Monday, July 22
Today was an exhausting one. I took Carly and several other fourth years to the church this morning to send them off on their backpacking hiking trip. I beelined it home to change quickly and head to the gym for a class. We were outside today and it was a nice very warm. Summer has finally arrived! After I was showered Drew and I headed out for his lunch date. Drew is the last kiddo this summer to get a lunch date. We’re so busy in August that each kid only gets one lunch date this summer. He was debating between McDonald’s and Red Robin, but Red Robin only because I was pushing for that as I had my free birthday meal to redeem by the end of the month. At the last minute he threw me a curve ball and confidently declared he wanted to go to Chick-fil-A instead. I decided to head to Chick-fil-A in Covington so I could take care of some errands at Walmart, Costco, and Fred Meyer. As a reward for enduring all those errands I told Drew we would stop by Baskin-Robbins and get ice cream with the last of our T-Mobile Tuesday dollars.
Today was an exhausting one. I took Carly and several other fourth years to the church this morning to send them off on their backpacking hiking trip. I beelined it home to change quickly and head to the gym for a class. We were outside today and it was a nice very warm. Summer has finally arrived! After I was showered Drew and I headed out for his lunch date. Drew is the last kiddo this summer to get a lunch date. We’re so busy in August that each kid only gets one lunch date this summer. He was debating between McDonald’s and Red Robin, but Red Robin only because I was pushing for that as I had my free birthday meal to redeem by the end of the month. At the last minute he threw me a curve ball and confidently declared he wanted to go to Chick-fil-A instead. I decided to head to Chick-fil-A in Covington so I could take care of some errands at Walmart, Costco, and Fred Meyer. As a reward for enduring all those errands I told Drew we would stop by Baskin-Robbins and get ice cream with the last of our T-Mobile Tuesday dollars.
By the time we got back home it was late afternoon. Jason and Katie were just wrapping up piano lessons and then we spent some time straightening up the house before they got some time on the Wii. Someone in the neighborhood gave us the old Wii system a few years ago and the kids have really gotten into it this summer since they’ve figured out that the more they play the more characters and such are made available to them. I don’t think I stopped moving from early morning until evening and then I hunkered down at my computer and worked on catching up on documenting our Bali trip.
Tuesday, July 23
Today was about getting things done at home. I spent a lot of the day on the computer working through Bali photos while the kids did several Boredom Buster slips and had more time than usual on electronics. Drew pulled out “do a service for someone” and he decided to make my bed for me.
Tuesday, July 23
Today was about getting things done at home. I spent a lot of the day on the computer working through Bali photos while the kids did several Boredom Buster slips and had more time than usual on electronics. Drew pulled out “do a service for someone” and he decided to make my bed for me.
It’s been interesting because I was supposed to be at YW camp all week with my girls so my calendar was free which is allowing me some flexibility to get some things done that I need/want to. Jason‘s friend Matthew came over a little bit in the afternoon otherwise it was a very low-key day. I have to admit I felt a little guilt in the lack of fun around here lately. I feel like with my upcoming surgery I’m under a time crunch to be productive and I’m trying to take advantage of that. I did manage to get dinner on the table tonight which is a has been a rarity these days. And as if by some strange magic, right as we were getting ready for dinner Jason drew out “make cookies“ out of the Summer Boredom Buster jar as I literally chanted for cookies. He did a great job and even cleaned up his mess. I continued to work on photos while Justin and Jason watched a movie after Katie and Drew went to bed.
Wednesday, July 24
I knew I needed to get in a workout today and also felt the desire to get the kids outside doing something active and fun so this morning I proposed to them the idea of hiking Little Si together. Drew and Katie were excited about it. Jason asked if he could stay home, but that’s kind of his mojo lately. I suspected he would enjoy it much more than he would let on. So we gathered together all the necessities and headed to the trail head. Thankfully it was a beautiful, cool morning. Drew led us up the mountain for the majority of the time. That kid has incredible stamina. We only took a few short breaks for drinks on the way up.
Wednesday, July 24
I knew I needed to get in a workout today and also felt the desire to get the kids outside doing something active and fun so this morning I proposed to them the idea of hiking Little Si together. Drew and Katie were excited about it. Jason asked if he could stay home, but that’s kind of his mojo lately. I suspected he would enjoy it much more than he would let on. So we gathered together all the necessities and headed to the trail head. Thankfully it was a beautiful, cool morning. Drew led us up the mountain for the majority of the time. That kid has incredible stamina. We only took a few short breaks for drinks on the way up.
