Despite the extra hours of daylight, it somehow feels like time actually accelerates in Seattle during the summer. My stomach does a sad little flip with each page-turn of the calendar. I mean, it’s already August! AUGUST! Where did July go? (Turns out, in looking back through my photo stream, I can tell you exactly where it went…)
The Fourth of July was spent at Rattlesnake Lake, shivering a bit in the morning breeze and then eventually letting the sun lure us into the water.
The winds out in the middle of the lake were pretty intense, causing Jack to take an unexpected dip in the water.
And this posse started out with toe-dips but was soaked by the time we left.
Seriously, our Lake Love runs deep.
Back at home, we brought out the sparklers and smoke bombs with the neighbors.
Ah, this age where excitement is found in the simplest of pleasures!
The other neighbor kids came and knocked on our door after dinner and asked if we wanted to watch their fireworks show – we walked over to find an arsenal of Ground Blooms and Fountains and Bottle Rockets on the sidewalk while one of the dads stood by with a blow torch. The next hour was a barrage of booms and fizzles and children squealing, “Light this one, Daddy! Light this one!”.
Golly, I love our street.
A couple of days later, Juliette and I headed to Remlinger Farms for our annual berry-picking pilgrimage. Jules got right to work, popping huge red raspberries into her bucket (and her mouth).
Six pounds later, we were done.
(And quite proud of ourselves.)
The three of us hit up Lake Washington Boulevard a couple of times last month for bicycle Sundays – Juliette continues to be a little champ on two wheels.
And Friend-Fridays! They’ve been extra-good lately. We spent one sunny morning with N and LaV at Gene Coulon Park, trying (and failing) to catch minnows in buckets.
Last Friday we went to Henry Moses Aquatic Center for some legit summer swimming, and these two little fishes had the time of their lives.
We’ve been doing the splash park circuit on the weekends, meeting up with friends to romp at Jefferson Park and Georgetown Playfield.
And ’tis the season for baseball! The three of us took in a Mariners game with my co-workers at my office’s summer picnic.
Juliette was really into it for about half an inning, but lost interest when she found out the Giants weren’t playing (I get it, kiddo).
But, the Giants were playing at Safeco a week later, so we played hooky with the Chens on a Wednesday afternoon to cheer on our boys.
Sadly, the Giants lost, but at least there were no gloating Mariners fans in our midst as we were surrounded by orange and black.
La Verne asked us last weekend if we were interested in tagging along with them to the Seattle Chamber Music performance at Volunteer Park, so we packed our cooler with wine and watermelon and joined them for a perfect evening of classical music.
…and contemporary art!
And now, it’s August. The last full month of summer. May it be chock-full of warmth, water, and more simple wonders.