Engaged!

So if you don't know already from the spreading wildfire of news... Kyle and I are engaged!! I flew in to Seattle last night (after an annoying 2 and a half-hour delayed flight) and we drove up to this park overlooking Seattle and the water and he got down on one knee and presented this very beautiful ring:

Then we went to The Melting Pot for dinner, where he had called ahead and surprised me with rose petals all over our table and seats. Very romantic!

We are hoping to get married in early April, when I'll move to Washington (at least for awhile).

Storms

Monsoon season seems to be here a little early this year but we aren't complaining- it makes normally oven-hot July a bit more bearable...
We've had quite a few thunder storms this week with two really good downpours.
Sidewalks are normally for walking, not swimming.When we see thunder, lightning and rain, we all run outside. Sometimes we stand under trees. Usually we stay away from trees and just sit under cover and enjoy the warm rain.Raj does not enjoy the thunder, lightning and rain. The first storm we had nobody was at home and he got scared and jumped on the back door and tore down the weather strip Dad had just put there... Whoops.... Now he goes in here for storms.Our neighbor's car...It was fun to stand and watch from the front door. When the rain started to calm down, more neighbors came out. We saw three people ride by on bikes in their shorts and tanks and another neighbor splashing through the puddles.

The flash flood warning said we got 3/4 of an inch in a half hour with this one (the first one was a half inch in 20 minutes). August is when we get our bigger ones- most of our 4 inches of annual rainfall comes in August.

Bree

On Sunday we had a late birthday party with family for Kevin. Bree and Carter found this giant wolf in my room (next to my giant penguin) and wanted rides from Auntie Kari. (Jess took pics of that- maybe I can steal some pics from her later.) Auntie Kari getting tired was not acceptable and it was "more! more!" until I dropped... After all, who could say no to this look??

The 4th of July

....Posted on the 13th. Buut better late than never...

Independence Day...

Freedom to...

Swim in the big pool with water wings and boats.....Play in the kiddie pool. Just enough room!...Be who you want to be......Have Bocci ball competitions......Blow bubbles at each other......Play on the slide......And eat lots of food!Freedom to fly a flag...And celebrate your freedom with fireworks.

That's what Independence Day is all about!

Hike to the hot springs

The weeks are flying by so quickly I can hardly keep up my blog!

July 2nd I went with the Johnstons and one of their friends, Anne, to the lake. The lake for the Johnstons means wakeboarding. For wakeboarding it's nice to have smooth, undisturbed water and it's best to go before the day is hot... which means 5:30am!

I have to go with them every once in awhile just to remind myself what the sunrise looks like!

Unfortunately we had the boat halfway out in the middle of a cove, almost out to the lake when we ran aground. Luckily we were in a no-wake zone and going very slow but we still chewed up the prop pretty good.


Here is Brent standing in the middle of the cove in knee-deep water trying to push the boat off the sandbar... It was kinda weird.

So we decided to hike to the hot springs instead, which I'd never done before. We weren't even on the trail yet when we saw these desert bighorn sheep run across our path.

We also saw a big wall (which John tried to climb)...

And a cool-looking bridge....

And then we really got out into nature.

A couple of miles following a path, climbing over some of these big rocks...

And finally the hot springs! As we were nearing the springs a couple jumped out to put some clothes on which gave us all a laugh (after they left of course)... It's amazing they didn't hear us as we hiked up; the four of us weren't exactly a quiet group. The amazing part to me was after they had put their clothes properly on they stayed around long enough to ask us for a picture on their camera...


The hot water springs from under this rock in a tiny little trickle...

...And little dams were built to make these pools. The top one (nearest the camera) is hotter than a hottub, too hot to swim in. But by the time the water gets to the next pool it's about 90 degrees which felt just about right!

On the way back we ran out of water and I got what probably was mild heatstroke... I was shivering and sick by the time I got home with a headache the size of Russia but I slept for about 6 hours, drank at least 8 water bottles and lived to tell the tale.

Patriotic Puppy

We are having company for a 4th of July bbq tomorrow so Dad put up this American flag in our backyard today. Rajan has been sleeping underneath it all morning. I prompted him to sit up (which he did half-heartedly) for a picture by it.
Don't blame him for his laziness, we have a severe weather warning for "excess heat" today with temps already at 112 (I think that's about 44 for you celsius people) at 3:00pm.

Happy 4th to everyone!

At the Park

At the park with Jess and JhettJohn Deere JhettJhett had lots of stories to tell us.sunset