Hey blog, summer is almost over! Tomorrow is the last day of summer 2020. Here I am in one of the kiddie pools last month, happy to be a Covid survivor. Happy enough that I posted this picture on social media without any makeup or editing at all! I love the app that gets rid of my undereye circles SO MUCH.

This was a month ago at 10 months, my chunky hunk just turned 11 months old. Currently he is: scooting VERY quickly around the house, pulling himself up into standing all day long, curious about everything (forget toys), and saying “Mama” “Dada” “dah” (dog), “Hi” and “Bye Bye”. He is delightful. I know I say that a lot…but it’s true.

These boys! What have we been up to? Family hikes in the forest every weekend. As much time as we can possibly spend outside, which I’m glad we did, because no one could have anticipated the BS wildfire smoke situation that happened this month.

Green therapy.

Goo handing Mama daisies that he picked.

Unfortunately, the “Art in the Garden” art show at the Ballard P-Patch that I always participate in was closed this year due to Covid, but the P-Patch stayed open for visitors and encouraged the plot owners to add art to their patches. Which they did, beautifully! Mom and I took the boys one sunny afternoon.

And look who we met up with! Brenna and Ronia, who I have only seen maybe twice since the pandemic, ugh. We all miss that family.

Brenna gave me a couple of her beautifully sewn masks. She’s such a talented seamstress. Would you believe I never did sew myself a mask? I made one for Josh and my mother at the beginning of this mess, and I DIY-d some glitter onto a black mask for myself, but I haven’t sewn myself one. I could. But I have other priorities.

The dahlias at the P Patch were exceptional this year.

Current painting project of Little Edie! YOU KNOW it was only a matter of time. Dah-ling. I tried watching “Grey Gardens” with my mother last night for the first time ever, and it went EXACTLY like I knew it would. 20 minutes of her pained expression, then she said, “Sorry but it’s depressing” and I shut it off. C’est la vie!

Delicious. The helmet finally comes off on the 28th (one more week) and I am SO excited. His head isn’t flat anymore!

Sweet Goo showing Bear Cub some love. She’s starting to slow down on the stairs. We’re giving her Tricox for her joints now. Dammit.

By far the best thing we’ve done all year is go to the cabin for a week! I posted 39583495348 pictures but since they are in albums, they don’t show up in my Flickr. It was quite a trip–the first 3 days we didn’t have any power, and the last day the wildfire smoke was so bad we could barely go outside, but the rest of the time it was GLORIOUS. Swimming, floating, boating, s’mores, sunshine, fat babies in lakes, little boys practicing swimming, grandparents hugging kids they hadn’t seen in months, and my stress diarrhea stopped! Hooray!

I even sold “Lulu with Glitter Fern” that week. The cabin is magical.

My skin even cleared up. Here I am with no editing. Not bad for 40!

The last day was crazy smoky, and when we drove back home it was through a thick layer of smoke. It’s been awful back home ever since, but finally in the last couple of days it rained and now the air quality is “good” again. Thankfully.

Fabulous and wacky vacation aside, this is still how we all feel about 2020, right? Right. Catch you later.