July Recap

July was a month of travel. The first few weeks we spent cleaning the apartment and packing for our trip. Also I helped Courtney bleach her hair—which was very exhausting for both of us! Most of you reading this probably saw us this month. For those of you missing out, we traveled to Bozeman, Montana for a family reunion on the land of my great-grandparents. We spent a few days meeting extended family, swapping stories, and enjoying the beautiful scenery. Unfortunately, Courtney was not able to say goodbye to everyone on the last night due to some minor heatstroke. But we had a great time and are very excited for the next reunion.

Then, along with my parents, we went to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. Pictures are across social media, but we’ve included some of our favorites.

Driving back to Oregon, we went a different way and were blown away by the desert-like environment of eastern Oregon. When we finally got home, Dinah was very happy to see us.

We also went to the Lane County Fair—getting in for free by donating can goods. It was my first county fair experience so I didn’t know what to expect. Walking around the air-conditioned building and seeing the talented growers, bakers, artists, photographers, and quilters was quite fun. We watched Steve Trash, a green magician performing tricks and teaching about recycling. We saw cool puppet shows and stalls and costumes. There were rides, but they were for little kids so we didn’t wait in the long lines for them. Before going, we enjoyed a strawberry lemonade and Swedish funnel cake sugary treat called a fri-jos.

That’s about it for us—enjoy the pictures!

June Recap

Hello all!

June was a very celebratory month. Most importantly, we celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary. We kept it low key with just a nice sushi dinner (where we conquered the giant Godzilla roll!) and movie (Finding Dory). Which I realize is a weird combination, but I mostly had unagi (eel) and eels aren’t in the film so I think it is okay. June was also the month of Father’s Day, Kelsea’s birthday, and Joy’s birthday (technically July 1^st but still).

This past month was also one for crazy scheduling as Derek made forays into training for the morning position—sometimes going into work at 7pm, 3am, or 8am. He also worked two Sundays this month which made for even more interesting sleeping hours.

As for me, I did my usual things to keep busy. I started reading from a top ten list of classics. I’ve finished The Great Gatsby (liked it slightly more than I did in high school) and am about 60 pages into Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man. Also started Lolita (about 50 pages in) but am sort of too grossed out to keep reading at the moment.

I started really taking better care of my skin and teeth and going for walks while Derek is at work. I really hope I can keep up my healthy changes…and possibly drink more water (which I hate).

I’ve also restarted my facebook page after two years and reconnected with a few people, which is always awesome.

And last but not least, I’ve pulled out all of my summer clothes (bye to sweaters for now), washed them, and set aside specific ones for the upcoming July trip to Montana. Also have started compiling road trip cds (Derek’s job), and planning snacks and good things to pack. Our kitchen table is my command central and it looks like an explosion. 

That is about it for us—enjoy the pictures!