life...Life...LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok folks,
I don't even know where to begin. Honestly. So much has happened, so much I have wanted to post about...but just haven't.
so....I guess I will just start from the beginning of the summer.

For finals week, we had my friend ashley williams fly out to help us watch the kids while I studied and aaron worked. I studied a lot...but I also think we had a really fun time too (wouldn't you agree ash?....hahaha, I'm not sure she would, she was the one watching our crazy kids:O)
On the last day of school and right after my very last final of my first quarter of nursing school....
we jumped into the car and headed to a salon. I CHOPPED MY HAIR OFF, and DYED IT TOO!!!! I'm not sure I was in my right mind as I had just had a miserable week of trying to study for finals....
BUT...
Ashley did a great job in "attempting" to make my hair look "cute" after we returned home. It looked great while she was here, but since she has left, I have done my hair ONCE (and she left at the end of june). I am bad when it comes to hair, I just never find the time to do it like I should...OH WELL, haha:O)
But thanks Ashley for such a great time....It really was fun to have you here; and thanks for putting up with "kipper", it has since been BANNED from ever being watched, so you would be pleased:O)

I also went to visit my other dear friend Ashley Brown/jackson (oliver very lovingly calls her "brown-ashley"....very cute :O). She was/is living in a near by city for the summer, so the kids and I went to stay for a night with her and had a really great time. I love reuniting with high school friends, they really are so special, and could never be replaced:O).

In the middle of july we went to Leavenworth, Washington....
Oh my gosh, this is honestly my very most favorite place to go on vacation (so far:O). Every summer we go, and each summer it gets better and better. I love it there...love it.
Aaron's mom and brother and sister along with their families were all able to meet up there ( along with many of their cousins...) We had a great time spending time together. We slept outside for a couple of nights, played badminton, picked huckleberries, and cherries, made cobblers, and huckleberry syrup for breakfast, made dough-nuts, floated and swam down the icicle river, skipped rocks, soaked up the hot sun, the boys went fishing (oliver caught 4 fish), we went shopping (I finally bought something from the fun Leavenworth shops), visited the HAT shop, got ice cream, went for several EARLY morning LLLLONG runs, debbie and I explored lots of new places to run...one of which took us "almost" to the top of a mountain where we had the most BEAUTIFUL view....man, that was a VERY memorable run...between the view, the intensity of the run (in other words I almost killed over), and "the bear scares"....It was very memorable indeed!
We go to Leavenworth because that is where Aaron's grandmother lives. However when we went this summer she was in a nursing facility, so we were able to visit her there. It was sad to see her in there, and it seemed pretty clear that she was ready to be with her husband....
she died last week, and we are so sad that she's gone, but even more happy that she is with her husband and other family members, and at peace on the other side. We love you and miss you grandma blanchard...
Thanks to the Katz family for such a great trip to Leavenworth this year. It was a very memorable trip; Aaron's mom broke her back while we were there (and I won't go into detail on how it happened because if it weren't for us...she wouldn't have broke her back...and I feel really bad about it).
But...she says it is getting better, and I hope and pray she will recover FULLY, very soon.

After Leavenworth, we had a lot of BIG IDEAS....we are so tired of living in such a busy place. We dreamt of moving to Oregon or Washington and living on an Orchard where we would grow lots of delicious fruits...and also have a garden full of yummy vegetables.....a home with LOTS of land for the kids to run FREE on.
We really hope one day our "DREAM" will come true...

We've done a lot of camping and it has been A BLAST! I am very happy about that because I remember the summers being FILLED with camp outs with my grandma and grandpa martin.....I've missed it a lot, and this summer it just worked out so perfectly to go out a lot...
Oliver loves it so much, and I love seeing him so happy.

We've spent a LOT of time with our Stanford friends this summer. We picked up and moved so fast last spring that we didn't get a good chance to tell them goodbye, or even hang out with them while I was in school...it was just so CRAZY.
We realized how much we missed them and how lonely we feel here...so we go back to campus A LOT and visit. IT'S THE BEST!!!! Thanks for being there you guys, and for loving us even though we kind of dropped off the face of the earth for quite some time:O)

I just did a triathlon with a few of my friends.....IT WAS AMAZING! I loved every second of it...even though it was REALLY REALLY HARD! I cannot believe I've been missing out on such a fun EVENT! I hope to do many more...it was one of the FUNNEST things I have done in a long time. It was so different too than anything I have ever done before...so...it was just amazing...end of story.
ps... It was a sprint triathlon and consisted of a: 400 meter swim, 11 mile bike ride and a 3 mile run.....it doesn't sound hard, but come on....you try it and tell me if you think it's a "piece of cake" :O). I about killed over, but man...I will do it a hundred times over, the adrenaline you get from doing it is incredible....

and now....
we're just hanging out. I've had a lot of fun hanging out with the kids this summer. We've done a TON TON TON of swimming because there is a pool here at our new place (community pool). Oliver is a FISH. HE LOVES TO SWIM SO MUCH!!!! He'll go under water for a long time and just hang out there and swim (try to swim)...he doesn't swim great, but he can do it, and is getting better and better.
Eliza is the cutest thing you ever did see...honestly, she is just so cute (sure, I know I'm bias:O)...
none the less, she is darling, and just so funny. Her and oliver love to play together and will go quite some time playing a game together (just silly games that they make up:O), without fighting at all....just lovingly playing. It is very sweet, and I couldn't ask for more.

Well... I hope to post pictures tomorrow. There are so many, so I'm not sure how to get them all up...but I will do my best.

Have a great night everybody~
SLY