Last Rays of Summer

The carefree and spontaneous days of summer are over, and the memories from them are carefully stored away in our minds, hearts...and cameras.

Last night, Jon and I went on a double date with our good friends Paul Sullivan and Jessica Okken. From picking dinner menus (of the 20 different kinds of cuisine you could pick at this seaside shopping center!), catching the last rays of the golden hour for pictures, or simply strolling around Ocean Grove licking ice cream from Day’s, the four of us caught the last rays of the golden hours of summer, bottling them up for the tough weeks of school ahead.

We started out with dinner, where I had the most delicious salmon on rice pilaf topped off with mango salsa...yuuummm!!! The others enjoyed lobster salad, and sushi.

Then we drove around with our jaws dropped as we looked at the homes around the area...and we decided not to crash a private dinner party. Very magnanimous of us, don’t you think?

The most glorious part of the evening was when we went to the beach, which was all but deserted. We kicked off our shoes, ran down to the waterline, and drank in the blues, the pinks, the waves, the sunset: all the art of God. Honestly...I can’t describe it...it was just so beautifully elating (and obviously it can't be captured perfectly on the camera. I'm telling you...the colors POPPED!):

“When I consider the heavens, the work of Your hands, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man, that You care for Him? ...O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!”

-Psalm 8:3-4,9

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.”

-Psalm 19:1

“You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, You still them.”

-Psalm 89:9

We topped the evening off with ice cream from Day’s Ice Cream in Ocean Grove.

Relaxing, rejuvenating, and invigorating...this is a memory that's going to keep me smiling.

I thought I posted this already...

...but I thought I'd post a few pictures from our recent (or now not so recent!) vacation out to Washington (last June). First, let me give you an idea of what our family had to put up with for three weeks:

QUITE a task, let me assure you!

And some cousin shots:

By Age....

And by Height... 

And yes....you're seeing that correctly!! Andrew is now down in history as the fifth tallest cousin!! Wahoo!!

So some people have been wondering....what DID you do out there? We did a lot of talking. When I'd think over my day, or the last few days, it'd sound a little like this, "Today was really fun. Michaela, Julie, and I talked for a while, just catching up. Then Elaina and Ethan came over and Bethany came home for lunch, and Allison and Sarah and Nathan and Andrew joined us and then we....talked some more! and then, we all decided to meet Emily and Liz over at Starbucks, so we went and....talked." But we did get a rousing game of kickball into the schedule, as well as painting for VBS sets, and training for a half-marathon, and camping in Eastern WA, and visiting the Seattle flight museum, and swimming in a nearby lake, and playing a game of spoons (a McWattsermasterson classic!), among many other things!

Here are a couple more of my other favorite pictures:

At the family gathering

At Grammie's birthday party

At the flight museum

With Papa Carlson

At the Hammermasters playing Empire

In Seattle proper

On Michaela's College Campus, PLU

All the girls at Starbucks

Camping in Eastern WA

At the Family Gathering

At the Hammers after church