Week 14: April 5 – 11 [Spring Break]

Monday [4/5]:  The kids were up before 8am and excited about getting the day started. Katie wanted to go to the grocery store today to see if they had some Easter candy on clearance. Jason made arrangements to go play ball with his two friends D&L and Drew was anxious to get whatever chores he needed to get done so that he could have some tech time. 

Katie has known about needing to make a state float for school for several weeks and we have put that off until today. That took a lot of back-and-forth between the two of us and a large degree of patience on both of our parts. She made some good progress though and we hope to be done very soon. She also needed to clean her room today which is seems to be a constant request. I am suspecting she might end up our messiest kid yet. Carly had a couple friends over this afternoon and they made some cake pops. Katie made Hawaiian haystacks for dinner which got eaten entirely. 

 

A busy first day of spring break with nothing really out of the ordinary.

 

Tuesday [4/6]:  The plan was for CJ and me to play some tennis late this morning so after I got my sourdough loaves shaped and rising we headed to the park and played for about an hour and a half. I wouldn’t say it was necessarily the best practice but any practice is good at this point. Carly made tacos for lunch with some ground turkey that she had left over from her friend trip. Katie wanted to walk down to the Dollar Tree so after I baked my sourdough loaves she and I headed down the hill. I loaded up a backpack with books that needed to be returned to the library which we exchange for new holds so the backpack was heavy heading both directions. The kids are pretty much obsessed with getting as much tech time as they can even though today was absolutely beautiful outside. It doesn’t help that our neighbors are out of town so KD’s regular buddies weren’t available to play. 

Not much else going on this afternoon or evening. Carly had a few friends over tonight and they played some Nintendo.

 

Wednesday [4/7]:  I feel like we got quite a bit accomplished today. When Justin came into the bedroom this morning to work he opened an email that announced that midmonth T-Mobile is going to run a promotion to upgrade the phones of existing users. We have several old phones that we are thrilled about exchanging for something newer and better. So that was an exciting announcement this morning. That also prompted me to set up my old Apple watch on our current home line so that Katie can use that in the meantime. She’s been wearing it the last week or so just for the activity monitor, but now she can text from it which she loves.  I think it’s cute to see her so excited about this step toward technology. But I’m also grateful that it is a completely safe step with no apps or internet access. I know from experience once you go down that road it opens up a whole other world of issues and the need for restrictions and boundaries. 

 

We had tennis lessons this afternoon which went really well. I really like our tennis coach and appreciate how patient he is with us. Today wasn’t necessarily an incredible workout but we did go over some strategic moves while playing doubles which was fun. I can really see how we are growing and also how much we also have to learn. Katie helped me whip up some gnocchi soup tonight for dinner with some of our leftover produce. 

 

I got an email this evening that our community ROA is hosting a photo scavenger hunt through the 18th which has some fun activities that families can participate in and submit pictures for prizes. I printed out the list of possible activities and JKD and I spent some time this evening planning out what we would do over the next week and a half. Should be something fun for us to participate in. 

The kids finished watching a movie that they had started previously with Justin while I listened to the last part of the Unshaken podcast which coincides with our CFM study this week. Justin and I read our respective books while we waited for Carly to get home from hanging out with friends tonight. She’s been out several nights this past week which is great but I would also love to see her taking some time to prepare for the ACT test that she has next Saturday. I don’t know what it is about my girls and their lack of motivation to take that test more seriously and put in the time to really do as well as they could.

 

Thursday [4/8]:  We woke up to some spring snow this morning.  We’ve had several little snow flurries recently but nothing that’s stuck around too long.

After I got ready this morning I immediately went into the bonus room and listened to a podcast that was recommended to me by my friend Sommer about Mary Magdalene. It was an interesting podcast that took a deep dive into Greek meanings and ancient stories and made some possible assumptions about who exactly Mary was. I found it interesting but I’m much more factual in my beliefs and prefer legit sources. I am totally open that much of what was shared in the podcast could be possible but I am also open to the fact that it could not be. I know that some people see a lack of desire to unfold mysteries and answer all the questions as naïve or a lack intelligence or knowledge but I feel like it keeps protects me from being led down a path that wouldn’t bring me peace or strengthen my testimony. That makes it sound like the podcast was priestcraft which was not the case at all - I just feel like I’m able to listen and see possible truth but also recognize that it might not be truth.  And I can sit in that unsurity easily.  Actually I don’t even sit in it – I just let it go and go forward with faith.  I consider it a blessing.  

