little black journal

As I walked home from the Light Rail station this evening and heard the crunch of fallen leaves under my feet, I realized that I could no longer deny it:  Summer is officially over.  My initial reaction is to cringe/pout/sigh/book a trip to sunny Mexico, but instead, I will take a positive spin on things and be thankful for just how jam-packed with fun the past three and a half months have been.  I’m in the process of cleaning out my photo library, sorting through pictures of our Summer adventures, and I’m realizing:  Wowzers!  We’ve enjoyed some seriously good times, especially with our gang of favorite Seattle peeps.  A few highlights from our adventures together…

June brought our second annual c-group camping trip, just outside of Leavenworth.  These photos from Jon will forever make me smile…

And one week later, we celebrated the Hickory ‘wedding’ with this same group of lovely people.  (Short version of a long story:  Brian and Nicole one day mentioned to Shane that they were unhappy with their wedding photos, and nearly one year later, after much scheming, we got Brian and Nicole into their wedding wear, decked ourselves out in our own finest threads, and threw one hell of a party for them, which was photographed by some of our uber-talented photographer friends (thanks, Jordan!!!) )

I look back at what we have noted on our July calendar, and I smile – seeing Eclipse with the ladies, sharing my art show with the crew, checking out Cirque du Soleil for Nance’s birthday, our weekend spent hangin’ by the lake in Chelan, our romp through Portland with Jack and La V…  I imagine I also went to work and ran errands and did the usual house stuff, but I’m not sure when or how that actually occurred (nor does it matter).

August was much more mellow – my pictures from that month are mostly of our p-patch garden and glasses of white wine set next to a plate of cheese on our back patio table.  Not too shabby…  Oh, and let’s not forget our little ‘slice of heaven’ at Mission Lake with the Rust clan.

And then September came, with its rain and teasing bouts of sunshine (during which we did things like eat burgers on Brewpub patios and play driveway baseball with the neighbors…).

Indeed, it was one heck of a Summer.  But Fall has its perks:  comfy sweaters and knee-high boots, the start-up of another year of weekly get-togethers with our community group, the return of my favorite TV shows…I guess those Northwestern clouds do in fact have their silver linings…