Summa time!

This summer, a wild cat had some kittens and both my mom and I have made attempts to pet the kittens and, at least I have, attempted to try to kidnap them. Unfortunately they don't want anything to do with us but they are SOOO adorable!! I caught them lounging one afternoon on my way to work, so I took some pictures.

Here they are in mom's herb garden.

This is after one of them heard me sneaking around, he had his eye on me.

Then I tried to go capture one of them and they both ran off. I wish we could get one to tame down, but I don't believe they even come up to the house anymore. It makes me REALLY want a kitten again though.

I have been able to capture some cool sunsets this summer, mostly because of the fires unfortunately, but they are still really pretty. Here are a few...

This is a sunset outside my parents' house recently, so many colors!

This one was on my way home from work one night,
I happened to have my camera so I pulled over and caught it.

And this one was on my way back from the coast along I5.

Aside from that, my summer has been going by way too fast. I finished summer school, except a few hours I have at my internship. I went to camp as a counselor for a week for Courageous Kids, and that was such an amazing experience for me. It is a camp specifically for kids that have lost a loved one, and most of the counselors there have also lost loved ones. Throughout the school year, I co-facilitate weekly support groups where the kids do art projects to help them understand their feelings of grief. I really enjoy doing that, but I'd have to say this camp was so much more powerful because the kids are with each other for 5 days straight and their stories and feelings really come out. During the weekly support groups the kids don't really get that comfortable with each other because they only see each other once a week for an hour.

Something that I really like about being an intern at Courageous Kids is that it helps me sort out my own past feelings of grief, from the time my grandfather died when I was 5. I have learned a lot about myself and what I was going through, though I never knew what was going on. It is so great to be able to share these realizations with the kids at CK so that they feel like they can relate more to me. I am really interested in grief therapy, especially using methods of art therapy, and I'm hoping to be able to get into this field as a profession in the next few years.