Camp

 This weekend I went to Camp Cleawox. There is a long-standing “hooky weekend“ for Girl Scout leaders and adult volunteers to have a weekend to experience camp as a camper. I learned over the weekend that this has been happening since the early 1980s.

In the 1990s I was a camper at Camp Cleawox, and it was a crazy trip to experience it again, though a bit updated/different compared to what it was back then, as an adult. I did many of the things I had done as a child – canoeing, crafts, campfire, songs, meals in the lodge, sleeping in rustic bunks, and making new camp friends. I am so glad I went!

Eating a rainbow

 The garden keeps producing and I keep getting a lot of enjoyment out of it. Lately we are getting eggplants, yellow zucchinis, okra, peppers, and lots of tomatoes, cucumbers, and purple green beans. It makes it pretty easy to eat a rainbow 🌈 

It is that interstitial time between summer and fall, where there are a warm days and cool nights, the last of the summer vegetables but the pumpkins and squash not yet ripe, kids in school and soccer but the term not yet started at the university. For a lot of people spring is the season of new beginnings, but for me it is fall. After a busy but restful summer, we have a crop of new students, new classes, and things in general feel new and full of possibilities. I like this time 🌻

Back to school pumpkin pie

 On Wednesday the kids went back to school, Maren starting fourth grade and Linden starting first grade. 

On Saturday, they also have their first soccer games of the season.

And it’s a long story how this came to be, but for about a month Linden has been asking me to make a back to school pumpkin pie. So today I did, and it was delicious.

One week down, the rest of the year to go 😊

Summer shenanigans

 The last few weeks of August have been full of summer-y fun, like harvesting the bounty from our garden, including lots of eggplants, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans (that are purple and yellow), and peaches.

Our poor little peach tree was so loaded with fruit it could barely hold it without snapping all the branches.

There was lots of playing outside, homemade ice cream, and trips to the pool. 

We went camping at the coast with my mom, sister, and niece.

And we visited old friends in Washington. Our kids and their kids had a lot of fun playing together, and Jeff and I really enjoyed seeing them, talking, laughing, and playing games. 

The kids go back to school on Wednesday, and everything starts to ramp up again. But I think we really made the most of this summer!

Hot 🔥

 Today is extremely hot, over 100°F. It is going to stay hot for a couple of days, so we are mostly staying inside, at least in the afternoon.

However, we have had plenty of outside time over the last couple of weeks. We took the kids to the Benton County fair and they had fun riding on the rides:

It is kind of hard to see them but they are in the middle of the photo :-)

We have harvested a lot from the garden, including cucumbers, eggplants, purple and yellow green beans, a little more zucchini (production has slowed down considerably), and possibly the most exciting, peaches:

Our poor little tree can’t support the weight of so many peaches on its branches. This is after already picking a few, but there are so many more!