Lots of swimming

A lot of our summer can be summed up in one word, Swimming.  Ellie continues to love swimming and the more she does it the better she gets.  She continued with her competitive swim team but also swam summer league for Courthouse.  I am begging Doug to get a new lens because it is hard to get action shots at swim meets.  These action shots are all from the last meet in Bend.  Some of the pictures I included won't mean much to anyone who isn't into swimming, but I can see amazing difference in her form.  It was fun for her to look at the pictures and realize how she is placing her hands and head now!  And of course that means some major time drops.  I am really excited to see how she does in the fall.  She has also made some good friends which is really nice for her.  Swim meets wind up with a lot of hang out time so friendships are good to have.

 This was a great race that Jack got so into.  Ellie was out in the lead until the breastroke leg and then she lost the lead a little as you can see in this picture, but she kicked in the last leg of freestyle and pulled out a heat win and a 5 second time drop from her best summer league time.  Doug took a picture of the scoreboard!

 The Bend meet ended a day with watermelon relays and Ellie got to take home the watermelon.  As you can see she was really excited!

Cleaning the garage

A big project Doug tackled this summer was cleaning out the garage.  He had a lot of stuff stored for a long time.  The artistic types always want to turn junk into treasures.  It works until you get too much stuff and then you can't work anymore.  So our house turned into a mini hoarders show.  This was all Doug's idea and even though it was hard for him he was glad to do it.  The kids helped a lot and we all worked hard.  In fact the pictures with the candy are on Doug's 40th b-day.  I think he really just wanted to skip that day and pretend it wasn't happening.  We did go out to dinner with friends that night and we went to the DMV to renew our driver's licenses.  Doug sure knows how to celebrate in style!

15 years and going strong!

Here's a post without a single picture of the kids.  That doesn't happen very often.  This summer we celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary.  We went out to dinner and a movie.  Then we were lucky enough to get 2 nights away at the end of July without the kids.  We headed to the coast and had a great relaxing time.  We keep saying one of these years we will go on a real vacation but it never seems to happen.  Luckily we seem to have just as much fun at the Oregon coast.  Let's hope the next 15 years are as good as the first!

Summer Fun

A few fun things this summer, getting a trampoline and going to the Volcanoes game.  The kids had wanted a trampoline for a while.  It turned out to be a big headache to put together but now that it is done it is fun to see their smiling faces as they jump.  And yes we got the safety net put around it after these pictures they couldn't wait to get jumping.  We have always loved going to the baseball games.  We are hoping to get to a few more.  Both kids love the atmosphere and love to watch the game.

A week without Ellie

Ellie and my mom took off on a 5 night trip for grandparents and grandchildren in Southern Oregon.  I was a little nervous since it was for so long.  As soon as she drove off I started to cry.  It was hard having her gone for such a long time and she ended up really homesick.  She loved the activities they did but it was too long to be gone from home.  We tried to keep ourselves busy at home without her.  Jack and I went mini-golfing and Doug, Jack and I went to the driving range to hit balls.  We also went to the pool and played legos.  However, everyone was really happy when she came home!

College buddies!

Hard to believe that this year will mark 20 years since we graduated from college.  We had an impromptu reunion because I left my cell phone at Julie's house and Julie and Christy were dropping their kids at Linfield for basketball camp.  I am so glad I forgot my phone because we got to spend a beautiful summer evening having dinner and visiting the campus.  Julie and I tried to convince Christy to blow off work and try for a wild night in McMinnville but I guess we are all too responsible for that.  I am lucky to have meet such great friends, who knew we would still be so close.

July Fourth Fun at the Beach

For the third year in a row we took an annual trip to the beach for the Fourth of July.  The kids really look forward to this tradition and it is alot of fun.  We started the day with swim practice for Ellie(no kidding practice on the Fourth).  Then we got to the beach for some play in the sand.  Then checked into our hotel.  It was the first time to Salishan for the kids and they liked it.  We headed right to the pool, then dinner and then back to the beach for fireworks.  Fireworks on the beach are pretty cool, between the big show and all the illegals that people bring.  The kids were dead tired after this.  The next day we hit the pool again and then Galluccis for pizza, another family tradition.  And finally a little more time on the beach.  I am sure next year we will make it four years in a row.