Wow, what a busy summer it has been. We haven't had a free weekend to ourselves in two months, but its been so much fun we can't complain. The most exciting thing to happen is that Matt completed and successfully defended his doctoral project and graduated from Physical Therapy school!! He is now in the process of studying for national boards and waiting for his interim permit to come in so that he can start his job before he takes the boards.
Beyond that we have taken some trips, gone to a couple weddings and had guests. Luckily the weather has mostly cooperated with us, although the start of summer was rather cold, even if it wasn't rainy. But since July started the weather has steadily warmed and we have had hardly any rain to dampen our plans. Here are the summer highlights:
Matts brothers: Adam, Jon and Jeremy came to visit along with sister-in-law Tracy and nieces: Brynn and Elyse. Nate joined us for an evening as he was at a conference in Seattle the same weekend everyone was here. We missed Mandy and the girls, but we all had fun together. We went camping, hiking, explored Seattle, caught a Mariners game, and celebrated Regen's birthday.
Next came a trip to Bend, OR for the weekend of June 21 for some friends' wedding. It was a nice, quick trip to enjoy a little warm weather and a little putting green golf and a swimming pool. We also stopped by the Portland temple which Matt had never been to. Kenley liked the fountain best of all.
Kenley always looks like this when Aunt Missy tries to hold her.
Kenley also went to a friend's first birthday party. All the little girls wore white dresses so we could take cute pictures. Trying to get the pictures was another matter.
Right after that Matt drove to Utah to defend his project. He was able to check out what Sloan was up to at college in Provo and remember what single life was like. He decided to come home, so I guess it wasn't that great.
He came home for the 4th of July celebration. We took Kenley and Grandpa and Grandma Rehder to the Bainbridge Island parade. Kenley enjoyed this and everyone around us enjoyed watching her more than the actual parade. Regen and Grandma Pam had fun seeing who could collect the most candy. We are still eating it! Then we went to some friends for a great barbque and a fireworks show that riveled the professional ones in Seattle. It was fun!
The next weekend saw us heading back to Bend, OR this time for a weeks vacation with the Rehders and Regen's cousin Cherish and her family. That was a great trip and included some exciting highlights like Kenley's first innertubing trip down a river (she didn't drown, but lets see if she ever trusts Matt on a innertube again). We played more putt putt golf (Matt won, Regen did not), some hiking trips and jumping off rocks into the water.
A few days after we came home, we headed back to Oregon. This time to meet up with Grandma Ruth and Grandpa and Grandma Brandt and Aunt Ann. We also got to see Uncle Ben and Aunt Julie and their family. It was a quick trip, but fun to see them. We wish it could have lasted a little longer, but we understand how those things go.
We had a week's break and then this past weekend we were in Bellingham, WA for Darth and Missy's wedding. We had a great time seeing family and friends and celebrating with Darth and Missy. It was a beautiful wedding in a gorgeous setting on the waterfront. And even though the weather threatened to be a nuisance, it cooperated in the end and everyone had fun. Kenley impressed everyone with her dancing abilities and hopefully, we will have a copy of the wedding video to post here of her showing off.
So now its the begining of August and Kenley is wondering if she is ever going to get out of her carseat. But it has been lots of fun and we are excited for the rest of summer and what it promises to bring, including Kenley's first birthday! Love to everyone.
3 comments:
looks like you guys are having fun! tell matt to email rob because rob thinks he has died or something! those boys were never good at keeping in touch, i dont know why rob think he needs to hear from him now, but apparently he wants to know whats going on with matty and he is sick of me giving him the updates from the blog (he is anti blogs!) :)
take care and next time you guys wanna travel, come to AZ!
I love your blog! All the pictures are great, especially of Kenley of course :) I really liked the one with all the white dresses
it's ben a while since you have posted anything....i think it's time to..
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