Summer at home

 After being gone all week last week, this week I have just wanted to be home.  We did a few things that took us out and about, but we also did lots of playing at home and riding bikes on our street.  

Both girls made big strides on their bike riding this week.  Elsie is now independent in her riding.  She learned that she can start and stop on her own and can turn around on our street while continuing to ride.  Carrigan it turns out has been afraid to ride her bigger mountain bike.  I knew I hadn't really seen her ride it, opting for a scooter instead, but I didn't realize until this week that that was because she was scared to ride it and in her mind she had decided that she would just never ride a bike again.  After lots of persuading, I was able to get her to try it out.  Turns out that she loves it and has been on it every day since.  Merrick continues to love his e-bike and will take any excuse to be out on it.

I spent a lot of time in the yard this week.  There is always much to be done.  Right now we are enjoying our hydrangeas in full bloom as well as our lilies.  I don't know what variety of lily they are but they are about 7 feet tall and absolutely gorgeous.

While hanging at home is fun, we also certainly had our bored times.  The kids got creative with wall ball and my personal favorite, trying on an inflatable unicorn Halloween costume.

We did venture out a bit this week with a birthday party for some of Elsie's friends (twins).

Also this week, we made a few trips to the river.  The boys all went on Wednesday for a Young Men's church activity. Then, on Friday, we went as a family with some friends of ours.  Carrigan's good friend, Taylor, moved away at the start of the month, but things didn't work out with the move and they ended up coming back.  We met them and another friend of C.C.'s at the river Friday evening.  Merrick brought a friend too, just to make things fair.  Elsie didn't have  a friend, but was very contented playing in the sand and trying to build a sand castle.

Regional Baseball Tournament

It's been a week.  As I mentioned last week, this week was the regional baseball tournament in Ferndale, Washington.  Merrick and I spent the week in an Airbnb just south of the Canadian border with my sister and her son, Jason, who is on the same team as Merrick.

It was quite a week.  We had to be there early Sunday for check in and opening ceremonies.  They introduced all the teams and had a performance by the the Lummi Tribe, who owns the land where the fields are located.  While the traditional singing and dancing was cool, I think it was lost on the group of 13 and 14-year-old boys watching.

Monday, we had a bye day and while we had all kinds of plans in mind, the team had different ideas and we ended up having practice and team building activities.  As part of our team building, we went go-kart riding.  Given his height, Merrick was allowed to drive the two person kart that is supposed to be reserved for 18+.  He was sure it would go faster, but that turned out not to be the case.

Tuesday, we had an early game.  It was the first of what would turn out to be many defeats.  We made the best of the day though by taking off after the game and spending the rest of the day in Canada.  We explored White Rock and Surrey.  We went to a beach and walked along a pier and had ice cream.  We then headed into Vancouver.  It is a beautiful city!  Unfortunately, they congregate all their homeless people into one area and we had to walk through it to get to the neighborhood we were trying to reach.  It was a little bit rough, but we made it and were able to explore the neighborhood of Gastown, with it's cute little shops, cobblestone streets, and old steam clock that plays music  every 15 minutes.  We ended the day with a stop in New Westminster for a trip to a Canadian Walmart (to stock up on Canadian chocolate) and dinner of poutine at Mean Poutine.  Emily was the only one of us to ever have poutine before and we were all pretty impressed.  Merrick declared it his new favorite food.

Wednesday and Thursday brought more losses and increasing tension among the team.  The only highlight was lunch on Wednesday with my Aunt Elizabeth (my dad's sister) who I haven't see in many years.  She lives on beautiful Lake Samish and the boys enjoyed swimming in the lake while we visited.  They were a little freaked out though that the water was so clear they could see the fish swimming around them.  Unfortunately, we neglected to take any pictures. 

Friday was had a late afternoon game.  It was to be our last since we were already knocked out of the championship bracket on Saturday.  The boys fought hard and pulled out a walk-off win in extra innings.  Unfortunately, during the game, things were said between some parent and even to some of the kids that were not appropriate.  Although we finally got a win, it was hard to not feel like it was a bit tainted by all of the other drama.  It was unfortunate and whiled the boys were still smiling for the most part, I think it's a good thing that's it for the season.

While we were gone, Jeremy did a great job holding down the fort.  The girls got to spend one day with their Brown cousins and two days at Nana and Papa's house.  Nana did a great job keeping them busy and Carrigan worked hard on sewing a dress for Elsie and a skirt for herself.  Jeremy enjoyed spoiling the girls a little with special trips for ice cream and Happy Meals, and a fun time at our church BBQ.

Yesterday afternoon Merrick and I made it home.  We definitely made memories this week that will last for a lifetime, but it is good to be home.

Summer Saturday

This is ground breaking.  I think this might be the first time in the history of the blog that I am writing early, on Saturday.  Tomorrow, Merrick and I are leaving Jeremy and the girls and heading to Ferndale, Washington (right on the Canadian border) for the Northwest Regionals baseball tournament so I figured I needed to get this done before I went.

Given that I still have lots to do before we take off bright and early, this is going to be a quick one.  I mostly just want to do a photo dump from our quintessential summer week.  This week we went to the pool. Merrick, Quincy, Colvin, and Jason had a backyard tent sleepover.  We made smores on our new outdoor tabletop stove.  Does it get anymore summer like than that?

See ya after regionals!

Fun Fourth

 This week we had just about as much fun as we could stand.  Our good friends, the Wilsons, came to visit for the first time since they moved to Utah four years ago.  They have 5 kids, including three girls that are the age of each of our kids.  Merrick was a good sport about hanging with us, but our girls were seriously in heaven.  They couldn't get enough of each other.  Each time we were together, they were planning the next thing they were going to do together.  We spent the majority of the three days they were here together, including the whole of the the 4th of July.

We started our 4th of July Celebrations at the river.  We paddleboarded and the kids built an elaborate sand castle.  After the river, we spent a good chunk of they day just visiting before going to their Airbnb that night for dinner and fireworks in the street.

By Thursday, our friends left for home, but the fun week continued.  Thursday, I saw an ad for a waterski show down at the river.  I thought it was for that day, but I apparently mixed up the day because it wasn't until Saturday.  We decided to make the best of my error and had a nice picnic at the river.  That night we finally got a chance to go see Jeremy pitch in his softball league.  The games did not go his way, but it was still fun to see him out there.

Saturday, we spent the morning at our city's Old Time Fair.  The fun started with a parade.  We had a great spot at the very beginning of the route and the girls totally cleaned up on the the candy front.  After that we walked around the classic car show and checked out some of the fair booths.  We opted not to do any rides, but finally made it to the the waterski show.