Monday, June 29
This morning I realized I hadn’t updated the blog with all the graduation weekend festivities nor had I stayed up on my journaling from last week so I spent some time working on that and then KD and I went on a bike ride/walk down to the ridge to pick up a little 4thof July goodie bag from our HOA. Unfortunately, all the usual festivities with the big community party and fireworks has been cancelled.
There’s no way I can keep up with them on bikes – unless I ran, but that’s not gonna happen. They did pretty circling back though so we could stay somewhat together. I took a trail route home so I ended up walking about 5 miles. I was a beautiful morning – sunny and high sixties.
Carly had her second date this afternoon/evening and Abigail was off with friends after work. Abigail started back at work today after several weeks without any hours. She’ll still qualify for unemployment though since she’s not working a ton. Unemployment has been very good for these young adults – she’ll leave for college in a pretty sweet spot thanks to Uncle Sam.
I had a firepit powwow with some girlfriends tonight while Justin was home working – he’s swamped at work right now with quarter close and the merger with Sprint.
Tuesday, June 30
Woke up today to find that the cruise we booked with several friends in December is cancelled because the new ship would not be complete in time due to COVID delays. So sad! We can switch to another ship with similar dates, but it’s not brand spanking new and we’re losing a few perks. So I stewed over that for hours waiting to see what everyone was going to do.
Today felt stressful – not only the changes on the trip, but placing some orders online, choosing the day/time for Abigail to move into BYU housing, and likely because of all of the above the kids seemed extra needy/moody/demanding, etc… Abigail spent all afternoon in the kitchen baking two double batches of cookies to deliver tonight with thank you notes for graduation goodies. She was also supposed to cook dinner, but the cookies took way too long and besides that I had a 50% off DoorDash coupon that was expiring tonight so Justin and I decided to go out for dinner.
I’ve been wanting to try Castilla, a Spanish restaurant in Bellevue for a while now and thought we could go next week when we’re supposed to be in Spain, but there’s no way I could pass up saving 50% so we ordered some paella to pick up and take to a park to eat. It was a bit windy but still beautiful.
We walked around a bit afterward, picked up some shakes from Chick-fil-A for dessert and then Justin needed to get home to work. Yep, work at 9pm. I needed to fit in a short walk before showering and then Carly asked if I wanted to watch a show with her and I can’t say no to time my older kids actually want to spend with me. The show was a bust, but still nice to relax together.
Wednesday, July 1
We had dental appointments this morning. Abigail couldn’t come since she had to work so Justin took her place since his appointment was cancelled due to COVID. They did a good job cycling us through pretty quickly and nobody had cavities with is AWESOME! Jason was the last to go back and since we had two cars Justin took everyone else home. Since it was just Jason and I we decided to have his first summer lunch date today. Without any hesitation he chose Maggiano’s which I was thrilled about – I would’ve chosen it myself if it were up to me. Yes, Justin and I just went a few weeks ago, but we’ve been going on a BOGO coupon for about a year now and that coupon doesn’t apply to their buy one for today, get one free for tomorrow deal which offers my favorite pasta dish of all time – their mushroom ravioli is to DIE FOR! I also had a $10 off coupon and a gift card for the remaining balance so it felt like a wise decision financially as well. Win. Win. Win. Jason was willing to run a couple quick errands afterward which always feel productive.
Back home we spent about an hour or so cleaning up. It’s crazy how cluttered the house can get in a short amount of time. It feels great to have a clean kitchen and not be tripping over shoes. Speaking of tripping…. Justin slipped down the stairs today. Not sure how that happened but he had a pretty sweet rug burn.
Abigail made spaghetti and meatballs tonight for dinner and then Justin and I watched the sequel – Return to Snowy River with JKD.
Doesn’t look too appetizing to me, but everyone else loved it.
Carly started painting the boys room – it’s a bit darker than I expected, but I really do love it.
Thursday, July 2
The weather sure doesn’t feel like summer around here and it doesn’t look like we’ll get above 71 in the next 10 days either. I’d intended on it being a productive day in the office, but instead we (KD and I – and Jason when required) Legoed today – pretty much all day. After dinner (Carly made crunchwrap supremes) JKD and I went to the park to get outdoors. Abigail was there with friends playing spikeball so KD hovered around them. Jason and I played some tennis when the courts opened up. After we hit around for a while he wanted to keep score. Thankfully, I beat him, but with some more practice serving we might find ourselves pretty evenly matched.
