40 years of awesome

 love our friends who share peach leather.  we're also enjoying gifted strawberry jam and pickled banana peppers.  homemade are the best gifts!

 Dog days after the pool has closed for the season.  we tried to get our food motivated dog out swimming by dangling treats over the steps.  she was hesitant, but we all had fun.

We celebrated *Happy Birthday to R* with a weekend getaway to Port Townsend Air B&B, a renovated little red barn.  lucked out with great weather for our exploring the beach, and Fort Worden state park.

 E edited this one.

he made this arrangement and then hid it all under a big rock.

 yum. frozen watermelon chunks, frozen banana, and water.  delish.

we had a fun evening out with friends to an escape room.  We had to solve many puzzles in our attempt to "break out".

a particularly full Saturday

 we all benefited from a puppy training class every Saturday morning. 
E loves dogs. he asks politely if he can pet pretty much every dog that we pass. 

 After puppy class graduation, E and I headed to summer service project #2.  We picked up garbage at Seahurst Park.  I was honestly surprised about how much we all got.  The team we joined found a heavy discarded grill rack, but counting everything else also, our bag weighed 9 lbs.  the other teams' bags looked a lot smaller, but there were about 15 or 20 teams that had picked up garbage!  The park looked beautiful when we arrived, but we knew that it was fabulous when we left. 

 here is a sculpture with rubbish in it.  kind of interesting way to display and teach a lesson.

Then we drove out to our afternoon hike: Cedar Butte.  I had picked this location and i was so impressed with the kids hiking all the way.  We ate a bag of jelly bellies (discussing each flavor before and after eating) and also dried mangoes, but they hiked the whole trail. 

 The dog had a blast with some off leash time. we all slept well that night.

First day of 2nd grade

 since the first of August, we've had smoke and ash (on my car above) from wildfires to our east, north, and south in our air.  It's very noticeable to everyone, but especially bothersome to our COPD research study participants (and others with breathing difficulties).  it makes the sun more orange/red.

 playdate with R friends.

 first day of school!  He was very excited.  didn't even need me to come up to see his new classroom. though now, he's invited me up several times after school.

 lovely runs in the Seahurst neighborhood with friend N.

 group class started up again after summer break.

  

Walking the dog.

 dinner date at Pho Saigon.  love me a tofu sandwich.

Labor Day

 

We planned to catch up with our H family over Labor Day weekend.  we did, although not quite as we expected.  Cousin F had a heart attack, so we took several trips to Valley Medical to support and bring food.  Amazingly, she woke from the coma, and is mentally back to her old self.

Due to wildfires, our group opted to head to Discovery Park instead of the mountains for our planned hike.  it was nice to explore the park and spend the afternoon with friends.  Rainier is behind us.

 8 kids and 2 moms take up the whole pew.  we love it, and reverence is improving.  here the kids are playing sharks and minnows before we head home.

 smiles after several stressful days.  got to finally meet A, another Seattle cousin!

So, overall, our Labor Day weekend was slow and not full of plans.  ahhh. nice.  I think E even spent one of the afternoons listening to a "how to train your dragon" audiobook.

last bit of summer

 E and I attended the first of two summer service projects. This one at a local school with limited resources.  In our little corner, we helped remove weeds, dead plants, overgrown invasive plants, and rubbish.  we both felt good after donating our effort.

with our apple tree yield and our pressure cooker, we made applesauce.  easy and delicious.  feel very domestic.  maybe i'll move up to canning next year?

 29 plums, and the challenge of eating them with no front teeth.
We shared other plums with neighbors, and yes, the raccoons also got some.  so remember this for next year:  pick the figs around Aug 1, then the plums mid August, and finally, the grapes before Labor Day.  otherwise the raccoons enjoy part of our harvest.

 R and E were AMAZING to extract bamboo roots growing around the rhodi rootball.  supper skilly as cousin I would say. i think the rhodi has survived the operation.  they say it might take one year of continually cutting back the bamboo that shoots up, but then, after one year, it might stop growing.

 back to school Popsicle social and classroom lists/teacher reveal.  looking forward to 2nd grade with ms. Nye.