Monday Listicles: 10 Things I Will Remember about This Summer

I haven't participated in Monday Listicles for awhile, but now I'm back in the game. This week's topic: what's memorable about your summer? I began the summer by writing about my favorite summer things, some of which I haven't been able to do much of this summer--especially outdoor concerts and plays and dining al fresco. It feels like this summer has passed in the blink of an eye, especially with July consumed by medical issues.

1. Hood River Anniversary Overnight
I seem to have not blogged about this, but we celebrated our 23rd anniversary by spending the night in the historic Columbia Gorge Hotel and had a wonderful time.

View from the hotel

Beer tasting at Full Sail Brewery after our brewery tour

Dinner with a view of the river (and my cute date)

Watching the parasailers

Visiting a lavender farm

Gorgeous lavender!

2. Mt. Hood 
At the beginning of July, I took a day off work and we went up to Mt. Hood for the day to visit Timberline Lodge and play on the Alpine Slides at Mt. Hood Skibowl. I seem to be lacking good photos of the day somehow! It was the first time we'd taken the kids up to Mt. Hood since Kieran was small.

3. Surgery 
What seemed to occupy most of my summer was my third and final ear surgery in one year, followed by recovery, to combat the cholesteatoma and repair my ear. My ear surgeon is happy with the results, and my hearing is gradually coming back in my left ear. After my final post-op check in 2 months, I will start seeing my surgeon once a year to make sure the cholesteatoma does not return.

4. Three weekends at the beach
We went to the beach with our family in June, and at the end of July a few weeks after my surgery, we had a wonderful, first-ever-with-another-couple adult weekend there. Then a final fun weekend in August with my friend Shelia and her kids, joined by another friend April and her husband David.

So great when your friend's kids get along with your kids!

With Shelia and April

5. Winning another award
I won another award for my writing (Bronze Beacon, for web writing) through the International Association of Business Communications.

Me with my fancy glass award

6. Road trip 
I took my family, kicking and screaming (well, not really), on a camping road trip down to the Bay Area. Fun times and memories in the making!

At Crater Lake

7. Week in the Bay Area
I'm still in the process of chronicling our activities, but we had a great week with my sister and her family, hanging out in San Francisco, Monterey, and other places.

Five out of our six boys in front of a cable car

8. Labor Day weekend in the Puget Sound

Not content to stay in town over our last summer weekend (crazy!), we headed up to Puyallup and Seattle for the weekend. On Saturday, Nadine and I were able to have some sister time shopping while our saintly husbands watched the boys. Sunday, four of our family headed up to Seattle to experience Bumbershoot, Seattle's music festival. We had a fun day, seeing a variety of bands (including fun.!), but I think it will probably be my last visit to Bumbershoot--too many crowds! I tend to prefer the music at Folklife, the Seattle folk music festival (which is also free!).

We crashed last night at the home of my wonderful friend and coworker Nancie and her husband Dave, in Woodinville, and enjoyed our breakfast with them this morning. In the meantime, nearly-7-year-old Nicholas spent the day/night with his cousins, enjoying having them all to himself!

Celebrating his upcoming birthday with his cousins

9. The tree 
This will be the summer of the tree. We have a beautiful sweet gum tree in our large backyard, and it hovers over the house of a neighbor, who we think has substance abuse issues. She is completely paranoid about it falling on her house. It has dropped a few limbs this summer, but arborists do not think it is diseased. For the sake of neighborly cooperation, we are planning to have it taken down...but it has caused my husband great stress. We have been soliciting bids to remove the tree, most of which have been in the several-thousand-dollar range (the highest being $5,500-6,000!). We were delighted when one guy finally came in at $800--and he's licensed and bonded too! He will take down the offending tree in a few weeks. It has been a thorn in our sides in the past few weeks, compounded by the neighbor complaining to our other neighbors and threatening to sue us if the tree falls on her house. Such a pain!

10. Various other memories
The summer really does feel like it's flown by, but I remember other fun times, too--such as attending a wildly fun and classy Irish-Argentinian wedding at a gorgeous winery out in McMinnville, where we enjoyed spending time with friends, and attending performances at our kids' various camps.

My thespian in Macbeth

 

Feeling exhausted after Labor Day weekend, part of me will be happy to get back into a regular routine! I'm determined to recommit myself to health and fitness this fall now that I have the third surgery behind me and am done vacationing. 

Read about other summer memories at The Good Life.