Mushrooms and razor clams

Katherine and John and the girls joined us up at Eric's Parent's place for a weekend of playing on the beach and digging clams.  It was a ton of fun.  Also, group naps

Chanterelles have been amazing this year.  Here is my harvest from one solitary hour of picking.  and I left behind most of what I found.  

September house

I took most of these pictures so we could figure out where lights needed to go, but they are pretty so I thought I would post them

Looking from the living room into the dining room

 Dining room into the living room

 Down from the office into the living room

 Master bedroom

 Stairs.  You would never believe it looking at this, but those silly glass panels have been redone 5-6 times due to cutting them wrong.  These aren't even the final ones.  templates anyone?

 Finally, my table.  Putting epoxy on has been a disaster and needs to be redone.  ugh.  But you can see how pretty the colors turned out.  

Evil is beautiful

Purple Loosestrife in Milwaukie

Summer of the fleas

This summer has been difficult for many reasons, but I think the crowning joy was the fleas.  Two winters without a good freeze, a neighborhood full of stray cats, and a tiny house filled with 3 cats of our own and a dog = fleas fleas fleas.

Every time we left this summer, for a weekend or longer (and we left a lot), we came home to a house full of fleas.  So bad that your socks would be covered in seconds.  This is after having everyone on the flea drops, spraying the house (I hated to do it), vacuuming every time we could, flea shampooing everyone (not a happy day for anyone)...

When this wasn't working, we flea bombed, twice (I really hated to do that).  It usually went like this.  We get home in the evening from a trip, the house is full of fleas.  We bundle all the cats into the garage, which is of course ludicrously full of junk for the move (someday), set up the tent in the garden, and bomb the house.  In the morning, air everything out, bundle everyone back in and take off for the next destination.  

To come home and do it again.

Poor Gus and Mirabel had horrible reactions to the fleas too and we lived for over a month with kitty 'flowers'

Let's just say it wasn't fun

August progress

Fun things happening at the house

Lights are starting to go up

 Cabinets are getting further along

 This will eventually be the headboard for our bed.  It was a painful process to get the bark off all those little nubs.

 Hall closet has doors!

 The bedroom you will stay in when you visit.

 Master bath with the prettiest countertop ever.  Its recycled sky vodka bottles.

 This was ten foot high weeds and I couldn't take it any more.  That will someday be a lawn.

 Patios

 From the lake

Summer with the girls

One of the best parts of this summer is the time I got to spend with Bella and Ali.  They were mine every thursday I was in town (which admittedly wasn't a lot).  It was so much fun hanging out with them.

Shari's wedding

Next stop on the trip was to see Shari and Tom get married.  Shari was one of my favorite people from Davis and it was so much fun to see her on her big day.  

Shari's dad was adorable.  And the wedding favor was mulberry jam from her parents farm.  Oh yum!

I'm so glad we could fit in the trip down.

Christoph!

In San Diego, before Shari's wedding, we were able to meet up with my old roommate Christopher.  And he has a new baby!  

Meet Oscar.  Such a fun little man

Chris is such an amazing Dad and I finally go tot meet Cecile!  Of course I don't have a picture because I had too much fun chatting with her.  They are such a fun family and I seriously hope we get to spend more time together.

I miss my Christoph!

Erik!

After Grandma, it was down to Three Rivers to see my old friend Erik.  It was so much fun to catch up with him and see the amazing spot they have to live.  they live up at the base of a canyon.  Erik is working at Sequoia National Park.  We didn't get to hand out with his new wife Monica because she was at a conference, but man was it fun to see him.

Erik adopted a new dog and she is the most adorable bundle of love.

Isn't that a magical view?

Noble Creek Trail

From emily's wedding we headed to Grandmas place, but she was actually staying with friends in a cabin up the mountain.  So, we used it as a stopover and went hiking up the noble creek trail.  There was a fire on the next pass and it was very unnerving to hike with all that smoke.

This picture actually looks clear, not sure how I managed that.

You probably need to blow this one up to appreciate it

I will miss this place once Grandma moves to Portland.  though, it will be totally worth it to have her close

Rin hates his picture being taken, but oh well

Finally, one of my favorite things about the drive to Arnold.  You get to see this on Moran Road on the way to Grandma's.  I've always loved it.