(Almost) Fall, Y'all. Plus, A Cat.

We bade a final farewell to summer at the lake with the Blackledges on Labor Day, as has become our accidental custom.

And then an even sadder goodbye to Jayne.

We made a quick trip to NC for the retirement of friends-who-are-family

and to see these hooligans and their menagerie in Southern Pines,

Upon our return, Finley broke her ankle (jacking around) and Seth won Parent of the Year for taking two kids and a dog to the ER,

Ford got promoted at swim school and we celebrated with a trip to Pistone's,

and, for no apparent reason, we got a cat.

Her name is Daisy, and we rescued her because the kids wanted a pet of their own and because she was going to be put down due to an apparent reluctance of people to adopt a black cat in any proximity to Halloween. People are the worst.

So is this cat, who eats the dog's food in front of him, scratches the furniture, and wakes everyone up at 5am.

We have desperately needed a weekend at home to recover from allthethings, and we're currently enjoying one. We vacuumed lots of animal fur, did 60 loads of laundry, and had date day with these goofballs. Which included carousels, sushi, McFlurries, and a very dangerous set of escalators at the Mosaic Target.

(Some of us also stole Finley's crutches, and reminisced about shirtless golfing with friends.)

Others spent Sunday working hard:

Although our  style is currently cramped by crutches and trips to PetSmart, we're enjoying school and (slightly) cooler climes and having everybody home for a weekend for a change. Cheers to fall, y'all!

New Dogs, Old Friends, and GWL.

It's been a month since my last update, which is maybe the longest I have ever skipped. (Picture is Finley's thoughts after a one mile run with Mom-- substantially similar to mine on being behind.)

But what a month it has been...! 

Somewhere in there, Ford appointed himself the Guy Who Backs in All Bass Boats. Mostly, this is  unsolicited.

This month 1/3 of the kids' NYC BFFs came to visit,

and we farewelled summer with an epic trip to Alaska. 

In addition to all the usual Alaska headliners,

we lucked out and got to piggyback on Missy and Brittany's lottery-winning long weekend in Halibut Cove

 

where we paddled past otters and porpoises to hike to glacial lakes 

and went tidepooling and roasted marshmallows with new friends. 

There are really no words for our epic getaway to the 49th state (or this incredible souvenir hat). More photos are here:

We came back to a world crumbling in the most heartbreaking way, and I worked around the clock on things I wished I had only seen in the news.
 
The kids started school, and it was adorable. They love it, even if the "back to school" adjustment period is a real and terrible thing for kids who have essentially been shoeless and feral for more than a year. 

Seth came back from California with a top 10 finish and a new dog, having detoured to pick up the long-awaited service animal in Utah.

Hunter is the largest and worst behaved service dog on the planet. He eats stuffed animals and any food on the counters, jumps on the kids and the beds, runs away at every opportunity, and greets me every morning on my way to the gym from his adopted perch on the couch he is forbidden to get near. He can't sit still on a kayak, so he cannot accompany Seth to fishing tournaments.

But Seth adores him, and the kids are coming around. I am assuming that at some point I will find his terrible behavior endearing. (A happy occasion which has not yet occurred.) 

We are insanely lucky to have Jayne here now, who runs herd on the dog and the new-to-routines school kids. 

She also pulled off the Olympics of grandparenting, and helped me navigate Great Wolf Lodge with kids, dog, and Ryan offspring. 

When I had to cancel our long-awaited plans to go to a bluegrass festival in Maine thanks to work demands, I was looking for something else with which to bribe the kids. Natalie told me she was taking Tommy and Mikayla- our kids' lifelong BFFs- to Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, and I almost immediately threw in the towel on 6 successful years of avoiding GWL. 

It was as wonderful/ terrible as one would imagine.

The kids were over the moon to see their friends, and an exhausting "back to school celebration" was had by all. 

Cheers to back-to-school and grandparents and booster shots and dogs who are currently sleeping on the couch. May we all navigate the new schoolyear with this kind of enthusiasm.