 

Katie worked on her state float today.  We took a few pictures thinking we were done, but when I looked at the rubric later in the week we noticed she was missing a few requirements so she added some info on the short sides of her box after this picture was taken.

Drew had a short little playdate with our piano teachers son at the park across the street while she was teaching a lesson in our neighborhood.  It was good to see that Drew didn’t even hesitate to go out with a new friend.  There are times I wonder how this past year will affect my kids socially.  Hopefully it’s minimal. 

 

Jason competed one of our scavenger hunt tasks today by making some fudge.

 

#27. Make a yummy “human” snack that looks like an animal!

We had some time this evening before KD went to bed to play a game that Drew has been begging to play for ages.  It’s a card game version of Monopoly so Justin and I reluctantly agreed and to our surprise, it was actually quite fun and not super long - in fact we played it again the next night.

 

Justin and I finished up our taxes as well as Abigail’s tonight. I started it several weeks ago and we had some educational expenses/credits that we needed to work out as well as deciding whether not we should claim Abigail. It wasn’t necessarily complicated but it made me wonder how people without any accounting background do their taxes. I guess they probably hire them out.

 

Friday [4/9]:  I was grateful to be able to go on a walk with Andrea and Sommer this morning it’s always great to catch up with them. After I got home I spent some time with the kids getting things cleaned up around the house and then when Carly said she would play tennis we all went to the park.  KD played on the playground and rode bikes while CJ and I played tennis. I know I say this often but I’ll say it again - I really love that tennis is a hobby I can share with Carly and Jason.  It’s been such a joy and blessing for me this past year.

 

By the time we were home and cleaned up it was already almost 4pm so a full day of activity and cleaning. Jason arranged to have two of his friends (Aubrey & Matthew) come hang out tonight at our house. It has been a while since he’s gotten together with them. They were doing it regularly up until November when things shut down again and I think this is the first time that they’ve hung out since. They played some games and watched a movie and we ordered some pizzas for dinner (which also fulfilled #10 from the scavenger hunt – “Order takeout or delivery from a local restaurant”.

Carly went to a friend’s house in Carnation and hung out until curfew. Curfew is an ongoing conversation around here. Abigail insists that her curfew at Carly‘s age was 11pm and Justin would like to be consistent with that.  That irritates Carly who claims that all of her friends have at least at midnight curfew.  Raising teens is the best! – ha!

 

Saturday [4/10]:  We woke up to a bit of snow this morning and it snowed on and off for a few hours.  Eventually the sun came out and looks like it should stick around for the next week or so. Justin is busy at work (quarter close) and needs to work through the weekend but he was able to play another round of Monopoly deal with JKD.  He also had to help Abigail with her accounting homework before delving into work. She and him do accounting quite regularly.

 

We’re still working on our scavenger hunt so KD went on a bike ride around the neighborhood to find a statue of an animal in someone’s yard to fulfill one of the task #25 – “Find a house with an animal statue in the yard.” 

Jason was back in the kitchen this afternoon and made some Oreo cupcakes from scratch. It took him several hours.  I thought we’d either accomplish more today productivity wise or spend more time together as a family but for the most part everybody kind of did their own thing. We played a couple more rounds of Monopoly deal with JKD before bed and Justin and Jason finished watching a movie. Carly has been working her way through the Lost series which is quite the time consuming endeavor. I’m working my way through the pictures that we took in Arizona in early March so that’s been a process.

 

Sunday [4/11]:  We had virtual Sunday school this morning at 9am followed by in person sacrament at 11am. We’ll have in person sacrament from here on out which will be nice. Another nice change today was that anyone who is speaking or praying at the pulpit can take their mask off while speaking. I said the closing prayer today so that was nice to be able to do that unmasked. 

 

My friend Andrea’s husband from our former Snoqualmie ward was sustained as their Bishop today.  That was big news.  Our mutual friend Addy’s husband is his second counselor and Sommer’s husband remains the ward secretary.  I’m sure it will be a big adjustment for Andrea’s family but she’s got the support of a solid group of friends.

 

I signed us up for a virtual tour of the Sacred Grove and Joseph Smith’s home today at 1:30pm so we all gathered around the TV to participate in that. It was actually much cooler than even I imagined and it was amazing that you can feel the spirit of those places from thousands of miles away. It’s so neat that the church is offering these virtual tours when tours are closed but also great for anyone that may never make it out to this historical sites to see them in person.

