The Family Berlin: Summer in Winter??

Why yes, Summer in Winter. Why, you may ask yourself? I'll answer this: I'm far too lazy to blog about all the stuff we did in the three months of warmth and I really can't remember all the particulars of everything.

So, here we go!

S.O.B Farms suffered miserably from a rabid pack of wild bunnies and deer. The deer thing is my fault though, I totally encourage them. One evening Charlie looked up the driveway and saw a deer sauntering around, eating whatever deer eat.
I flipped out and ran to go get apples.
I tumbled out the front door with apples and Summer in my arms and Steve trailing behind. Charlie was already out in front just watching the wildlife, like I think you're supposed to do, probably.
Not me. I was transfixed and obsessed with it eating out of my hands.
I crept closer and closer and held out my apple.
The giant animal crept further and further away, giving me the side eye, wondering what the hell was happening.
It gave me a wide berth and easily hopped over our little 3 foot fence and danced around in the tomato plants. We all ran inside, through the house and out the back.
It was casually nibbling on the blueberries and tomato plants. Fine with me! Now, let me feed you!
I eventually threw the apple in front of the deer really hoping that it would realize I was its friend and that it did, indeed want to come and sleep in our bed for maximum cuddle times.
Charlie was out in the yard, still just looking at it and yelling at me for throwing food.
I ran inside to get more deer bait with Summer still in my arms and Steve still at my heels.
I left the back door open, not really thinking anything of it when I heard Charlie yell, "Why did you let the dogs out?"
I went out on the porch and saw our little weiner dog milling about and said back, "It's just Murph. He's doesnt even see the deer."
Then the deer shit hit the fan.
Frankie finally spotted the intruder and went balistic, barking and chasing it. The deer reared up onto its back legs and stomped and killed all my little baby starts and my tomato plants, leaped over the fence, straight at Charlie.
Charlie screamed, threw his phone and leapt out of the way.
I scooped up Summer and shoved Steve inside as fast as I could, hiding behind the slider, safe in our house.
The deer ran around the backyard frantically trying to escape, tried to leap over the 6ft fence in the back, got high centered and fell. It finally found the lower fence in the front and gracefully leapt over, running as fast as its legs could carry it, into the sunset.
Charlie came running inside.
"What the fuck! Why would you let the dogs out! I almost got trampled!"
We have not seen any more deer near our house and it took quite a while for the tomatoes to spring back from that action, my zucchini and cucumber did not survive.

I started my 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training in June and it was super intense. The kids were basically shifted around from me to Charlie to friends and family for the whole month. I missed Steves last day of school which really killed me, we usually go out to his favorite restaurant with my Dad and Step Mom and then get ice cream to start off the summer. I was in a Kundalini class chanting weird words for 2 hours in Seattle that day.
However, teacher training taught me a lot about myself and it was amazing; I made some friends, Kelly and Julie, that I never would have met just in my day to day life and I'm so lucky that I have them now. And whats better than Charlie saying to me after Day 8 of me being gone for 12 hours a day, "I know you do a lot and run our lives, but you really do a lot. I couldn't do any of what I'm doing without you."
I just smiled and massaged my 3rd eye.

After TT we packed it in and vacationed in Sun Lakes with the Burdick's which I wrote about in 3 entertaining installments, I would put a link to those but I dont know how.

I signed up for a half-marathon in October so I was putting up some serious miles on the treadmill at the Y, while the kids played in their respective play areas.
Steve developed a crush on the girl running the adventure zone.
When he was the only kid in there I would come in and see them sitting on the floor talking animatedly about Harry Potter.
She left at the end of the summer and Steve was noticeably upset.
I started training in the afternoons with Jessica and Taylor and while we were running stadiums I felt stab of pain in my shin.
"You guys, I think I just did some serious damage."
I waited for another month to really asses the situation.

Summer got to attend her first Mariners Game. It was through Charlies old job and we got to sit outside and have a little picnic, there were also games for the kids. It was wet and rainy and very slippery. After we had gotten our fill of hot dogs we went over and Steve got hooked on a pitching game. All of a sudden, there was a bunch of commotion behind me. A boy had slipped and hit his head, then had a seizure. There were medics and security there in lightning speed, they strapped him onto a stretcher and wheeled him out of there with his parents running behind. It was a very intense 5 minutes. The boy was ok, but they encouraged the children to walk after that. And when I say encouraged, I mean no one was to run. Period.
We mosied on down to our seats eventually and sat directly behind the president of the company and his family. I was forced to make small talk with the wife who asked me "what neighborhood I lived in" to which I replied, puzzled "What do you mean?" then it dawned on me that she thought I lived in Seattle, and then I felt like an idiot.
Summer and Steve were painfully bored and we left early.

I heard about The Washington Arboretum and immediately felt that we must go. It was wonderful and gorgeous and right in the middle of Seattle.Who knew? Steve discovered his 'Old Man' schtick there and hasnt let it go since. I did as many obligatory yoga poses as I could, Summer peed outside, and we found the totem. It was a beautiful day.

Charlie and I ditched the kids the next weekend and hiked up to Monte Cristo, which we had done before with the kids and a bunch of friends but didnt make it to the top because Summer was hysterically crying, which again, I wrote about but again, I dont know how to put a link in.
Sans children it was awesome, it was blazingly hot but the nice thing about the trail is that its mostly in the shade. We brought our big lab, Goose, with us for the 8 mile hike and thought we were doing him a favor by getting him out of the house and we even brought him snacks in our pack.
Little did we know that with him living the pampered life he does that he would end up immobile for the next 3 days.
The pads on his feet literally scraped off and on the last mile he sat down and refused to get back up. Charlie tried to carry him on his shoulders but Goose is a 90 lb, lanky beast of a dog. We had to encourage him the rest of the way and give him plenty of breaks.
We carried him to the truck when we got to the road and carried him inside the house where he laid in one spot for days. It was horrible and we felt like assholes and we have not taken him on a hike since.
One Sunday morning, we agreed to a hike Barlow Point with the whole family.

The hike was 90 degrees straight up and I had been feeling the pains of a bladder infection before we started. When we finally emerged to the top of the hike, I was fully aware that I was in throes of a serious bladder infection. I had to pee really, really bad but there was a lady up at the top with her dog and Summer randomly decided to be super chatty, which never, ever happens, and prolonged her lunch to talk, while I squirmed in pain.
I didn't agree to any more hiking.

We crammed so much fun into this summer; Burke Museum,car shows, the pool, countless parks, splash pads, the library, bakeries, beaches, Kids Mueseums, petting zoos, friends houses, gardening, yoga, reading. We discovered Costco and the pizza and how much we love it among countless other things.

The end of the Summer was near but we had one more big excursion to take before school started.

Lake Chelan with Susie, Shannon and Trey. They booked this beautiful house overlooking the lake with a pool. It was an amazing way to close out summertime. We even rented a boat and now will never not rent a boat when were over there.I also bought 20 pounds of Honeycrisp apples and we had apples at every meal for a month.