Where has the summer gone?

Where has the summer gone? I can hardly believe that August is already half over! The summer has been keeping Reuben and I pretty busy. I have included some picture highlights below:

Reuben and I celebrated our 1st year anniversary in Hood River. We rode the Hood River Railroad and also a Stern wheeler on the Columbia River. We stayed at a lovely B&B that had wonderful accommodations.




We had a wonderful time celebrating the 4th of July with family and friends at the Lake again this year. I always enjoy the festivities that this holiday brings. We couldn't have had better weather and the firework show was beautiful as always.



Teresa, Mom, and I enjoyed the Cowlitz Co Fair country concert this year. It was Jo Dee Menseena and the music was awesome! I have attended several of these concerts in the past and am always pleased. Mom, Teresa, and I also were surprised to find out that we had all gotten blue ribbons on our quilts that we had submitted to the fair!



Last weekend Reuben and I went to visit some friends in Bend, OR. We had lovely weather and a great visit with the Freed's! We hope to be able to do it again in the not too distant future. It was a long car drive, but well worth the trip :)


Anyway, that is kinda a look at what we have been up to these last few months. It seems like every weekend fills up fast! We are enjoying good times with good people though, that is what counts. :)

I have seen a few other blogs do this, so I thought I would do it as well...

Seen It

We have kinda been watching a lot of family friendly movies lately. :) I am not sure why, I think they just all came out recently and since we didn't see them in theaters we added them to our netflix list. All these movies were really cute and worth watching.

Tangled

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Night at the Museum 2

Heard It

Terri Clark Concert

On Wednesday Andrea and I went to see the Terri Clark concert put on by the local KUKN country station. It is part of their concert series they have been doing where they bring country artists to town and do a more intimate unplugged concert without a big band and everything. It was a lot of fun. Terri Clark was probably one of my favorites of these concerts I have been to. The concert was at The Columbia Theatre, so it was a great atmosphere as well. I always look forward to these concerts...and best yet they are very affordable at only $15 a ticket! :)

Read It

Solomon's Oak by Jo-Ann Mapson
I really enjoyed reading this book. It is about a troubled teen and her foster Mom. It bounces between a few character's perspectives, but is still easy to follow. I thought this book was worth the read.

Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks
I know that not everyone is a Nicholas Sparks fan, but I thought this book was better than some of his others. I found it to be a quick easy read and an enjoyable story. Plus unlike some of his other books this one actually had a happy ending. :)


Did It


Bought a new freezer
Reuben and I finally got around to purchasing a chest freezer! This will allow us to buy more items in bulk and take better advantage of sales that happen. We put it on our back deck and as you can see we are already working on filling it up!





Hung up pictures
We also finally got around to hanging up pictures in our house. It was quite the project to decide which pictures to use and what frames to put up where, but I think the final result looks great! It definitely feels more homey now. :)

The Amazing Kidnerellis! - World Kidney Day

Today is World Kidney Day...so, here is a little video I thought I would share.

Eat, Pray, Love

I saw this movie last week with Teresa, Rikki, and Kristen. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought it would. I am not sure if I would really recommend it to everyone since it is a somewhat tragic story of a girl who has a mid-life crisis and goes looking for God in all the wrong places....however it does have some truths that I thought I would share:

"You're going to have to learn to select your thoughts the same way you select your clothes every day. Now that's a power that you can cultivate. You want to come here and you want to control your life so bad work on the mind, and I don't think you should be trying to control a thing because if you can't master your thoughts you are in trouble forever."

This one is sooo close...and yet so far:
"So the holy truth of the whole adventure here in India, is in one line: "God dwells within you...as you." God's not interested in watching a performance of how a spiritual person looks and behaves. The quiet girl who glides silently through the place with a gentle, ethereal smile...who is that person? It's Ingrid Bergman in "The Bells of St. Mary's" – not me. God dwells within me...as me."

"Having a baby is like having a tattoo on your face. You kind of want to be committed."

"Do not look at the world through your head; look at it through your heart."