Girl Cousin Time

This week was youth conference for our stake. All youth turning 14 this year and up were invited to attend. The first day was local, followed by 2 days on the Warm Springs reservation at Kah-Nee-Ta Resort.

From our family, only Merrick was old enough to go, but Jeremy also needed to go to the part out at Kah-Nee-Ta to be an adult leader. That meant the girls and I were home alone for two days. Much to their extreme pleasure, Ben, Becca, and Lincoln were all attending youth conference as well. That meant that Isabel would be home by herself for three days and it was the perfect excuse for an extended cousin hang out and sleepover.

Since the first day was local and her parents were home that night, the girls didn't get a sleepover the first night but did take advantage of some girl time during the day. Ben was actually home the first day so they decided to spend that time at the Brown's. I am not sure what all they did, but I did hear tales of Mac and Cheese on the trampoline.

The next day, Isabel came over early. CC had planned for them to sleep in the playroom that night and had gotten everything ready for a super deluxe sleepover. When Isabel got here, they spent hours playing, Barbies mostly. After lunch they asked me to take them to the river. They spent the afternoon swimming at the river and having a blast.

When we got home and cleaned up, the girls made personal pizzas and we watched a movie. Emily came by for a little bit and got in on some good girl time. She also helped with the photo shoot. The girls wanted to do some scrapbooking so they used C.C.'s Instax camera to take and print photos for the project. The girls then scrapbooked their hearts out until I finally made them get ready for bed.

The next morning, they were up early to finish scrapbooking before we had to go to fill our assignment to clean the church. The work was short lived though and soon we headed to the West Linn Old Time Parade and then to get Slurpees. The girls mostly spent the rest of the day playing, but C.C. did have a birthday party she went to for a while. We wrapped things up with dinner at Panda Express and just a bit of tv before Becca came to get Isabel.

The girls were pushing hard for another sleepover at the Browns house, but the moms quickly squashed those dreams. We all needed a good night's sleep in our own bed. I am so glad the girls get along so well though and that they have each other. Cousins are the best.

50 and 250

 This past week brought a lot of reasons to celebrate. First and foremost, this week we were able to celebrate my parent's 50th wedding anniversary. We have been looking forward to this day for a long time. Unfortunately, due to my dad's health, we had to scale back from the original plans, but we still made a great day of it.

We gathered for the day at Ben and Becca's house. We swam, played games, ate, did henna tattoos and talked. Brendon came to town and it was wonderful just to spend the day all together. Emily and I also made a video for the celebration with photos and videos from friends. We probably spent 12-14 hours putting it all together. It was definitely a labor of love.

Just the next night we were celebrating again, this time it was the 250th anniversary of the founding of our country. We started the day with a 4th of July parade. We then went in the afternoon to a friend's house for slip and sliding, games, a BBQ and fireworks.

It has been a great week of celebration. 

Banana Ball

 I'm a day late here. That's because we played hooky from all of our responsibilities yesterday and went down to Eugene for a Savannah Bananas' game. I have been dying to go to a game for so long, but the Bananas have never traveled this far from Savannah before.

Several months ago they announced they were coming to Eugene for two games and would play in the Duck's football stadium and that they would hold a lottery for a chance to buy tickets. The 60,000 seat stadium sold out for both games, but we were lucky enough to be drawn for tickets. When it was my turn to buy, I only had one choice of game and tier of ticket, but I took what I could get.

Yesterday, the magical day finally arrived. We made the trek down to Eugene and battled traffic all along the way. Parking is notoriously bad at the stadium so we bought tickets to a shuttle from the mall a few miles away. We left here just after 10, but after the traffic, the shuttle, and the crowds, we BARELY made it for the 1pm start time.

The game was 100% worth the hassle. Banana Ball rules are different and the game is so fast paced and fun. Add to that all the tricks, stunts, dances, games, and contests and it is truly an over the top experience. If you ever get a chance to go, I highly recommend it.

The game ended about 3:30pm and we started the trek home. After waiting in line for the shuttle and then in traffic to get to the car, we didn't make it to our car until about 4:30 and we didn't make it home from the game until about 7. It ended up being a whole day extravaganza. Would I do it again in a heartbeat? You betcha!

