Change and Certifications

It was the kids' last full week of summer break. Jeff went back to work on Wednesday (August 21st). Even though I have lived with these seasonal school year changes for my entire life, it is still a surprisingly bumpy adjustment every time! And it's not over yet: the first day of cross country season is Monday (August 26th), and the kids' first day of school is Tuesday (Aug 27th). Throughout the day while Jeff was at work this week, I took mental notes of things to tell him or ask him later when he got home... and then mostly forgot those mental notes for a day or three until something jogged my memory hours or days later. Mid conversation at dinnertime or during family scripture time or other random times, I would suddenly remember to tell Jeff something. Sometimes I managed to tell him before it left my brain again; other times it had to wait even longer. It was much easier to keep Jeff up to date during summer break when he was home all day! 

Nice dogs

 The last full week of Jeff's summer break was full of morning runs with the cross country team, afternoon naps, and a surprising number of nice dogs. In just six days, we were visited by five nice dogs. It all started with a very sweet husky-German-shepherd-blend dog that ran five-plus miles with our cross country team every day all week and then hung out at the barn with the team afterwards. Some detective texting up and down the street revealed that the dog's name was Luna, and she lives a few houses down the road from us. She joyfully joined in on our runs all week. 

Olympic Peninsula Date Week

Jeff and I stayed closer to home for our annual date trip this year. Since we didn't go to Paris for the Olympics, we decided that the next best thing would be to go to the Olympic Peninsula. We were right; it was a marvelous trip! On Saturday, August 3rd, my Mom flew in to stay with Rose and Amber at our house while we journeyed. On Monday, August 5th, we drove Jay plus four other teenagers 3 hours to Seattle University for FSY church camp. We deposited them at the edge of campus with their bags, offered hugs to any kid who wanted one (Jay plus one of his friends accepted our hugs). Then we continued driving west for two more hours until we reached Sequim, WA, a small bustling town on the northeastern corner of the Olympic Peninsula (pronounced "skwim").

The Olympic Mountains are stunning!

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.