 

Katie was excited about going on a walk this afternoon and it wasn’t until we are about to head out the door that I realized that both that Justin, Katie, and Drew were all intending on playing Pokémon during the walk. I told them I wasn’t really interested in going if they were going be staring down at their devices the entire time. They agreed to keep it at a minimum and only take them out at the Pokémon hotspots.

 

Jason made some delicious biscuits for dinner tonight with some sausage gravy for all the meat eaters in my house. Justin and I played a couple more rounds of Monopoly deal with KD before they went to bed.  Katie dominated!

I had a nice little heart to heart with Drew as he was getting into bed tonight.  When we’ve mentioned anything about him about getting baptized he’s made comments about “IF” he gets baptized.  At times it seems like a playful response - perhaps just to get a reaction from us, but I also wondered if there might be more to it.  Obviously we want him to want to get baptized so for weeks I’ve had it on my radar to have a chat with him to find out what’s in the little head of his.  Well, apparently it’s one of those important but not urgent tasks so I didn’t make it a priority until tonight.  At first he didn’t want to chat about it at all and when I asked if he’d rather not talk tonight he responded “maybe not this year” – he’s such a funny kid.  I changed gears a bit and talked about Abigail’s mission and that she is going to teach people about Christ and hope that they will want to be baptized.  I talked about her receiving her endowment the day before his birthday/baptism and that she that is her making additional covenants with the Lord, similar to what he would be doing the very next day.  I wondered if he was nervous about the baptism itself.  He loves playing in the water but we stunted him a bit by always having him wear a life jacket in the water even when he’s passed several levels of swim lessons.  We stood up, in the dark of his bedroom and did a practice dunk so he could get a sense of what that would feel like.  Our chat was so simple but exactly what he needed to be entirely on board.  He will be able to be baptized on his 8th birthday which is pretty special.  Our conversation was a reminder to me to not assume our kids know or understand things and that actual conversations need to place on a regular basis.  We’re so excited for his special day and relieved that he is now excited as well.

Week 13: March 29 – April 4 [Easter]

Monday [3/29]:  Very rarely do I need to set an alarm in the morning but today Jason was going back to school for the first time in 382 days so this being his “first day of school“ I got up and saw him off and took some photos on the porch before he went to catch his bus. I’m so glad to see him going to school and he ended up having a great day.  He’s grown over seven inches since his last day of school, his voice has dropped a few octaves and for the first time in his life he hasn’t wanted his hair buzzcut. I can’t believe this man-child of mine is just 13 and will be a high schooler in a few months!

He reported that lunch was the worst part of the day.  The students are divided into two separate rooms and assigned to a chair which they will sit in for lunch every day.  The chairs are 6 feet apart from any other student and they are not allowed to go outside and need to remain in that chair for the entire 30 minutes.

 

Carly had a 9am appointment to get a covid test before heading to the Oregon coast (Manzanita) today with friends at noon. Her appointment went well and we thought we’d have her results within an hour or so. A friend of hers that went after us received his results by 10:30am but we still didn’t have hers at 12:30pm and were holding up the entire group. Thankfully the parents agreed that they should hit the road and didn’t seem to be concerned about it, some of these families have been extremely covid careful, thankfully within a half hour or so after they finally pulled out she got official confirmation that her test was negative. She is going to have so much fun this week and I’m grateful that she has this time to spend with her friends.

 

Justin and I went to MOD Pizza for lunch to take it advantage of the lunch special they have running.

I made some kamut bread today so we could have it as a snack when the kids got home from school.  Overall I felt like it was a productive day even though I’m still feeling quite groggy from my weekend away. I had hoped to play tennis with Jason this afternoon but he got home and stated that because it had lightly snowed at some point today the courts would be wet. I doubt that was actually the case but I let him off the hook and hope to play tomorrow. 

 

Not much going on this evening. Justin gave a brief Easter message to JKD and then after KD went to bed he and I went on a long walk. It’s been a long time since we’ve walked our night route and it was nice to be outside and get moving.

 

Tuesday [3/30]:  Instead of coming downstairs right after I woke up I got dressed and ready for the day first. When I came down to the family room I saw Drew on the couch wrapped in a blanket with only his underwear on and he was on his class call. Is it not obvious by this point that you should wear more than just underwear to class? I had him get off video and run upstairs and get dressed and move over to the table where he supposed to do his morning call. When he was done with that he and I made some pasta salad for everyone to eat for lunch later.

