Summer Times

June has come and gone. July too, here and gone! And now August is well beyond half over... we've been busy little lovers over here. Most people we know have been in that same summer craze. Here is an update on the beginning of our wonderful summer:
I took the girls up to my Dad's the last week of May. The girls met Dad's new puppy: Sonny. Arielle was absolutely filthy the entire week. She and the dog bonded in a special way. Dad was working on the property that week so he was around most of the time here and there and the girls and I were able to enjoy him from a bit of a distance. Mateja took every opportunity she could to hop on the ATV with him. The girls were up and down the mountain with Papa. I was able to spend hours upon hours in the garden. We took the girls to the river and just simply enjoyed our time in the mountains. It was glorious.

After that week of peace and quiet we headed back to the Bay. Ended up getting here on June 1st - the date of Nathan and my sixth anniversary. We made a date for that following Saturday at a fabulous Greek restaurant nearby: Dio Deka. It took us back to our honeymoon in Greece (albeit quite a bit fancier than any fare we consumed while on the Greek Isles). Incredible food, ambiance, service. Check it out if you're in or around the South Bay.

Friends & family members graduated in June (including Mateja from pre-school! ha ha ha!), meetings, meetings and more meetings, the girls started their first-ever set of swimming lessons, we helped some friends move, my grandmother was moved from her home into a care-givers home, I took a whole day and drove out to visit her.

Father's Day came and with it a batch of famous Mitchell Pancakes specially whipped up by the girls just for their daddy. Mateja's pre-K "graduation" (complete with cap and gown! ha ha!!), lunch with a friend I hadn't seen in 8 years, my grade school/high-school reunion, as well as a road trip that Nathan took with the girls to So. Cal for a weekend to visit family were all packed into the month of June.

We acquired a gas grill, I started grilling for the first time ever and then - the topper for June - my younger brother turned 30 (I didn't get to celebrate with him, but it impacted me big time!)

and then we jumped into July and drove to Meadow Vista to visit my only living Grandfather and my Grandmother (his wife) who is my girls' Noni (she's Italian & wants to be called Noni by the Great-Grand kids). That was a great trip. I'll have to post photos and details of that some time soon (we learned on that trip that Arielle is allergic to cats! Yet another thing she shares with her Dad).

Whew!