fist week as I'm officially a part-timer at TWO jobs, rather than a full timer at one, and a part timer at the other. This schedule gave me no time off this summer, which was a huge bummer, but one that I accepted as I knew it was short lived. We've had amazing help from both my parents and Alex's Mom, as well as our great neighbors. We love our village. I officially now am working only 15 minutes from my home two days a week, as a family practice PA. The other two-three days I'm still in Eureka over an hour away, working in vascular surgery. On those days Talin goes with me to go to a great Pre-school on the coast that he just started this past week, (and loved :-)

Being so close to home, (and virtually next door to Forrest's soon to be school two days of the week!,) and able to volunteer in the K classroom on Friday mornings going to be perfect, I think, (I hope!) I'm super blessed to have an opportunity for local employment, given where I live.

And...here are a few snipits of our summer adventures!

Forrest enamored with the Merry-Go-Round at the Humboldt Co. Fair

This was Talin's favorite ride, actually the only ride he would go on, (a bit of a cautious one, he is, on those fair rides!) And he found a new girl friend to share his motor cycle with...oh boy, here we go!

The river! We LIVED down on our beach on my coveted few and far between days off. My own personal vacation on my own home!

Granny came and stayed! For 3 weeks! My newly retired Mom brought so many amazing and wonderful Kindergarten books and K supplies to pass on to my boys and to their new schools. They literally have over 100 new books for themselves and more than that to donate on her behalf. Here I am shucking our garden corn while she reads to the boys on our porch. What a great summer memory.

My Dad came to visit as well and we got out on an amazing ride :-) This was a pre-triathlon work out for me, that I followed with a run. What a great morning though! So awesome I have my own Dad out there to ride with.

 And I'll leave you with one from TODAY! My new job participates in our local Big Foot Parade yearly. So, with the theme this year being Rock N' Roll I summoned up my parade courage and the boys and I rode on the parade.

 It was a hoot, the boys were high on candy and having the crowd wave at them, and I loved dressing up in a costume where I was sure NO one recognized me :-)
Here we are, the doc I work with, Alison, (pregnant with twins, oh geeze!), and myself, as the King himself.
Sometimes you just gotta let loose.