5 on Friday: happy

Just five random things that have been making me happy this summer...

1. My peonies. They're done blooming now but were gorgeous a couple weeks ago. I have such fond memories of cutting peonies with my parents for Memorial Day arrangements. 

2. This driftwood suncatcher I made. So...one of the things Nathan requested after his grandparents died was a giant driftwood collection that had been arranged on a big board and hung inside and outside their house for years. When Nathan's parents drove out last year for Noah's graduation, they brought it with them. And then it sat in the basement and took up a decent amount of space. ;) After some discussion, Nathan removed all the pieces from the board and we stored them in a big tub until we could figure out what to do with them.

Seemingly unrelatedly, I have some fun snowflake suncatchers that I put in/on the kitchen window every Christmas. I love how they cast rainbows around the kitchen and am always a little sad to put them away after the holidays. 

These two things came together when I decided to use some of the pieces of driftwood with a prism. We made one for us and one for Nathan's parents...excellent (and smaller, lol) momentoes of the large driftwood piece and fun suncatchers. And now I have rainbows year round...yay!

3. These women. Every so often, as time and schedules allow, a group of us tries to get together. These are women I began our homeschooling journey with (this picture is a subset of all of us...those of us who were able to make it to happy hour last month, lol). We've been through many years and curricula and transitions...and, though our kids may be taking different paths these days, we remain a tribe. And I am thankful and blessed to call them friends.

4. Letters like these. I was sorting through boxes in the basement recently and found a stash of letters. Among them, I found a collection of notes written by my mom and three youngest siblings...notes mailed to me while I was at college. (By the way, they sent me a LOT of letters. I feel kind of bad that we don't send more mail to Noah when he's at college. Then again, it's so much quicker to text, lol. Still. I'm so thankful for the sheer volume of correspondence when I went away.)

This is a sample of the letters from my youngest sister (who was almost 9 when I left for college). It cracks me up.

5. Getting rid of stuff. I was going through the boxes in preparation for our neighborhood garage sale last weekend. I actually went through much of the house and purged a lot of stuff back in February and felt I was doing pretty good. When the neighborhood announced their garage sale, I figured "why not?" (and thought it would be good incentive to get Nathan and the boys to do some sorting) but didn't expect to have too much to sell. But we did end up selling a good lot of stuff and promptly took the leftovers to Goodwill rather than bringing it back in the house. Yay! (Plus, it was a good excuse to visit with a number of our neighbors and even meet a few new ones!)

And those are some of the things making me happy this summer...hope yours is happy, too!

Seventeen

Happy July! And that means it's time to wish my sweet Asher a very happy birthday! He's seventeen today. He's also at work, so we took pictures yesterday...and here are seventeen faces I got when I asked Asher to let me take a picture...(I honestly was only looking to get one decent picture but the boy gave me so many faces I had to include 17 of them here, lol)...

Seriously...all of these faces actually do represent my Asher. :) Such a great guy...loved his trip to Costa Rica earlier this summer (still working on getting those pictures organized to share--but soon!), working hard at his summer internship, getting ready for his junior year at CEC (he'll be switching to full time and will have four college classes this fall), and currently training for his second degree black belt (testing week is soon!). In his limited down time right now, he enjoys computer games, YouTube videos and continuing with parkour, karate and demo team. Yup. He's a busy guy!

And here are the obligatory height comparisons. Sorry. I'm too lazy to make new groupings including this year's pictures so am just adding the current photo after last year's...

Yup, growing up. Happy sigh. ;) 

We went out to a celebratory lunch yesterday and will have a cookie cake and a few gifts later tonight. Happy birthday, Asher!

Father's Day

I'm a day late (was busy actually celebrating it yesterday) but wanted to wish a very happy Father's Day to the dads in my life...

Here's me with my dad when I was one or two:

And here's probably the first picture I have of me and my father-in-law (before he was my father-in-law, obviously, as this is my high school graduation...honestly, I'd forgotten we took this picture but was delighted to find it at my mom's house earlier this year):

And, of course, a happy Father's Day to my fabulous husband! Our father/sons mini golf tradition seems to have gone by the wayside sadly but we still managed to have a great time yesterday. First, we went to see the new Men In Black movie...then to lunch up in Old Town...then rock climbing:

...before heading home for some family Netflix binging, hammock time for Nathan, and a yummy dinner before getting ready for the coming week. 

Big thanks, to all you dads, for everything you do and for the example you set!! So blessed to have these three in my life. :)

Happy sigh

Many thanks to those of you who wished me a happy birthday on Friday! I had a wonderful birthday...Micah made me a fabulous lunch, Noah got me some of my favorite snacks, and Asher sent this picture from Costa Rica:

(He sounds like he's having a terrific adventure and loving the experience...can't wait to hear more when he gets home.)

Beyond all that, Nathan took me out for dinner:

We tried out The Cache up in Old Town and loved it...we even met the actual Ginger of Ginger & Baker while we were there. 

After that, we wandered Old Town...partly enjoying the First Friday Art Walk and partly just popping into random stores to look around. We ended at The Coppermuse with cocktails and bacon wrapped dates before heading to the AirBNB Nathan reserved for a night away from boys. 

In the morning, we enjoyed brunch at the Silver Grill Cafe (I tried a new dish and got to have a mimosa with my meal) and did a little more shopping before heading home to pick up boys. We all ventured back up to Old Town to go to the Taste of Fort Collins, where we ate yummy food and walked through the many booths. It was a gorgeous (and delicious!) afternoon:

And then we returned home for a lazy evening...a lovely ending to a beautiful day. :)

Today was back to regular chores and such, but I also got to go climbing some with Micah. He and I both think I might be getting better, lol. 

All in all, a fabulous way to usher in a new year!

And he's off!

Yesterday morning, my Asher left for Costa Rica! He, seven fellow students and two chaperones/teachers met up to take the shuttle to the airport. Before we got in the car, though, I made him take a picture with me... :)

...and with Nathan...

...and then at the shuttle stop, I got a picture of him and his friend. These two have known each other and been on the Karate West demo team together for years before ending up at the same high school. So very happy that they'll get to have this adventure together!

And here's a picture of the whole traveling group...

Asher's been keeping in touch as he's been traveling...they arrived successfully in Costa Rica, had a bit of a hiccup at the airport (a fellow student's passport ended up in a checked bag that apparently was misplaced for awhile), and got to the hotel late last night.

Here's hoping the next eight days are fabulous! (and that he remembers to take some pictures!)