Sophia chatting on her cell phone!

Sophia and Travis come and have lunch at my office quite frequently, and I occasionally have to take a phone call while they're in... as you can see, Sophia has started integrating some of my "office lingo" into her imaginary phone conversations! Here is a transcription of her conversation: "I'm sorry, I'm at my county office. And my co worker's taking pictures. Okay? Cheese! Say cheese, mommy! I taking pictures!"

She's ready for office work! (Although, I do have higher aspirations for her... unless it's the oval office we're talking about!).

This Summer Meant So Much

We started the sunny season with tulips (this was the summer of GARDENS GALORE!)

We had lots of wonderful family park adventures! Sophia loved trying out kites this year!

Sophia's getting better at socializing! These siblings (there are actually 4) are some of the most amazing kids I've ever met. Super respectful and devoted to each other and lovely. And Home-schooled... hmmm....

Lots of playing around in our yards!

Of course, we had the marathon in May! Here are the damp but still wonderful cheerleaders!

My sister in law, Laura (shirt backward around her waist) running with her sister in law, Lulu (to Laura's left) in the 10K!

That's me in the green shirt/black pants, showing off my muscle at mile 20! I ran the 26.2 miles in just under 3 hours & 58 min, averaging just over a 9 mintue mile. One of the most amazing things I've ever done! I can't explain how awesome it was : the crowds cheering, little kids handing out water, the live bands, the adrenaline... just amazing! I have plans to run 2 half-marathons this fall!

We spent lots of time at one of our favorite places, lake Bemidji. Sophia was having some quality morning time with Grandma in this pic :)

"Fishing" with Grandpa! (Sophia uses a sinker; no hook!). She can make her own choices about real fishing when she's older!

Sophia's oldest cousin, Jaylin, fishing off the dock too!

Boat rides...

More fishing....

One night the storms were so severe (the night there were 2 F1 tornadoes in Fargo/Moorhead!) we just threw in the towel and brought Sophia's toddler bed down and we all spent the whole night in the guest room in the basement!

The safest place in our house during a tornado... an interior closet in the guest room! The 3 of us can fit... barely. You can see some kid books... we were never in there longer than 30 min at a time, but 30 min in that closet can get long!

Sophia loves that central A/C! (We all do!) It was a hot and muggy summer, with a couple days over 100 degrees!

More yard fun...

Putting in the vegetable garden!

Starting a garden is an INSANE amount of work (and then the rest is fairly easy)... I'm glad we only put in a 10 x 11!

Some early results! So far we have eaten: lettuce, spinach, green beans, peas, tomatoes, basil, cilantro, and parsley out of our garden! More coming!

Sophia eating my homemade ginger snaps the same way I do :)

YUM!

Sophia's first day of swimming lessons! Her dad took her to her lessons (I was working)... hence the backwards straps... :D

Sophia was the youngest pupil, and lagged in some areas, but was definitely one of the best at the pre-swimming stretches! She always stretches with me after our jogs together! Love it.

Learning to backfloat! Her instructor. Yeah. That's all I'm sayin!

She loved it :) Sophia is continuing her swimming lessons at concordia college this fall!

One of the MANY community hooplas that we enjoyed this summer! We spent lots of time on bouncers!

Lots of time on the barrel trains...

We always hit the hay wagon!

Um... Sophia is fascinated with bras...

More swimming lessons!

More Lake Bemidji! We are still just glowing over becoming Godparents!

Our Goddaughter and niece, Ava, with Grandpa Ralph

Girl cousins!

Of course, more boating!

And more "fishing!"

Tubing behind the boat is so much fun! This is Sophia with her cousin, Jaylin (to the right) and one of Jaylin's cousins from the other side (her dad's) side of her family!

Sophia and Travis hanging out in beautiful Lake Bemidji! We love the beautiful park and beach right next door to grandpa and grandma's!

Her final swimming lesson! I love "the train!"(Sophia is in the front!). I took an off-campus lunch that day so I was able to watch Sophia's last lesson with Travis. We also spent many, many evenings at the free wading pools around the city! Sophia is so comfortable in the water now.

Sophia will eat raw green beans, spinach, lettuce and peas if she pockets them in the garden!

Sophia has a weird thing for "edges!" She's the only kid I know that eats the crust first on a slice of pizza!

Our recent, big summer project! Painting! Good-bye gray!

We had a whole paint crew over on a saturday: Travis' sister and husband, his parents, his cousin Tim, and four kids and they only picture I took was this one of sweet little Ava sleeping! It was so much work, but totally fun... lots of food and music and hanging out! I might just have the best in-laws ever!

The new look :)

Close up of the newly painted deck and new light fixtures!

The nighttime look... I love our new garden lights! Our house looks so much prettier... plus, we rehauled our old shade garden and put in a new, matching shade garden on the other side of the backyard, and bought a fire ring for bonfires... lotsof fun projects!

A note about the somewhat nostalgic title of this post: I am having very mixed feelings about this summer. So much has changed! Travis got a new job, and the big change for me was my new job! In June I was promoted to full-time work as the Clay County Veterans' Benefits Coordinator. I spent my whole summer inside an office! It's the first time since I was 8 months pregnant that I've worked full time, and I'm painfully aware of everything I've missed. Not just the swimming lessons, but all the crafting, cloud-watching, baking, cooking, time for organizing and cleaning, library time, park time, museum trips, the daytime community hooplas, the just doing nothing together time... I love my new job, but won't pretend for a second that it isn't a huge, whole-family sacrifice for me to return to full-time work. Although, it feels GREAT to be getting somewhere career-wise, and I can't say that the bigger paychecks don't make lots of things easier and nicer. This is a long way to say that it's been bittersweet to go back to full-time work. ANOTHER reason to be nostalgic/melancholy is that Sophia is GOING TO SCHOOL... TOMORROW! This was her last summer of "babyhood!" Even though her school is "play-based" (Montessori), she will have so much more structure and will be spending SO much time outside of our home! Tremendous changes are afoot at our home... I know that the summer of 2011 will always be remembered by me as "the beginning of the end." And, of course, the start of new and exciting things! Bittersweet.