Home again

I feel like we've barely been home since school got out.  On June 10th we drove up to Washington for a quick trip (so quick, I didn't even tell my friends I'd be there because I knew our time would be too short for a real visit with anyone outside family.  Sorry.) for my brother's graduation from Eastern Washington University with his master's in computer something stuff.  It was a nice ceremony, much better than his undergrad graduation with 2400 other students in the scorching out sun.  This one was cooler and much shorter.  We then spent two days celebrating my birthday and gushing over my nephew before driving 10 hours back home so I could take more pictures of Jeremiah's rental units and try to get into some kind of routine (which so far consists of going to bed really really late and that's about it).

I'm excited to be home for a few weeks straight and have people come see us for a change.  Here are some pictures from our quick trip.

Jeremiah and I after a water fight.  I won.

Phoenix likes the way Jeremiah tastes.  Or he's getting teeth.  Take your pick.

The original 5.

Phoenix exploring Uncle J's face.

Summer's Here

I have been so excited to be done with work.  The day after it ended, Jeremiah and I booked it down to San Diego and spent a very lovely four days relaxing by the pool and reading at his parents house.  I did take a few hours to drag him up to Julian, a little old mining town that is famous for their pie, to take pictures (and eat pie, of course).  I also got to "pan" for gemstones in the old garage--they give you a bag of dirt with rocks in it, pour it into a wire screened box and turn water on in a little trough.  I actually found some pretty cool stuff, like an Apache tear and a cut, polished amethyst (1 in 5 bags has a cut gemstone worth at least $10.  The owner didn't like the contents of my first bag and gave me another for free.  :).  I read 2 books while we were there and Jeremiah got pretty pink, what with all the swimming and shirtless putting he did in the yard.  :)  It was also really nice to spend time with his entire family (it's been a year since we were all together), including his aunt Susan, whom we have seen since our reception in Virginia almost 3 years ago.

I think Jeremiah wants one.

We came back on Tuesday, bypassing all that nasty Memorial Day traffic (I know I complain about his job, but I do love that he can make his own schedule) and I've spent the last few days trying to go through all of my work stuff and declutter some of the rooms.  It's slow, boring work but I have all day ('cuz I'm not working anymore) so I have plenty of scrapping and reading breaks.

We spent all of yesterday at the Parade of Homes with our friends the Cooley's.  I was really bummed that I forgot my super wide angle lens at home (darn my desire to be organized and put things away!  I should have left it in the traveling case.) Jeremiah's favorite was the castle, naturally.  I admit, I liked the library, indoor swimming pool and cinema with snack bar but $2.4 million is a bit outside our current budget.  I did get some ideas for redoing our bedroom and bathrooms.  :)

The "house" Jeremiah wants.  All 15, 000 square feet.

That's about it.  I've been staying up way too late every night, gonna have to nip that in the bud if I want to get all of my projects done but I think I'm still savoring the fact that I'M DONE!!!  Hee hee.