Lincoln City

 This week summer was officially underway. We have been keeping ourselves busy each day. Emily is moving next Friday so I have been trying to help her as much as possible. I am definitely paying the price of spending so much time around her kitty. My allergies are out of control.

Friday, Jeremy had the day off of work for Juneteenth and we headed to the coast. We went to Lincoln City because the girls wanted to play Finders Keepers. Finders Keepers is a game the city runs. They hide glass floats on the beach. If you find one, you get to keep it. We have never found one and our luck didn't change on Friday.

We got to the beach just before low tide. The kids wanted to fly kites immediately, but I wanted to go look for tide pools. Jeremy and I went for a walk while the kids got going on the kites. We ended up walking about 1.5 miles down the beach and found not only tide pools full of starfish and other sea creatures, but also some amazing rock formations. Walking among the huge boulders and rock formations on the beach, it felt otherworldly. We tried to call the kids to get them to come, but they we having their own adventures.

When we got back, we found out that while the kids had gotten all three kites in the air, Elsie had lost control of one and it had flown away. Merrick went on an adventure through the neighborhood and found it, but wasn't able to get it back. There was a sweet neighborhood lady who came and gave us another kite to replace our lost one.

After that, Elsie wanted to go look for floats. As I mentioned previously, we were unsuccessful, but we found other treasures.

We continued to fly our kites and relax on the beach. We had one Dollar Tree kite that was a real champ, it stayed up for hours and we took turns holding it. When we finished with the kites, we played sand baseball as a family. 

Once we had had all the beach fun we could handle, we went on a drive to Devil's Punchbowl and then got dinner before heading home.

It was overcast all day and foggy off and on so while we brought two bottles of sunscreen, non of us thought to put it on. Unfortunately, along we fun memories, we came home with some pretty nasty sunburns. Even with the sunburns, it was still a day to remember.

P.S. Today is Father's Day so happy Father's Day to Jeremy, our favorite dad, and to all the fathers out there.

That's a Wrap (Part 2)

 This week Carrigan and Merrick wrapped up their school years. Merrick didn't have any choice but to go on Monday because he had two important finals, but C.C. just had a field day and she was determined not to go. Since I'm a pushover, the weather was crappy for a field day, and I had to work and preferred to have some help in keeping Elsie entertained, I caved to her staying home. In any case, we did her last day pictures, along with Merrick's, on Monday.

As for me, I had to work this week, but it was a very slow week. I am now off for the next 8 weeks and we are officially on summer vacay mode.

Last week, we talked as a family about our summer goals and, so far, we are off to a good start. This past week was full of practicing our sports, playing games, reading, working (Merrick), swimming, sewing, Legos, and crafting. While we have had electronics, they have taken a back seat to days filled with other fun.

I know it's very early days, but I'm hoping we can keep this up. We have a very small number of summers (I refuse to say how many) left with Merrick at home and I am determined to make the most of this one.

That's a Wrap (Part 1)

This week marked the beginning of the end of the school year. With that came all the usual end of year excitement and stress. This year the end is a bit staggered. Elsie's last day came first. Her last day was Friday. Of course I had to pick her up instead of having her ride the bus so that we could celebrate with everyone at the school and take part of the traditional last day bus send off. She was also really excited for a visit from Chipper, the school mascot.

Since school got out early (10:40am), we went straight from school to the park with some friends. The kids got to play and we had a pizza party. It was a great way to kick off the summer.

Friday night was also high school graduation. This year was Kalani's turn to graduate. To say that this was a tough year for Kalani would be a gross understatement and we weren't actually sure if he would graduate. Somehow he made it happen and now he's off to Western Oregon to play football. He also got to have Signing Day this week as well. It's been a big week!

Unfortunately for Merrick and CC, they are not done until tomorrow. Carrigan just has a field day and likely won't go, but Merrick has 2 finals so he has to still be locked and loaded tomorrow. In any case, summer is coming in hot and I can't wait. I just have to make it until Friday and then I am off too.