3 hours later

Thank goodness it's cooling off. In the meantime, we're hunkering down in the basement for the night. And that, of course, is much too exciting for Harrison as he's still awake at 10:00 pm!!

Hot enough for ya?

Heat wave

Oh man ~ I feel like I am back in Southern California. (minus the smog, of course) It is SO hot up here right now. Today is officially the hottest day on record in Seattle. http://www.kirotv.com/weather/20191266/detail.html We spent the evening yesterday throwing water balloons at each other and running through the sprinklers. We've been eating lots of popsicles. And we hit the local wading pools twice so far this week. Tonight we're planning to sleep in the basement where it's considerably cooler. Hope you're keeping cool wherever you are.

Dempsey Family Cabin

We went to our friend's family cabin a week ago on Hood Canal. It was only us two moms and our 3 kids. We spent one night and it was lots of fun! Harrison loves playing with his buddies, Owen and Clare (or Clara as he calls her). The kids had fun 'fighting fires' in the woods with Owen & Clare's Nana. They even got to ride in the back of her pickup truck. Remember those days?? I remember going to Lake Tahoe and watching the fireworks on the 4th of July and then piling into the back of the truck to drive home.

And speaking of Lake Tahoe... I spoke with my dad this weekend and they had another bear break-in at the cabin! He says this is about 5 times now. They pry open the door and then head to the kitchen to help themselves to some food. This time they ate dog food, ice cream and syrup. Boy, they sure are living the life. When I was younger we would have so many people at the cabin that we'd set up tents outside for overflow. These days I wouldn't do that. And before we left we always put the metal trash can out by the street with a rock on top of the lid. That would surely keep the animals out!! I laugh at it now. They now have these metal containers where you lock your trash in so the bears can't get to it.

Toilet training

Today's visitor

This is what we found today when we looked out of my bedroom window. When he saw us he ran to the back of the yard but was frightened by Harrison's swing set. Then he came back towards the house and lingered for a bit.

Our holiday weekend

We had a beautiful holiday weekend up here. It was hot - in the high 80s. Once again we walked in our neighborhood's 4th of July kids parade. This year Harrison rode his 'tricked out' trike.

And once again our friends, the Cudes, showed up in colors other than red, white and blue. Are they Canadian? What's wrong with them? Here is Mike trying to redeem himself by waving flags while wearing a green shirt. I was waiting all day for him to say 'check out my flag underwear!' but it never came. He really had no red, white or blue on. Here's hoping they'll dress more appropriately next year.

This weekend also brought a change on the homefront... our kitchen walls are no longer yellow!! Yea! It was a long weekend. I painted everyday. There is still a bit more to do but we'll post before and after photos on here soon, I hope.

It's aLison NOT aLLison

So we finally made it onto the Redfin website. Unfortunately, they didn't include Harrison. He was in most of the pictures and in some of them he actually had his mouth closed (unlike this photo taken at dinner that same night).

It's pretty cool to be on the website. We're big supporters of Redfin. They're great at what they do. They're not so great at spelling though. There's nothing I dislike more than having my name misspelled. Click here to see us on the site: http://www.redfin.com/home

But I guess they're not the only ones lately having a difficult time spelling my name correctly. This is a photo from inside the cover of a book I received this year for Mother's Day. It's from my dad and his wife... of nearly 30 years!! How did this happen???

UPDATE: The spelling of my name has been corrected!! It's nice to know people in high places -- thanks Febe!!!!