Moving Abigail to Utah {August 12 – 18}

Wednesday, August 12

 

We were up around 6am this morning – not on purpose, but Justin had a nightmare about some lion around 4:30am and I couldn’t go back to sleep knowing I had to get up early anyhow.  Grrr….

 

Justin gave Abigail a father’s blessing just before we headed out the door – better late than never.  And then he said good-bye which made him emotional which made the rest of us emotional.  Sending our oldest off to school is a big deal and starts the long cycle of good-byes that we’ll be experiencing year after year in some form.

My friend Addy told me about a gas station in Hermiston, Oregon that has big ole donuts.  That was our first stop and it didn’t disappoint.

The drive went really well.  Abigail drove for a few hours which helped since I wasn’t feeling particularly rested.  We spent a little time at my Mom’s before heading out for food.  We ended up getting Taco Bell which was actually quite delicious and then we picked up some cookies at Crumbl – yum!

 

Thursday, August 13

Today was a massive shopping day for all the necessities Abigail would need in college.  I knew we had a lot that needed to be done, but I didn’t expect to spend THREE HOURS at Wal-Mart.  We rewarded ourselves afterward with some delicious Waffle Luv.

We hit up IKEA next which is always a bit overwhelming.  Due to COVID they limited the number of people in the store so we had to wait outside for a bit just to get in.  

 

My Mom and Val took us out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse which was really tasty.  We especially enjoyed their yummy rolls.

 

Friday, August 14

 

Lagoon today!  Due to COVID their hours were limited to 11am-8pm.  We got there right as they opened and met up with Abigail’s besties Kalli & Nicole as well as Kalli’s parents and two of Kalli’s cousins. Mara, Kalli’s Mom was the perfect amusement park buddy for me.  Neither of us love the super intense rides although we pushed each other a bit and rode on most everything.  

I took a hard pass on the “Mousetrap” – I didn’t like it as a teen so I knew I wouldn’t like it as an adult

I took the girls on my favorite childhood ride – Musik Express.  We barely fit across the seat which I thought would help Abigail not be so scrunched, but I was wrong.  Jason compiled a few video clips from the day…

Kalli and her family left around 5:30pm but we stayed another two hours.  Nicole came back to my Mom’s with us for the night.  We stopped at Café Zupas on the way – so, so yum and then topped off the night picking up some Chip Cookies downtown.

Saturday, August 15

 

Today was another shopping day, but more for the non-essentials.  Our first stop was up in SLC at a warehouse to pick up some kamut flour.  I really don’t know why kamut flour is so special, but I was told it’s lifechanging so I decided to give it a try.  I picked up 50 pounds as well as a cookbook, dough hook and some special gray salt.  I’m excited to do some baking!

 

We hit up City Creek to look for some clothes for the girls and then we decided to try Cubby’s before heading back south.  

I dropped the girls off at the mall to shop and went to a army supply store to pick up some MRE’s and other emergency preparedness supplies.  Unfortunately for the girls all the fitting rooms were closed so they didn’t have much interest in shopping.  My Mom had a yummy dinner ready for us back at her house and then Nicole’s sister came and picked her up to head back to Provo with her.  The girls and I hit swig afterward and another Wal-Mart run.  We also picked up a movie to watch back at the house with my Mom and Val (“I Still Believe” – two thumbs up).

When we were finally heading to bed I realized we’d forgotten to pick up some rolls for tomorrow’s family dinner while we were out.  Abigail was happy to do a near-midnight run to the store with me in our pjs.  Only WinCo was open at 11:30pm so that’s where we went.  Utah has SO much shopping – driving 10 minutes to WinCo would normally seem ridiculous but for us that is perfectly normal – actually better than normal.

 

Sunday, August 16

 

I went on a walk this morning and then enjoyed a relaxing day without any shopping.  We had a mini sacrament meeting and took turns reading a chapter from Alma with Val sharing commentary from a Book of Mormon study book.  We decided to watch “Knives Out” in the afternoon and nearly finished before the Hipwell family started to show up for family dinner.  Most everyone came down and it was fun to catch up and visit with them. It doesn’t seem like a whole year has passed since the family reunion in Bear Lake.  

 

Monday, August 17

 

We were out of the house by 10am all loaded up with Abigail’s stuff.  

The girls wanted to stop at a couple clothing boutiques along the way.  Carly ended up finding a cute dress at Piper and Scoot.  Abigail was able to check-in to the dorms at noon and we arrived right around that time.  Thankfully we found a huge cart and an elevator which made moving in in 100+ degree temperatures more manageable.  

