The Sights of Summer into Fall

This afternoon I was flipping through the pictures on my camera. I never delete pictures until, like this past weekend, my camera has had enough and puts the kibosh on my untrained, albeit gluttonous, photographic efforts by screaming "IF YOU TAKE ONE MORE PICTURE...I WILL EXPLODE!". So about once a season I end up flipping through, deleting the ugly ones and uploading the rest onto Shutterfly (one of my most favorite sites).
Anyway... through all of this I realized one thing. I had an AWESOME summer. And the awesomeness has continued into my most favorite season, fall. I think I've said this before, but there's something about having a child (or children) that allows you to enjoy the seasons, holidays and traditions just like you did when you were a kid, but maybe even more because you experience the joy of seeing your child enjoy those things too. (*Long sentence alert: Feel free to go back and read again if you need to.*) At about age 15 you lose the magic in summer roadtrips, eating strawberries in the garden (er...mom's/grandma's garden), pumpkin patches and, of course, the holiday season. Those feelings don't come back, I've realized, until you have kids. And then there's those few moments you get to yourself or with your significant other that are priceless and precious- even those moments are better appreciated and better enjoyed when you have children.
You may disagree with me, but I'm just talking from personal experience so when I say "you" what I mean is "me or I".

So here are the some of the sights of my AWESOME summer into Fall. Fall with a capital F.

The water park at Friendship Park in Spokane for Mia's third birthday.

This summer I forced myself to cook well. This was one of my culinary attempts. I got better as the summer drew on.

Kissing in the rain is one of my favorite memories of this summer. We went on a bike trip in N. Idaho.

Camping and canoeing! Maus couldn't help but go with us!

We attended a few parades too. Balloons were always a favorite!

The park- a few times.

Lucy's sunglasses.

Mommy's sunglasses.

Culinary creation! Salmon burger (salmon my dad caught in Alaska, bread from a local baker, tomatos from a local grower), beet salad (beets from a local grower, herbs from my garden) and potato salad (from the grocery store).

Every time Chris is back from work we go on a date. This particular time was Silverwood!

Every Friday you could find us all at the farmers market!

Peaches from a local grower. I sliced them and froze them so I can have wonderful peaches all year long!

Tubby Time!

One of my favorite meals.



Summer storm!




Jackson enjoying the fruits of someone else's labor at the farmers market.



Vintage Harvest.

I have the most amazing sunsets from my backyard.

Jackson went to Noah's fourth birthday party. It was at the Cheney fire station- which I think is the best idea ever. So did Jackson.

At the park... again.

Chris took me on a "celebrate the end of the farmers market season" trip to Cannon Beach. I lived there briefly right after college and hadn't been back since. It was so nice to go back there!

Straw maze at the farmers market.

Our local baker made this cake for the last market of the season for the farmers market. How amazing is this? It looks exactly like our barn.



Instilling musical tendancies early on.





Pumpkin patch up at Greenbluff. Such a fun day with the Kile's, Papa and Grammi!