Just in case you feel like cutting a rug:

We've been doing the boogaloo all afternoon here :)

A hike and other lovely stuff

We had the nicest send-off to August today: a good bit of sleeping in, a sweaty hike with a spectacular pay-off at the end, a nap in the afternoon, and a yummy dinner date in our very own dining room. This kind of Saturday is pretty hard to beat.

Blink and you'll miss him

August 16th, 2009: Jan Michael runs 3 miles in 24:38.

August 24th, 2009: Jan Michael runs 3 miles in 23:37.

That's an entire minute faster, people. And the 5 billionth reason I'm proud of him.

[And about this post, Jan Michael says, "It's too much fanfare and I don't like it!" I say, "TOO BAD."]

Gus encore

We can't ever get enough of Gus, and assume it's the same for everybody else. Besides, I have a handsome husband and a beautiful sister, and I like to show them off, too.

Greased lightning

Excuse me for a moment while I toot my own horn, because just last week I shattered my fastest mile time by running a blistering 8:06. This is nothing compared to what most runners are capable of, I know, but I'm old and my knees are creaky and generally uncooperative. Such an athletic feat was made possible because I kept pace with Jan Michael, who continued on for several more miles, while I collapsed on the turf and tried with all my might not to throw up. My next goal is to cross the finish line in under 8 minutes, and I'll do it, mark my words.

And now a word about my husband: The very same day I set my personal best, he came streaking in at 24:38, which is his fastest 3-mile time so far this year. I love to watch him run - he has such fine form and makes it look so easy; in fact, I've been known to bring a blanket and plunk myself down in the middle of the track and shamelessly ogle him as he chugs along. His next goal is to run the 3 in 24 minutes flat, and he'll do it, you can mark my words about that, too.

"Run so hard you come in with bloody feet and missing toenails." Rob Decestella

Maybe you've heard...

but we have an awesome family. The most recent proof of this was a weekend spent with Adam, Shannon and Gus. We missed Ryan, who was working, but that only means we'll have to do it again when all five of us can be together. We hiked to a waterfall, played games, went for walks, romped around two different parks, and ate, in no particular order, a batch of Rice Krispy treats, sushi, steak, jalepenos stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon, gyros, a lemon meringe pie and 1 1/2 quarts of rootbeer float ice cream. Priceless, all of it.

No place like home!

Toward the end of July we spent an entire Saturday with Caleb, Jen and their three little ones, Ocean, Jaguar and Denekew, exploring along the coast. As much as we love to travel, I think we could spend our whole lives running around Washington and hardly even scratch the surface of all there is to see in our own back yard.
Our first stop was a park in Anacortes. We had a picnic, hiked to the cliff's edge and climbed trees - a good start to the day!




I love the look on Dene's face here - Jan Michael was pointing out a boat, I think. We heard lots about boats from Dene that day :)
And I love this because it so totally captures the essense of Dene; he's the jolliest little guy we've ever known, and his laugh is infectious.
Jan Michael had never been to Deception Pass, which I could hardly believe, so naturally we spent a good bit of time walking back and forth across the bridge and prowling around below.

The waves were awfully big and rough; this was one time I was happy to be on land instead of in a canoe or kayak!
This was our third stop, and I can't remember the name of the park, but we could see for miles and miles, and there was lots of room for running around and investigating.


We decided to stop at this little section of beach on a whim, and were so glad we did! The waves were majestic and deafening, and we could have spent hours taking it all in. It was unanimously voted best-part-of-the-day; even Ocean was willing to put it above Jan Michael's discovery of a snake in the grass a few minutes earlier :)


There was lots and lots of rock skipping here, although eventually Ocean's rocks became boulders that were almost too big to even pick up :)

I really enjoyed watching this gentleman; I wonder if he noticed me snapping away with the camera...

Sunset on the California coast

Nature put on a very spectacular show for us just before we left the Redwoods. After this, we hopped in the car and Jan Michael drove and drove and drove all night, and brought us back to our home sweet home. Another adventure checked off!