This Week at the Brennans’

School’s out for summer and actually almost back in session. Ha! Time for a fun summer update! We have actually been pretty busy with friends and family which has been such a delight for me. Since I sold Lauren’s Latest, I’ve realized how much I had been missing out on. It’s been such a relief for me to not have that worry in the back of my head to check stats or test recipes or make sure I’m emailing this person or that person. Just to hand it all over and forget about it has made an enormous difference and I’m SO much happier without it. So, I get to wake up everyday and be here 100% for my kids. And while the cooking, cleaning and laundry is still boring, I am happy to do it. Here’s what has been happening this summer:

The Brennan side of the family planned a family reunion that we attended in Hood River the weekend after the school year finished. There were 60-something people and so fun to know *almost* everyone there. Ha! I’ve been a part of this family almost 15 years and still don’t know everyone. That tells you just how huge Gordon’s family is. My side is teeny compared to his. We were able to catch up with family members, go white water rafting (so so fun!) and enjoy late nights eating s’mores by the fire. Brooke was our only kid who was old enough to go white water rafting and she was so nervous about it and didn’t even want to go in the boat once her gear was on, but social pressure got her in the raft and about half way through the trip, she quietly told me I was right and that she was having fun. I was so happy it ended up being a good experience for her. She rocked it.

A week or two after the family reunion, I took my two middle boys to Utah so I could bring Blake to a week-long soccer camp at BYU. It was such a fun trip! I was able to stay with one of my best friends from college named Amy and it was so lovely visiting with her! Plus, bonus, Blake had a great time at soccer camp too! It got him so excited to be able to play again in the Fall and maybe eventually for a “real” team. His friend Andrew (from Oregon) happened to be in Utah at the same time we were and attended the same camp with Blake which made my heart happy knowing he had a friend along for the ride with him. Eddie had a ball hanging out at Amy’s house and walking around campus with me. Man was it hot, but so fun eating Cafe Rio, swimming at fun local pools and staying up late with friends. Really was such a fun trip. While I don’t love Utah, I love my friends and I loved the one on one time with both my boys. The Saturday morning we were supposed to fly home, I got up early and ran the Hobbler Half marathon in Springville, UT. (I had to run 13 miles that day for marathon training, so why not find a half marathon to run?!) I was up and out the door by 4:30am and home by 9am. I ran it and finished with a personal best of 1:57! I was concerned with the heat and elevation, but apparently my body wasn’t bothered one bit.

Our Blakey got braces! Our orthodontist told us that we could wait for all his adult teeth to come in OR line things up now to make the second round of braces quicker and easier which is what we opted to do. The ortho showed me all his scans and said there were a lot of big man teeth in his little boy mouth, so I thought it made sense to get him the braces now. He also had one big tooth that was going to be a snaggle tooth emerging front and center in front of the rest of his teeth if we didn’t make room for it. That was a motivating factor for me, too. So, he has braces and is trekking right along. His smile is so cute (and straight!)

It was time to get Brooke and Eddie updated passports and me my American passport. (I know, right?! Look at me being American. Ha!) What a headache getting kids passports is. Oi! Gordon and I took our kids out to Tillamook (an hour west of where we live) because they had available times. Locally here, we’d have to wait weeks, but I got in within a few days of calling. Love those small towns. Also, the lady on the phone was delightful. So, we got all those arranged in time to arrive before our cruise to Alaska. They totally didn’t arrive for the kids which was fine (we could use birth certificates) but mine was more of a nail biter. I called and set a day and time to travel to a passport office in Seattle to get mine 3 days before we were supposed to leave. Miraculously, it arrived in our mailbox the day before my appointment in Seattle so I didn’t have to go. I don’t know how it happened, but those passport Gods were smiling down on me.

We got some concrete poured in our backyard and got our house repainted! Ya know, since the beach house is almost done, why not add on more home projects? Thankfully, we just paid people to do these jobs for us, but still! Never a dull moment. We now have concrete in about 1/4 of our backyard and around the side of the house to our shed. It’s right by our sliding kitchen windows. We were going to get a nice outdoor dining table and pergola, but we set up the basketball net out there and might just keep it as our make shift basketball court. Our boys use it every day! Maybe next summer I’ll get a dining table. Ha!

I have been training for the NYC marathon all summer long and finally booked our flights and hotel room. So it’s getting real. I just ran 18 miles this past Saturday and it was a little rocky, but ironically better than the 16 miles was the week before. I’m going to start tapering my miles down to help my knees recover a little bit. Then I will have three more long runs in late September-early October before I taper down again in preparation for the 26.2. If I think about it too long, then I get really nervous. But I’m confident in my training and in myself. I purposely took twice as long to train and get my mileage up to keep my body healthy and strong. I know I can do it, I just need to finish up my training plan and then make it happen. (And then I will never run again. Ha!)

Our beach house is coming along! I owe you all an actual update with photos, but for the time being, we have 2/3rds of the flooring installed and about 1/3rd of the interior painting done. The exterior of the home is completely done! Now we are focused on that darn inside. The rest of the carpet is getting installed tomorrow and Wednesday and our kitchen counters should get installed in two weeks! We did install the fridge, stove, washer and dryer. But honestly, we can’t do much else until we get those counters in. I went to paint the basement ceilings and media room this past Wednesday and Thursday. Gordon went over the weekend to install new railings and banisters before the carpet goes in. Honestly, we try to find pockets of time to fit it all in and sometimes it seems impossible, but where there’s a will there’s a way and we just keep trekking along. We are ALMOST there!! Like so so close! We can’t wait until its all done so we can enjoy it! We can start renting it out in November 🙂

We cruised into Alaska! I will do a separate post all about this, but it was underwhelming and I can’t quite put my finger on why. Meh. I’m not sure I’d go back?! The best part about it was being all together and having uninterrupted family time. It was certainly beautiful, too, but again, not my favorite trip.

I had three goals for myself/Porter this summer. (1) get Porter into a big boy bed and out of his crib (2) get rid of his pacifier for good and (3) potty train him. We are like 2.5/3! I’m working on potty training him now, but yesterday was the first day he stayed completely dry in underwear! He even went potty twice at church! I am so proud of him. He has really come a long way. While he is still anti-big boy, we are slowly working away at him. Turns out M&M’s are good motivation for him.

What’s coming up:

We are hopefully going to finish the beach house. I feel like I say that all the time, but I really mean it. Ha!

We are heading to Banff for my cousin’s wedding! And my whole family will be there! Some of my siblings haven’t even met Porter yet (thanks Covid.) I’m truly just so excited.

Gordon and I will be walking Portland to Coast in a few weeks! Whee! Hood to Coast is the running race, but Portland to Coast is the walking race. I figured it was a super low key way to get some miles in. I might be walking 15-20 miles! Good thing I’m currently averaging 30 miles with all my running I’m doing. Ha!

Before we leave for Banff, I want all the back to school stuff finished and wrapped up. I already have the school supplies organized, labeled and ready to go and I went through everyone’s clothes, pulled out the small clothes and boxed them up and bought what we needed. I think I have a few more miscellaneous things to buy, like shoes for Blake. But if I have all that stuff done, then we can relax Labor Day weekend when we get home.