See you in September

We have had a crazy cool summer. And by cool, I mean totally sweet. (Name that quote.)

But now things are starting to wind down and tonight I finally felt like a had a tiny bit of time to do some blogging. There is so much to cover that I'm only going to post a couple pictures per event, but if you'd like to see more check out my Facebook photos. Are you ready? Here we go.

Let's first back up to April when we moved to San Ramon. Yep, our EIGHTH move in five years of marriage. We must have commitment issues or something. Not really, but it appears that way. We moved into a condo that needed (and frankly still needs) a lot of work, but being renters we weren't about to put a bunch of cash dollars into a place we don't own. But we decided (ahem, *I* decided) that $100 for paint and supplies to make the place "more livable" was worth the money out of our own pockets. Fortunately I have a husband who enjoys (to some extent) home improvement projects. Here's a taste of the transformation...

Before: (this picture is quite forgiving; the paint was in pretty bad shape)

After: (the hideous ceiling fan is out of my control)

Once we got our living quarters in order, we moved on to bigger and better things, like watching my brother's five children (in addition to Fara) for a week while he and his wife went to Italy (his old mission "stomping grounds"). It was such a fun and special time for Fara to get to know her cousins and for us to see the various sides of our nieces and nephews. We taxied them around to games, piano recitals, and dance class and assisted them with homework, campaigning posters, and general physical hygiene. They are sweet kids and as I was driving home after the week was over I missed them immediately and actually cried a little (and they only live like ten minutes from us!). We didn't take very many pictures that week but here's one of Parker and me at Austin's game:

For Memorial Day, we ventured up to Folsom Lake for a fun Lewis family gathering in my grandpa's honor. It was probably the coldest, cloudiest summer day I've ever spent at Folsom Lake, yet Fara still managed to get a tiny sunburn. Great mothering, Marisa.

A few days later we flew to Utah and saw many members of the extended Montierth family. Our trips to Pole Patch always come and go so quickly, but we were able to spend some quality time with lots of family and are looking forward to returning for Thanksgiving. Fara was spoiled with so much attention from cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and great-grandparents.

Not long after that came our long-awaited trek over to Yosemite where we camped with my brother Josh's family and the Stutznegger family (our friends from Folsom). The waterfalls were crazy awesome and we had some of the best campfire stories I have ever heard ("this story just got SO GOOD"--quote from my 7-year-old  niece Makayla during the climax of one story). It was a blast.

Literally the day after we got home, our super close friends Brandon, Ashley, and Bennett came to stay with us. They are seriously part of our family; we love them. We went to SF, an A's game, Six Flags, and more. SUPER fun. Brig, Cait, and Livi happened to be in town too. Love those guys. (And I love Rob's pose here so much.)

After a few baby showers, our car being broken into (nothing stolen), my sister's 30th birthday, 4th of July with the Bullocks, and several more trips to Six Flags, it was time for our big trip to the Pacific Northwest! We started the week by flying into Portland, renting a car and driving to Whidbey Island, WA, and touring Seattle with the Christensens and Millers. We are so lucky to have great friends who really make an effort to stay in touch and get together when someone "comes into town" (wherever the town may be).

 

Then we drove back down to Seaside, OR for the most gigantic Erickson reunion of all time. There were I think 140+ people present (I'm sure that number will get bigger as time passes; Ericksons are known exaggerators) and we were all staying in houses on the beach. Every day was jam packed with fun, including a 5K "fun run," in which about 50 of us participated. The highlight of the reunion for me was staying up until 3 a.m. with like ten of my girl cousins chatting and laughing about who-knows-what. I knew I would be so tired the next day but it was SO WORTH IT. For me, that alone would have been worth the trip. My cousins are all hilarious, dynamic people and I've always been so proud to be related to them. Here's a picture of my cousin Meghan and her little Bella with me and Fara. I realized recently that Meghan and I are basically on the same life track: we were born about a month apart, got married about a month apart, and had babies about two months apart. Kind of a fun coincidence.

Fara kind of looks like a boy here compared to cute little girly Bella with her super long hair. Still adorable though.

We finished the summer off with a trip to So. Cal. to see friends, help babysit our niece and nephews, and go to Magic Mountain THREE DAYS IN A ROW. We also visited Hollywood and the La Brea Tar Pits while celebrating Rob's 27th birthday and our 5th anniversary.

If you made it this far, congratulations. It has been such a fun summer, but I'm getting really excited thinking about fall! Fara's 1st birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas... life is really really good!