Month: July 2022

To celebrate Independence Day today, we headed downtown to the annual Fourth of July parade.

It wasn’t the most impressive parade I’ve seen, but it was still a good time. After the last classic car and Congressional candidate had passed us, we headed over to our friend George’s office for a barbeque. There were probably thirty people there, none of whom we knew (other than George, of course). Still, they were friendly and energetic and we had fun. Happy Fourth!

During Mom and Dad’s visit, there were a couple of beautiful summer nights where the stars shone in all their brilliance. The moon was new, so once the sun had (finally) set, after a while everything went to black. I snapped a few photos.

Here the Big Dipper almost gets lost in all the other stars. The lights on the horizon are what’s left of daylight (at eight minutes after midnight!) with some of the glow of Kalispell far to the north.

And here’s our house, with the Milky Way spanning the sky overhead.

This sort of view makes me feel very, very small.

Although we couldn’t attend the wedding of our friend Courtney (who I’ve known since she was a little girl), I saw this photo from her wedding. What a great shot of her and her dad. Congratulations, Court!

After an aborted visit last summer (I’m looking at you, covid), we had another chance to hang out with Mom and Dad in Montana. They’d been visiting Thom and Katie for a few days, and the whole troupe drove east to be with us. We had a fabulous time, although I didn’t take as many photos as I probably should have.

On our first evening together we all enjoyed the late sunset. Here’s Julian at a little after 9:30 at night!

Sefton was learning to spell words, and I guess Hadley wanted to get a head start on her education as well.

The next day we hit the water. It was a beautiful sunny day, and as it turned out, the hottest day of their visit. Good timing.

Mom and Dad hadn’t been on jet skis before, so of course they called dibs on the first ride.

Mom sure doesn’t drive like a grandma! (Err, great-grandma) She had a blast zipping over the waves, and was quickly very comfortable with some speed and turns. Katie and Sefton took their first ride as well. Can you tell Sefton was excited?

Meanwhile, I was on shore with Hadley. She was still a little weirded out by an uncle she doesn’t quite remember.

Although Thom claimed to be a little wary of the water, it was only a little while later that he was cruising at 40mph on the lake…

The weather was amazing, but the water temperature was still around 50 degrees (maybe 55 on the surface during the heat of the day?). I seem to remember the water being warmer in late June in past years, but oh well. We just made sure not to fall in too often.

Naturally we had the kayaks and paddleboards out as well, and everyone took turns exploring the bay. Here’s Thom pretending to fall off (?) as Sefton laughs at his strange dad.

We were treated to some gorgeous sunsets, and as tradition dictates, I had to snap a few photos of them.

On their last night here, Sefton declared to everyone that it would probably be a good idea to have a “sunset jet ski ride”. It’s hard to argue with a five-year-old who’s fallen in love with jet skiing, so we loaded up and went out. The sunset and clouds were beautiful.

After dark fell and the bay was closed to visitors, Sefton decided we all needed some ice cream. He even drew a sign declaring the “ice cream shop open”, and helped dish up a few bowls of the good stuff.

Thom and Katie and their kids packed up and went back to Wenatchee, but Dad, Mom, and Julian stayed a few more days. We decided to hike Holland Lake on another picture-perfect day.

The view from the top was amazing, as always.

The days went by too fast, it seemed, and it was time for them to head back home. Another family get-together for the books!