We got her bed setup and unpacked all of the boxes but left most of the organization for her to do later.  We still had several errands to run including some returns at Target, groceries at WinCo and Costco.  It was so, so hot!

Again we dropped everything off in Abigail’s apartment but didn’t spend too much time setting up.  She’s the first of her roommates to move into the apartment so some of the organizing will need to wait until all the girls have moved in and decide together where they would like everything to go.  

We hadn’t eaten dinner yet and decided the BYU creamery was a must do.  Their ice-cream was top notch.  We also stopped by Swig and took a few pictures by the BYU signs.  Not much of a dinner after all.

We went back to the dorms and visited a bit with Kalli and her family, checked out Kalli’s room and then said our good-byes.  It wasn’t nearly as emotional as I imagined.  I’d had myself a little cry last night when I was going to bed so that may have helped me keep my composure.

 

Tuesday, August 18

 

The drive home was uneventful.  The goal was to make it to Nampa, Idaho without stopping.  We knew there was a Costco right off the freeway in Nampa as well as a Crumbl Cookie where we planned on picking up a dozen cookies to take home to the family.  However, we ended up having to get gas about 10 miles before Nampa because we didn’t want to risk running out.

We noticed that the cookie store was across the street from a Sonic.  On our way home from Sunriver earlier this month Carly and I discovered that Sonic has delicious pretzels so that sounded like a fantastic idea.

 

Carly drove for a few hours and then we switched back before driving through the Blue Mountains.  This was the first time she’d ever driven my car (Abigail’s first time driving my car was heading down to Utah just days before).  Carly did great but it still wasn’t very relaxing for me.  I’m just a nervous passenger in general.  I listened to several podcasts and talks when Carly was watching videos on the iPad.  I felt like it helped pass the time and kept my attention better than music would have.

 

I was exhausted when we got home.  Everyone helped unload the car quickly, but I still had to get in some sort of exercise so I could close my move and exercise ring.  Justin, Katie and Drew joined me on a walk around the neighborhood and then I showered and relaxed.  Well deserved.

Summer 2020 {Week 8 : August 9 – 16}

We only had a few days at home from Sunriver before Abigail, Carly and I headed down to Utah to get Abigail settled in at BYU.  I don’t remember much about those days, but no doubt we were doing a bunch of packing.

 

Sunday, August 9

 

We invited Grandma and Grandpa Fletcher over for dinner on Sunday, August 9 so they visit with Abigail before she leaves for school.  Grandma decided not to come but Grandpa joined us and had a great time visiting with the kids and playing spike ball and toss outside in the backyard.

Monday, August 10

 

Drew was due a summer lunch date and decided on Jersey Mike’s.  As we pulled into the parking lot, which is shared by Café Rio, we noticed a Café Rio employee outside telling people to come on in and eat anything on the menu for FREE.  After five months of being closed I knew that Café Rio was opening on Wednesday and as we found out they were open from 12-1pm today and tomorrow to train their new staff and practice being open under the new social-distancing guidelines.  I was, of course, all game for Café Rio but Drew was fixed on Jersey Mikes.  So we got him a kids meal at Jersey Mikes and “his” Café Rio meal was taken home for Abigail to enjoy.

Tuesday, August 11

 

Of course we couldn’t pass up another opportunity for free food so I returned to Café Rio today with the kids to fill our bellies with deliciousness.

Abigail had a bunch of friends over tonight – her last night before leaving for college.  She has such a fun group of friends.  I know it was hard for her to say good-bye to them.  Seemed like an official end to her high school experience as she starts a new beginning in college.

August 12 – 17 in Snoqualmie

Abigail, Carly and I left for Utah on Wednesday, August 12 – separate post to come. Back at home Justin had some fun with the “littles”…

A walk around Lake Alice

An day at Rattlesnake Lake

Pool time in the backyard

I haven’t been paying much attention to the COVID numbers and updates recently (mid-September), but I had a few stats from August that I’ll still post as reference.

• COVID Update: On July 31 our school district changed from the hybrid in-person/remote learning model announced on July 8th to starting the school year fully remote. After the first six weeks it would be reassessed to possibly move into a hybrid model in November. According to a district survey 51% of parents were very comfortable sending students back to school and 11% were not comfortable at all. Stats as of Sunday, August 9: Confirmed cases in Washington state – 63,647 with 1,697 deaths. USA total cases over 5 million with over 160k deaths. Globally over 20 million cases and 730k deaths. 

