Fixing the Brilliant Idea

Remember this Brilliant Idea?  It's still a brilliant idea, but it needed a little help.  The container had settled since being installed making it difficult to open the front doors as they dragged in the dirt and the sides were beginning to push in from the load of dirt against them.  It turned in to a bigger project to fix than first thought, but hopefully making this fix will help.  Our landscaper, Mike, had his workers dig the dirt out along the sides so that the container itself could be lifted up.

A truck was brought in today that shot rock under the container to help stabilize and raise the container about a foot.  The area is a mess right now, but we are sure that it will be put back well.

De Ocera Emita Sealing

On June 22, our dear friends Armida and Rolando in the Philippines were sealed together and to their three children:  Allyssa, Allyson, and Armand.  We so wish that we could have been there but are more than thrilled for this wonderful family.

Summer Cleaning

Chris usually comes up with more interesting cleaning projects for the girls than I do.  And they usually groan more with his requests.  This particular chore required that I help the girls bring the ladder down from Misha's room.  And the easiest way to do that was over the banister.  We started with both girls upstairs holding on the ladder as it was lowered down to me and then one of them ran down to help me. 

It was a two person job insomuch as one had to hold the ladder while the other did the dusting.  Amy and Misha weren't too fond of the chore, but it was nice to have the bugs and dust cleared off the window sill.  And I was rather particular about having the wooden vases centered exactly in the window when they were done.

I will say that my girls are pretty good about doing some kind of chore everyday without too much complaint.  Misha actually comes to me asking what her chore is for the day as she likes to get it done as quickly as possibly.

Sewing Class

Do you get the sense that she is thinking, "Do you really have to take a picture of me?"  Well, yes, I did.  Kristen is taking a three-day sewing class with her friend Kara.

A Scottish Wedding

Chris and I attended a wedding in Estes Park for one of Chris' co-workers, Iain Armstrong.  Iain hired Chris away from IBM and was his boss for a number of years before Chris finally landed in Product Management.  In all that time, they remained good friends.

Iain and Carolyn's wedding was lovely set against McGregor mountain just outside of the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. 

Chick-fil-A Cow Appreciation Day

Free Chick-fil-A food one day after free Slurpee 7-11 day.  What could be better?  And don't you love the clever cow mask that Kristen created?  She wore the tiara all day and people kept asking if it was her birthday.

Nasty Flies

There were some nasty flies down at the beach on Saturday that thought I was a fabulous treat.  I think they were deer flies; two of them bit me by my knee and left a painful bite.  I had another bite on my lower leg as well.  The itching and burning lasted for a couple of days.  As you can see, I had quite the reaction to them.

Happy Birthday My Misha

Time passes and I marvel that my girls grow from babies to five to fifteen, and it just seems to happen in the blink of an eye.

Misha came downstairs on Saturday morning at 7:50 am.  She has always been pretty consistent about marking the moment she was born.  The rest of the peeps in the house were still sleeping so she and I had a quiet breakfast celebration.  I succumbed and let her get donuts for her birthday breakfast.

And what was her favorite gift you ask?  A new-to-her cell phone.  When we were in Washington, DC, one of Chris' co-workers invited our family over for dinner.  Before we left, Jason asked Chris if he was still looking for a used phone.  He had one that had a cracked screen and simply gave it to us.  When we arrived home from our vacation, I took Misha in to Longmont to see if we could get a new screen for it.  We could, and we did.  A sim card is on its way in the mail and then she'll be set.

But the birthday happiness didn't stop there.  Misha declared this birthday the best birthday.  Could that be because Chris declared it a no weeding day (and that was made possible because I spent three hours weeding on Friday morning!), and we hung out at the beach all day playing on our new water toys?

Misha and I hanging on for dear life.  

Amy and Misha

Gotta love Misha's face!

We even brought down Chris' portable camp stove and roasted hotdogs for lunch.  It was fun and so much better than weeding!

A Good Buy

Earlier this year, Chris and I began making a list of things we'd like to purchase to make our beach a fun place to hang out this summer.  Water toys were high on the list.  We had been watching the recent sales, but hadn't had time since getting home from vacation to earnestly look.  I happened across a post on Facebook in one of my online yard sale groups and they were selling two towables, seven life jackets, a pair of adjustable water skis, a tow rope, and gloves.  I showed Chris and he confirmed that it was a good deal.  The towables were exactly what we had been looking for.

Incidentally, the leaf blower worked great for blowing up the float tube.  We had to take the towables back up to the house to use the air compressor on the them.  We got two float tubes for the girls for Easter, and found the floating island at Costco before leaving on vacation.  It stays anchored in the bay by our beach.

