Hallo blog! August has been wild and woolly. I’m enjoying this moment of alone time I have right now to type out my monthly entry. Let’s roll!

Before I get to August, I have to talk about the cabin trip in July! It was lovely. Here we are on arrival.

We arrived on a Friday night and spent the first night with the Holkins family. The next day, we woke up to this gorgeous view of the lake. Blue skies, clear waters. What a wonderful start to our vacation!

Ta da! Freshly fake tanned for the vacation. I remembered about halfway through the week that I was supposed to cover my newish tattoo with sunscreen. Whoops! The stick sunscreen I use for the boys’ faces worked perfectly for my tattoo.

Mumsie’s first trip to the cabin! In 2020 she needed peace and quiet (I don’t blame her), in 2021 she was sick, so this was her maiden voyage. She went on lots of walks, boat rides, went out on a paddleboard (sitting!), and even jumped off the dock. Adventure Grammy!

Goo is quite the natural artist, just like his mama. I love his art–lots of faces! Smiling ones!

Bob and Fleeta stayed the first few nights with us. Every morning, Josh and I would take a 3 mile hike in the woods by ourselves. It was wonderful.

Goo assisted Josh in catching a fish! Josh took care of the killing, skinning, and cooking the fish, and we all ate some of it with lunch. It was trout, and pretty tasty.

No trip to the cabin would be complete without s’mores! We leveled up this year by trying them with white chocolate with Oreo chunks. YUM.

This was my artistic accomplishment for the week (HA!), inspired by the recipe for scones by Ronia and her cousin that was posted on the cupboard door. I know, I know.

We spent every afternoon enjoying the lake–swimming, building sand castles (the little redhead liked to smash them down), floating in various floaties, swimming off the dock. After the swimming lessons that Goo had this summer (thanks to Grammy Kim) and a life jacket, he comfortably doggy paddled from the dock to the shore, all week long! He even jumped off the dock a few times.

My kinda vacation–a cool lake, oversized floatie, and even a grape sodie or four (not shown in this photo).

The following Saturday Bob and Fleeta were supposed to come back to the cabin to spend the night, but were delayed by Fleeta having heart palpitations and dizziness that sent them to the ER. She ended up being OK (although they never pinpointed why she had the issues), and the following night they came to the cabin. My mother made us grilled cheese sandwiches Saturday night, one of my favorite foods of all time. Thanks Mom.

This little guy had a blast! He is still young enough this year to sleep in the Pack and Play, but it will be the last year he’s able to do that. Bunk beds next year? Sighhhhhh. My baby is almost three.

One of the nights Josh and I were able to go out to a romantic sunset dinner on our own. It’s so nice having grandparents available to watch the boys!

We also had some special guests! My long long long long long LONG time friend Lisa came to the cabin, with her oldest daughter Aurora and Aurora’s adorable, giant baby Del. The little redhead was delighted to hug and kiss the new baby. All three boys got along…fairly well. A few screaming incidents but no major injuries.

Lifelong friends with this mama! The kind of friendship that when you see each other, it’s as easy as can be. I love it.

We had a glorious 10 day trip to the cabin. Really the only downside I can recall now (one whole month later) was the gross sun rash I managed to get down the left side of my body the last two days we were there. It went away once we got back home after I stayed out of the sun for about four days. Everything else? Delightful. Now I need to write Brenna and her family a loooooong thank you card so she knows how much we appreciate spending time at the cabin.

I wrote this little note to my cousin and sent her some apple pie lip balm, which unfortunately got bounced back from her new home address and sent back to me. Now that she’s cleared her new address up, I have to send it back to her in the mail. Will the sentimental note and lip balm reach my cousin? Stay tuned!

Summer 2022 has been a lot about this pool, and popsicles. It’s been grossly hot. This is the last summer I ever want to spend without some sort of air conditioning unit…yarrrrrrrrg. We are making do with lots of fans, sort of.

Aw I love this picture of our family! Josh and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary on August 3rd.

We dressed up and went to the waterfront in Mukilteo, where we had dinner at a pub, followed by ice cream cones and a leisurely walk along the beach. Did I mention it was sans kids? Thanks again, Grammy Kim.

After our anniversary, I had my first art show in two years! Back at the Ballard P-Patch. I was very excited to do this show all year, and had prepared several small, brightly colored pieces covered in glitter/rhinestones that I figured would sell. And I was right! I sold 10 original pieces at the show this year, a new record. No prints, no portraits, and only one fluid art piece. It’s always interesting to see what sells.

Shoshanna and her girls came by and bought the 2022 mermaid; Haili and Ralph also came by and had pre-purchased “Love” from 2018 and the 2022 turtle. Such a treat!

My booth was in between two artists I had never met before, and one of them, Amanda, was a professional artist who couldn’t have been kinder. I spent more time at my booth this year by myself, while Josh and Mumsie wrangled the children. I discovered that I absolutely cannot even attempt to watch my two wild and crazy children and sell art at the same time. Good to know! It was a long, hot day, and my back wasn’t the best that day, but I’m happy I did the art show. The Ballard show is one of my all-time favorites.

Speaking of art, the boys and I are finally painting some rocks! We had been talking about an art rock project for ages. Mine are neon, the little redhead’s are glitter, and Goo wants all insects, of course.

And even more art…I purchased this cool punk rocker painting from a local Snohomish artist I follow on Instagram. We hardly ever buy original art in this family, and I loved this piece the moment she posted it! It works so perfectly against our aqua wall.

Phew! We almost made it to the Leavenworth weekend, which I’ll discuss next time. Josh and I are busy this weekend getting everything ready for Goo to start school…Brave New World! Lots of changes headed our way! Ta ta for now, blog.