Summer Days, Drifting Away

I sort of feel depressed as August draws to a close. Last night I noticed that it was dark by 8:30. I hate when summer ends. Well, at least we don't have the definitive end to the season by the start of the schoolyear! (At least not until The Buddy starts school several years down the road.) I am still trying to let it all linger...

Here are some pictures from our latest summer fun.

We recently hiked up to Donut Falls with our friends Christian and Suzanne and their little boy Benton, who is only a few weeks younger than Jared. It was a fun little excursion.

Up at the top of the hike


Alan and Christian climbing up to the top of the "donut" part of the falls
(Christian is right in the middle of the photo and Alan is on the right)

The Buddy liked to put his chubby fingers in the river

Alan's sisters hosted a swimming party at their complex's swimming pool. It was Jared's first time swimming (I know, long overdue.) Jared seemed to hate the water at first, but then he enjoyed splashing and splashing everyone! It was so much fun.

Jared and his Daddy

Jared and Aunt Rachel
(I love this picture because some of our siblings are about
to launch Alan up in the air in the background!)

Birthday Clubs

So...

Since my birthday is coming up soon, I am now starting to take advantage of something I never had before: birthday clubs!! About 10 months ago, a friend of mine told me how she and her husband joined the birthday club for a whole bunch of restaurants and then spent the week before their birthdays reaping the rewards--free food and desserts! I had never heard of such a thing before; I felt so deprived! So, I spent an hour of my life signing me and Alan up for as many birthday clubs I could find. I will share them with you so hopefully you can enjoy them as well!

Coldstone-- free ice cream creation
Baskin Robbins-- free single-scoop cone
Red Robin-- free birthday burger
Tucanos-- free dinner with someone else purchasing a dinner
Arbys-- (I'm not sure yet, but they do give something free)

Also, I just found out (too late) that Albertson's makes free birthday cakes for one-year-olds. Why don't I ever know about these things? :)

Are there any that you know of that I am missing? I am all about free stuff.

The Missing Billy

Ashley (the pregnant Billy) and me

I just realized I forgot to post about a fun get-together we had with my three former roommates, the Billies. (To read more about the Billies, click here.) This actually happened a while ago, but a few of my blog viewers will appreciate this.

Ashley came in from out of state for a weekend visit. We got together as former roommates with our husbands and children for a delicious dinner and some good times. We are excited to see Ashley's new baby when she comes out again in September!

Caroline, me, Ashley, Ann-Marie

I wouldn't trade the current life that I have, but being with them again for the first time in two years made me miss all of the memories we had together. I love you guys!

Yellowstone!

Midway Geyser Basin
This is actually only about half of our entire group!

We just got back from a wonderful vacation with my (Jenny's) entire family to Yellowstone! We stayed in a spacious cabin and spent several wonderful days in the Park. To avoid a lengthy travel log, I will just share some of the highlights with a few pictures.

Old Faithful

Artist Point at Lower Falls

Cool picture taken by Alan at Upper Falls

Grand Prismatic Pool at Midway Geyser Basin
This was my favorite place! Can you see the rainbow?

One evening we celebrated my dad's retirement from work.
We are so excited for him!

Walking around at Old Faithful Geyser Basin

Morning Glory Pool

Hayden Valley

Tukered out on the ride home.
Jared was an angel for most of the trip!

Bonk

Here is just a sampling of one of Jared's newest games. It is called "Bonk." He will bonk his head just about anywhere! We are trying to teach him to bonk on soft things like couches and pillows.

Madrigal Reunion

A few days ago I got together with some friends that sang in our high school Madrigal Choir. (I could spend forever on my blog describing some of my memories and trying to convey the importance and significance this choir was to me, but I will save that for my closest friends.) We had a lovely barbecue, watched a slide show of pictures from high school, and then sang a few of our old songs. It was super fun! We had about half of the members of the choir there, and some of them I hadn't seen since high school! Wow.

I didn't get any great pictures, so I stole these from Amanda's blog.

Mads present (skipping spouses): Andrea, Robbie, Christian, Jenny, Nate, Jake, Val, Anthony, Crystal, Amanda S, Ashley, Amanda G (did I miss anyone?)

singing

watching our video

We all forgot to pose as a group for a picture (doh!!), but here are a couple of videos of us singing. We didn't sound too bad, at least on a few of the songs! I hope that my madrigal friends that couldn't make it find these amusing...

Lonesome Road (not too bad)

Short People (not too good)

I also have a CD of our three songs that we sang at the Festival of Gold (courtesy of Ben). I am working on posting those online so that all will have access to them. Thanks for coming, everyone!