SEVEN

The sum of any two opposite sides on a standard six-sided die. The colors in the rainbow, according to Sir Isaac Newton. Dwarfs. Years in Tibet. Harry Potter books. Notes in a scale. Days in a week. Continents. The perfect number.

It's hard to believe, but as of July 5th we have been married seven years. What a wild ride it has been.

On our date out to Elkins on Priest Lake, we reminisced by thinking through the highlights of each of our married years...

Year one: We were both students at Whitworth. Jono played football. We worked at the admissions office (giving tours & planning student visits), and shared a car (91 ford escort that we still own and love. It will be a tragic day when the "family wagon" finally calls in quits) without cell phones. For spring break we road-tripped to California to visit family. Jono graduated in May.

Year two: Jono worked construction for the year and stressed out frequently while taking the GRE & applying to grad school. I student taught in the fall and went to Thailand for Jan-term. Jono interviewed at a few different PT schools and we chose CU. Four days after I graduated from Whitworth, we moved.

Year three: Jono started PT school at CU and I worked at Starbucks for the summer before getting my first teaching job: 3rd grade in Evergreen, CO. We hiked our first fourteeners and spent a lot of time in Estes Park. We took Jono's dream spring break trip through the national parks of Utah, Arizona & Colorado.

Year four: Jonathan was a second-year student at CU and I moved to 4th grade (and had a dream class). A crazy snow storm in Denver before Christmas break made our road trip home quite the adventure. Jono decided to work as a ski instructor so we skied for free all winter & fell in love with it! We took a few random/wedding trips to DC, NY, Spokane, and Georgia.

Year five: We moved out of our wonderful downtown Denver neighborhood to Frisco for Jonathan's Vail clinical. We lived in a ski condo and I commuted to Evergreen. We spent Christmas in Colorado with my family before heading to Australia, where we spent four months, for Jonathan's last clinical. Jono became Dr. Hook and we moved the next day to Spokane.

Year six: Jono started his first job! We lived with my in-laws while looking for teaching jobs/houses. I started teaching 6th grade for the first time and (oops) three days after school started I found out we were pregnant. A month later we moved into our first home. In the spring CLARA was born!

Year seven: We settled into life as a family of three and watched Clara grow & change.

Jonathan asked what my favorite "year" of marriage has been. I said it was a close call, but maybe year #4. Then I asked him and he said year #7. So then I changed my answer to #7 too.

July the 4th

This year was one of the first years we haven't spent the 4th of July at the lake. Instead, we gathered at my parent's house for some BBQ, badminton, and pool time. My brother Dev, sister-in-law Larissa and sweet little Everett were there, as well as four of my cousins, my in-laws, my aunt & uncle, and my granddad, all of whom we never see enough.

The weather was slightly disappointing that day, so it ended up for the better that we stuck around. The heated pool was nice - I know for a fact that we wouldn't have taken Clara into the lake!

I can't believe I never captured a better shot of the Claranator in one of her three 4th of July outfits (none of which I bought. Thank you, hand me downers). The first was a blue & white star dress that she wore to church (which she conveniently puked on). The second was this outfit (which she pooped through - as you can see - the bottoms are missing. That hasn't happened in months).

The third and final outfit was the skirt/red top combo. And Jonathan made fun of me for bringing all three ;).

But the most exciting part about the 4th? Clara took her first steps!!! Well, I should qualify that, slightly. These steps weren't exactly initiated by the little lady. We placed her in "prime walking position". BUT, she did take about six steps in a row without collapsing, which is a huge first for the Claranator. Now we just need to work on her getting up on her own and wanting to do it herself ;).

Vote for KKI

So you probably know that I love Krochet Kids International for many reasons. And it's not just because my brother-in-law & his friends founded the nonprofit. They are doing great things in Uganda, making a difference in the lives of women and their families. One person at a time.

They are in the running for a $250,000 award from Chase Community Giving on Facebook. The four runners up receive $100K. Wouldn't it be awesome if KKI won!? The problem is they are currently in 11th place. They need to move up in the ranks and they can only move up if they receive more votes!

Right now a blind cat rescue is ahead of them. I am not joking. You can go and check it out if you don't believe me. I know that blind cats are in need of love and care, but are you kidding me? Cats or people? Please take a second today and click on the link below.

Vote by clicking here and check out my sister's blog for a video & some more info.

