June & July

We've been having a heat wave here in Spokane.  It's absolutely lovely to have warm weather, especially when people come from all over to play in the lake.  The downside is my garden is already tired looking and the lake is turning a little green.  I guess that happens around here when the lake stays over 80 degrees consistently.  Nice, until it's not.

Balin and I have been trying to make a few dietary changes around here lately and for the most part we're really enjoying them.  We met a fellow in Moab whose life had been dramatically changed from reading the book "Eat to Live" by Joel Fuhrman.  The basic premise is make sure your calories are high in nutrient value.  So as you can see by the fridge below, we are eating a lot of vegetables, beans, fruits and nuts around here.  It feels great and we're really enjoying this way of eating, except for the massive amount of time and creativity it takes me to prepare everything.  Seriously.  I've heard this from other people who are eating fresh, real food; it takes a ton of time.  If I'm organized and on my game it's not so bad, but for the days where we've been on the lake or we have company over, it's a quite a bit more challenging and we've been slipping.   So as I write this I am inspired to look up my recipes on Pinterest and get back at it.  Plus I can watch Downton Abbey while I do all the prepping. :)

Perrin is growing up.  She got braces on a month or so ago and her teeth are straightening out.  She's doing pretty well with it all, but she has lost her retainer (what kid doesn't) so she's on a spending freeze so she can afford to buy a new one.

 My garden is looking better and better.  The fence is stained and the plants mostly have water.  You find out quickly where the gaps in the watering system are when it's 100 degrees every day for a week. I am able to go out a couple of times a week and pick enough flowers for flower arrangements, which I absolutely love.  Keeping up with the garden is a little bit of work, but it's so rewarding for me.  I think I spend about 3-5 hours a week, though the kids might say differently as I kind of lose track of time when I'm out there.

 Some of my flower arrangements from the garden.

Living here on the lake, especially in the summer, is pretty special and fun.  There are a quite a few families and we all really like each other.  Due to the busy nature of our lives, getting whole families together doesn't happen very often.  So we've started a little evening cocktail party, which happens about every 2 weeks, give or take.  It's super fun and when I hosted we had about 12 ladies show up.  I had people asking me for months to tell them a little more about essential oils, so I added that to the cocktail party.  And OH MY!  It was so fun and so good.  I had glass milk bottles full of different juices and mixers and then small milk bottles with alcohol in them.  Lined up were about 10 essential oils that you could use in your drink and then a couple of different garnishes to make the drinks look "fancy".  It was a great party.  I'd like to do it again without the part of telling people about essential oils - just hanging out and talking with friends.

In the middle of June my sister, who was on a month long road trip, made a stop in Liberty Lake for a night.  We got the chance to paddle around the lake and go for a run the next morning.  It was good to see her and it was her first time seeing us here in LL.

 In June we were visited by some of our favorite people, the DeVito's as they made a tour of Washington.  They were here for 3 nights and sadly I don't have a single picture of their time here.  (We  must have been having a good time!)  We played on the boat, swam, ate good food and had good conversation.

Shortly after the DeVito's left, my brother Dan and nephew Jack came to stay for the 4th of July.  It was great having them as we just hung out and enjoyed what the lake had to offer, unfortunately without a boat.  Our boat stopped working while the DeVito's were here and I have to say I was quite sad to have a lake but no boat.  We asked around for people to take us out tubing, or wake boarding or surfing.  Our dear friends Kai and Gen borrowed their buddies boat and took us out on the water to surf.  It was super fun and both Dan and Jack got up!  The night of the fourth, Sam and Jack hung out playing video games (both were happy I think) while Dan, Balin and I headed out on our neighbors pontoon boat to watch the fireworks and have dinner.  I think that was one of my all time favorite places to watch the fireworks and I think we'll have to do it again next year.

Balin was able to escape trying to get up wake boarding for over a year!  I had bought him a board last year as he thought that he couldn't get up on our smaller board.  It was July before he finally got up and tried his hand at wake boarding.  He didn't like it very much sadly.  I don't blame him as you're going pretty fast, 19-20mph and most of the tricks you can do will cause you to crash, which really hurts.

So he's trying a new sport - surfing.  Our boat is actually an older model surfing boat with water sacks in the back and a surf plate.  The idea is to weigh your boat down in the water and then have it list to one side, creating a wave that is rolling and good for surfing on.  Our wave isn't bad, but it definitely doesn't compare to the $80k wake boarding boats you see out on the lake.  And that's ok.  The surf we get is good enough for now and when we need a little more weight on the back, we just invite big boys and have them sit on the side the person is surfing on.  It only costs us a beer.  Much cheaper than a new boat.

Balin and I had an epic date night the other day.  We went out surfing with the kids, had dinner and then headed to Manito Park on the South Hill to listen to a trio play a selection of Mozart pieces while we drank a bottle of wine and nibbled on dark chocolate.  It was heavenly.  Both Balin and I agreed that we could live next to Manito Park - it's just absolutely lovely up there!

Earlier in the day I had taken Perrin and a friend out on the boat and Yogi wanted to come along also.  He's a good flag dog.

 Perrin, Sam and their friend Alex found some baby birds in a nest and on the ground next to the nest and decided to "save them".  They played with them for a couple of hours and thankfully when they went back the next day, the nest was empty.  Sam said the mom had been teaching them how to fly the day before.  Pretty fun.

 I got my hair cut off.  I went into the salon thinking about getting a trim since I hadn't worn my hair down in a couple of weeks. (always a clue that it's time for a hair cut)  We started chatting and the next thing you know, I was saying "let's do it!".  It's fun and makes me feel fresh but it hasn't looked like the picture since I left the salon.

The master bedroom

Kids bunk room 

Living room

Kitchen/dining

bunks in the loft

Loft bedrooom

We finally have pictures of the finished condo - well 90% finished.  We were up there this weekend for Sam's birthday party, and I took a few photos before all the boys showed up.  We're really pleased with how it all turned out.  We all agreed that we need to go up there more often and play as it's absolutely gorgeous.

Sam's birthday party was a hit with him and his friends.  We took Sam and 4 of his buddies up to Schweitzer for a little mountain biking, junk food eating and sticky/dirty games.  It was a great time but I think all of us are EXHAUSTED from cooking for & entertaining 5 high energy 11 year olds.  Wow. Sam is actually taking a nap as we speak…and he never takes a nap.  It was fun though and hopefully I'll have more pictures coming soon.