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.