Little Si doesn’t offer as amazing views of some of the other local summits, but it was still beautiful to look down on the valley. We stayed at the top a little while to eat a few snacks and then we headed back down.
Drew’s much more cautious on the way down and wanted to hold my hand most of the way. You won’t hear any objections about that from me.
It was a nice morning and I was grateful that we took the opportunity to get out and enjoy the beautiful area that we live. The kids conned me into stopping by McDonald’s on the way home. We rarely go to McDonald’s. I told them they needed to order something off of the “dollar menu”. Jason chose a sausage burrito and Katie and Drew chose a sausage McMuffin however neither Katie nor Drew finished theirs. I don’t think will be returning to McDonald’s anytime soon. We showered back at home and then I gave the kids some time to enjoy electronics. Justin brought home pizza for the kids and then we watched a movie together as a family, thanks again to T-Mobile Tuesday for the free Redbox.
Thursday, July 25
Last night I hemmed and hawed about the best way for me and the kids to redeem the free pretzels that we received through the T-Mobile Tuesday app this week. I hate to make special trips anywhere without tying it into other errands simply because I am a little too conscious of the gas it takes to get there. It was determined that instead of organizing all of my Nordstrom anniversary sale returns and shipping them back that I would humble myself enough to carry it all into the store and return it in person. The added benefit of that is that Nordstrom’s doesn’t have to spend a bunch of money on return shipping costs and I get my refund sooner rather than later. We also had some returns to Target and needed to pick up the family reunion shirts so the excursion was justifiable. The kids were excited about it and had no complaints running around all morning. The pretzels tasted delicious and I also picked up a salad for myself at CPK in order to redeem my free birthday dessert. It’s funny how much of a kick I get out of receiving free things.
Thursday, July 25
Last night I hemmed and hawed about the best way for me and the kids to redeem the free pretzels that we received through the T-Mobile Tuesday app this week. I hate to make special trips anywhere without tying it into other errands simply because I am a little too conscious of the gas it takes to get there. It was determined that instead of organizing all of my Nordstrom anniversary sale returns and shipping them back that I would humble myself enough to carry it all into the store and return it in person. The added benefit of that is that Nordstrom’s doesn’t have to spend a bunch of money on return shipping costs and I get my refund sooner rather than later. We also had some returns to Target and needed to pick up the family reunion shirts so the excursion was justifiable. The kids were excited about it and had no complaints running around all morning. The pretzels tasted delicious and I also picked up a salad for myself at CPK in order to redeem my free birthday dessert. It’s funny how much of a kick I get out of receiving free things.
We had to get home by the early afternoon as I had a phone appointment with the hospital to go over preop details. After which I gave the kids some time to play the Wii so I could get some things done in the office for primary and family budgeting. The rest of the afternoon was pretty low-key. After Justin did a church visit he picked up Greenbook a free Redbox for he and I to watch which was really good.
Friday, July 26
I hit the gym this morning for my last killer Friday work out for several weeks. The class I attend on Fridays is 1hr and 15 minutes – that extra 15 minutes is killer! It was nice to have Andrea there once again and be able to walk with her afterward. I was so exhausted I would’ve liked to of just relax the rest of the afternoon but I had some chicken I needed to cook for the reunion and Jason’s birthday dessert to prepare. Justin came home a little bit early and we went to Rattlesnake Lake for the evening. I was surprised that Jason and Katie had no hesitation getting in the lake – the water was cold!
Friday, July 26
I hit the gym this morning for my last killer Friday work out for several weeks. The class I attend on Fridays is 1hr and 15 minutes – that extra 15 minutes is killer! It was nice to have Andrea there once again and be able to walk with her afterward. I was so exhausted I would’ve liked to of just relax the rest of the afternoon but I had some chicken I needed to cook for the reunion and Jason’s birthday dessert to prepare. Justin came home a little bit early and we went to Rattlesnake Lake for the evening. I was surprised that Jason and Katie had no hesitation getting in the lake – the water was cold!
I spent several late hours tonight trying to catch up on the blog. I think I’m finally seeing the light and it feels fantastic.
