the Graham Cracker House

As the summer sun slowly sets behind us and we welcome with open hearts a wonderful fall, I'd like to take a moment to share some of the accomplishments and lessons learned in our little family during the summer of 2014 ('cause I'm not making a blog post for each event!)

Learned to whip egg whites.  To those of you amazing chefs and homemakers and avid cooks out there this may not be a big deal. But it was a first for me. I whipped those egg whites (with a little help from Gabe, and some you tube tutorial) to go in a delectable homemade cheesecake for Bjorn's birthday.  I would even do it again.

Bjorn has met every single one of my 44 cousins. I think we're at 44.  Counting both sides of the family, but not spouses.  The big "wahoo" about this (besides the fact that there are 44ish of them) is that they live in many different states scattered across the US, and that he is the ONLY in-law to have ever accomplished this task.  The culminating figure was Brandon (#2), who happened to swing by from Minnesota for the wedding of cousin #12 (ish)  this summer.    (I am #4 BTW)

We survived the longest road trip our family has ever taken. Driving from Anacortes, WA, all the way home to West Valley City, UT.  14.5 hours.  (Gabe and I had flown up the Washington a lot earlier than Bjorn could get time off work for).  I wasn't too worried about it. Gabriel always does great in the car. And I don't mind waking up at 5 am to get the drive done in one day.  I did, however, forget to factor in the fact that I would be 26 weeks pregnant. This meant I was NOT able to get comfortable enough to SLEEP in the car. At all.  After my 4 hours stint of driving through Seattle, I spent the rest of the road trip entertaining Gabriel and wishing I was sleeping.  I even made Bjorn pull over at a rest stop in middle of no where Idaho just so I could lay out a blanket and lie down for 10 minutes.  I'm sure future road trips will be fine. I'll just remember not to go more than 10 hours when I am over 25 weeks prego.  New rule.

All three of us made good use of our 7-peaks pass of all passes. Meaning, we got them in time to get a good deal, redeemed them in time, and went enough times to 7-peaks (and hollywood connections and Tracy Aviary) to make it totally worth it.  Even though 7 peaks SLC is pretty lame.  For our last trip there we splurged and rented a tube.  Gabe fell asleep in my lap (after much finagling to get everyone comfortable) as we rocked with the waves in the tidal pool.  good times.

...And Gabriel has taken six airplane trips, all completely free.  On his last flight the crew and entire plane of passengers even sang him happy birthday and commented that he will never fly again- free.  This I know all too well. And with two kids.... it might be a while before I make a frequent habit of flying again.

I am also proud that Bjorn's family has started a family newsletter- with a little tiny nudging and encouragement and explanation on my part.  It is running strong for 3 months now. I take some credit for that.

And I guess the fact that Baby #2 is alive and well and moving around tons and probably happy and healthy should count for something as well.

What a summer!