 

The weather is forecasted to be quite nice this week so I was hoping to play some tennis with Jason when he got done with his calls this afternoon. He turned me down (again) and instead made a batch of Cadbury egg cookies. No exercise but fresh cookies isn’t necessarily the best thing for all of us but it is definitely is enjoyable. Katie and Drew got home from school and I told them they needed to get outside and enjoy the nice weather so they went for a bike ride around the neighborhood. Jason was also told he needed to get outside so at 5:30pm he approached me about playing tennis. Definitely would’ve rather done played earlier in the day but I couldn’t say no so off we went. He’s definitely improved since the last time it was just he and I playing.  It won’t be long before he’ll be able to whoop me.  

 

Justin and I went out tonight to pick up the last of our free cheesecakes at Cheesecake Factory. I also had an order at Walmart to pick up curbside of Easter stuff and we picked up some dinner at Jersey Mikes (redeemed my free birthday meal finally) and Justin ate Café Rio. The manager had some free chips and queso brought over to our table while we were eating so that was pretty sweet.

I started a new book tonight which felt a bit like a luxury and we got to bed at a pretty decent time so that felt nice.

 

Our bishop and his wife Natalie (friends of ours as well) are the chaperones of Carly’s friend trip this week and Natalie kept us posted on their activities.  Last night she sent the parents the following message.  

 

“We made it!  Been here a while 2.5 hours and the kids got all moved in.  2 of them went biking on the beach complete with burpees.  2 of them played a game of chess while listening to old music on a record player.  And 2 of them went for a 3 mile run on the beach.  Which one is yours?”

 

None of the options sounded like Carly, but I replied “I would’ve guessed Carly went biking but the burpees eliminate that. She ran?!?!?  Must be Chloe’s influence 🤷🏻‍♀”

 

Today she sent us these pictures:

Wednesday [3/31]:  Since Carly was out of town it was just Jason and I at tennis lessons today. Dusko was running late so we had extra time to warm up and had a great lesson focusing primarily on adding more of a spin to our forehand. Justin and I wanted to get my car washed last night but couldn’t get there before they closed so Jason and I swung by a brown bear wash with a free certificate and I got that taken care of. We probably only a wash our car a few times a year so it always looks so different nice and clean. 

 

When I got home Katie asked if I wanted to go for a walk with her. That doesn’t happen very often so I certainly couldn’t tell her no. She’s been wearing my old apple watch and apparently likes to have her circles closed too.  We walked over to the park while Drew rode his bike and did a few rounds around the track before heading home and getting cleaned up. The Ivar’s promotion was still running through today so we met up Mike & Linda for dinner. Everybody seemed to enjoy their dinner and it was made it even better when Justin and his dad got an extra entrée because they were given the wrong kind of fish initially. Fletchers sure do like free stuff. 

Check out Grandpa’s condiment selection

Mike picked up some Crumbl cookies for me since it’s in his neck of the woods and brought those tonight which was super awesome of him. We also did a quick Costco run before heading home so overall a very enjoyable evening and his parents really seemed to enjoy getting together.

 

A few more fun pictures from Carly’s adventures:

Carly took my old wetsuit

Thursday [4/1]:  Jason was off to his second day of school today and got up and off quietly enough that I didn’t wake up at all. Katie and Drew were eager to do their chores this morning so they could have a little tech time after their morning zoom meeting. Another beautiful spring day today. I spent some time today listening to some Easter messages and I’m still working on pictures from Hawaii so I’d love to get caught up on all of that.  

 

Several months ago my friend Addy introduced me to SweeTarts Ropes and I’m obsessed.  I’d hoped to pick some up at Walmart the day that Walmart was closed.  Since I’d lucked out I bought some online and the last of them arrived today.  I’m excited to try some new flavors!

Carly got home this afternoon from her trip and it seems like they had a really great time. Natalie (who chaperoned) is also my ministering sister and I was thrilled that they had stopped at Crumbl on the way home and brought me one of their sugar cookies with Cadbury eggs on top. So delicious. We are eating so many treats around here it seems.

 

As an April Fool’s joke I put our now empty Crumbl box from earlier in the week up in Carly’s room with a little surprise.  That girl is tough to crack and I didn’t get nearly the reaction I’d hoped.

