Do you ever feel like you get carried away in the summertime? Maybe you get carried away by being out in the sun too long and regaining those freckles that were hidden during the winter. Maybe you get carried away with produce from your garden. Perhaps you get carried away with your grill and only want food if it is has those nice parallel grill marks on it. And it could be that you literally get carried away.
That’s what’s happened to me this summer. Maybe you noticed that already, though, due to my absence on the blog. I’ve been back for a week now, from my trip to visit family in Michigan. It was a fantastic 2 weeks away with my family. I spent several days in Ann Arbor, visiting with Ben, Heather, and this little cutie:

Eleanor
Considering she hadn’t seen me since she was 7 months old, I think we got along swimmingly. 🙂

Amy and Ellie
She also really liked anything that was in my room. In this case, my socks and flip flops. 🙂

Nom nom nom.
We didn’t have a lot on our agenda in Ann Arbor. Mostly I was there to see what Ben and Heather’s life is like with Eleanor, and to spend some time with my niece. And she is quite the cutie. She’s so close to talking, but for now just makes the cutest noises. If you look at her mouth, she’s definitely “talking” in this photo. I think her words were, “Bupedupedupedupe…” 🙂
The second part of my trip was spent in Holland. The bulk of my visit was at Katy and JP’s house, so I could spend some time with this little darling:

Leila
Even though I was pretty enraptured by Leila,
and she, with me,

holding hands with Amy Chithi in the car
I managed to fit in a visit to Captain Sundaes while I was there.
I also took my parents out to eat at Boatwerks as a celebration dinner for their 60th birthdays.
And I also was able to visit with several college friends. One of the perks was that Katy did a BeautiControl Spa for us one night. Ahhhh….

Spahhhh!
If you don’t already know this, when Katy and I are together, we spend almost every possible moment planning our meals and snacks, shopping for our required ingredients, making our edible creations, and enjoying what we’ve made. Here’s a sampling of a few of our meals and treats:

Peanut Butter Cup cookies

Chocolate chip cookies

Shrimp Pekoras

Veggies for the curry

Eggplant, Cauliflower, Potato, and Green Bean Curry with Cilantro Rice

Blueberries

Blueberry Pie

Blueberry Jam Sandwich Cookies
Want to know a fun fact about that picture of the blueberries, and the blueberry treats we made?? Katy and I hand-picked them!!

Blueberry Picking
So….so far, my summer has carried me away to a fantastic time spent with family and friends in Michigan.
When I got back home, I found out our tomato plants got a little carried away with their growing! But don’t worry, I did a little maintenance on them. 🙂

Before

After
Also, the summer heat got a little carried away in Seattle. We hit an all-time record high in the history of Seattle’s summer weather: 103 degrees.
Next on the docket? Getting carried away to San Diego next week for vacation and an anniversary trip to San Diego. Check our our hotel! Didn’t we find a cool place to stay?!?!
If you have a moment, maybe you could respond with a comment about what you have gotten carried away with this summer.