Hard to believe all of summer has gone by since I last posted. Time really does fly.

This summer had its fair share of ups and downs, but overall, I think things are going pretty well. Some highlights of the summer:

Richard and I were able to spend a few days in Mesa Verde with my family in July. I liked a lot about that trip, but I'll be honest...I was ready to be home by the time we got back. I enjoyed the historical aspect though. I'm really interested in people, their pasts, and their reasons for doing what they did. I don't think you could convince me to live inside a cliff dwelling where I'd have to climb (barefoot) hundreds of feet just to go get my food or water or whatever. Learning more about the Ancestral Puebloans really made me respect them more than I had on previous trips to Mesa Verde.

My birthday was in August, and it was a great day. We went to lunch, then we saw "Charlie St. Cloud." I loved it, even though it got slammed by the critics. Then his mom took us to Teppanyaki for dinner. Absolutely fabulous.

Our garden! Wow. Richard and I turned out to be pretty good lil farmers. We've made and bottled two batches of salsa, some spaghetti sauce, homemade tomato soup, and we've got squash growing out our ears. It's really fulfilling to see the literal fruit of our labor.

Also this summer, I kinda got into Family History. Goes along with the interest in people's stories, and it's been really cool learning about my ancestors. I never knew we had Pony Express riders in the family. I'm finding all sorts of gems lately.

Our trip to Lagoon this month was really fun, but yeah, I'm getting old. We got there right at opening time, and it was slow enough we didn't have to wait in many lines. We had put in a full day by 1:30! We stayed, though, and enjoyed the rides that have appeared since the last time I went (Wicked, The Jumping Dragon). That Jumping Dragon was fun. For those of you not familiar with it, it's like the Music Express...only after it goes forward, it goes backward. Quickly. It was great. Surprisingly, I think my favorite ride of the day was the Tilt-A-Whirl. Richard and I had that thing spinning out of control. It was fun to meet up with Richard's sister's family and go on the Colossus with them. Last time we were all at Lagoon, they were still small enough to go on the kiddie rides. This time they were all about the roller coasters and the Rocket. Finally by 5:30 we'd had enough. We came home and crashed. Pathetic. Lagoon used to be an all day thing and even at closing time I wouldn't be ready to leave!! It sucks getting old.


I've always been a summer person, but now as I sit here and look out my window and watch the leaves fall, I find there's a part of me that's really excited for autumn. I'm loving this warm sunny weather, knowing it's limited, but when the time comes I know I'll enjoy the hot chocolatey mornings, the reading by the fire, the weekends when we play games and watch the snow fall. I'm making myself wait until this weekend to decorate for Halloween, but then I'll embrace the season. I feel like change is just around the corner, and what the heck, I'll go ahead and embrace that, too.

I hope you had a good summer, and I wish you all a happy fall.