Chris and the 14er

Chris and his friend Nolan hiked a 14er on July 5th.  Apparently it was a rather grueling hike; Chris already had sore legs when he called from the top of the peak and could barely waddle, I mean walk, when I saw him slide out of Nolan's truck at 9 pm. 

4th of July Ward Breakfast

Chris is now in the leadership of the Ward's High Priests group.  He got to help with the 4th of July breakfast and was out of the house before 7 am.  I had to wake the girls up and told them if they weren't ready to go by 7:45 am, they would have to ride their bikes to the park.  That was good motivation for Amy who hates getting up early when she doesn't have to.

We had thought that perhaps we would need to give a hand, but the men had everything under control.  This was a healthier version of a pancake breakfast with "fake" eggs and turkey bacon.  No one seemed to complain, except for maybe Amy whose teeth were hurting and not allowing her to eat much.

So, instead of needing to help, I grabbed my "grown up" camera (as someone called it) and took pictures.  ALL of the missionaries for the area were out in full force for a free breakfast.

Swimming and Sore Toes

The girls are loving the pool at our new property.  We are fortunate that we are able to use it for the summer even though our house is still at the permit stage.  We spend a couple of hours swimming most days.  My children, even though they apply sunscreen, have browned up quite quickly.  The one drawback has been the sore toes.  The surface of the pool is still a bit rough being brand new.  Most days the girls leave the pool with bloody big toes and their skin has been rubbed off.

They like to bandage things up and usually walk around for the rest of the day with big wads of stuffing surrounding their toes.

More Braces

When Amy had her first round of braces, she was pretty pleased to lose the space between her front teeth.  The orthodontist had applied a small bracket to the back of her teeth to hold them in place and then later removed it only to have her teeth spread out again. 

Our dentist now does braces and was happy to apply more brackets to Amy's teeth in order to bring the spacing under control again.  We hope that it will progress as quickly as last time.  She has braces on eight teeth on the top row.   Her first couple of days were pretty painful as the braces began to loosen things up.

A Fine Tooth Comb

That phrase has taken on new meaning.  One afternoon, a couple of weeks after moving in to the rental, Amy was bored.  We all were, which was likely why Misha agreed to the beauty treatment.  Amy decided that her sisters needed deep conditioning treatments for their hair.  She had researched on Pinterest and found the perfect concoction for Kristen's hair needs and an entirely different remedy for Misha's needs.

I should have stopped her then, but like I said, we were bored.  Kristen was the first guinea pig, I mean, beauty customer.  Amy applied the treatment of coconut oil and other ingredients to Kristen's "dry" hair and stated that it needed to stay on Kristen's hair for 35 minutes, and then she could shower.  Fine.

They it was Misha's turn who reluctantly allowed Amy to apply this coconut oil and smashed up, banana paste to her hair.  Kristen got in the shower at her allotted time and took a little time to rinse out the oil.  Hard to know if the treatment really worked since her hair was rather oily for a few days afterward.  But hey, it wasn't dry.

Next Misha got in the shower.  She was in there a long time.  "Mom, the banana isn't coming out."  Indeed it wasn't as I peeked in to check on her.  I encouraged, "Try washing it again."  Another ten minutes and Misha finally emerged from the bathroom.  She had her hair wrapped up in a towel as per her usual routine.  Finally, as per "our" usual routine, I recommended that Misha should get her hair combed out.  That's when I got a good look at her hair.  Banana. chunks. everywhere.  I tried to use one of my large-tooth combs.  It got out some of the big chunks.  Frustrated, I had Misha lean over my sink as I tried to wash her hair again.  Still, the chunks weren't coming out.

I applied leave-in conditioner and that helped a little.  I finally had to have Misha go find her black, fine-tooth comb, and for the next thirty minutes or so, I combed her hair out strand by strand.  Uggh.  I completely understand what it means when you say "with a fine tooth comb."

New house rules:  Bananas are not allowed in hair around here, and Amy only gets to put hair potions on her own hair.

Keeping the Peace

You gotta love it when they do this to themselves!

Where We Live

This post is mostly for family who might want a better picture of where we are living right now.  We finally have AC installed, so life in the rental has improved ten fold.

Front Door

 Powder Bath

 Kitchen

 Laundry

 Kitchen and Living Room

 Living Room (from front door)

Stairs (front door to left)

Down Stairs View (my desk in the Living Room)

Master

Master Bath

Kristen's Room and Girls' Desk

Amy's Room

Misha's Room

Girls' Bathroom

Girls Camp

Amy and Misha headed off to Girls Camp on Tuesday the 25th.  They were both pretty excited. This was Misha's first experience, but after having listen to Amy for the past two years extol the virtues of Girls' Camp, Misha was more than ready to join the fun.  Neither of them even complained about having to get up at 6:30 am and be ready to go by 7 am.  Sadly, I had to wake Kristen up to take her.  She had been up super early the day before to make her flight home, and I wished I could have let her sleep, but she didn't want me to leave her alone.  (Kristen made up for it on Wednesday the 26th by sleeping until after 9 am).

I dropped the girls off at Kathy Morgan's home.  After a few hugs goodbye, they were off.

Kristen's Birthday Gift

As we were in the process of packing up to move back in April, Chris and I tried to steer away from giving Kristen more toys for her birthday that we would then just have to pack.  I think her favorite gift turned out to be a special trip to visit Grandma in Vancouver, WA.  Chris booked a flight for both him and Kristen.  The bonus to visiting Grandma was that Kristen's cousin, Ashley, would also be in Vancouver visiting both sets of her grandparents before leaving for Thailand. 

