Summer Fun

Scott and I have been enjoying the last days before we have to go back to school. We are trying to shove lots of stuff in before it's time for work to begin again. We played golf a couple of times this week. I definitely need some practice!!!! We played Monday in Tracy, and Friday we played in Stockton with John Grimes and George Vierra, two fellow 6th grade teachers.

This week Nancy, Kierra, Ken, Cyndra, Emily, Nick, and I tried out a new business in town called Color Me Mine. It's a ceramic shop where you pick the piece of ceramic you want to paint. They bring you all the paint you need and then they fire it for you. My first project was a deviled egg plate that I did in a spring/Easter motif. You can see pictures of us all having fun. Friday night I picked mine up and it looks great! I think I've found a new addiction.

This week Nancy's new sun room was finished. Or is it the solarium? Or maybe the conservatory? Kyle did it the conservetory with the steak knife. . . .

So anyway, we sat for a few hours drinking cosmopolitans and enjoying the new room with the cool Pier 1 furniture. And what do you know, it's blue!

Today Meggin and I had a long, leisurely lunch at Wente. We'd been planning to do this all summer and we finally got to. Our lunch was a wonderful drawn affair that lasted from noon until 3:30. Then we went to one winery for some wine tasting. It was a very fun afternoon. My suggestion for dessert at Wente is the Mexican pot d'creme with homemade churros. It's the best fried dough you'll ever have!

Seattle Trip

Today we got back from Seattle. We had a wonderful time spending a week in the Pacific Northwest. We stayed downtown at a hotel called The Camlin which is acutally a hotel owned by WorldMark, our timeshare. It was a beautiful old hotel built in the 20's.
Here are some of the highlights of the trip:
1) Mariners vs. Tigers game
2) Lunch in the Space Needle
3) Savor Seattle tour of Pike's Place Market
4) 1 hour cruise of Eliott Bay
5) Having lunch with Shelly Devlin--high school classmate of my sister's
6) Eating our way across downtown!
7) The weather was sunny everyday and in the 70s and 80s!

8) Harbor seals at the aquarium

9) Lions at the zoo
Here are some of the lowlights:
1) Jeff Clement, from Marshalltown, who plays with the Mariners didn't get in the game we were at until the 15th inning! And the night before he had hit 2 homeruns!
2) Yes, the game went 15 innings!!!!
3) Our cat, Oscar, got sick and our neighbor had to take him to the vet. $300+ he had diarrhea and was dehydrated. Blood and urine tests all ok.
4) We now realize how dependent on a car we are. By the end of the week we were ready to drive ourselves somewhere. But we did get a lot of walking in!!!
All in all we had a great trip. There are many things we didn't get to do and someday I'm sure we'll try to go back and do them.

I Love Summer

Joni and Daytona show off their new necklaces










Susan and Gitte shop

Julie and Morgan hang out











We have been very busy having fun, hanging out with friends, going to baseball games, etc. Here are some things we have done over the last week:


1) I hosted a jewelry party as you can tell from the pictures above. It was very fun. This jewelry is lockets that have glass on both sides and you put little charms inside. There are hundreds of charms to choose from.


2) Baseball--We are on baseball overload and we love it. My friends Nancy's 12-yr. old son, Cole, is on the Tracy All-Star team for Babe Ruth baseball. So I've been going to a couple of his games. His team won and will be going to state in Fresno. Also one of my students from this year is on the team. Scott and I got to go to the A's vs. Giants game last Sat. night in Oakland and the A's lost 1-0 grrr! Then Tuesday night we went to Cubs vs. Giants in San Francisco. The Cubs lost 2-1 grrr!! But the whole experience at AT&T Park is so fun it almost didn't matter. Almost


3) I've been hanging out with Cyndra, Susan, Joni, and Nancy at Nancy's house eating lunch, swimming, laughing at the kids, letting the dogs out to run the neighborhood, etc. How will we every go back to work?


4) Today for the 4th we spent time with Nancy and her kids at Susan's. Both Cole and Kyle are becoming impressive BBQ'ers. But they are not so great at jacks! We got to play with our new Criket--if you're a scrapbooker you'll know what that is!!!!


5) Tomorrow (the 5th) we leave for a week in Seattle. We are so excited. We don't have much planned, but lots of ideas. We will be at the Mariners game Sun. afternoon rooting on Marshalltown native Jeff Clement. Hopefully he'll play. We have a banner ready. Check back next week for pictures of our trip!