Hey, look! We finally got a bed frame to put our mattress in!! YAY! We decided on the Nyvoll frame from Ikea in light gray. Grant put it together last night and after sleeping on the floor for over a year, it was amazing to sleep "so close to the ceiling," in the words of Grant. :) I love it. The part that I'm not loving is that our super cool, attic/loft, slanted walls bedroom is so terribly bare. I just haven't known what to do with it or even where to begin. If you guys have some good ideas, please feel free to share. Pinterest links are welcome.

Went to Nebraska for my little sister's wedding weekend!
Watched Chelsea become a wife and gained an awesome new brother.
Got to be a co-matron-of-honor with my also-pregnant twin sister. (due just 2 weeks after me!)
Saw my husband win the 3rd Annual Camp Shetek Maintenance Man Olympics.
Grant turned 30!!!!!!
Made an orange vanilla cake. I tweaked this recipe and it was weird. Next time I'll just follow the recipe.
Went to 2 more doctor appointments about Grant's eye.
Did a bunch of back to school shopping.
Washed Grant's entire teacher wardrobe.
Read a couple library books.
Grocery shopping. Lots. Because we haven't eaten from our own kitchen all summer.
Moved from camp back to our house in town!!
Bought gladiolas at the farmers' market for our homecoming.
Unpacked. Unpacked. Unpacked.
Sorted through baby/toddler clothing and cleaned out ALL THE CLOSETS.
Found out that our egg supplier we've loved over the past few years is getting out of the egg business. (Noooooo!) Working on finding a new source as I type this.
Made pickles.
Bought a bed! We've been sleeping on the floor for the past year!
Visited with family from California and celebrated more August birthdays.
Made it through another day with our water shut off by the city. (why is this so frequent???)
Went to the dentist and got a good report, although pregnancy makes my gums bleed like crazy.
Grew a nice 19-week baby bump!

Summer camp probably isn't the place you think to go for a 4-star meal, but I'm proud to tell you that Camp Shetek has a reputation for amazing, amazing food. My mother-in-law is the head chef and she could orchestrate delicious meals and beautiful plates with her eyes closed. We're famous for our homemade breads, chicken alfredo lasagna, fried ice cream, and legendary Camp Granola.

I thought I'd try to tell you what all we've been eating this summer, we pretty much at the same meals on a rotation each week. But of course, we never got tired of them :) It's hard to get tired of food that someone else is making for you! So, here are some meal ideas from the Camp Shetek kitchen.

Hey girl,
You're the best. You really grew up a whole lot this summer. When we moved out to camp, I still thought of you as a baby. But your daddy and I have realized lately (especially seeing you in the tub) that you are such a kid! New words come bursting out of you every day, although the syllables are often backwards, which is really cute. ("Stop!" is "Pots!" to you) Last night on the car ride into town you told us every time you saw a stop sign. That's the first time you've ever done anything like that. At bedtime now, you like to pray "Dear Jesus" and squeeze your eyes shut so tight. You always point out the little brown mole on my forearm and ask, "Uhh, ball?" I tell you, "Oh, that's just mommy's mole." And then you say, "Oh." and giggle, like you made an awesome joke. You and I do this probably 15 times in a row, over and over, and you think it's hilarious every time!

Your hair is almost always in a pony tail now and your legs and feet are summery brown. Your fingernails grow like weeds and are hard to keep clean. You're tough. You've skinned your knees on the sidewalk countless times this summer, but you always get back up and want to keep going. Your little limbs are stretching and filling out so much that you feel heavy sometimes. You can hit a ball like a champ and are trying so hard to learn how to jump. And you're all into snacks and Curious George and Elmo and playing outside, just like a real, honest to goodness toddler.

You loved to play with your cousins Josie, Symone, Chloe, Thaddeus, Winston, and Atticus all summer during camp. And now you love to gently pat baby Filippa on the arm, too. You have so many friends out here at camp (Justin, Sterling, Ryan, and all the kitchen girls), but they moved home yesterday and we are really going to miss them.

Thanks for being so loving. You are good about saying you're sorry, helping Mommy, cleaning up any messes you make, and putting away the things that you get out. You're also dependable for kisses, hugs, pats, and sweet things in general. You're our good little girl, and we're working on learning so many things together. It's been the best ever to watch and help you grow this summer.
Loves,
Mom

This stuff smells so good to me. It brings back memories of my first summer working at camp! And it really works great, too. You can use it on anything and everything.

After finishing the laundry and bathrooms, I'd head back to the apartment where Grant and Hadley and I stay for the summer. Grant would usually need to be working on producing the camp video for the week until about 11:00 pm each night, so Hadley and I would just play and hang out until it was her bed time. Most of the time, I didn't have energy by the end of the day to do a lot, so I read quite a bit and stayed pretty low key. Oh, and almost daily, I'd need to make a run over to the staff fridge for a snack at 9 o'clock-ish. (this baby gets hungry!)