Lazy & Hazy

We finally had a lazy relaxing summer week! It was the first week after summer swim season ended, and not having kids at the pool by 6am felt decadent--we didn't have to be ready to roll until 7:30am for cross country practice. On the other end of the day, there were no late night swim meets to slowly drain my life force. Each day, we basically ran with the cross country team in the morning, did some yardwork, and then vegged the afternoon and evening away watching Olympics and various other screens. The morning runs and workouts were intense enough to make the afternoons feel extra necessary and luxurious. My legs are sore after our relaxing week! 

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.)

Summer Speed-Up

The first official week of summer break was so busy it did not feel like a break. It was more like a summer speed-up! Excerpts from my journal give an accurate outline of the busy week:

Monday, June 17th: Today was the first official day of summer break, and even though there was no early morning swim practice, it was still super busy! Cross country run in the morning, followed by a short barn workout for me while Jeff did some plyo & speed at the track with a few kids. Then I went to a Relief Society presidency meeting. We had brunch at Bon Vinos for our meeting, and it was nice to ease up on presidency meeting formalities and take time to chat without feeling rushed. We ended up staying for 3.5 hours! It was good but I was socially fried by the time it ended. I came home and played the piano for an hour, which was nice but not exactly restful.

Lincoln Grade, Pitchforks, and Father's Day

Saturday, June 15th was a full day. We started out with the annual Sunnyside Ward walk to the park. We met in the church parking lot and walked the 2 miles on the bike path to Sunnyview Park, where the ward provided Costco muffins and yogurt. It was pleasant to walk and chat with friends, even though the wind was already blustering and blowing, even before 9am. Jeff and Jay drove to the park and then ran back to the church, where I was parked. Then they ran back to the park to get a few more miles in, while I walked to the park and Rose and Amber scootered. After an hour or so at the park, Jay drove all five of us back to the church, whereupon I hopped into the van and headed for Prosser (25 minutes east). My first activity in Prosser was to run up Lincoln Grade:

Atop the Lower Yakima Valley.

Selfie-ish

This week was the last week of the school year, so I tried to appreciate my quiet clean house as much as possible before the onslaught of summer break. It wasn't a lazy week; I just tried to make sure to do activities that I like best when I'm alone in a clean quiet house, while also being a productive adult each day. That translated into about 5 hours of weeding and yardwork, 5 hours of piano playing, 25 miles of running, and a dozen selfies. It was a selfie-ish week--a week where I was somewhat selfish with my time and also took more selfies than pictures of my kids.

Shaina Day, etc.

It's the kind of week where it feels easier to copy excerpts from my journal than to write new paragraphs about our latest activities. 

Monday, June 3rd: It was so windy today! Maddening! I didn't do any yardwork. But I did get up at 5am to go to physical therapy/workout session with my friend Camille. The exercises I did for my legs were very targeted at my weaknesses, and now my left glute/hammy is super sore again. Running with the XC kids this afternoon was rough for the first mile or so.

Music and Milestones

 Remember during track season when I thought life would slow down after track ended? HAHAHA, apparently that was a myth I told myself to get me through the season. This was our first week after track season and let me tell you, it was not slow. I mean, maybe it was a little less busy thanks to the absence of daily track practice, but factor in the post-track season fatigue plus we rolled right into daily cross country conditioning, plus an hour or two of yardwork each day, and it all added up to an exhausting week. But that is life--it doesn't slow down. It's not like I actually want to not do all of the activities we've been doing (except maybe the weeding--I could live with less weeds), but wow, everything seems to happen all at once!