Friday, July 3
I spent this morning chatting online with a Chase rep to follow up on some cancelled flights that we are still waiting for refunds on. Cancelling travel has been such a huge process. I was online for nearly two hours for something so simple and that was supposedly already cancelled and taken care of when I contacted them back in May. If all goes well I’m hoping that the only part of our Europe trip that we won’t get back is our hotel in Barcelona – they’ve issued us a credit, but that will be hard for us to use by the end of 2021.
Looks like the kids did some laundry today – it seems to be never-ending. And that pile of boxes in the corner of the hall is our COVID donation pile. Hopefully I get that outta here soon now that DI had finally opened.
And there musta been some bike-riding as well cause I had this picture on my camera. We got this old bike from Linda earlier this year and Katie has enjoyed riding it. It’s got the comfiest seat of all of our bikes.
Drew has started to have some interactions with his neighbor buddy again. They still haven’t played at each other’s houses, but they’ve played a bit outside. They must not mind the interactions either cause here’s Drew riding around on his friends little riding toy.
Saturday, July 4 (Independence Day)
This morning was a spent in the kitchen. Katie and Drew helped me make a quintuple batch of smores rice krispie treats for our get together this afternoon at the lake.
Then I also made crepes for brunch complete with strawberries, blueberries, whipped topping and Nutella (for those of us not allergic to nuts).
As we were finishing up brunch around noon we got a message that several of the families were already heading to the lake. It was previously suggested we’d meet at 2pm. So we hustled to get ready and load up the car and cooler. So much stuff!
We were the last family to arrive and our friends had secured a pretty private spot at the end of the beach for us to hangout. It’s wasn’t a really warm day, but I’d prefer it be a bit cool than blazing hot so I didn’t mind. Knowing we’d only reach the low 70s I didn’t even wear my swimsuit and spent the entire day sitting and chatting. It was very relaxing and we had TONS of food to enjoy.
Abigail gave Justin some short to wear which perfectly matched with Kalli
Everyone ended up staying until dusk (9:30pm) when we had to leave so the park could close. There was some talk about gathering at someone’s house for fireworks, but in the end we all went our separate ways though Abigail and Carly went off in search of fireworks with Kalli and Nicole. Jason wasn’t interested in joining Justin, Katie, Drew and myself as we walked around the neighborhood to check out the fireworks across the valley. I think a lot of people went overboard this year on the private firework displays to make up for all the restrictions on regular activities due to COVID. There were so many.
I know this is totally blurry but I love that you can still see the look of pure joy on his face
In the end it was a great day though we certainly missed our normal July 4th festivities.
Sunday, July 5 (My 43rd Birthday)
I stayed in bed for a while this morning responding to birthday greetings on Facebook and text. Birthdays are always a fun opportunity to connect with people you don’t hear from very often.
My sister Robyn sent me a link to a google drive with videos from her first wedding in 1994. Months ago I reached out to my siblings asking them to please send me any video recordings they have that would include my Dad. I don’t remember his voice and that makes me so sad. It’s hard to imagine a time when taking video wasn’t possible or common, but that’s the way it was two decades ago. Robyn didn’t have any clips of our Dad talking, but I loved seeing him walking around and interacting with others. It was emotional for me and I was so grateful that she shared them. I’m still hopeful Tyrone will have something of my Dad that he will share with us someday soon. My Dad was big into taking pictures and I’ve always been the friend with the camera as well. It’s fun that Abigail has that same passion. Capturing and recording memories is so important to me. I certainly can’t rely on my memory to preserve them.
As soon as I was up I was guided into the bonus room for some Legoing and there I stayed for the next 8+ hours. Justin prepared a yummy omelet for me for breakfast and had it delivered to me.
For lunch he prepared white chocolate, macadamia pancakes and had them delivered to me. They were delicious.
There were a few deliveries of watermelon throughout the day. For dinner Justin made an avocado chicken salad and for that I came downstairs and ended the Legoing marathon for the day. We had a late CFM lesson and sacrament. Sommer delivered some freshly picked cherries just as we were finishing up around 8pm and gave the kids a bit of a hard time about not praising their Mom on her birthday. We sent JKD to bed fairly early since they had been up so late the night before and then we watched the first half of Hamilton with AC.
- COVID Update: Washington state announced a pause on counties moving to phase 4 due to rising concerns about the spread and announced a statewide requirement for businesses to require face coverings of all employees and customers. Stats as of Sunday, July 5: Confirmed cases in Washington state – 36,985 with 1,370 deaths. USA total cases over 2.8 million with over 129k deaths. Globally over 11.5 million cases and 535k deaths.
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