Infinite July - The Forever Month

Damn July! That happened. It was a real summer kind of vibe. 

Given our predicted and ubiquitous approaching smoke and heat bomb, I'd actually like to vote to just relive July in place of August, thanks. 

It was a good one. 

We discovered bathtubs of shaved ice:

When there are soccer games at Starfire (where Allan has soccer lessons), there's a shaved ice truck. Allan noticed it while playing on the playground after her class. She tried to communicate her desire for said shaved ice by making slurping noises and saying she was very sad but she was "too scared" to tell me what she wanted. It only took me about an hour to sort out what she had actually wanted. Then the next weekend we couldn't get it because she skipped soccer to hang with her grandma. THEN the truck wasn't there the weekend after. Mommy hooked it up with a very detailed facebook search and we found Patrick's somethingorother Cafe. Hawaiian food and buckets of shaved ice. 

Not. Bad.  

Needless to say they both ate about enough to put a lid on their giant bucket and then try a little more of it for dessert that night. The rest was pretty unsalvageable so I committed the primal sin of throwing them out. Needless to say, Allan remembered the shaved ice a few nights later and was bereft for days until I promised they could get some when they got back from their trip to Tahoe (more on that later)

We also had our first summer visitors. Of course they came to the beach with us. And somebody had to get in the water. 

Maggie and Angele, the uberaunties! After missing them last summer!

 Of course they brought us gifts from the Chihuly Museum and the like. And were generally awesome. 

Allan got to see lots of dead sea life (just after the heatwave and all the jellies were beached and dead, but we also did a number of irreverant puppetry with an abandoned crabshell)

And get some serious swinging in. 

It was a really nice visit. 

Oh and the garbage truck still came at its usual Thursday time all month long! Parade time!!!

Yeah too much happened so it's just gonna be kind of a photo essay with a quick little recap of stuff. 

Andrew and Allan rediverted their initial Tahoe trip to someplace not surrounded by forest fires.It sounded rad. There was a zoo. A train. And a hike. And so on and so forth. 

 Meanwhile I had the sheer delight of hosting our very first house guest!

Fidel!!!! Like my favorite person ever. He has family in Burien (so basically Seattle) and in Oregon, so we got to squeeze in a few days together between visits. And boy were they great days. 

Best house guest ever. He ate all my creative food experiments (right up until he got sick with something stomach related... I swear I didn't do it, I swear!!). 

He cleaned our house... 

The cleanliness was incredible. Not only was the tiny little human gone, so things stayed where they were put, but the cat was also gone. Since I am delightfully allergic to her (and this really infringes on my affection and snuggles for her), I suggested she get a vacation too. She went off to a house with a few other cats and a nice catsitter. And I vaccuumed the crap out of the house after her departure.

 I didn't break out in hives all week. I mostly could breathe. Other people in the household weren't covered in her fur, so I could be around them as well. I slept pretty well since my sleep mate who is also allergic to the cat and mostly manifests it by snoring and sniffling all night next to me in bed was not present.. And I could walk through a room without inhaling cat hair AND sit on furniture with my bare skin! The sweet life. I gotta get on these darned allergy shots. 

So... pretty sweet little treat all in all. 

It was so nice to be able to just be. No schedules. No particular anywhere to go. Just "what random thing should we do next?" A lot of impulse wandering and impulse cooking (and cleaning of course). I'm way more relaxed and spontaneous a person than the family could ever imagine. Something about getting stuck in mom mode and then constantly having to be on the alert for various triggers and allergies and then... and then your coparent and the like kind of start to sees you as definitionally hypervigilant and structured, so you just become more and more that way as a reflection of those around you and eventually... well getting a little stretch out for the full personality is a nice thing is all. 

Also Fidel and his familys have always been so flipping hospitable to me, it was really nice to finally get the chance to be the hostess and do (a little of) the pampering. I mean, some  people really really enjoy cleaning other people's houses? 

The house is a disaster again, but it was so pretty for a couple days!

Here's a fish that is about to become a dragon. Hanging out at the Chinese somethingorother at the Arboretum. 

Carving a little something in a gazebo. Nothing like "Daniel" who apparenly thinks very well of himself and carries a pocket knife. 

After missing the Alki Lighthouse (which was closed anyways), we found The Alki Flower House. Certified Wildlife Habitat. And really cool. But hard to photograph it turns out. So here's us smiling in front of some flowers.

Insane East Coaster thinks jumping in the icy waters is a good idea. Somebody always has to go in the water at the beach after all!

I told him to give me his best awkward pose.

We even took the water taxi into Seattle Proper to go to See's and buy some very delicious Mall Candy (long story, but tell me I'm wrong)

To round out the experience, we drove to Federal Way and got him a rapid covid test of course. It's what you do in these times!

Anyways, the family came back and we got them with happily negative covid results to share!

 Allan tried hard to take us all to get buckets of shaved ice, but Patrick's was closed, so we had to make do with ice cream at a nearby White Center place called Full Tilt. 

Andrew and Fidel went out mountain biking, because who doesn't want to do that when they're feeling sick? But it turned out well, and Fidel got off on the train intact.

  It was a good little weekend. Yeah that was all a weekend. 

And now it's really and truly August. Which... well like i said, I'd trade in July for August any day. We actually are having a really nice break right now, but both smoke and heat are predicted for the next week. Last year, mid August through September was just all smoke, so I'm not holding my breath (maybe I should though?)

But in the defense of August (should we be allowed outside at all for the rest of the month), it is also a pretty hopping time. My sister and her family will be out visiting this week.

The wee one will be turning 6! Holy crap! Six! And she has some actually in person summer camps still going on. A little unsettling with the new delta scare, since they're pretty lax about risk reduction measurements, but so big to have her comfortably interacting with other kids. But it'll all be good. 

I'll be turning 39 and thinking I'm already 39 so I'm obviously turning 40. I may celebrate my 42nd or 43rd just for good measure. A few other birthday parties. And whatever smoke wants to come our way. 

 And a million bajillion craft boxes because that's what we asked for from everyone for Allan's birthday this year. The first two already arrived. One was straight up begging for an engineering degree. But the second one was something I could handle. Mostly! Can't wait for the rest!

August... yeah you'll be ok. But if you wanna try to study up on July and imitate its greatest hits, I'm down with that!