I made a huge batch of waffles tonight for dinner mainly because I spaced thinking of anything else in advance. It sure does make a difference when we have our meals planned out and the kids help with the cooking. Justin and I played Quirkle with KD before bed. Justin and I both are currently reading a book so we did that before calling it a night.

 

Friday [4/2]:  I finally finished going through our Hawaii photos today which felt fantastic. I hoped that CJ and I would play tennis when Jason got done with school but Carly refused. Jason and I still went but shortly after we arrived someone showed up to play so we only stayed a half hour which isn’t long enough to get in much of a workout or practice very many skills. Since I was already in exercise clothes I decided to walk down to the elementary school and walk home with KD. I think they enjoyed the surprise of me showing up. 

 

I had plans to make dinner but by the time I was cleaned up Justin and I were hungry enough that we decided to go to Infusion and take a advantage of our BOGO deal and let JKD fend for themselves. Carly was off with friends tonight. I spent some time afterward getting conference bags ready for tomorrow morning as well as getting some Easter stuff prepared.  

 

I got a text from my friend Tara this evening saying that she saw Abigail on TV tonight at the BYU volleyball game. Not surprising. That girl is always attending something and seems to get involved in extra fun wherever she goes. At one game she and her roommate participated in a racing game during halftime. Living her best life that girl!

 

Saturday [4/3]:  Conference weekend! We had a little intermission during the morning session so that KD could go out to the park across the street and participate in the Easter egg hunt with some of the neighbor kids. Katie sure did look so much older than the rest of them! I was happy to see that Justin, Carly, and Jason also came out to watch and it was nice to visit with the neighbors a little bit. 

Carly, Jason and Justin also helped one of our ward members move after the morning session. Conference was great. I wasn’t intending on doing the mystery conference bags this time since it was also Easter weekend and all the candy that would come with that. But it was nice to have some snacks while we watched and fun for the kids to discover what’s inside each of the bags.

KD set up this table so they could color during conference

I made cinnamon rolls this afternoon and couldn’t resist eating one today. So yum! 

I also made some enchiladas and Mexican rice for an early dinner. We’d intended in spending time as a family tonight but instead Justin watched a bball game and then after KD went to bed Justin and Jason watched a show while edited photos. 

 

Sunday [4/4]:  The kids were super excited to wake up and see hidden eggs all over the downstairs. In fact they were so excited that they woke me up earlier than necessary. It’s always fun to watch them run around the house looking in every nook and cranny for a little plastic egg. Carly said that it was much less competition without Abigail here. Carly easily got more eggs than everybody else. The boys found the least.  

After the morning session of conference I talked to the kids a little bit about what they would like to do this week for spring break. Jason suggested an arcade which of course is still closed so I mentioned he could create his own arcade type of event. I was meaning during the week however he got to work immediately and the first challenge was a SkipBo tournament. We were able to play a few rounds before lunch and watching the second session of General Conference. The kids watched all the sessions of conference which I think is pretty incredible that they’ve been doing that for a while now. Not sure exactly how much they get out of it but I appreciate their willingness to sit and participate with the rest of us. KD played some Conference Bingo with their Easter candy during the afternoon session today.

The SkipBo tournament resumed immediately after the afternoon session. After the tournament was complete we moved right on into a Nintendo Smash Brothers tournament as well as a Mario Kart tournament. I was grateful that Carly participated in all of the activities with us and we enjoyed having her.  Justin and I went for a walk tonight after KD went to bed while Carly and Jason watched the fourth Harry Potter movie together.

Tracy's Birthday Celebration in Arizona {March 25 – 28}

Just a little recap of the background of this weekend.  In early January Stephanie reached out to a few of us Auburn ladies about needing to talk to us about “top secret stuff” – we set up a zoom call and she informed us that our friend’s husband wanted to fly all of us down to Arizona to surprise Tracy for her 50th birthday.  He was insistent that he cover all the expenses and told us he would organize some fun activities for us to do while we were there.  How could any of us say no?  We were all so excited for the weekend and really hoped that it would stay a surprise and Tracy wouldn’t get suspicious.  Over the last few months we planned a few additional surprises for her.  Tracy did reach out to us during that time and ask if we could plan a girls trip but we blew it off and suggested we wait until covid calmed down more.

