1st day of school!!

Signe - 5th grade, Gunnar - 3rd grade, and Zane - kindergarten.
Karsten wants to join them too!

Texturing walls, finally

After spending my summer off and on filling in, smoothing and sanding the many dings, dents, and cracks on our downstairs living room wall, we rented a texturing machine and Nick sprayed the walls. We borrowed a friend's paint sprayer to use later this week since everything is already taped up. With the previous smooth surface every flaw on the wall was obvious; I'm hoping this will give the family room a fresh new look.

One more picture

Bonnie texted this cute pic to me this evening.
Violet McIntosh, Beatrice McIntosh, Elizabeth Evans, Eleanor Evans, Greta Sentz, and below Louisa McIntoth and Signe holding Louie.

More birthday pics

Brothers, cousins, and friends were at the party (including cousin Louie, who recently celebrated his own 1st birthday while we were in Oregon). Before bed we hit Baskin Robbins for little scoops.
Although Zane doesn't really eat ice cream. He wears it.

Signe's 10th birthday

Signe spent the morning enjoying her presents: building a huge Lego set, polishing her nails with some sparkly bling, wearing her watch, and riding her much-needed new (to her) bike. Her Seahawks shirt inspired jealousy in her younger brothers.
She had a few classmates (with lots of their siblings included too) gather at the pool this afternoon for a party. There was a blustery storm a few hours earlier that downed a bunch of trees around town, but luckily it cleared up while taking much of the morning's smoky haze with it.
Signe also delegated to Gunnar and Zane the job of carrying the cupcakes. As you can see in the picture, that did not end well. But they were eaten without complaint.

Siblings at north Oregon coast.

North Head lighthouse, Signe, nervous Gunnar.

(l-r) Karsten, Zane, Pacific Ocean.

At the wreck of the SS Peter Iredale.

Seaside surf.

Surfing and boogie boarding at Seaside, OR, south end.

Buried boys at the beach...

Mixologist Bobbie

Nick's favorite pic from our anniversary date.

Meanwhile back at the Sentz house...

Bonnie and Rob were very gracious to take on 9 kids for two days. Our kids were super excited to stay at their cousin's house, and apparently spent a lot of time today in the backyard in the sprinkler and trampoline... hence the little boys in their undies. They also helped to make homemade marshmallows. Bonnie thought it was a rather sad but cute commentary when Zane told her this morning he was "house sick" (homesick).
Signe was a little disappointed we missed her concert this afternoon after a week of church music camp, but hopefully we can hear a recording soon.

Biking in Sandpoint

We rode on various trails near the lake today, probably over 20 miles total. And then we returned to the beach and went swimming off the dock.

Wedding anniversary in Sandpoint

For our 12th anniversary we left the kids for an overnighter with the Sentzes to explore more of Northern Idaho. Sandpoint is a great little town, not unlike Hood River with its touristy shops, boutiques, and brewpubs, and large waterfront park and beaches. Lake Pend Oreille is beautiful; we look forward to bringing the kids back for camping, hiking, biking, and side trips to Silverwood amusement park.

The fireplace: project 2.5

The previous owners put some ugly boards around the downstairs fireplace as trim (some things just don't make sense), with gaps in the middle for the wall trim. We can only guess it was partly to hide ceiling texture sprayed over the top half of the fireplace, since the owners obviously didn't cover it up when they textured. It looks so much better without the trim. Although because of a slight gap behind the fireplace and all the glue left sticking to the brick (Nick was NOT happy to deal with pulling that off), we might put back very thin decorative trim along the sides.
These bricks are also a rosy-pink color, not my fave. So after staring at Pinterest posts a good long while I am seriously considering white-washing the brick. Painting brick is a daunting permanent proposition, but I think white-washing might look pretty cool, and still maintain some of the look and color of the original brick while toning back the pinky-ness.

More downstairs "before" pics

Although I should have taken the pictures BEFORE I pulled off all the trim. I forgot. When I removed the trim in the middle of the wall it pulled off chunks of sheet rock, so I got lots more to patch. Woo-Hoo.

Summer project #2

Now that the kitchen is (mostly) done and we are back upstairs, I am finally working on making the downstairs an inviting place to hang out. While green is pretty much my favorite color, I have detested this olivy green bottom with the stark white top half since we moved in. But since my brother lived downstairs for a couple years, I did nothing to change it. So I spent some time just before we went to Oregon for the 4th pulling out the bulky baseboard and trim pieces around the middle of the wall. Then after we returned I started to work on patching 45 years' worth of holes, cracks, and dings.