It's still 100 degrees

Firstly, thank you to everyone who publicly and privately rallied behind Syd. I talked to the teacher and a few other parents, and it sounds like my student had a very one-sided perspective. I also wrote her an email about my feelings about how the information was brought up and labeled, and she replied with a genuine, authentic apology. Grown-ups, FTW!

In other news, it's mid-October here on the bright side of the sun. I'm convinced that it will never, ever be below 90 again. My cords mock me. I make things in the crock pot because it's too hot to stand over the stove. I crave chili like nobody's business. I wore boots and a tank top to the apple orchard just to spite  Mother Nature. My kids wore shorts and sundresses.

Sun flare on my Fall shot

We went hiking last weekend and, surprise! It was hot. And dry. This hike was hyped up in the local "mommy community" as being a great one for kids, but very very crowded. Lucky for us, they found a body burned at the trailhead a few weeks ago. I figured this was a perfect opportunity for us to beat the crowds. (Reasons I can't be around normal people for 1000, Alex) I was right and there weren't a ton of people there. But the hike was definitively not awesome. It was essentially a dirt road and then a steep climb down to a puddle. With a 40 pound weight strapped to my back. My legs are still sore. Syd was a trooper though. She hiked the mile and a half back with no water, no energy, and near tears but refused to be carried and didn't whine once. So proud of this girl. Avery slept on the hike back, which made it even more comfortable because we were basically the two headed woman.

Before we ran out of water and energy and optimism.

My dad and stepmom came to visit over the weekend. He's very health/body conscious and he's in awe of the fact that I've been consistently going to the gym at the buttcrack of dawn. He does BeachBody videos (as does my brother) and he's been bragging about doing them more often lately. So there were a lot of "so...what do you do at the gym? Do you do _____?"  I have no idea where I got my competitiveness, but he made us retake this twice because he didn't like that my hand was "blocking out" his bicep. :)

And we have a fence!! Or at least fence posts! It's 6+ feet of beautiful, redwood, privacy goodness. I cannot wait to get the backyard enclosed and start working on making that an awesome area for us to hang out (especially if it's going to be perpetual summer in the desert here.) I'm thinking lots of color in the furniture and some whimsical yard art. I keep bringing up the yard art because it makes C crazy. I'm totally getting whirly gigs.