No, it has nothing to do with sunshine or anything – don’t be crazy. June has now passed with 30 days of rain, rain, rain. Honestly, even July has sent us packing for the hills of Vermont this 4th of July weekend. I haven’t been on the boat once, but Gary’s been squeezing in some excellent fishing with pals whether rain or shine, daylight or midnight.

Heather was in town from Arizona for the last few weeks, which is always awesome. We managed to hit a couple of our regular spots to catch up and eat ice cream, but the time went fast. Here are her girls playing at Craigville Beach one evening:

The Pashbys came into town one weekend as we also kicked off Emily’s bachelorette weekend in Wellfleet and Provincetown! Drag-queen karaoke is the perfect bachelorette festivity, FYI. Highly recommended. It was great to have a bunch of our friends meet each other that weekend, all cozied around the back deck sharing laughs and that now-so-familiar bottle of Hound Dog iced tea vodka (classy). We also got to meet Otis that weekend, the adopted little boxer brother of Toro Pashby!

In the meantime, a local animal hospital is ordering up about 10 to 12 of my prints in art gallery canvas and they look incredible! Check out the first trial order  below, and you’ll see this 30×20″ vision of Brewer above your bed when you visit next. It’s so exciting to see these and to be able to start showing them to clients.

On that note, I dabbled in my first-ever family photo session on the beach for a college friend, and I actually loved it! While I don’t expect to change the business name to ‘Warm’ Nose Photo any time soon, please do spread the word to friends and family that I’m available! Click on the photos to go through to the larger portfolio.

Stay tuned for more photos from last weekend, when Gary, Eric and Jill all ran the Fairfield Half Marathon in Connecticut, and the nieces and nephew had their uncle build them a big sand box in the back yard!

I hope you all have something exciting and dry planned for the holiday weekend ahead!

They say dog people aren’t kid people and kid people aren’t dog people. I guess that seems fairly accurate, but not always. Sometimes the dog becomes second fiddle when a kid arrives, but sometimes the dog arrives after the kids have settled. Either way, I know I am who I am because I grew up with dogs.

Bromley has been with me for over ten years, and Brewer is the young pup, but together they make the sweetest of brothers. Gary and I can watch them play together for hours, and it warms our hearts to see Bromley “tolerating” Brewer using him as a constant pillow. I’m sure many people wouldn’t find this as fulfilling as having children, but personally I’m too filled to imagine anything more.

We took our full bellies for a walk on the beach this morning and ate all the same food and dessert again this evening. Ooomf.

So what was your Thanksgiving emergency this year? Have you learned the frozen turkey lesson already? Did you forget a key ingredient? Unexpected guests? Busted oven?

Ours was the tablecloth. It seems like a small thing, realizing that we didn’t have the extra large tablecloth that we used two years ago. It meant that we didn’t have any tablecloth at all (just the table runner by itself) for our extra large Thanksgiving dinner on fold-out tables. Not a show-stopper, but kind of deflating to realize at 9am on Thanksgiving day.

If you’ve ever bought curtains at Ikea, you know they all come extra, extra long, and you have to cut them down to size. So randomly, we had four yards of chocolate brown woven fabric chillin’ out in the basement waiting for a good use. HELLO tablecloth.

Mom Hedman and I set up an impromtu sewing shop on the Thanksgiving table, and within 30 minutes we had a huge square tablecloth for the day! Phew!

The rest of the day was spent lounging and chatting with family, and cuddling up with our niece in the evening to watch movies and snack on popcorn. We love the bustle of guests.

Now the holiday shopping continues on Etsy and Amazon!

Guests arrived from Chicago, Vermont and Boston, starting on Thursday afternoon. We had an awesome time – day-tripping to Nantucket (photo from Leslie), to Wellfleet, going for a long run around Osterville, biking the canal, hiking the dogs, playing tennis, sipping wine on the beach, and cruising/fishing on the boat off both the north and south sides of the Cape. The last of our guests pulled out on Wednesday morning, and I went immediately to a yoga class. My goal for the remaining days is to really rejuvenate and prep myself as a person and as a professional for the new job.

Today started with an 18-mile bike ride back from dropping my car at the garage. I’m going to be driving an hour each way for the commute now, and a few things needed tending to. And now my dad’s almost here to pick me up for 18 holes of golf! A very active week off and I love it. If I get the kayak out tomorrow, I might officially have used all our summer sporting equipment.

Gary’s busy at work this week. He deserves some R&R himself after all the incredible work he did on the outdoor shower, the gorgeous new driveway, and so much tending to the yard. The upstairs toilet and sink were even installed before guests arrived! All without compromise to his sunglass tan lines.

Another weekend is ahead, and the new job starts Monday! I’ve of course reinstated the ole’ BlackBerry, am blogging, and will gradually be getting re-connected.