Fest of Hoops

Today concluded Hoopfest 2010. All four gentleman of team Mose in Socks made it out of the weekend without injuries. And there were no brawls (not that our team is a brawl-initiating bunch - it's just that brawls & Hoopfest tend to go hand in hand). Therefore it was a successful weekend of hoops.

They played well too. After winning both games yesterday and their first game this morning, the boys lost in the semi-finals. They had a chance to redeem themselves and end up in the championship game, but winded up losing to the same team they dominated this morning. Which is just one lesson to be found at Hoopfest: you cannot look past any team because anyone can win if one person gets hot. Other Hoopfest lessons include get on the good side of your court monitor, and if someone looks scary they probably are, and being a good basketball player does not mean you are a good hoopfest player (the opposite of that statement is true as well). So, lessons were learned. Battles were fought. And the boys did well. It was a great weekend.

And the spectators had a lovely time too...

Tonight was one of the first nights it's actually felt like summer around here. And it's about time. These are the kind of days I want to push the pause button on life. Slow down, spinning earth. Rotate a little bit slower around the sun, pretty please. I'm just fine with Clara staying 13 1/2 months for a bit longer. And with slow summer Sunday evenings at the park lasting a really long time...

Visit with the McCoys

This week my dear friend, Erin, and her husband, Jake, came to visit. They've spent the last two years of their lives in Ecuador in the Peace Corps. It had been way too long since we'd last seen them. In fact, we realized that the last time the four of us spent time together was during the crazy snow storm in Denver, 2006 (I was happy to find this event documented on Wikipedia. Got to love that). They happened to get to our place the night before the blizzard began. We were literally snowed in for two days before we made our way out of the five-foot drifts (thanks in large part to Jake & Jono, massive shoveling, and the good ol' subaru forester).

But this time there were no blizzards. Just great conversation. Walks. Time at the park. Meals together. A little shopping. Golf (for the boys). And relaxation. It was great.

Erin and Jake have come to the conclusion that Clara is very much like their cat. She sleeps often, rubs up against you while crawling, waits at closed doors in anticipation, occasionally pukes from eating too fast/overeating, and purrs to show satisfaction.

Hopefully this little girl will learn to walk soon. Her knees are getting awfully dirty.

Father's Day Weekend

This was the second year that father's day has involved celebrating Jonathan as well as our dads. And it was Jonathan's request that we get away to Priest Lake for some of the weekend. Now I vow that I will not post about Priest Lake 500 times this summer. But I guess that will be challenging to do since we have quite a few plans this summer that involve the place. So maybe you'll see more pictures, but I won't go on and on and on about it. You already know how I feel. If you don't, you can reference one of these posts...one, two, three from last summer.

So the three of us spent two nights at the lake. It was the perfect combination of relaxation & activity. We had scones & eggs for breakfast on Saturday, read in our swimsuits on the deck of the cabin as Clara napped in the morning, went on a long hike and had lunch, napped on the deck in our swimsuits as Clara took her afternoon nap, played on the beach in the afternoon, enjoyed a salmon dinner, and had Tamrack ice cream for dessert. I'm pretty sure any combination of food, naps, books, adventure, sunshine, and ice cream make for a great day as far as I'm concerned.

Clara could not get enough of the water...

Trying to push away from her dad so she could get more of the water:

The hike...

Playing in the grass...

Time for swimming!

One of the best parts was that the TV wasn't working, so we turned off our cell phones too and just read, talked and breathed that lovely mountain air. Am I the only one who goes tech-crazy after a while? (as I sit here and compose my blog...) And I finished one of the best books I've read in a long time: Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls. So good. I highly recommend it.

On Sunday we woke up to sunshine and had breakfast at Hills to celebrate the Jonnycakes before making the trek back to town.

We got back just in time to watch both our dads perform in a father's day quartet at their church. Now how many people can say that they watched both their dad and their father-in-law sing together in a quartet on father's day? I'm guessing not many ;). Maybe this is the right time to ask the question, how many of your dads were recently inducted to the Spokane Softball Hall of Fame? Nobody?? I am proud to say that my dad was. Pretty impressive, huh? And dad, if you're reading this, I am not making fun of you. I will never make a hall of fame list, in any regard, so I am just jealous.

In all seriousness, I am blessed beyond measure to have a wonderful dad, an amazing second dad (father-in-law), and a great husband who is also the world's best dad to the Claranator. Yeah for dads. And I wonder how many "best in the world" references were made in Father's Day cards across the country? I'm pretty sure it was my go to line each year in all my cards. And I'm pretty sure I used it this year too.

That's enough for now. Happy Father's Day, fathers.