SUGAR HIGH

Another successful ice cream social! Even thought the 10-day forecast looked sketchy, the rain managed to stay away and it was all systems go!

We had a great group of people, including about 10 high-energy little kids --- who I think truly appreciate the ice cream social.

This is half of the best topping bar ever!
This year - an ENTIRE table just for sprinkles!


Aaron made mini-donuts, (yes, donuts), mini-cookies, and mini-marshmallows. He likes mini.

SOOOO CUTE!



Anner made krumkake and cut the circles into 4ths to get cute little cookies. We noticed that some people just took the krumkake, put some homemade whip cream on it and then cover it with toppings. They skipped the ice cream all together! Genius!




New this year was homemade caramel apple topping. Big hit and really tasty! We noticed quite a few people eating it straight or with some peaches. ...because caramel makes everything better!


Some parents metered the ice cream out for their kids. Smart thinkin!


There's no end to the ice cream sundae creativity.

PEACHES!!!

Fresh from the orchard! Aaron surprised me a couple of days ago by buying 20 pounds of fresh peaches from the other side of the state!!! He said he used some of his bday money from my mom and Mary. Thanks Minnesotans!!

I started "putting them up" with five decent bags (quarts???) in the freezer tonight.

Aaron's a smart fella...he knows this means fresh peach crisp in the dead of winter. YUMMY!

The rest? Well, they are totally irresistible so we've been munching away all we can and maybe we'll need to make some pancake syrup or something like that. The big ice cream social is rescheduled for this Saturday so perhaps some of the best peaches ever can be in the best toppings bar ever!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AARON AND SANTA FE

Aaron and Santa Fe share a birthday!! Turns out Santa Fe is 361 years older than Aaron. We had a great time celebrating his birthday with Ed and Brigit -- who are moving away from Seattle (sniff, sniff) and then jetting off to Santa Fe.

Santa Fe claims to be the second biggest art market, second to NYC. Who knew? We was some amazing art and had to buy some for ourselves.

We also did a lot of wedding activities. The wedding was amazing and really reflected the personality of the bridge and groom. It's always extra-fun to attend weddings like that.

We're home again and trying to get back into the swing of things. Here are some pictures!


Aaron and his second birthday cake. Yup! He got TWO cakes this year. This one is a single-layer version of the cake he grew up with. There's still a piece in the freezer that he's saving. The other cake was made with an entire bottle of maple syrup. He loved it. Any why not? It was ALL sugar!


In Santa Fe there's "Canyon Road" which is a long stretch of really nice galleries. We spent more than a day walking up and down it, trying to take it all in. We took lots of pictures of the doors, flowers, and art.


Sunflowers on Canyon Road.


Street in the center of Santa Fe, near the Plaza. (Anner loved the Pop gallery.)

These three pictures were taken in Bandeleir National Monument. There were a few miles of trails and you could climb up into some Pueblos. The last one was 140 feet straight up. It was incredibly beautiful. We spent the morning of the wedding there. It was about an hour north of Santa Fe.

After we did our hike, we had to hurry back to hotel. We got home a little late, showered and changed in half-an-hour and then hurried to the wedding site. This time, just 45 mins north of Santa Fe.

All the hurrying was worth it. Bandelier was amazing and the wedding was amazing. We're glad we could do both.




The Wedding!

Driving to the wedding spot. We followed a school bus full of wedding-goers.

Anner and Aaron. Behind us there's a weird sculpture looking thing. Turns out it's a fireworks machine!!! A wedding with fireworks! I l-o-v-e-d the fireworks! HolyMoly that was cool!


Aaron and the Groom chatting. Drew's suit was made for him in India. Pretty swank, eh? Why is Aaron wearing a scarf? Well, as it turns out, Aaron was not only the jeweler, but also an usher. Drew gave all the ushers scarves from the World Cup to wear. It looked pretty cool all the guys and their sport scarves. It was a fun and personal touch.


You know I love the flowers. 'nuf said.


Here comes an usher! So handsome...



Sunset in Santa Fe.
Ba-bye Santa Fe. Happy birthday.
And Happy birthday to my honey...

No Joy in Mudville

Sadly, there was no choice but to postpone the annual ice cream social. The last week of July and first week of August are statistically the driest, warmest weeks of the year. Unfortunately Mother Nature didn't read the memo.



Yesterday afternoon we had to make a choice. It had been cold and cloudy all day and the forecast said a 40% chance of rain on Saturday. Does Aaron go out shopping for the best ice cream toppings bar ever and hope the forecast is just plain wrong OR do we reschedule?? Finally at about 3pm we decide to postpone a few weeks and hope for better weather.

We were sad and out of sorts Friday night. It was our version of cancelling christmas morning. We were BUMMED OUT! We decided we needed a Plan B -- Le's go to the movies!! We sat on our couch, freezing (because it was so darned cold all day), and said "we should leave in 10 minutes". Then we both promptly fell asleep. Apparently the decision making took everything we had!! After our naps and watched tv and went to bed. I guess that was Plan C.


Totally freezing Friday night....nap time!

We woke up this morning to cool and cloudy. We were probably the only Seattleites happy to see the rains come. Our decision was vindicated! As it turned out Aaron's college friend Ben was in town so we went to lunch with him and his wife and friend. We had a GREAT time!!! Everything turned out just fine today.



Anner, Aaron, Ben, Karen

Mark your calendars, August 18th is the day!! Com'mon Sunshine!