Summer of Bernie!

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The summer is over! It’s quarter-zip fleece weather! But still acceptable birkenstock-with-no-socks temperature! The apples are getting their color, the sky is cloudy on the reg, wheat harvest is here, and two nights ago we ate PHO. This is my dreamscape. Good gosh geez I love being on the cusp of peak coziness sooo much, I can taste the pumpkin bread already. Bernie’s world is about to start smelling less like fresh basil and Eggboy sweat and more like cinnamon and brussels sprouts with spätzle and butter and it’s awesome. Ok but I didn’t want to zoom to the next season before documenting some of my favorite moments from this summer!

We went to the the county fair! Bernie met baby goats, baby chickens, mini ponies, and a 7-day-old alpaca! We danced to Eggboy’s big band concert and then I ate a big sausage which tasted exactly how fairs smell, smoky and meaty. And we drank a chocolate strawberry malt. A+ day.

We went on our first little family trip, to Bemidji! We stayed about two feet away from the lake in a tiny cabin with gigantic windows, so all of my nightmares about arriving at our destination to find that we had forgotten Bernie’s sound machine went out the window because we had nature's sound machine of the waves all night and it was the loveliest. During the days we hiked, ate pizza and spumoni, had wild rice in our pancakes, tried on Lester Nygaard hats, waved to Babe and Paul Bunyan, and picnic’ed on fancy cheese and ‘ndujia. It was a short but sweet trial vacation for the next time when we choose a destination that’s more than two hours away!

I went to LA for, like, a few hours because that’s all I could manage for a first trip away from Bern! It was for a little work trip and I got to get all dressed up and stand in front of a background while someone shot a fan at my hair. This is what that looked like! Thanks to Getty and Benjo for the left photo and to TV Guide and Maarten for the right photo!

Bernie met Bernbaum’s and all of our other Fargo faves, like India Palace and Twenty Below and Zandbroz and Sandy’s and Barnes and Noble. (Umm have you been the new Bernbaum’s?? It’s epic, get the black and white cookie.)

We had so many visitors! Sonja and Alex came for a pizza party, my bridesmaids came for a Girl Meets Farm episode, and Auntie Cathy even came and did her famous turkey impression :)

I forgot what TV looks like. Every time I turn it on, even just to have Savannah and Craig chatting in the background, Bernie cranes her head and only wants to look at it and not sing Baby Beluga so I stopped turning it on. What happens after they fall down the elevator in Stranger Things? Anything good?

Baby Beluga is always in my head. Always.

We went to The Lake! I don’t know what summer weekends are like where you live, but here everybody flocks to The Lake. The Lake refers to any number of lakes in the area and what I’m told from Eggboy is that the lake is a place where you eat potato chips and relax, either in the water or in a chair looking at the water. I didn’t get it when I first moved here because I thought, we already live in a very calm relaxing place and I already eat potato chips, why do I need to get more relaxed and eat more potato chips? But I’m slowly starting to get it, that’s where the weekend energy is and floating in a lake is fun and it’s acceptable to subsist on boloney on white bread (in addition to potato chips) at the lake. So even though we don’t have a Lake house we found the public access spot where we’re going to go from now on anytime we feel like chips. And next time Bernie will actually be able to go in the water!

I had my fifth summer at Unglued Camp!!! I only went for a quick second since you-know-who had bedtime and other you-know-who was harvesting but in that time we made fancy uncrustables, splatter painted cake, ate delicious ice cream sandwich sliders, and gossiped with all of my new and old fronds. Camp is the bessst.

We celebrated nephew Cliff’s first birthday! I made his cake and smash cake and wow making cakes these days takes serious nap time ninja moves but we did it and Cliff smashed it!!

We gardened, we looked at the baby in the mirror, we danced, and giggled!

Ok the end, craziest/best summer ever!! Welcome, fall!!!

-Yeh!

THE BERKSHIRES: INSTAGRAMS

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just a few more shots from my little trip to the berkshires. this instagram thing has really got me hooked. i'm pretty sure it's my new favorite social network because it's the one with the least kvetching and the prettiest, happiest, most creative energy.

photos: 

i could wake up to that every morning // a new fave // spotted near the mailbox

rob strums // about to sound paint // tema + a boy! 

in a little mountain town // being savvy picnic people // so many other picnic people

painting sound painting sound // the secret path to the magical grounds // mandolin!  

 -yeh!

THE BERKSHIRES

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a summer is not a real summer without a trip to the berkshires. a trip to the berkshires is not a real trip to the berkshires without eating a loebwich. so actually this was a fake trip to the berkshires because i lost track of time eating salad and schmoozing with my homies and never got to loeb's before it closed so i cursed a bunch and tweeted the f word about it but hey, it's just a sandwich. (it's actually not just a sandwich, it's a window to the best memories of my youth, but let's not get carried away.)

but! there are many many reasons why this was one fabulous little trip to the berkshires (read past berkshire posts here, here, here, and LOL here.)

-i met the mass moca! what a wonderful museum in a beautiful setting. i normally get tired and crabby pants after big museum visits, but after seeing the wildly awesome exhibits and hearing the bang on a can group sound paint, i felt ready to conquer the universe and build something like it out on the farm. 

-the bso played the verdi requiem and it was hot. we had a fattttty picnic complete with levain cookies and two buck chuck and then we fan-girled about our kyle looking and sounding like a badass whacking two bass drums at once. 

-there were so many awesome humans!  it is always a joy to visit with my friends at tanglewood, but this year it seemed like there were even more good friends than usual. i saw friends i haven't seen in yeeeeears and friends i've known since before i was born! yayayayayyy. such happy times and a record amount of hugs.

i am so loving what has turned into an annual little trip to these parts. among the trees and the mountains and the quaint bed and breakfasts in big victorian homes, there has got to be some magic piped into the air. magic and history and steeples and sunshine.

-yeh! 

 

{camp}

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this weekend we became amplified versions of our twelve-year-old selves as we ate grilled cheese and tomato soup and bopped along to ben folds. in between the non existent reveille and an infinite curfew we learned krav maga and did flips on the trapeze. we even performed a flashmob. soccer games, volleyball games, drinking games... and let's not forget those killer sweet dance moves and the s'mores competitions that you won every time. if this is what grown ups do, who needs a childhood? 
-yeh!