Saturday, July 27 - Jason's 12th Birthday
Jason requested breakfast burritos this morning for his birthday breakfast. We spent the morning at home waiting for the girls to get home from camp. The kids played some Wii, watched some minute to win it episodes, read, etc.… We needed Abigail to get home in order to be able to bike the John Wayne tunnel trail with Jason. This was the number one thing he said he want wanted to do this summer and today was our best opportunity to make that happen. The difficulty in this excursion is that a car needs to be dropped off at the bottom of the trail and then someone needs to drop all the bikers off at the top of the trail and then switch cars at the bottom of the trail. The coordination is a little complicated and thankfully Abigail was willing to do that for us so we could go. It was slow getting out of here as usual. Things like this always take longer than Justin expects. We didn’t get onto the trail until after 4pm and we knew it would take us at least a couple hours to get down to Rattlesnake Lake. The weather was cool, especially cold in the tunnel, but we were prepared with jackets and gloves and headlamps to make it doable.
Saturday, July 27 - Jason's 12th Birthday
Jason requested breakfast burritos this morning for his birthday breakfast. We spent the morning at home waiting for the girls to get home from camp. The kids played some Wii, watched some minute to win it episodes, read, etc.… We needed Abigail to get home in order to be able to bike the John Wayne tunnel trail with Jason. This was the number one thing he said he want wanted to do this summer and today was our best opportunity to make that happen. The difficulty in this excursion is that a car needs to be dropped off at the bottom of the trail and then someone needs to drop all the bikers off at the top of the trail and then switch cars at the bottom of the trail. The coordination is a little complicated and thankfully Abigail was willing to do that for us so we could go. It was slow getting out of here as usual. Things like this always take longer than Justin expects. We didn’t get onto the trail until after 4pm and we knew it would take us at least a couple hours to get down to Rattlesnake Lake. The weather was cool, especially cold in the tunnel, but we were prepared with jackets and gloves and headlamps to make it doable.
I think the entire trail is very picturesque. Jason seemed to lose interest and expressed that the ride was too long. I think part of his negative attitude was attributed to him rear-ended me while I was stopped on the trail and he wasn’t paying attention. I wasn’t thrilled about it – it really hurt and left me some sweet bruises - and Jason felt bad as well. After we got home that night I noticed that of the few videos Justin took during the day he just so happened to catch the crash. I can post it now that the feelings aren’t so raw :)
I always worry about wildlife when I’m out in nature in these parts so I rang my little bike bell periodically just to signal our approach to anything out in the woods. Turns out my paranoia was justified when I spotted a black bear standing just off the trail reaching for something up in a tree. Thankfully I was leading the pack and we stopped before we got too close. The bear definitely spotted us and we made eye contact for a while before she wandered off into the woods. We couldn’t really tell where she was or how far off the trail she had gone. But we proceeded cautiously making lots of noise ringing bells, clapping our hands, trying to be as obnoxious as possible until we could get as far away as possible. My hypersensitivity was definitely at a peak for the rest of the ride and I pretty much ring that bell nonstop for the last several miles.
We decided to get some dinner on the way home since it was already after 7pm. We split a couple sandwiches at Jersey Mike’s and then went home to have birthday dessert with the family. Jason asked if he could stay up and watch Guardians of the Galaxy tonight and of course since it’s his birthday we supported that.
Happy Birthday JMan!
Sunday, July 28
Abigail attended the SnoFalls ward today to listen to two recently returned missionaries speak. Unfortunately it was at the same time as our sacrament metering where we had a sister in our neighborhood speaking as she prepares to leave for her mission so the rest of us attended our ward. Jason wanted to have his birthday meal today so Justin prepared ziti and I made homemade french bread to accompany it. This evening Abigail and Justin went to the open house for the two missionaries. Both of their families have moved out of state while they were on their missions so they still consider Snoqualmie their home. I stayed home and played Settlers of Catan with Jason, Katie and Drew.
Abigail attended the SnoFalls ward today to listen to two recently returned missionaries speak. Unfortunately it was at the same time as our sacrament metering where we had a sister in our neighborhood speaking as she prepares to leave for her mission so the rest of us attended our ward. Jason wanted to have his birthday meal today so Justin prepared ziti and I made homemade french bread to accompany it. This evening Abigail and Justin went to the open house for the two missionaries. Both of their families have moved out of state while they were on their missions so they still consider Snoqualmie their home. I stayed home and played Settlers of Catan with Jason, Katie and Drew.
After Katie and Drew are in bed we watched the sixth Harry Potter movie. It was a late night.
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