Here’s a collection of things that happened this summer.

We tried to go out for more dinner dates with the nice weather. This is a new taco place in Olde Town.
Afternoon naps.
Every so often they get the urge to sort their Legos.
A new recipe – Brita-kkaku, was so well received that I made it twice.
The kids raced through the Harry Potter series this summer, both books and movies.
These are selfies I took while the boys were on their Grand Canyon trip
I loved this new puzzle from Ben.
Super cleaning!
With the new regulations I can donate blood now! I did whole blood, then came back for this platelet donation. It was neat being on the other side of the apheresis machine.
Fun dinner and dessert with Amanda!
A summer CROCHET project I finished. I got this cotton and linen yarn at Purl Soho in NYC years ago. I’m a novice with crochet. There was a lot of learning and improvising with this project. No pattern, just fiddling around.
Andy came over for a sibling visit! It’s been great seeing him more often.
I was not thrilled that Desi brought his snake over to visit.
Watermelon and lunch with my new (second hand) patio set.
A brief but powerful storm brought down part of the cottonwood. It hit the roof and then dragged down our power line.
The power company came out pretty fast to repair it in the morning. Internet service returned later that evening. We were nervous when another evening storm blew in. We take good care of our trees with regular arborist visits. I hope this doesn’t happen again.
Freddy ran in the house in a panic! I saw something in his mouth and Nimbus was curious too.
A bird! Freddy caught a bird!
Wild mode activated.
What to do now?
Ben disposed of the bird and we inspected the catio. It looks like he caught it here. How weird? Stay away from the catio you dumb birds!

Along with my previous posts, I think that catches up my journal of our summer to August. Hoo boy, August has been a doozy. And it’s not over! Luckily the drama is milder this week – Sam and Ben have had colds (testing negative for Covid) and Jack’s school had an evacuation for a bad smell the suspected was a gas leak. It turned out to be “water evaporation in pipes that had been sitting unused throughout the summer in science classrooms.”

After school carpool I whisk the kids to the dentist, and then high tail it up to Boulder for dance class. I’m trying to get as much dance as I can. I missed two weeks for traveling, and I have to stop when I have surgery next month. Yes, I might as well mention it now. I’m having a hysterectomy in three weeks for adenomyosis. It’s been tolerable/manageable, but it will get worse and worse the longer I have it. It HAS been getting worse for years now. So I’m evicting my uterus! I’m pretty happy to be having it removed. But it’s still major surgery and I’m nervous and dreading the recovery time. It will be worth it though.