Summer sillies

I think I can say I am finally out of my pandemic isolation funk.  The truth is, my days are often emotionally taxing. At work, we've had a particularly tragic death recently and now have an outbreak of COVID among staff.  It is weight work.  My optimistic disposition typically carries me but the pandemic plus the social isolation had taken a toll on that.  Thankfully vacation and a few small intentional changes have helped me re-balance. 

This has been a summer with much more home time than any summer I can recall; and that's not bad, it's actually rather delightful a lot of the time.  We've had a lot of little joys and lazy afternoons and tons of time outside.

Here's a quick summary: 

We worked with the Brown's for a church community service project and we went back to church for outdoor services a few weeks ago!    

There's been lots of art... I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that I think they go through 100 sheets of paper some days....




And of course, what would home be without our own private construction site playground.  This particular photo is from this morning when Nick incited a game of "catch me if you can," trying to outrun Lukas on his bike.  Covered in creekside-clay-dust before 8:30am, that's how we like it.  


Another thing the pandemic has been good for is a record-breaking year for the garden.  We've enjoyed dozens of jalapeno poppers, zucchini in ever possible form, some tasty salsa and sauce and are also hoping to can some tomatoes.  And even Jacob can't keep up with the cantaloupe supply. 


the only things that didn't grow well were corn and garlic.  This is all we got: 






Not kidding, these sunflowers are 10 feet tall


Mom-and-Luke bike rides to the end of Deodate and back.  This week I think we'll ride to school and back and see how he likes that.  


Thankfully, we were able to enjoy our annual trip to Lake Tobias and for social distancing they have retired the open air school buses and allow us to drive-thru ourselves.  It was a wildly good time! 





(also note, somebody got new glasses :))







"GREEDY GOATS!!"

....and...last but not least... lordy lordy look who's forty...!

...he's our favorite associate professor (yes that's a recent promo), structural-cardiovascular-techniques book-chapter author (get your autographs now folks), handsome hubby and wonderful role-model, Dad!!!