August! It has felt like forever since I last updated, but when I looked back it was only about a month ago. Our August/early September was jam-packed with family and trips and fun and we're finally getting back regular life.  

 Mom came to stay for a few days and her trip was fun for all. We went on a short hike to "Steven's Island," where Elliot had a nasty run in with a blackberry bush. But other than that, it was a fun time.

 Happy Norah

We also went to the Everett Botanical gardens - I love this spot. Avery took the camera and went around shooting pictures of flowers. I have about ten of them, but I thought I'd just post one.

We also had an early birthday celebration for the girls (Avery and Elliot) while mom was here - and she made some really delicious cupcakes with homemade chocolate buttercream frosting.

A few days after mom left, Mike and I went to New Mexico for a weekend. We left Elliot and Avery in Moscow with Monte and Sandy (thanks!) and headed down to the Land of Enchantment with Norah in tow. We stayed in Alburquerque and explored Old Town a bit; a salsa festival was going on the weekend we were there so we were able to catch some outdoor dancing and music. 

 We checked out the Petroglyph National Monument as well; it's kind of mind boggling that these are thousands of years old. Mike tried to resist the awe of it a little bit and insisted that they were just an early form of graffiti, smile.

 We also spent a day in Santa Fe, which is a bit (alright quite a bit) more posh than Alburquerque (are you impressed that I'm spelling this correctly? wait. . am I?). We walked and window shopped, checked out the Cathedral and went to the Georgia O'Keefe museum. The museum was really cool. I don't think it would be super interesting to post a whole description of it, but if you plan a trip to Santa Fe I think a visit to the museum is worth it. We also found a city golf course and hit a few balls. One of the main things that struck us on this trip is that you can really fit a lot into a day when you don't have to worry about feeding and napping kids or working on a house.

 Leaving Santa Fe we ran into a huge thunder storm; nothing like our perpetual mist storms here in Washington. I thought the sky was so beautiful.

 Four days after New Mexico, we had the wonderful privelege of going on a vacation to the San Juan Islands with Mike's family. I only have pictures of the last day posted here because my camera battery was dead most of the trip. I also got some cool shots of Orca whales from our whale watching tour, but those are on another camera and well, this is as good as I can do right now, smile. The picture above was taken in Roche Harbor on San Juan Island. We stayed in cabins on Orcas Island and explored San Juan Island on the last full day of the trip.

 Playing Bocce Ball.

 Happy Norah

 Scoot cars! The families took turns riding the scoot cars and mopeds around the island. Here Elliot gets a little ride around the parking lot.

 So . . .my pictures of Avery's first day of kindergarten are on my phone because I couldn't find my camera in time. But I'll get them downloaded at some point. Anyway, the picture above is from this Saturday, Avery's birthday. We usually do presents at night, but Avery was eager to get a start on things. Here she is finding presents from the front room and bringing them into the family room. She wanted either a hamster or an easy bake oven . . .can you guess, from the picture above, which one she got?!

 Then at noon we met my lovely friend Denise and her husband (lovely too), James. They just came back from a cruise and stayed a day in Seattle to visit with friends and family. We went to a beach in Edmonds and it was a VERY warm day!

 After the beach, we celebrated Avery's birthday at Buca di Beppo's in Seattle where we got spaghetti, Avery's favorite. The waiters sang to Avery and she got to blow out some candles and got a BIG piece of cake. Next Tuesday we're taking one of Avery's friends to Jump Planet to end the birthday celebrations : )