And what do we pull the towables with?  Our friends on the lake next to us have two jet skis.  Their HOA does not allow the jet skis on their lake, so they are loaning us the jet skis (with visitation rights).

The girls are pretty happy with the set up.

Along with the two kayaks we purchased two summers ago, we now have a stand-up paddle board (another great deal from Costco since it was their end of season clearance and this was the floor model).

Entry Table

I have been watching for some decor items to add to my house.  One such piece was a small, narrow table for the front entry.  I walked through Hobby Lobby the other day while waiting for Misha's phone to be fixed and saw this table in their 80% off clearance section.  $20.  You just can't beat that.  And the size was just right for the space.  I need to continue working on the entry--not sure if the frame or wicker vase are staying--but I was happy to find just what I wanted in the table.

A Lovelier Landscape

We arrived home from our two-week vacation to a new and improved yard.  When we moved in, the HOA requirements allowed for native grasses on part of our lot.  It seemed like a good idea at the time, but turned in to a weeding nightmare.  We spent hours last summer pulling the weeds from among the grasses.  So this year, when bonus time came around, we set aside some funds to improve our yard.  That included installing sprinklers and sod at the front of our lot and along the East side (I'll be pushing for the West side next summer unless we just plant it with more trees.)

The front berm had a rock border added along with mulch.  It looks a 1000 times better.  I want to continue planting flowers and bushes and shrubs, but that'll come slowly.

East side of lot.  (Our neighbor, who is also our landscaper, is just starting to build his house.)

Front berm on East side looking from the house.

Front berm on West side looking from the street.

We added crushed road base as a parking spot for the girls' friends and additional parking so that the driveway can be left clear.  This is where Chris will build a second garage someday, so we figured the road base would help keep the weeds down.  You can see the tall grasses in the background filled with weeds.  This is what we are now trying to get rid of.

Coast to Coast - Day 15

Wednesday, July 6
Time to go home.  We were ready.  It had been a long, but great vacation.  Our flight, however, did not leave until 9:50 pm!  Yep.  Late.  We planned to spend the day in Seattle.  Kevin had to have his rental car back by 11 am, so at 9:15 am, we were all trying to rush out of the house to get to the ferry.  Fortunately Kevin and Candace made it on to the 9:30 am ferry.  We, however, did not, missing it by three cars.

Sadly, missing that ferry meant we had to wait until the 12:30 pm ferry.  But we couldn't just hang out at Grandma's house.  We had to be in line waiting.  What an excruciatingly long morning.  The ferry returned at 10:30 am for the propane truck run, but it dropped the trucks off and waited for them to return without loading anyone else.  Frustrating.

As we pulled away from the dock, the ramp malfunctioned and the ramp slid off the end of the ferry without being raised.  The Captain had to back up the ferry to raise the ramp.

We finally left the island, reaching Steilacoom after 1 pm since we had to make an extra stop at another island.  We stopped for gas and then for lunch at Chick-fil-A.  And before we could meet up with Kevin and Candace, we had to make another stop to drop our luggage off at a Hilton hotel across from the airport to store it for the day.  We would take the train back to the airport later in the day, and Grandma and Grandpa would need the room to take Kevin and Candace home.

We had planned to have an Urban Adventure Quest race with Kevin and his family.  The scavenger hunts are timed, so they started earlier than we did, and we didn't see them again until we had finished the race.  Most of the time when we complete the scavenger hunts, we take our time and enjoy our surroundings.  This time, the girls were in full-on race mode.  The family with the slower time would treat the other family to ice cream (or whatever was close by).  Since Grandpa has a hard time walking, neither he nor Grandma (who opted to stay with him) would race with us.

We started close to the Space Needle, took the Seattle Center Monorail to Pike Place Market (missed the first one by seconds and had to wait for the next one), passed the lovely gum wall, and ended up downtown.  Kevin and his family were waiting for us at the last stop.  We won!  My girls were thrilled.

 
Kevin took us to TCBY for frozen yogurt. 

Grandma and Grandpa made their way to us with the van where we said goodbye with hugs all the way around.  We waved farewell and quickly found the train to the airport.

We had to retrieve our bags, return to the elevated sidewalk, and check in at the Southwest desk.  But such a late flight netted us boarding passes in the low A's which hadn't happened in a long time.  The flight was not very full so we all had a space between us.

The girls snoozed as we flew home.  Chris and I tried.  We finally pulled in to our driveway after a quick stop at King Soopers for milk and bananas at 2:30 am.  Long day but good to be home.