Chockablock August

You might die when you see how busy August was for us. I'm looking back on it and feeling very grateful for this full day of nothing I am currently experiencing. I'm tempted to split this month into several posts, but if I did, you just wouldn't understand how non-stop it was.

First off, my cousin Trevor moved in with us for a couple months. His brother, Cliff has lived in Seattle since 2014, and my second cousin, Tim, moved to the suburbs a couple months before us. Oakley is my twin cousin, who came to Seattle for an Alaskan cruise. They all came over for Oakley's birthday dinner, and we took cousins pictures for our moms.

I made white almond sour cream cake for the birthday, because that's what we made for Oakley's wedding cake about six years ago.

  

You might know Oakley and her son Welles from Nothing Down About It (nothingdownaboutit.com). Their family is extra cool.

The previous night, the Clives/Snows/Petersons went out to eat Serious Pie and walk to Lake Union.

That was a fun weekend. I ended it with tickets to Derek and Julianne Hough's dance tour. Alexe came with me, and it was not disappointing. There were screaming ladies of all ages, and there was even a reference to Donny and Marie Osmond. And the Hough siblings are just as beautiful and talented in person as they are on Dancing with the Stars. Too bad my picture can't prove it.

Super highlight #1, our nephew Jack was born! He is amazingly cute and perfect. We finally got to meet him at Christmas, and almost took him home with us.

Our next visitors were Alaina and kids. Matt went to high school with Alaina, and she came to Seattle to visit her sisters, who I met at the beach the next day. Although we are not sister-wives, as this picture might suggest, Alaina is super cool, and my kids did NOT want them to leave.

Courtney and I had a girls night spent at Nordstrom Rack trying on fancy dresses for fun, and at RN74 eating fancy dessert. It was a night of de-stressing, and exactly what I needed. I LOVE this girl.

Also that week, the highlight of my LIFE happened, when Matt and I went to the long-awaited Taylor Swift concert and realized that our seats were even more amazing than we thought.

I just about peed my pants at this moment when she rose up out of the stage for the first time:

Then I actually DID pee my pants at this moment. Taylor in the flesh, guys. So close I could literally see up her shorty shorts. That pretty much makes us sisters.

The rest of the crowd peed their pants at this moment, when Ciara and Russell Wilson came on stage. They cheered even louder for him than they did for Taylor. It was an abomination. Matt booed, but no one could hear him, so he escaped with his life.

We also saw Vance Joy and Fetty Wap perform, which on a normal day would be super exciting, but compared to Taylor, was pretty meh.

Bucket list item:  Be in a real-life photograph with T-Swift...check check!

The next week, we went to the Kelly Clarkson concert, but the entire reason for going was to see PENTATONIX open up for her. I'm a huge enormous fan. Their portion of the concert was not nearly long enough, but it was wonderful to hear them in person. Kelly has a dominating voice and was obviously perfect, but sorry, I came for my a cappella nerds.

Between concerts and visitors, there was a lot of mindless entertainment for the kids while I packed our ENTIRE HOUSE. Hence the boxes photobombing most of my pictures. We closed on a house August 15, and had to be out of our rental by August 21. In that particular week-long window, my brother decided to drop in from Utah for his semester break, Matt's sister Michelle and her friend came in from AZ for a long weekend, and Trevor was still living with us. No big deal.

Luckily, Zeke helped me entertain Jude here and there.

 The kids and I took Michelle and her quiet friend whose name I can't even remember to Kerry Park for the city view. That's the only picture we took together all week because of the craziness, but I think she had a good visit. We loved getting some one-on-one time with her.

We frequented several farmers markets that month, because of visitors and $5 bouquets of gorgeous flowers that make me happy.

Here's Steven resting with Buck after their 12 hour drive. 

Took a packing break to enjoy the sunshine at Green Lake.

We also took Steven and Trevor on a hike near the water, which ended up being much longer than we thought and involved 250 stairs down to the beach, which we had to carry the kids up afterward. Not so smart, but very beautiful. (Good-camera pictures at the end of this post.)

 We got the keys to our new old house, and the first thing we did was hire people to rip out an oversized, heinous fireplace that started in the basement and ended at the chimney. It was a huge job, and left us with two enormous piles of rubble on the lawn, and a dangerous hole to patch up before movers came the next day. Fortunately, Steven and his friend PK were a huge help.  

PK is Steven's friend who spontaneously decided to come to our house from a layover in Seattle, stay for two days, and drive home with Steven to Utah. What's one more body in an overcrowded house? He was actually super helpful and great with the kids. We're glad he came. (That's him below, playing Skylanders with the kids.)

There was at least one tooth lost in August.

There was a charming little father-son date to see the play Matilda. Josh had read the book, and Matt was excited to take him to the show. They dressed to match.

I flew into Sacramento for a weekend to see my friend Spencer get married. Our parents were best friends in college, and have stayed close ever since, so we grew up together.

 

Adele came with me, and wore a spicy little senorita dress from my mom. I was jealous. It was a hot sweaty day!

Julia caught the bouquet, and the Madsens rocked that dance floor til the end! I used the Owens' camera to take photos all day (they had a pro photographer too, of course), but they are all on my hard drive, which has disappeared indefinitely. Makes me too sad to talk about it.

The next week, Matt and I had an evening of Italian cooking class at a restaurant downtown. Thank you, Seattle Groupon, for giving us interesting date ideas! Our hands were busy, so no photos.

Amidst all this hustle and bustle, I was taking more photography classes and practicing my heart out. Here are some prettier pictures that make August seem more like easy dreaming.

Our hike in Discovery Park

I call this one Adele's Gollum impression.

And here are my three favorite little people on an average day at home.

Thank you, August 2015, for making every other month feel more like a cake walk.