It's Freckles.

Well for starters “vacation” is a bit misleading. Now that the kids I work with are in school, summers are the busiest part of my year. 

Things really started to heat up in June. Not weather-wise, of course. Don’t be silly. That didn’t happen until the end of August.

My sister’s fiance Pete got a job in San Diego, so they moved down to Cali, but before they left they had a surprise wedding on our back deck. I mean, it wasn’t a surprise to them, or to me, but none of the guests knew. Ostensibly it was a going away party before they moved, but then they surprised everyone by exchanging rings and vows. People nearly keeled over out of surprise. It was pretty awesome :)

     
That was after the vows and rings and you can still see the surprise on people’s faces 

It was a lovely, early summer evening with so many of their friends there to wish them well, so much laughter and love. It really was a beautiful thing.

The weekend after, Mike and I spent a couple days leading up to the 4th of July in Roche Harbor, up in the San Juans, with some friends.

      
                                               DeHavilland Beaver, Lake Union.

We flew up via Kenmore Air (one of my very favorite things out of the whole packed summer) and stayed in an ancient little farmhouse in an orchard, with a view of the water. We spent the days out on our friends’ boat, (it’s beyond beautiful out there) fishing, whale watching (I kid you not. A huge pod of orcas), and seal/otter/eagle spotting. Ok, and drinking, too. Don’t judge me. We were on a boat and it was 4th of July weekend!
We flew back in time to take our own boat out on Lake Union to watch the fireworks and I got a crash(less) course in driving the boat, because everyone else was T-rashed. The one night of the year where there’s a million other boats crammed into the lake, all driven by drunks, and interspersed with police boats. I got us home alive and ticket free. Go me!

      
                                                       Lake Union, July 4th 

A few short days after that, Mike and I flew to Alaska. Neither of us had ever been and we’d be been meaning to go for years, so we took a day or two on either side of a weekend and finally made it happen. Also, this happened: 

            
                That’s an Alaskan engagement ring, folks! Hand-carved, no less!

Yep! We got engaged! It’s a pretty great story, but I won’t make you sit through it. Suffice it to say, there will be a lot of wedding related posts over the next year or so…

Just a few short days after we got home from Alaska, we threw our annual Summer Party. Just 100 or so of our closest friends, some of their friends, and very possibly some total strangers. Because it was right around Bastille Day, we decided to go with a French theme, complete with French flag bar table

     

And some French flag fruit tarts.

      
Why, yes. I did make those myself. -And the macaroons. Why thank you, they do look lovely, don’t they?

 They tasted even better than these pictures make them look (not too hard. I have rudimentary camera skills and was pressed for time. Also, they don’t even have the glaze on them yet). 

The party was a blast, but man, it was a lot of work, too. Oh, and the weekend after that? Themed dinner party for 17. At our house. Uh huh. And that was just the last weekend of June and the month of July.

-Which brings us to the first weekend of August. Stay tuned for our second installment in the What I Did On My Summer Vacation series…