Friday & Saturday, August 7-8 {Sunriver, OR – SHARC & Home}

It was really cold this morning in fact we turned on the heat last night which I think helped some of us sleep a bit better. Justin decided to go to on a run around 10am and then we headed into Bend to hit up another one of our favorite brunch spots. Justin and I have been to McKay Cottage a few times on a couple trips and love it. I couldn’t resist ordering the same thing I have in the past, the Stuffed French Toast – two buttery croissants stuffed with mascarpone and served with marionberry compote. It was delicious, although I was really torn between trying their California egg benedict. Next time! The kids really enjoyed their food. It’s crazy how much it costs to take our family out to eat, which I guess explains why we never do it. Ha!

We booked it back to Sunriver and dropped Jason off at the SHARC to hold our place in line for the 2:30pm session. He was there almost an hour early and we ended up approximately 150th out of 200 in line. It’s a good thing we dropped him off because they were already at capacity before the rest of us could get back to join him in line. Apparently everyone had even more fun today at the pool than they did a few days ago. It wasn’t quite warm enough for me to get in the water so instead I watched something on my phone and enjoyed the sunshine. The hour and a half flew by! I really do miss having as long as you want at the pool. We went back to the house and some of us hammocked, some napped, and some got on devices for a little while. Justin and I went out on a 8 mile bike ride. Drew joined us for the first part but didn’t want to do the river loop with us. We finished up our leftover food for dinner and started gathering up our stuff and doing some laundry to prepare to head out tomorrow morning.

 

We barely made it out of the house by the check out time of 10am on Saturday morning. In fact we were outside the house an extra 20 minutes trying to load up the bikes onto the van. We decided to stop by Costco in Bend before heading home so that Abigail could get the lower price on an external hard drive that she bought last week while we were there. We also picked up a few other items since it was tax-free.  Can’t resist saving a few dollars.

And then we made our way home.  This week away was just what our family needed.  Sure two weeks in Europe would’ve been amazing, but I’d say a week in Sunriver with my crew was pretty amazing as well.   Abigail will eventually (hopefully soon) get a movie put together with all the fun video clips we took throughout the week – fun times!

Thursday, August 6 {Sunriver, OR – Benham Falls & Observatory}

The temperatures dropped 20 degrees today which made it the perfect day to bike 16+ miles to Benham Falls.  There was a buck sitting outside our house as we were getting ready to head out.

Justin started out navigating us and wasn’t quite sure how to get there so we had already logged 3 miles by the time we passed the SHARC.  Our detour led us to this Sunriver sign we’d never seen before…

Eventually Abigail got us onto the right path and it was smooth sailing from there. This was Drew’s longest bike ride ever and he did amazingly well. The cooler temperatures really were perfect for biking. We walked down to the outlook but didn’t hang out at the falls very long before heading back to Sunriver.

On our way back to the house we stopped at the bridge to get a stunning picture of the river

Due to COVID the SHARC is closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays so we spent some time back at the house trying to set up all of our hammocks; however, we ended up finishing it later in the day after we played a couple rounds of frisbee golf. Justin ended up taking first place both rounds. It was a fun family activity though none of us are really exceptionable frisbee throwers.  We spent a lot of time off course in the hills going after wayward frisbees. 

Since we were already near the village we decided to do our souvenir shopping. Each of the kids were able to pick out some sort of Sunriver clothing attire. Jason has been wearing a KPMG hat of Justin‘s recently so I was excited to see him pick out something a little bit more appropriate for 13 year old teen boy. The rest of us got sweatshirts - although Justin didn’t get anything since it’s so hard to find things in his size.  We also decided to hit up Goody’s for ice cream one last time - fully maximizing our American Express discount offer. It really was delicious! 

Thankfully most of us had sweatshirts with us because the ride back to the house after ice cream was very cold. Back at the house we finished getting set up all of the hammocks set up and took some fun pictures. 

from Abigail’s perspective

It’s so nice to have Amazon Prime as an option that we were able to get a couple new ones shipped to us here early in the week. We had a 9pm reservation at the Oregon Observatory tonight.  It is the nation’s largest publicly accessible observatory.  It was still quite light out when we arrived but we were able to see Jupiter and Saturn. While we waited for it to get dark we listened to a presentation about the moon and then headed back to the telescopes to see galaxies, stars, planets, and other amazing astronomical wonders. It was fun to see Drew‘s curiosity develop and I love that he was confident enough to ask the guides the questions he was wondering.  They also did a star constellation tour using a powerful laser to trace things in the sky above us. Out of this world! 😏

The kids had fun making shadow puppets while we waited for the presentation to start