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.

 

Silverwood (C.C.'s version)

If you are a long-time reader of this blog, you may remember that for Merrick's 13th birthday we took a family trip to Silverwood. Well, that seems to have become somewhat of a tradition, as we just headed to Silverwood to celebrate C.C.'s 13th birthday. It was all planned and should have been perfect as the kids had Friday and Monday off of school so we could spend 2 days at Silverwood and they wouldn't miss any school. Unfortunately, plans went a little sideways.  3 days before we were supposed to leave, Merrick got diagnosed with mono. As a precaution, we were given a long list of prohibited activities. High intensity roller coasters were on that list.

When Merrick got diagnosed, we debated canceling the trip. We didn't know what, if anything he would feel up to doing. He wouldn't be able to ride rollercoasters and he is our biggest rollercoaster fan. We ultimately decided that in addition to the trip being non-refundable, it was not fair to C.C. to cancel. If Merrick was too sick to do anything, he could lay in the Airbnb as easily as he could lay at home, so the trip was still on.

Friday, we loaded up early and headed out. Merrick was definitely struggling, but he put on a mask and we hit the road. We made it to Coeur d'Alene early in the day. We started with stop at Walmart to get some groceries and a swimsuit for Jeremy, since he came without one, and then made our way to the lake.

Merrick had very little energy so we tried not to hike too far, just get to the water and sit. The water was so cold, but that didn't stop us from wading in a little. It may have been chilly, but the views were definitely worth it.

That night, we had a fire in the firepit and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows for s'mores. We then got into the hot tub to cap off the night. It was a fun evening, but Merrick was wiped and we all went to bed pretty early. The saving grace for us on this trip was that Silverwood was only open from 11-7. That meant that we could let Merrick sleep in as long as he wanted each morning and get him to bed early each night. 

Saturday, we headed to Silverwood for day 1. It was unquestionably a different day for Merrick then he would have preferred. He spent a lot of time sitting and was unable to go on most of his favorite rides. We still made the most of it and had fun. I was just glad we made it through the day.

Sunday, Merrick was tired, but said he wanted to still go to the park. By day two, we had it well dialed in what we could and couldn't do and what everyone's favorites were. As the day progressed, Merrick seemed to have more energy. The biggest negative of the day was that C.C. and I were both having really bad allergies and we each had an eye that would not stop watering. We did receive a blessing from heaven when a lady walked by, noticed C.C. was struggling, and gave her a pair of new sunglasses to help.

Monday, it was time to head home. We first went back to the lake, hiked a bit more, and walked around. Elsie was also set on feeding the ducks. Merrick was definitely pushing his limits and he was happy when we got back to the car and he had hours of sitting ahead of him. In the end, he had more hours of sitting ahead than he bargained for. There was construction just before Cascade Locks and we were down to one lane. We ended up sitting in traffic for an extra hour.

It was a different trip than we had planned, but I think we all still had a good time. I wish I could say that we will have a redo when Elsie turns 13, but Merrick will likely be out of the house by then (insert crying emoji here). I guess only time will tell how and when we make it back to Silverwood again.

Best Life

This past week or so has been a lot of fun. As we near the end of the school year, we have all been squeezing in some fun wherever we can and living our best lives.

Last weekend we went with the youth in our ward down to the Willamette Valley temple open house. We took the whole family and it was very special to be in the temple as a whole family for the first time.

Last weekend was also Mother's Day. When we got home from the temple, Jeremy and I started celebrating with a date night. We went to the inaugural home game of our new WNBA team, the Portland Fire. We got free shirts and an Ashanti concert at half time. It was a great night.

 The girls continued the royal treatment by giving me a spa day the next evening. Also, not pictured, but definitely too good not to mention, Merrick spoke in church last Sunday and gave such a sweet Mother's Day tribute to me.

As the weather has warmed, Merrick has taken every free moment to go fishing. Up until this week, he hasn't caught anything, but this week his luck finally changed and he caught his first fish. His smile shows just how he felt about it.

As the cherry on top of a great week, I took Friday off of work and went with Elsie on her fieldtrip to the zoo. Since we had so many adult volunteers, our group for the fieldtrip was just Elsie, her BFF, Shay, Shay's mom, and I. The girls had so much fun despite the fact that is was a little cold and rained just a bit.

Like I said, it was a great week. We have more fun planned for this week. You'll have to come back and read about it soon.