 

Thursday [3/25]:  I was so excited that I woke up at 5:30am and struggled to get much sleep after that so I got up and got ready and was completely packed and ready to go well over an hour before I needed to. I was so excited that I went to the airport early and hung out in the lounge snacking and relaxing before heading over to my gate to meet up with the other ladies on my flight. There were four of us on the same flight. Tara, Camille, Nannette, and myself. We sat 3–1 and visited quite a bit of the flight. Because Nannette was across the aisle from us we had to talk a little louder to hear each other and we got shushed by a lady sitting in front of us – wearing masks the entire time didn’t help with our volume I’m sure. The Biddulph’s ministering brother picked us up from the airport and chatted with us the entire 45 minute drive to the clubhouse where we were meeting everyone at. He sure does adore the Biddulph’s and was so happy to be a part of the surprise. The four of us were well over an hour early and entertained ourselves by putting together a Scrabble board in our reserved room. We were so proud that we were able to use all the pieces making words about Tracy… until we realized that two of the letters were mistakenly left off of the word “incredible” so we had to reconfigure that entire portion of the board to make up for our mistake. It was actually quite fun and made the time fly by. 

Oops, missing the last two letters of "incredible"

The rest of the ladies met up with us as it got closer to reveal time and brought some decorations which we set up. We decided to surprise Tracy by doing the can-can on the stage that faced the windows she would have to walk by to get to the private room. Her reaction was absolutely priceless! We weren’t sure if she knew anything about us coming to town.  When we saw the shock in her face we knew that she was completely surprised.  It was the best!

Of course she was incredibly thrilled that we were all there and surprised about all the coordination it took to keep this a secret. Her husband Brian sure did go above and beyond putting this weekend together. We enjoyed a great dinner at the club and some yummy strawberry cake Brian had arranged to have made.  

We compiled 50 things/memories we love about Tracy and read those to her after dinner.  I couldn’t tap into any memories or fun stories (darn that memory) but it was easy to think of traits and characteristics I love about Tracy.  We stayed up until around 2am chatting and laughing back at her house.  

Fun to see all of our suitcases lined up by the front door when we arrived at the house.

One of the surprises we planned was matching pajamas for the weekend. Nannette picked them out and they were cute in theory, but they were much thinner and revealing than I would have preferred. It was so funny to see everyone walking around in our “blue smurf“ pajamas. 

Friday [3/26]:  We surprised Tracy this morning with some fun party tees – “50 and Fabulous” for Tracy and “50 Party Crew” for the rest of us.

We were up fairly early this morning so that we could fit in a nice breakfast at Hash Kitchen in Scottsdale before our electric bike tour. There was some talk about sleeping in and doing a much simpler breakfast but I am so glad we didn’t. Everything on the menu was amazing and I would go back in a heartbeat. It did make us slightly late for our tour but JR, our tour guide was very understanding. 

The electric bike tour was a blast. As much as I like biking on regular bikes, electric bikes sure are a lot more relaxing! We rode for two hours along the Scottsdale canal. It was pretty in a desert kind of way and we even spotted a coyote and some prairie dogs. On several occasions our guide would announce that it was Tracy‘s birthday and the pedestrians so were so nice to give her congratulations and birthday wishes which made her feel so special.  We got rained on at the very end but otherwise it was quite nice.

After the bike tour we were supposed to go on a food tour that Brian had put together. But after our big breakfast people weren’t that hungry so we only made it to a few of the spots. Our first was to a Barrio Queen, a Mexican restaurant where we ordered some of their famous guacamole, which to my surprise had pomegranates in it which was surprisingly delicious. We also ordered some queso and drinks. We stayed for well over two hours. 

After appetizers we headed across the street to the Culinary Dropoff. We visited a different location of this restaurant three years ago when Justin and I were in town and met up with Brian and Tracy. It has a very fun vibe with fire pits for your group and ping-pong tables and corn hole for guests to enjoy. 

We ended up playing a super fun game of around the world ping-pong. So hilarious to have our group of middle-age women running around acting like teenage girls. We had our meal here  - I ordered pretzel bites. Nobody was hungry after which was a little disappointing because I always have room for dessert and can put down more food than most women as it turns out. 

We headed back to the house and presented Tracy with our gifts that we had brought and watched a slide show of all the photos we could round up from the years past. The gifts were supposed to be along the theme of aging however only myself and Nannette followed that. It was still fun to see what everybody brought and to have Tracy try to guess who’s gift was who’s. She did a terrible job at guessing but to her credit the gifts really weren’t representative of anyone’s personality per se. 

