Hello, Blog, it's been awhile

My last post left us with soggy weather in June. I can't believe that I didn't post the rest of the summer! It's been a busy summer and doing techie stuff just didn't figure highly on my to do list I guess. Here's a short summary of the summer:
We went cruising on the river in Post Falls right before the 4th and then did dinner and dancing to celebrate is one Lynda and Curtiss' 25th wedding anniversary and Curt's 50th birthday. We had a great time and I danced all night to the groove beats of PJ Destiny and his one man band--which was composed of two people since his son Fred came along as backup. The sun finally came out (as per usual) immediately after the 4th of July. We spent the 4th in Sandpoint. I went to the Forrell (no, I don't know how to spell it)/Smith picnic. It had been quite a few years since I went last. The place was just swimming with the Brickers and similar clans. I think there were very few people I recognized in the crowd. Isn't it funny how the older people still look the same after 20 years? I guess the major differences between 50 and 70 aren't as huge as between say 5 and 25! The twins had a great time playing there with the other kids. Laney didn't come with me. I went with Mom and Dad (because I'm the good daughter ;-). After that reunion picnic we continued on to Joyce and John's for another picnic. Then we went home and passed out so the kids didn't do any fireworks this year.
Once the sun came out, things got rockin' and rollin' for summer. We worked on the house and the yard. I collected yardsale furniture and did my magic spray painting. Our little house has the brightest colored furniture ever. Our dining table is apple green and our bedroom furniture is a dark aqua.
After the 4th, we went camping at Sam Owen's on Pend Oreille lake outside of Sandpoint. We originally intended to stay at Springy Point, but it was full. It all turned out pretty well with the exception of extremely predatory deer that ransacked our camp and ate a bunch of stuff. Andy and Jenny visited with us several times and swam. They brought their boat over one of the days and Laney went for her first boat ride and went tubing. Of all the kids that went, which included all of the older boys who are about 6, only Laney was brave enough to do it and just loved it. The best part of camping for the kids was riding bikes on the road. Kenna can't reach the pedals on a trike so she does it Flintstone style. She looks just like those lizards that run on their hind legs. She's completely fearless and took off down the hill once. She must have hit about 20 mph before she steered into the bank. I almost had a heart attack when I saw her start down. I started running and expected to find her broken at the bottom. And there she was, smiling away on the side. Griffin can pedal--the pink and purple trike. He 4x4'd through the forest, he rode on the road, he would not stop. All the kids went for a long bike ride and Laney and Griffin just pedaled away. Kenna walked instead of trying to push that distance.
The weekend after camping, we went up to Priest Lake to visit Dana and Jeff at their vacation rental. They had also rented a boat for the weekend and we went all the way up to the upper lake. I haven't been boating in about a decade. It was fun even though Griffin peed on the boat a couple times.
At the end of July, we had Art on the Green and my 20 year high school reunion. It was awesome to see my old high school friends, less awesome to see the people who annoyed me then and still annoy me. I guess a typical reunion. Art of the Green was a little too brief for me. Charles and I took the kids and he was done before we made half of the loop. Next year we'll do things a little different...
After that we got the house ready for the big party. We had a big birthday bash for my sister's 40th birthday. Charles even made a dance floor and we hung lanterns made of glass jars from the trees. I'd say that we had about 50 people or so. I think there were 21 kids there. I warned the neighbors ahead of time thank goodness.
After a very busy summer we headed home to Arizona. We got back on Wednesday it's been go go go ever since. We bought new beds for the twins on Thursday. No more baby beds. Sigh. Friday we went to school to meet Laney's new preschool teacher. Who is AWESOME. I was so excited by her description of the year she plans that I was almost ready to go to preschool myself. Friday night Laney went to Leah's on an official sleep over and I went to sorority. It was so good to see my sorority sisters after such a long time. I'm going to miss those who will be leaving this fall. Today we cleaned up the old office and broke down the crib and pack-n-play before the beds were delivered. I must say that it is so strange to see the beds in those rooms. Sigh. A new era starts and we leave babyhood behind. Unless we have another baby that is... ;-)