What I Did on My Summer Vacation

OK, so lets backtrack to June.

We finally threw our housewarming party at the beginning of summer, and do I have photos of this joyous event? Of course not. I think we were too busy to think about it at the time. Our backyard has transformed from a complete mudpit to only 3/4ths of one now, as Paul's parents hauled over a bunch of sod they no longer needed. I am too embarrassed to even post a photo of our cracked-out looking backyard right now. Someday it will look nice, but it ain't happening anytime soon.

As for the front yard, well, that was an experiment gone wrong. We had this great idea of throwing down a ton of wildflower seed mixed with cover crop seed, and it turned into a crazy looking jungle. The grasses that sprouted kicked up Paul's allergies so badly that I wound up ripping it all out; then a disc popped in my lower back from being hunched over for 2 hrs. but that is a story for another time.

In July we went to Bend for 4th of July weekend/Paul's birthday and spent it with our good friends, Rebecca, Frank, and Hunter.




In late July we went on a 10-family camping trip to the coast. It turned out to be much better than we could have imagined, especially with all of the kids running around! The kids took care of each other while the adults ignored them and drank cocktails. Did I just say that out loud?




Despite the icy temperatures of the Pacific, August still plunged in with all of his clothes on.



You can hear how windy it was that day. Despite the wind, August loves the beach:




One of my best friend's from undergrad got married earlier this summer and had a party in Colorado, which I went to with another college friend (2nd solo vacation this year--sorry Paul! You go next, promise). It was amazing to be back in the Colorado mountains again and I forgot how stunning it is there. Leslie and I hiked to Strawberry Lake Hot Springs and relaxed for a while before hiking back to the car.



August turned 2 on August 12th and we had a small party for him in our backyard. We are still enjoying the remains of his gelato cake!

August and his best buddy, Oliver Danger:





Blowing out the candles:






Grandma and Grandpa Uusitalo were brave enough to take us up on the challenge of watching August while Paul and I took off to Burning Man at the end of the summer. They all did great and I don't think August really missed us all that much, which is a good sign of how much fun they all had. Pictures of Burning Man still to come!

What??

Has it really been almost 4 months since I last posted?
How did that happen?

We are still here, really! And with lots of news and stories to report, of course.

Thanks for being patient (to the two people who actually follow this lazy-ass blog) and I'll get some action going here soon. Promise!

Swine Flu Here We Come!

Prior to leaving the US, we had heard about Swine Flu hitting Mexico City. We weren't really bothered by it affecting us since we were headed to Sayulita, a small fishing village nowhere near the capital, and about 45 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta.

However, in the beginning of our stay the schools had to shut down:


The restaurants were open when we arrived, but later on in the week some were open for take-out only. Not like we would have eaten out at all, since August can last maximum 10 minutes in a restaurant before he starts to destroy the place. We ate LOADS of tacos, and they were incredible.



The 1st house we rented was huge! 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and tons of stairways and gorgeous ocean views. It was a little too big but we wanted to be next to our friends who were down there as well.


View from the deck:





We swam every single day (especially August, who we could not get out of the pool at times) and ate some incredible food. And did lots of nothing, which is pretty much what we needed.





Lots of ice cream was consumed. You can tell August is eyeing Hunter's ice cream sandwich here because he inhaled his in less than 3 minutes:




Some shots of "town":




Sunsets on the beach were fabulous:

Road Trip to Albion, WA

Paul is now a biological uncle!! We finally got to meet baby Quintinn, who is now about 3 months old. It was too expensive to fly so we bit the bullet and loaded up the car. Surprisingly, August did much better than we expected for being cooped up for close to 7 hrs. (stopped once to run around and stretch).







I had heard Albion is a very small town and was prepared for a quaint little place. It is waaaaay smaller than I could have imagined. One town hall/library/fire station building. A church. And that is all. Kids take buses to schools in other towns.

Paul and I took Quinntin out for a walk in scenic Albion.





















Here is some more fabulous neighborhood scenery:








Still awake?

We got a tour of the farm that Mike works on for his graduate degree program in organic agriculture. August was terrified of the bleating sounds the sheep made.



Even the quiet cows freaked him out. I am guessing that seeing photos and drawings of farm animals in books is one thing, but in real life they are a bit daunting.



Here he is clinging to me for dear life. Hopefully Quinntin will be more used to the sounds and sizes of farm animals and won't be as tramatized when he gets older!

Never mind the towel, gimme a bathrobe!

August now refuses to use a towel after his bath. For someone who has hated hats his entire short life up until now, we are pretty psyched he tolerates wearing this.

Have you read "The Gas We Pass--The Story of Farts"? It is one of August's favorite books.

August repeatedly says "Baby? Baby?" whenever he sees my camera because he loves to look at photos of himself on the screen. And yes, Paul is saying "intesTYNES" on purpose, just because he knows it bugs me.

Rooftop Discovery

We basically ran out of money in terms of wanting to complete every single thing we wanted for our new house, which is ok. It seemed much more important to just make it good enough to move into and worry about the stuff which isn't detrimental to our living experience later. Like the Murphy bed we were hoping to have built in the downstairs guest bedroom. Like any sort of landscaping whatsoever instead of dirt (as of this past weekend, however, we now have a little tree planted out front and some cover crop seeds are sprouting). And a rooftop deck with a collapsible ladder. We have the former, but not the latter (or ladder). It was so gorgeous out this weekend that I demanded that we all check out the roofdeck for the first time ever. So Paul hauled a ladder up to the bedroom and opened the hatch.




August now knows the word "wine", which is what he was saying repeatedly when this photo was taken. Neither of us can figure out how he learned this word so quickly. Heh.


Unfortunately we couldn't stay up long because August became obsessed with the idea of wanting to go up and down the ladder by himself multiple times.

Pre- and Post-Renovation Photos

This is what it looked like when we purchased it:

And now:
The former fire place:


We had the old one torn out and placed this new one on the opposite wall:


The old kitchen was pretty gross:


Now look at it!



The former upstairs hallway:


And current:


August's old bathroom:

And new!



We have no idea if anyone we know is even looking at this blog, by the way. Make us feel like we aren't wasting our time, will you, and post a comment once in a while (not you, Suzie). Don't be shy! Let us know what you think. Thanks! (How pathetic, I am trolling for comments. Yikes.).