Playing catch (catch up that is...)

So in case none of you have noticed, there haven't been many posts from Grass Valley lately. I can definately think of a lot of excuses but none of them are that great. I've loaded up all my pictures from summer this far (you can check them all out on facebook) and I'll let you all know what has been going on here.
The last weekend in June, Emily and Nate, Gwen (Emily's mom) and Audrey (Emily's sister) came down to Northern CA and we spent a couple days camping near Tahoe. It was a lot of fun and the lake is as pretty as the stories we had heard. We floated the Truckee River and spent time at the lake playing volleyball, swimming, and kayaking. It was so nice to see our great friends that we made in Boise and it was an added bonus that Gwen and Audrey were able to come.
The beginning of July was a busy one for me and Derek. The 4th of July weekend was spent manning a State Farm booth to try and get Derek's name in the community and drum up some new business with State Farm's 8% decrease in auto rates in Cali. Derek even has a spinning wheel so everyone can be a winner! Julia was down for a few days and on the 4th we went to the local parade. The first entry in the parade was a gentleman dressed in old fashioned clothing announcing "A parade a cometh! Hear ye, hear ye, a parade a cometh". It was great! I ended up watching the fireworks with Heather and her family. It was probably the best fireworks show I have ever seen and the actual shoot off location is within walking distance of my house. We are in such a great location in town. We can walk to anything we need (we may be a little sweaty when we get there but we can still do it!). Derek spent his 4th of July weekend in Bakersfield visiting some friends that he went to high school with.
The Wednesday after the 4th, Derek and I met Matt VanDonsel (who is one of Derek's good friends from AK) at Buca diBeppos in Roseville to help him celebrate his birthday. It is always nice to see him.
The next weekend, I flew to Idaho to celebrate Mom's 50th birthday. Yay for Mom! It was such a great weekend and a nice celebration of such a wonderful lady.
The next weekend, I flew to Idaho to be a bridesmaid in my friend from high school, Katie Harding's wedding. It was so neat to see her and other friends. She also has a beautiful little girl name Bailey who I got to spend some time with. The Sunday before I left, we all got to go skiing/tubing/wakeboarding at Bell Rapids. It was a great time and we had a lot of cousins show up to join in the fun. My 24th birthday was another successful one. I turned another year older. Derek even made me a wonderful dinner and did the dishes. He wouldn't let me help at all - He sure is a fabulous husband and every day I am reminded of yet another reason why I love him so very much!
Now we are back in Grass Valley and settling into a routine again. We don't have any big trips coming up soon which is nice (but a little sad because that means we will miss the annual camping trip) Since we have been back on "schedule" we have started hitting our running training harder. This weekend our long run will be 7 or 8 miles. It is kind of neat because every time we do a long run (which is every Saturday) we are breaking personal records by running the furthest we have ever run in our lives! It sure is invigorating to be training for something that will be a big accomplishment for us. We are hoping that everyone is making plans to be in San Francisco Bridge to Bridge run the 1st weekend in October. It should be fun :)
As for Derek's office, the month of July has been a "blow em' out of the water" month. Halfway into the month, they have already doubled their production for the previous months so that is so exciting for us. The team that we have to work with has really been great so hopefully this is a jump start for the rest of the year.
Okay, so hopefully that caught everyone up. We love and miss everyone.
Love from Us in Grass Valley :)