Summer Update

Life has been a little busy around here lately so there is lots to blog about. Here is a quick overview of what's been happening here.
Friends arriving out of the blue! A wonderful childhood friend flew all the way from Australia to surprise me for my birthday.



This was aided and abetted by all these terrific people I call neighbors AND friends . They were all so good at keeping her arrival a secret that I think they may have had some kind of CIA spy training at some point in their lives!



In the midst of all this excitement I turned 40. So far it feels a lot like 39 so I'm not sure what all the fuss is about.



And I was spoiled by some of my Aussie girlfriends who sent me some gorgeous jewelry! A beautiful necklace..( you can see on me here)...and earrings (which I am wearing too but are covered up by my low key hat).



This lingerie item that I am displaying was a gift from my ever thoughtful husband!



My friend Dana also turned 40...she is certainly aging a lot more gracefully than I am!



On the home front...the renos are nearly finished.



We won't be ready for the start of the school year...{boohoo}...but hopefully it will only take a week or 2 to finish off.



We undertook our annual pilgrimage to the local themepark where the kids spent the day enjoying the rides...



This one completely cracks me up!



And of course football season has started....



and so has soccer....



So that brings you up to date...phew!
I feel like I have a bit of a blog sweat up :-)

MM

This macro comes with a few extras. On Sunday we took a trip up to Green Bluff, a local farming community to pick peaches. These peaches were so juicy it was hard to stop at one...so we ended up bringing home 40 lbs of them...the bottling and freezing will have to start tomorrow!

A Birthday, A Bike Ride and a Bonus

Yes...Monday was a busy day. And so I had no Macro Monday post but I have a good excuse.
It was Matt's birthday yesterday.....and not just ANY birthday. He turned 40. The big 4 - 0.
Anyone who knows me well will tell you I am not a very good birthday shopper and I had been wracking my brains for weeks trying to think of what to get him. Anything that he really wants he just goes ahead and buys for himself and so there was nothing that I could think of that he either needed or wanted.



Now I'm not the melancholy sort but it did strike me that as we get older there is one thing that really is priceless and whether we like to admit it or not is in a diminishing supply....TIME. Time with our spouse, our children, our family, our friends. So Matt and I agreed that for this year no fancy presents...making the most of our time together was the best gift we could give each other.



With that in mind we headed off yesterday on a bit of a bicycling adventure. We drove across to the Idaho/ Montana border and took on the Hiawatha Trail. It was an old railway line that has been coverted to a beautifully scenic bike trail.

The scenery was just breathtaking!





We covered about 14.5 miles of the trail. Across old railway bridges and through plenty of long, dark tunnels. And when I say dark I mean pitch black. You can't see your hand in front of your face when you are inside the tunnels so a bike light for each of us was a necessity. Inside the tunnels it was surprisingly cold...and more than a little creepy. All darkness, bare rock walls and the sound of running, dripping water. Still it provided plenty of incentive to pedal like crazy to get through to the other side!





We were lucky enough to see a moose and her baby grazing..( sorry no pics of that), but we did meet these cute little chipmunks who were looking to share some of the oreos the kids were eating.




If you look closely to the top right in that picture above you will see one of the old railway bridges we crossed...just spectacular!



And so that was the birthday and the bike ride....and now for the bonus....for me that is.
I feel very honored to have a received an award from 2 blogging friends...Michelle and Elizabeth. Thank you both so much. I always enjoy visiting your blogs and I'm sure other visitors to my corner of the blogosphere will enjoy a visit there too! Thanks again guys :-)

MM

Another Macro Monday post.
My neighbor's blackberry bush.
Just starting to ripen.
Black.
Tasty.
Delicious.