Playing catch-up here. Mom came to town earlier this month, and we had a ball.
Went on a kayaking date with Mary.
Then it was off to our first destination: Anchorage, Alaska.
So much salmon. So good. 
Hayden trying to sneak up on a king salmon. 
Life-changing pizza. 
Many houses on lakes have piers for boats. One on this lake had a pier for docking their seaplane. 
After we got back I finally sprung for a projector. Total game-changer for watching movies.
A week after that we were off to see Uncle Dave and Aunt Mary Ann in Oregon. On the way out we stopped by a friend’s wedding.
The highlight of the drive down was having Hayden steer for me while I typed my abnormally-long password in to unlock my laptop so he could watch more of season 1 of Battlestar Galactica. Steve, I think you’re the only AnderMan who isn’t in on it yet, better check it out 🙂
Oregon was lovely, from the food to the trails to the town to the house we stayed in.
Tuna fish & chips – deeeelish. 
We rode our bikes to the beach, and it was a proper beach with waves and all that. Hard to get to something like that in Seattle-area.
Hayden was nice enough to strike some poses, and I returned the favor.
Highlights of the trip include hot-tubbing and cooking hot dogs and s’mores on the beach, then biking through the town of Seaside. Lots of fun-looking houses.
Sunday we attended the YSA branch, then biked around town some more.
Once we got back it was a count-down to seeing Hayden off. Didn’t feel that long ago that Hayden and Mattie showed up at the beginning of summer. Sniff.
Hayden threw himself a game night on Thursday as a send-off.
I dressed for the occasion on Friday morning.
On Sunday night I began my three-state tour, heading out to Sunnyvale for a big meeting on Monday, plus some ancillary meetings over the next day.
On the way out of town I decided to bite the bullet and get on Instagram. Hayden had previously mentioned that it’d make for a good outlet for some of my better-looking photos. I never feel comfortable spamming Facebook with these things, but the social contract of Instagram is much more geared towards posting lots of photos, so I’ve been trying my hand at it and it’s been fun. I caught myself scrolling through Instagram quite a bit more than I do Facebook, so I’ll have to make sure it doesn’t become addictive.
Three hours from now I take off for Boston, where there’s a big summit thing, and where I’ll be hanging with Libby when I’m off work. After that I’ll be flying through SLC and hanging with the fam before heading back to Kirkland on Tuesday morning.
See you Saturday!