What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Okay, so July 4th was ages ago. I know, I know. Needless to say, our summer has been jam packed.

After my last entry, Tim and I started the arduous process of completing a punch list that was to be accomplished by the time we had our housewarming party on the 21st of July. It was a long list, and we were on the case. Tim worked especially hard at not losing his mind over the small things, like the fact that the former owner used four inch screws to mount the towel racks in the downstairs bathroom. But really, all of the obstacles were small and nothing caused him to completely lose it, which I was thankful for.

The toilet in the photo is new, and the walls are no longer 80's pink/muave... but check out the screw that came out of the wall!Ain't no doubt... that towel rack was secure.

Before the party, we did manage to leave the house for a couple of events that made the weeks prior to "Rein-Fest" a little more bearable. We caught Greg Brown at the Music on Main series in Driggs.
A great turn out for Greg Brown.
The ladies at the Miso Hungry food tent show their stuff.

We traveled, mid-week (unheard of) to Jackson for a concert that included both Collective Soul and Live at the Snow King Amphitheater. It was a real throwback to the 90's. The whole reason why I wanted to attend, however, was to see Rocco DeLuca and the Burden. They opened for the other two acts, and by the time we arrived I had just missed them. I cursed myself all the way through Collective Soul's set - until Live took the stage. Let me tell ya, folks, they sound the same. They obviously still play together, as the band was tight and blew the crowd aWAY. It was totally worth the trip we took over the pass on a Wednesday night.

Our preparations continued for the shindig. Party day arrived, and I couldn't have been more relieved. The preparation could now cease and we could finally enjoy the fruits of our labor.
The house sparkled. See that big reddish colored wall? I painted that!

Awesome party treat: Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies (click here for recipe! be popular! make these morsels of goodness!)

Additionally, I was fortunate enough to have invited guests that wanted to help. I couldn't have done it without Jennifer, Jenny, Danielle and Nicole.
Danielle and Jenny take a break from helping out. Um, no one said you could sit down.

Jennifer, why are you talking to Emily? Chop, chop!

All told, we had about forty people in attendance at the peak of the party. We also had about fifteen dogs running around in a pack making their own event... Tim called it Lucy's "coming out party".Lucy: Hostess with the mostess.

We were also in for a real treat: fire spinning. No lie. The clowns and the tightrope walkers showed up later.

The morning after, we served about fifteen people for breakfast - most of them had pitched tents on the property, but we had a mix of tent sleepers and car sleepers.


Breakfast was cranked out by Tim, and it was Danielle to the rescue again: she brought coffee and muffins.
Danielle digs through her trunk for muffins: "...let's see, carjack, WD-40, emergency flares...Oh, here they are!"

The girl is some kind of wunder-hostess. If she worked those muffins and coffee out of her car trunk at large public gatherings, she could make millions. Or, she could just continue with the success of the Local Jo coffee drive-thru that she owns and operates out of Victor, Idaho.

Mere days passed as we tried to recover from the long drawn out party planning and execution process. We had barely managed to clean up the rubble when we were off for our only summer road trip: a sixteen hour drive one way to the state of Washington. My mom lives up there - way up there - about seven miles south of Canada. For this visit, my sister and her family would be visiting at the same time. Our intent was to camp on the way there, camp while there, and camp on the way back.

We took Lucy with us, who proved once again to be the good dog that we have tried to bring her up to be. Every park we stayed at, poor Lucy had to be staked to a picnic table or something similiar so that we would be following state park rules. It worked out better than we expected. She was very good and did very little barking compared to other dogs that we encountered on the road trip. Especially the "RV Dogs", which seemed to be characterized by a very small size and a very loud and disturbingly yippee bark emitting from the depths of the RV in which they were confined.

Are we there yet?

Scenery on the way...

Lucy shakes.

Lucy swims.

Mukilteo Ferry.

Amy's Butterfly Bush

Token Sunflower Photo

Amy: long time friend and former roommate. She knows a lot about me. In fact she knows too much! (son Daniel in background)

Prepare to meet yo' doom, crabby!

Mmmm... tasty cholesterol laden shellfish....

Bellingham's Fairhaven District

Lunch with sis and family.

My niece took this. Note the aging skin riddled with freckles.

My nephew is used to being embarrassed by his parents - he is a teenager - so he was primed to hang out with Uncle Tim.

A boy and his dawg.

Tim's chips? Tim's chips!

Ahhh, the Cascades....

...the never disappoint.

Doesn't this make ya wanna rip open a packet of Swiss Miss and sing a song?

Our trip was great, but looong. Driving takes a lot out of you, you know? Well, traveling in general for me usually kind of kicks my butt.

Upon our return, we were greeted by our neighbor and told that our canoe had become the victim of a windstorm and had been picked up and carried about 50 yards away and into the neighbor's long driveway. No damage to the canoe - we were astounded.

Tim walks to assess canoe damage.

August got away from me and progressed in a blur of hot days and long lazy weekends. We tried to catch the last of the Music on Main series by attending three weeks in a row. It made me regret missing the big act of the season: Los Lobos came to our small mountain village on July 26th and blew the concertgoers away in between lightning strikes and heavy rain. The Teton Valley Foundation scored a major coup by booking this group; we have a huge Hispanic population here in the Teton Valley. The attendance for this performance proved to be the highest for the season, despite the rain.
During the third weekend of August, we chose a Saturday to run to I-Falls for a little exposure to civiliation (i.e., stoplights and strip malls) and Home Depot. When we returned, we discovered that our home had been victim to a lightning strike. Not directly upon the roof or anything, but it did affect our home PC in a very negative way - the strike traveled up the phone line and fried our internet card, among other things. The television in the bedroom got it too - it died from shock, I suppose. I have been told by both an IT professional and the local electric company that all appliances must be plugged into surge protectors here in the ol' Teton Valley. That includes our washer and dryer. Yeah, okay.

Labor Day weekend was finally upon us, and our summer was coming to a close. Lo and behold, we were going to be hosting our first out of town guests in the new house! My buddy Jamie and her sister Jill came into town and we played tour guide for four long days - cramming as much local flair into our comings and goings as possible.

The night they arrived, we drove straight to Music on Main to watch the last show of the season. The next day, the girls and I tackle Grand Teton National Park - and saw two moose! A mama with her calf (calf concealed by brush, but the scuttlebutt among the tourists stated that there was in fact one there), and a huge bull mooose feeding from a distance that was still photo viable.

Friday evening brought us all to dinner at the Knotty Pine, as we continued to soak in the local ambience and talk about what we might see the next day at Yellowstone. Our day trip on Saturday to this park took us through the geyser features and left an indelible mark on all of our memories.

Stand by for some photos of that visit... I am certainly not finished telling you about everything we got to see while they were here. But I am done for now giving you all a comprehensive and very apologetic update: I am so sorry it took me this long!!!