Tammy was feeling sick from all the food we’d eaten so she headed to bed early and the rest of us headed to our rooms around 11pm since we’d stayed up so late the night before. Tara and I ended up chatting until around 2:30am. She was my roommate back in Catalina in 2016 and I remember we had a similar late night / early morning chat session then as well. After we finally cut off the chitchat it still took me a long time to fall asleep so I was awake until after 3am.

 

Saturday [3/27]:  We woke up early again this morning so that we could go on a hike. Tammy decided to stay back since she still wasn’t feeling well. We decided to do a moderate 3 mile hike called wave cave. The drive out there is a long windy dirt road and several of the ladies get carsick. Today was Stephanie‘s turn to feel queasy. She made it until we parked at the trail head and then immediately got out of the car and tried to rebalance herself. The next thing we knew she was flat on her stomach, unconscious on the dusty ground. We ran over and rolled her over and I will never forget the look of her unconscious eyes. Thankfully she came to pretty quickly and after she threw up and drank some water she felt much better. Definitely quite the scare for all of us! She wanted to proceed with the hike so we did so at a very slow pace. 

About a mile in Nannette started to feel sick and have issues with her vertigo and overheating so she stopped, took off her shoes and said she wasn’t going any further. Stephanie decided to wait with her while the rest of us continued to the top. From that point on it’s a very steep uphill climb and very loose rock so we saw several people slip and fall including some of our own.  Thankfully nobody in our group got hurt but we did see one lady sprain her ankle so bad that she was going to crab crawl all the way back down the trail. The effort was worth it and offered very unique viewpoint. 

Wave Cave

The five that made it to the top!

We headed back to the house to change into our swimsuits to head to the club and enjoy some sunshine poolside. It only reached the low 70s today so not quite warm enough for me to get in but the sun felt fantastic and it was so fun to be there with the ladies. 

Apparently we need to take a selfie at every location ;)

Tracy is a member of the club so we were able to order lunch there at half off. When everyone had had their fill of the sun we went back to the house and cleaned up for dinner. Selecting a place for dinner was quite the process considering it was a busy Saturday night. Brian went out and got us on the waitlist for the Mexican restaurant that we enjoyed yesterday for appetizers. We ended up backing out though and heading to Joe’s Farm and Grill which was where we went to breakfast for Carly’s birthday. It was just as mediocre tonight as it was back then. We had a fun time though eating at the picnic tables outside and chatting.

Sunday [3/28]:  We all had very early morning flights this morning so we had to be out the door by 6am. Stephanie left even earlier than that. 

Tammy’s gate to Austin was right next to our Seattle flight

We were flying Southwest and didn’t check in online right when it was released yesterday so we ended up in boarding class C which meant we were one of the last people to board the plane. By the time we got on the plane all the window and aisle seats were taken so there was no way for any of us to sit together. I found a middle seat open in an exit row, between two gentlemen. They introduced themselves and were quite nice. The gentleman by the window was from St. Louis and the gentleman in the aisle said he was from North Bend. We chatted for a few minutes and he asked where in Snoqualmie I live so in return I asked where in North Bend he lives. He told me that he lives just off the road near Rattlesnake Lake. I told him we have some friends out there so he asked what their name was. My response was “Dunn”. I will never forget the look in his eyes, because of course he was wearing a mask, when he declared “I’m a Dunn”. My immediate response was to ask if he was Carter’s dad and when he said he was I introduced myself as Abigail Fletcher’s mom. Carter was one of Abigail’s close high school friends.  The super funny part is that I’ve only met this man once (if at all) in my entire life and yet I referred to him as my “friend”. After we had talked for a while and laughed about the situation I very casually explained how it was easier to say “friend” then to say something about knowing someone from church that’s in a different ward that lives out in that area. He seemed to not think anything of it. We talked the entire three hour and 15 minute flight which made the flight fly by. He’s a really nice guy. I should probably be more embarrassed about it than I am but instead it cracks me up every time I think about it.  

 

I was pretty useless the rest of the day having not gotten much sleep at all during the weekend. But I hung out with the kids and play a game with Drew. Katie gave a great CFM lesson today which she had prepared all on her own. I sent to myself to bed around 9:30pm and slept great.