Brown Family Pictures

While we were in Denver a few weeks ago, my sister Emily took family pictures for everyone. Em has really honed her professional photography craft over years of running her own business at Emily Broadbent Photography. She forgot her hefty tripod this year, so we had to go back to our ramshackle roots and prop the camera on a box for the big family picture. Here are the 2024 Brown Family Pictures:

Snow Lake Girls' Hike

 On Friday, July 26th, we went on a hike to Snow Lake! Jay's knee had been feeling sore all week, and Jeff had been running long fast miles with our cross country team captain, so the boys stayed home while Rose, Amber, and I drove two hours to the Snoqualmie Pass and met up with my sister Mel, sweet baby Dahlia, and Pancha The Fluffy. Mel is nearing the end of her 8 months of maternity leave from work, and we wanted to make the most of it with a hike. Mel's husband Braxton was at work and couldn't join us, so it was a pure girls' hike, all the way down to Pancha the dog, who is also a girl. 

Kachess Lake and the Shoreline Run

Some summers we travel far and wide; other summers we stay home. Both kinds of summer are busy, fun, and exhausting! Our close-to-home activities of the week: a late night swim meet, family lake day with cousins, the Shoreline 2 mile & 10k road race, daily morning runs with the XC team (with watermelon on Friday!), other workouts, yardwork, piano-cello duets (Rose and me), and enough food and screen time to recover from it all.

Rose and Amber, being silly during family scripture time one night.

Swim, Hike, Jam

 Sunnyside was trapped in a heat advisory all week, with triple digit temperatures every single day. Our busy summer life kept coming; it was just hotter than usual! Activities this week included: church girls camp for Rose, church boys camp for Jay, a swim meet for Jay and Amber, a hike for Rose and me, jam-making for Amber and me, and mowing for Jay and Rose. I also did enough running, lifting, weeding, cleaning, and pantry-restocking to require daily naps that I did not take, haha. Jeff is much better at pausing his day to take a nap than I am. 

Where are we, Arizona?? The sensor for this thermometer is in the shade on our back deck. Yes, the deck heats up and radiates that heat onto the sensor, so the actual air temp off the porch probably wasn't 117 degrees, but once the temperature rises above 105 it's hard to feel anything more than sheer misery out there. Thankfully it was usually only in the mid to upper 70s during our daily morning runs with the cross country kids. I mean, it sure felt hotter in the sun and we sweated BUCKETS, causing us to chug fluids all day after each run.

Brown Family Gathering 2024

Last week was the Brown Family gathering/reunion! My two parents, their five kids plus five spouses, and 15 grandkids gathered at my parents' house near Denver, Colorado from June 29th-July 6th for our annual reunion. 27 people under one roof may seem like too much, and there was definitely plenty of high decibel chaos, but it is a very big house so we all fit just fine. We had a happy week of quality time together.

A week with Mom

 I went to Denver by myself for a week (June 22-29th) to spend some time with just me and my Mom  before everyone else arrived for our annual big family reunion. 

Mommmmm!!!! (This picture was taken a week later during the family reunion--that's why Jay's face is between our heads in the background.)