The girls and I met Chris at the airport in the parking lot outside the terminal as he flew in from a week of work.  He had packed an extra bag of clothes and transferred out his dirty clothes for me to take home.  Yay.  We said a quick goodbye to Chris and Kristen as they quickly walked back to the terminal for their 10 pm flight.  It was late, but it was what worked with Chris' schedule.

We were able to text and facetime with Chris and Kristen throughout the weekend.  It was Father's Day, so I had the girls prepare stuff for Kristen to share with Chris Sunday afternoon.  It was about this time, as Chris and Kristen's return flight was approaching that we began discussing the possibility of leaving Kristen at Grandma's for another week.  Ashley and cousins would be there as well.  We even thought about having Amy fly out and bring Kristen home, but in the end decided that Kristen would fly home as an unaccompanied minor.  She was a little nervous about the idea of flying by herself but decided that she would be ok. 

Kristen had such a wonderful week.  She got to spend most of Monday and Tuesday with Grandma.  It was the last days of school and Kristen got to tag along.  Spending any time with Grandma is a treat for her.  She played with cousins, Jeremy taught her Minecraft, they swam in Grandma's pool, and ended up the week with a trip to an adventure park at Mt. Hood.  I feared coming home would be a huge let down.

Chris and I left for the airport Monday morning to pick Kristen up.  Her flight was early and I had left my phone on mute.  The airport was crowded and it took longer for Chris and I to get through security than we had planned.  I had my CLEAR card and was able to move through security faster than Chris.  As I reached Terminal C, I raced to the far end of the terminal only to find that the flight had already landed and Kristen had been taken to a Unaccompanied Minors holding room.  If I had had my phone on, I would have known that.  I wouldn't have had to race quite so far.  Still I was so happy to spy my little girl through the door as she colored.  She even asked to finish her drawing before leaving. 

Chris arrived in the terminal just as Kristen was finishing up.  I called to him just as he was about to step on to the moving side walk.  So good to hug my little one.

Amy and Misha had made a "Welcome Home" sign for Kristen and both came rushing out to meet Kristen as we pulled up to the house.  That happy "I missed you" feeling lasted a couple of minutes.

Misha's Mind

The other day we were sitting in the living room of our rental.  It is a small space and not terribly exciting...unless...

Misha "If the ceiling fan could support my weight, I would never be bored again."

Swimming

My girls have been excitedly waiting for the pool at the property to be finished.  We received word last week that the pool was finished but that work was happening with landscaping...but, the girls could come swimming.  We had purchased some swim toys the week previous and hurried to get ready.

I am not a huge swimmer/water lover, but I set up a chair in the shade and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon looking through magazines for house stuff.  Amy and Misha had a fabulous time.  I texted Chris at home that he was missing out.  As I suspected his return text was, "I can come for a little bit." 

The next day, we returned to the pool with Misha's friend, Jonah.  This was after we had spent the morning weeding around our trees at the property and making sure that they were getting watered with the sprinkler system that had already been installed.  The pool was a good work motivator.

Chris swam in the lake first, taking a trip out to one of the islands.

Innovation Academy

Just as soon as Camp Invention, Misha started her next summer camp at IBM--Innovation Academy.  It was two weeks of inventing, thinking, creating, etc. that was just her kind of thing.  We carpooled with another boy since IBM is 30 minutes away.  It saved a lot of driving for me, but probably wasn't a lot of fun for either Misha or Jaydon.  I was just a little bit glad to be done with all the driving after three weeks of shuttling kids back and forth.

A showcase event was held at the end of the two weeks to let the kids display their ideas and creativity.  Misha was in the Creative Energy group (there was also Creative Cities, Creative Communications, and Creative Public Transportation).  All of the children participating in the program had to be nominated by a teacher and then go through a selection process.  Misha was also selected to participate last year but we were out of town during the event.

Misha's group created a small city--Foothill Cove--that used solar energy, geothermal energy, and wind energy.

Amy's First Dance

Amy is going on Trek later this summer with her church group.  As preparation for Trek, the leaders are teaching the kids some "old fashioned" dances--square dances, Virginia reel, etc.  Amy will still be 13 when she goes on Trek (since she skipped a grade, she gets to do some things early) and was allowed to go to her first dance to learn these dances. 

Amy. was. thrilled.  She also had a great time.

Voice Showcase

Kristen had been taking voice lessons from our friend, Carli S., during this past school year.  She loves to sing and would often spend her piano practicing time singing the songs she was learning in Voice.  Carli taught Kristen a lot and that extra bit of music instruction even helped to move Kristen's piano playing abilities along.

The girls in the voice class had a performance scheduled on May 21st and Kristen was thrilled to have a solo part.  I was so proud of her.

Camp Invention

Misha and Kristen just finished a week of Camp Invention at Black Rock Elementary in Erie.  They had so much fun last year, they wanted to participate again this year.  Misha was too old to be a part of the invention groups, but was able to participate as a Counselor-in-Training.  I thought it quite amusing that she would come from a day of being with young kids all day and be tuckered.  Her argument to me was that she had to spend her day with 17 little kids, I only had 3!  I reminded her that my "job" never ended.  It was a good experience for her plus she got to use the hours towards those she needs for the National Junior Honor Society.

Amy

So I was driving down the freeway the other day with Amy in the car. As we drove, I pointed out bad driving practices that we spotted, explained other driving tips, etc. When we reached our destination, I asked, "Do you like me giving you driving tips." Her response, "No, because you won't let me test out your theories." 

Back it up babe. First, they are not THEORIES, and second, you're 13!