September is Just Around the Corner

 

Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them.

 

At the Gun Show

Labor Day usually marks the end of summer for many people.  I think we’ve all been conditioned with that.  It used to be when the kids started back to school vacations were over and so was summer.  However, when we lived in Texas schools started back again the first part of August.  It's still very hot in Texas in August.  Summer definitely wasn't over.  The vacation part of it might have been over but not the hot days.

The Pacific Northwest is known for late summers.  Nice summer weather really doesn’t start to arrive until sometime around the middle of July.  August usually brings the hotter days and September is usually pretty nice.  This last weekend the weather was only near perfect but the people I spent it with were really perfect.  

We had another family gathering.  We tend to have a lot of those during the summer.  This time even Justin was back.  The only one missing from our family outing was Terry.  He is still in Arizona with his family.  Eventually, he’ll board that plane and head north again … eventually.  He's thinking once his father gets settled again he'll head back for a few days.  Besides there are enough people coming in right now that chaos is in the air.  When they head back home, he may head back to Arizona or maybe just get the wheels on the motorhome moving.  I'm sure most of you know how this works.   This definitely is not the time of year to be in Arizona anyway.  The best time to be there is winter … not summer when temperatures soar above the 100 degree mark.

Getting ready for the games

Just posing

 

Saturday started off with a trip to the Gun Show.  We didn’t buy a thing.  It was something to do so we went.  We even drove through the outlet parking lot in Centralia but none of the stores grabbed us so we kept going.  It was a stop at Joann’s and a stop at Michael’s.  We had taken two cars.  The boys were in one and the girls were in another.  Sometimes this works best and other times … well, not so much.  This was one of those times it just worked best.

<<-- The black smudges under his eyes were self inflicted with charcoal ... to look the part of BBQ King!

Justin had asked his mom to fix one of his absolutely favorite meals while home on leave … Rouladen.  We all love rouladen.

An intermission in Saturdays’ activity was taken so she could cook and the rest of us could eat.  As usual … it was delicious.  Once dinner was over a few card games were set up at Tammi’s place. We had a group playing a game of “Magic” and another group playing a game of “Spades”.  I'm sure I was the only reason they played Spades because I love the game and don’t play Magic. However, they humored me.

Sunday wasn’t much different. We were back at eating and playing cards again.  This time Justin was in charge of the barbecue.  The rest of us were either in charge of buying the food, eating the food or cleaning up after.  It was a perfect day.

More cards were played and then three took off to run a few miles.  The rest of us let them do it.  Why spoil their enjoyment if we tagged along.  Sabrina usually runs about 7 miles at a time and Sandi is running a couple miles with her.  Justin runs with them but part of his personal workout usually includes a gym and a pool where he normally swims for two miles.  Don't you feel the pain  -- running miles and swimming miles at a time ???  Ugh!!  I hurt just thinking about it.

Sandi, Justin and Sabrina (even though she never comments she's just about my most faithful reader.)

‘Tis life on the road.