Where did the summer go? As usual...

the summer just flew by. I had a little tiny surgery, had some recovery/down time, got some beach days in, but the highlight was a week in the green, green mountains of Vermont. K & H invited us to go on vacation with them. So we did a serious search and found the absolutely perfect cabin in the mountains. It was everything we wanted - in the middle of the quiet mountain, with no neighbors in site, just the view of camel hump mountain from the giant back porch (where we spent most of our time). Yet, in just 15 minutes, we were in a cute little downtown or on the way to site seeing.

o2 peeking out at the deck

front, side year

sitting on the porch, being auntie

our kitchen, the 2nd most used space

our view of camel hump mt

We did a ton of site seeing and had adventure days. We found a few all-ages friendly hikes. One hike was a beautiful walk around the base of camel hump mountain with bridges and sounds of bears (near by!!) Another hike took use along a stream and up to a view of a giant water fall, named Glenn Moss.

the explorers 

near where i swear i heard a growling bear

We also did some walking around towns and we ate a whole lot. We visited the Alchemist (long, tortuous story, inquire for more details), Ben & Jerry's, an apple cider mills, some packed antique shops, and an awesome burlington tea shop (sister to the one i went to in Prague!!). Mike and Kevin made it to the top of Camel's hump one day and we spend an entire day chilling in the giant burlington farmers' market. It was a jammed packed week, yet we had a lot of down time on the back porch, sitting by a lake, enjoying long lunches, sitting by the fire at night. It was such a wonderful trip!

warning: do not buy these lanterns!

little things

It has been quick a rocky few weeks. I am just trying to take it all in, moment to moment. And do a lot of gentle but helpful breathing!

got lemons, i made....pillowcases??

Ok, so it has been a difficult 'cancer' week, hence the lemons. so what do i do? Well, I have been a busy bee with my sewing machine latelty. I made a baby quilt for baby Eve, almost finished another one for baby Jasper (micheal's cousin's first baby), made a table runner for mom, some other little things here and there.

part of Eve's quilt

Baby Eve looking adorable

I have been anxious to make pillow cases for our bed.  Mike and I both have those weird temprapedic pillows, so they are much smaller than regualr bed pillows. Standard pillowcases are swimming over our pillows. I found this interesting pattern so I made smaller versions for our unique-sized pillows and this pattern was SO fun. When I first looked at it (there is a rolling part?!), I completely didn't get it, but it worked and it was SO easy! And I used fabric from my favorite designer, Denyse Schmidt.

a real star

Laura Linney deserves some serious credit for her role in the series, the Big C. The show lasted just a few seasons - Linney's character has stage iv cancer after all...I watched every episode - a little scared of how close to home it hit, but I felt compelled just the same to watch Linney's character deal with grace and genuine courage. The last season, season 4, took on a different shape from previous seasons, just 4 episodes, covering 4 seasons and it was absolutely heartbreaking. But I wanted to see it through the end. I think the show is very important, it was brave to show the real like of such an awful and terrifying disease. There is more 'cancer' talk these days, and a lot of it surrounds survivorship and cure. Stage IV is a different animal, it is a life of tests, meds, side effects, more tests, waiting, fearing, preparing. Cure is not part of the stage iv animal, unfortunately, so there is no going back to the way it use to be 'before cancer'. Anyway, I hope Laura Linney gets the emmy- she deserves it for this incredible role.

In three's

I can't believe these two little guys just turned 3! It is insane.

Well, this auntie got to step up in the role again, to welcome my new niece, Evangeline Kay! She is just the cutest, tiniest little precious munchin of love. It is so hard to be away when they are these tiny little nuggests! Congrats Amy and Todd! Can't wait to see Eve soon! 

david byrne and asbury park in one single week = extreme awesomeness

For the second time in the last few years, but with much closer seats, we got to see David Byrne at the Wellmont, and he remains my all-time favorite. He is touring with St. Vincent, so they played a lot from their shared album but there was some excellent david and talking heads favorites sprinkled in. In true David style, it was music and theater combined. There was a 10-piece (or so) horn section of women and men and their instruments walking in circles or haning out on the floor or in a conga line, playing along and dancing. They even got to get up to David's microphone during "Wild Wild Life" and sharing in the singing, which was freankin amazingly fun. I could go on and on, it was awesome and I was tempted to buy tickets to another night of the tour.

A few days later, Mike and I went on a weekend getaway to Asbury Park. We stayed at the Berkeley hotel, right across from the ocean (a graduation gift from my aunt and uncle) and our room had a gorgeous ocean view. We packed in so much in just 2 days. Rented bikes, hit the farmers market for fresh jersey blueberries, ate a lot of delicious food, had fancy drinks on the water, walked up and down the boardwalk, rode our bikes and did an asbury park photo shoot, read our books, walked on the beach at night, and sat and watched the waves. It was a fantastic and rejuvenating.

click to see this larger

did not know cacti lived in ocean grove

walking beach to beach

mike assessing sandy damage

best mixed drink i've ever had