Blog Fail/Summer Vacation!

I twitter, I Facebook, sometimes I even email, text or (gasp) pick up the phone! What I haven't been doing is blogging... obviously. Sorry. We had a WONDERFUL vacation in July. Two weeks on the road. Just Blaine, Brandon and me. Some people wondered why we'd choose to spend so much time in the car. Let me tell you, it was the best bonding experience we've ever had as a family. This vacation rivaled any of our Hawaiian trips, Disneyland, San Diego. It was the perfect mix of camping, hotels, staying with our wonderful cousins and then camping with them. I apologize in advance for not including all the photos I'd like (esp. of our Colorado family. As I blog this, I only have access to a small portion of our vacation photos).

Our itinerary looked like this:

First night: Drove to Spokane, stayed in a hotel

First full day: Drove all the way to Yellowstone and arrived after dark because we missed a turn in the park and took the scenic route all the way around the park. Oh well!

First three days: Camped in Yellowstone. Amazing experience. Saw so much more than I could possibly post. Wild animals, beautiful scenery, geysers, streams, waterfalls, more wildlife. At one point, the three of us pulled over, took off our shoes and just sat on a river bank, soaking our feet. Not a soul around for miles. It was incredible.

Off to Colorado: Via a night spent in Casper, WY. Interesting place. Visited my first Walmart. 'nuff said.

Arrived in Colorado: Spent two nights with our fabulous cousins in Erie (near Denver/Boulder). They showed us Rocky Mtn National Park, among other things. Probably one of the most beautiful places in the country! Climbed around at 14,000 ft elevation, saw the Stanley Hotel (Stephen King fans will know what that means).

Steamboat Springs/Steamboat Lake: Traveled here with our cousins (Julianne, Jim and the boys - Forest and Harrison). Spent a wonderful day with Julianne's mom (my dad's cousin) and and Poppa Russ at their ranch. It is here that Brandon earned the nickname "shooter" for his newly discovered target shooting abilities. Hmmm. From here we traveled to Steamboat Lake and camped for two nights. I have to say, Jim is the BEST. CAMPING COOK. EVER. Can we always take him with us camping? The dude's amazing in the 'kitchen.' They also rented a boat and we spent a nice day on the lake, catching big, beautiful trout.

Jackson Hole: It was hard to say goodbye to Colorado and our family, but we headed off to Jackson Hole and stayed at a nice little cabin on a creek. We visited the town, took the gondola up to the top of the mountain and watched hangliders literally jump off the mountain. Amazing! Of course, Brandon remembers the 'bungie trampoline' more than anything. Kid has no fear.

Teton National Park: And we thought Yellowstone was beautiful. Freakin' incredible. Just incredible.

Big Sky Montana: Pretty cool. We were winding down at this point. Almost at the two week mark and we decided to cancel our Glacier National Park camping and head home a bit early. We'll do Glacier another time.

Dang, it's HOT

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE sunshine and high temps. But the air is just not moving out there. We need a good old fashioned thunderstorm to freshen things up (after I give Brandy an herbal tranquilizer, so she can handle it).

The Husband is off playing poker tonight and The Son is passed out already after a hard day of playing in the wading pool and sprinkler. So...I have an nice, quiet evening ahead of me, YEY! I'm planning a big pasta dinner to gear up for my 16 mile training run tomorrow. I may even rent a cheezy chick flick. I know, I know...my life is SO exciting.

Summer Fun!

We had our family reunion this past weekend up at my dad's house. He lives in what used to be our summer cabin on Lake Whatcom. It's rural, green, beautiful. The lake is gorgeous and clean. I spent summers there growing up and am hopeful our four-year-old son (little B) will have that same experience. In addition to swimming, boating and making s'mores over a beach fire, Little B learned how to fish! Uncle Eric (my brother) is an expert fisherman (he competes in state tournaments and is ranked 12th in the state so far this year). He taught B how to bait the hook, cast and wait patiently for a fish. B was ecstatic when he reeled in his first trout. Even today, he can't stop talking about it.

The hubby and I also went on some long, technical mountain bike rides in the woods behind my dad's house. It was sooo much fun. It was also good to see our cousins, eat way too much good food and reminisce over a few (or more) drinks. The dogs were in Labrador paradise...swimming and running on the beach for three days straight.

Speaking of dogs, Wednesday is Max's surgery. His CT scan was beautiful and the cancer hasn't spread anywhere that we know of, so we are very hopeful. He has his last agility class (for awhile) Tuesday eve and I will take him to the hospital at 7:30am Wednesday. We probably won't be able to pick him up until Saturday morning. I hope I can visit him in the meantime. I will be a wreck on Wednesday and will have to restrain myself from calling every hour. Still haven't figured out how to tell our son about the surgery. I'm figuring, "Max has an owie in his mouth that the doctor needs to fix" is about as much as I can say.

I hope everyone is enjoying the summer so far. Seattle actually has summer weather...YEY!

Song I loved hearing today: "Mercy" by Duffy
Weekly running mileage completed (ending yesterday): 25
Running mileage for this week: 0/26
WIP word count: Ask me tomorrow!

A Quiet House

Sorry I haven't blogged in awhile, we had wonderful house guests this past week. My good friend and her twin boys, who are exactly one week older than our son (they were born on Christmas eve and our son was born on New Years Eve - 2003). Three four-year-olds in one house is hilarious, by the way. They live in Sweden, so we are lucky if we see them once or twice a year. Next year, we hope to visit them or meet them for a vacation in Italy (if our dollar is doing better than its current peso status).

I have developed my training plan for the Portland Marathon (Oct. 5). I have NO idea if my body will hold up to that kind of training but hey, it's worth a shot. I can always chicken out and shoot for the Seattle Marathon the end of November.

Max is doing very well. All his tests have come back normal. No signs of cancer in his chest, lymph nodes, abdomen, spleen, etc. Tomorrow he gets his CT scan. I am so so so hopeful that the tumor is small. The CT scan will determine how extensive the surgery on his jaw will be...and will actually determine once and for all if surgery is possible. He still plays like a puppy in the backyard. He and Brandy had a serious game of tug-of-war in the backyard today. I filled up our wading pool and it was so warm that me, my son and both dogs spent a good portion of the day sitting in it!

Weekly running mileage: 0/24 (today is a strength and rest day)
Song that got me going this morning: Beautiful Day by U2