Summer catch-up, again

july flewww by in such a scurry and flurry!! can you believe we’re here in the smack dab middle of august? summer and fall are definitely my favorites as far as seasons go. our fall is a bit of an ‘indian summer’ with long, warm, quiet days. especially once our santa cruz population settles back down to a good sixty thousand! i think we must have a million people here in our summers, meaning beach traffic to the point of exasperation—don’t try to go anyyywhere.

i do love that everyone wants to be together, so we’ve had many long evenings with games at friend’s homes, staying up late together hanging out, late afternoon swims and the like. so summer into fall is simply the best in my book, bring it on august + september!

in late july, we went up north for youth camp (do i have a photo to show for it?? maybe one! yikes!) which was so full and heart-bursting wonderful and hilarious and ridiculously tiring all at once. but that’s kind of the m.o. for youth camps—a chaotic mix of all things crazy and amazing. our kids were so excited and eager to hear something from god, which always makes me smack myself in wonderment, because i was nowhere near that sort of realization at their age. i wanted it but wasn’t ready.. so they’re ready and hungry and they were satisfied and that’s an incredible thing to watch and walk them through. so yay them!

we just celebrated james 28th birthday on the 11th, and again..i hardly photo-documented it, what’s up with this!? pictures aside, we had taco bar, played games, told stories..all things james loves 🙂 we’re also putting some money aside for those beats headphones for him—anybody tried ’em? little silk pillows on your ears those things! pretty fun.

the rest of this month will be full of wedding prep for friend’s barn wedding (yippee! i’m wearing my first second pair of cowboy boots in the wedding, yes..me!! realized i had a pair of white studded ones when i was six). excited for our friends, and for the friends getting married in the weeks following that 🙂 oh marriage!

we’ll also be readying ourselves to whisk away on vacation the next day! vacaaaation!!!! while we planned on europe, the time off didn’t quite work how we figured (i had about a half minute of grieving buttery croissants and the musee d’orsay) but then instead we chose to satisfy our vacation hunger with hawaii. no womp womp needed people, we’re elated!!! bring on the beach, the pool, the floating in the water, the books (oh the books!), the sleep, the fresh fruit breakfasts, the snorkeling, the strolling and the like! oh how i love thee tropical paradise.

happy august my friends!