Official Portrait

We got Evan's official school senior portrait yesterday:

 He is not a fan of a tux, but he sure does look good in one!

A Catch Up...

Last week was a whirlwind! Evan was inducted into the National Honor Society:

I think you can tell how thrilled he was to attend the ceremony. Dinner at Nomad after helped:

We also had some Halloween fun. My team embodied strong female Supreme Court Justices, although once of us was stick and had to be on a stick:

Brad and I enjoyed a date night passing our candy on Halloween:

We have it down to a system complete with a fire bowl. We love seeing all the kids, and we don't miss chasing kids.

I've also been doing a lot of reading. Book 33 gives the story behind the dragon bonding in one of my favorite series:

Book 34 was the next in the Throne of Glass series:

Sarah J Mass is a great author, and I am loving how these characters are developing!

 

He's a Senior!

Evan has never been one for doing things because they have always been done or being photographed, so his senior year is a new experience for me. He was not enthused about the idea of senior pictures, but he did concede that other people might want some. The compromise is we did a family trip to Duke Gardens and Issa was the photographer:

The other compromise is that he could be authentically himself. No poses he hated or clothes he would only wear for pictures:

Issa is still doing a lot of cropping and editing, but the end result is uniquely Evan and makes my heart happy:

He also took the first round of wrestling pictures:

The season officially started yesterday, and he is starting 150 this year! Bring it on!
 

Fall Fun and Book 32

We are enjoying fall around here. Evan just finished up his fall break, but Brad and I are still going at a break-neck pace at work. That means we are really trying to squeeze in fun around the edges. Enter Jack:

He is a very sophisticated gentleman skeleton. Many of our neighbors have various skeletons on their mailboxes, and Brad is hoping it takes over the whole street.

Evan did a wrestling workshop this weekend. He and Will probably had too much fun:

He is really looking forward to senior season!

I also finished book 32:

It's our next book club read, and I really think the author just ran out of steam at the end. I did not love it.
 

Book 31

I finished book 31 earlier this week:

The first book in the Throne of Glass did not disappoint. I did not see where it was going at all, but I love the character development, and I can't wait to see where the next book takes her!
 

Books 29 and 30

I have decided Sarah J. Maas is trying to take me out. I loved her Court of Thorns and Roses series, and I'm anxiously awaiting the next two books to see what happens to those characters. In the meantime, I started her other series, The Throne of Glass series. Book 29 was actually the prequel to that series, and it left me unwell:

It's actually five novellas, and the last one absolutely tore my heart out. I don't want to leave any spoilers, but it was such a well-written story, and I'm already in love with the main character.

Book 30 was the next book club book:

 This is our Halloween read, and I don't usually love monster books. However, I truly didn't want to put this one down. It drew upon a lot of mythologies, and it really has you wondering what exactly is the invasive species. I can't wait to talk about it with the group.

A Dip into Fall

When Issa announced she wasn't coming home for her birthday and Evan announced he probably wouldn't be home next Labor Day, Brad announced we were going to the mountains for Labor Day. We usually try to sneak in a fall weekend away, and the stars aligned for this.

We found a great cabin near Grayson Highlands, and we drove up Friday. We made our annual trek to the bookstore to get a new game, and we packed in all of our favorite fall foods for a cozy weekend.

Saturday, we went to an apple orchard!

It was the first weekend of picking, so the apples were plentiful and delicious. It looks a little different when Brad boosts Evan to get the top apples now:

Issa was an excellent spotter:

We did find one worm:

We also tried our hands at the apple cannon:

And the children tolerated me when I asked to take the how tall pictures:

We left with ciders, apples, and slushies. We went back to the cabin and made pie, which was delicious! Sunday the weather was not ideal, but it was a great excuse to just cozy in and play. I think we all took a nap, and it was fun to watch the storm come in across the mountains.

Monday, we packed up and then drove into the Highlands and a cloud:

The cloud was too dense to see ponies, but it was one of the coolest hikes I've ever done, and Evan loved the opportunity to do some climbing:

We made it all the way to the Listening Rock. It was a bit high, hence my death grip on Evan, but it was beautiful. 

It was a lovely mix of adventure and rest, and most importantly some true quality time for the four of us.
 

Happy Birthday, Issa!

We had so much fun celebrating Issa Saturday in the most Issa ways possible. She wanted us all to come to her house for an afternoon of her favorite things. 

Even her gifts were very fitting for this particular new apartment era. Nana gave her a much-requested porch goose:

And Shannon hooked her up with a complete set of pots and pans, including utensils:

Nana also got her a bird feeder that is just as much for Inks as it is for the birds:

We gave her earrings:

And brought her favorite dessert:

Other than that, the afternoon was spent playing Magic:

And teaching Nana and Shannon to play:

It was a lovely afternoon of just being in Issa's space that is so truly Issa:

And then we went to her favorite restaurant for dinner before heading home.

I officially have an adult adult daughter, and she's pretty cool.
 

Well...August Happened

August was a hot mess express. The good news is it all ended incredibly well. 

The last week of July, Evan and I were headed to tour NCSU, and we got rear-ended on 40 in our brand new to us van:

The good news is we didn't have so much as a scratch or a bruise, and none of the other cars involved did either. But, the van was totaled. I can't say enough good things about Nationwide. They checked on us multiple times to be sure we didn't get sore in the following weeks, and they put us in a rental until we found a new car two weeks ago:

We got another Odyssey since the last one did so well in the wreck!

The end of that same week, we took Evan to tour UNC Charlotte:

It's his new top contender! And on the way home we stopped by Ryan's studio and invested in our first piece from him:

It's so fun to support one of Evan's friends as he becomes a professional artist!

Our neighbor was also redoing her kitchen and gave us her marble island countertop, which we love:

The new look was the incentive we needed to finally hang the prints we brought home from Scotland. Evan was much more careful that I would have been:

I love how they look, but I cannot get a decent picture.

I also learned August is my new role is insane. I still love it, but it is a lot of a lot.

I'm very proud that I still did take a lot of time to read. It probably saved my sanity.

Book 26 was a very affirming memoir by Rachel Held Evans:

I love my Jesus but the church and I struggle. This helped me think that through a little differently.

Book 27 was a hot mess of a book club pick:

I cannot say I enjoyed it, but I also couldn't stop reading it. It's a bizarre travel-log about hot dogs.

And I finished book 28 this morning:

I love this series, and I'm a little sad that I think this will be the last book in it. Ana and Din are such wonderfully complicated characters, and just when I think I have the mystery solved I'm very wrong.

We are looking forward to what we hope is a much calmer September!