Misha and Girls' Camp

Misha was a fourth year camper in the Young Women program at church this year which meant she and the other girls her age went on an additional hike before Girls' Camp started.  I drove her and three other girls up to Hermit Park outside of Estes Park on Monday morning and dropped them off at their cabins.  The leadership was a little disorganized, so Carli Siders and I hung around for awhile until the cabins were unlocked and we felt as though the girls were all situated.

From Hermit Park, the girls were then transported up to Camp Batel on the Colorado/Wyoming border early Tuesday morning.  Misha stayed there until Friday morning.  She loved the time with friends, she put her heart into the service project of removing extra trees, and was most happy to see me on Friday afternoon when she was dropped off at the church.

And she was wearing pink as that was our ward's color at camp this year!  She looked great in pink.  It was probably one of the last times we will see Misha willingly wearing pink.

We gathered all of her stuff and headed home for her to unpack it all.  At least I hoped it would be unpacked as I was leaving for Utah shortly after she got home.

One of her leaders had this to say about Misha:  "She was very sweet and I loved her testimony. This morning when I woke her tent up she totally responded and started getting everyone else up. She was great! Thank you for sharing her with us!"

Apropos Mug

I found this mug at Marshall's and thought it most appropriate in describing Christopher.  We rely on Chris a lot for his knowledge, technical support, and help.  So grateful we can just "google" Chris!

Lunch Date

After swimming lessons, Kristen and I had a girls shopping and lunch date.  We found her some cute clothes for the the school year and had lunch at Twisted Noodle afterward.  She loves the clothes and kindly modeled them for Chris later in the evening.

Human Needs

I came across this list of Kristen's in the laundry room.  Hmmmmm....

6th Grade Shots

Kristen knew the shots were coming, but she was not excited in the least.  In fact, dread might describe her feeling about the shots most accurately.  She bravely submitted to them while holding my hands.  I tried to distract and relax her so that she wouldn't feel them quite so much.  And then they were done.

Apparently a 7-11 Slurpee was the required antidote to the pain.

When Your Daughter....

When your daughter leaves your sliding door screen halfway open, letting hundreds of bugs come between the glass and the screen, and then the bugs fly in to your bedroom when you open the glass door at night, you have to grab the vacuum the next morning to suck up all the mosquitoes. And when you finish with the mosquitoes, you see all of the dead bugs in the slider track and have to clean that out. And then you decide to clean the tracks on the windows in the bedroom as well. So you might as well clean the ceiling fan. But before you do that you start the wash with all of the bedding and fluff the pillows in the dryer. Keep on going and you take the entire bed apart to vacuum the carpet under the bed frame and dust all of the crevices. And you run down to the kitchen to get the wood polish and windex, and before you know it, it is 3 pm.

When your daughter leaves your sliding door screen halfway open...

Super Man

Amy and I gave Chris these cuff links for Christmas last year.  With or without the cuff links, we love having a "Super" man in the house.

The Super Bowl

Our future next-door neighbor is grateful that we bought some floaty toys for the beach and lake this summer.  Jamie, who is two, likes to call it the "Super Bowl".  We don't mind that he loves to play on it.

Peace Lily

This peace lily has finally found a good home.  It has moved with me a couple of times.  I am pretty good with keeping plants alive but always wondered why the lily had brown tips and why could I never get rid of them?  Plants need sunshine to grow right?  Well, when I finally began researching, it turns out some plants like indirect light more than sunshine.  This plant now lives in my loft and seems to be loving it. This is the first time that I have had three flowers at once.  I'm hopeful that the brown tips will no longer be a problem.

Dabbing Man

Misha came out of the laundry room with her wooden art mannequin and asked, "Who made him dab?"

For those of you who might be asking, "Dab?"  This is from Wikipedia:

The Dab is a dance in which the dancer simultaneously drops the head while raising an arm and the elbow in a gesture that has been noted to resemble sneezing… The Dab has its origins in the Atlanta hip-hop scene, but there is disagreement about who originated the dance.

There is also speculation that the dance originated from Dabbing, an action taken where someone snorts cocaine from their elbow while acting like they are sneezing.

Babysitter Training

I took Kristen and three of her friends to an all-day babysitter training class. 

Kristen is most excited with the prospect of babysitting when she turns 12 next year.  I posted this picture on Facebook and our future neighbor posted, "We have clients for her." 

Kristen was telling me about the class as I tucked her in for the night.  The instructor had them change a doll's diaper wearing gloves.  She smeared mustard on the glove so that she could tell if the girls were removing the gloves properly. 

Ok, I NEVER, EVER wore latex gloves when I changed diapers or even thought about taking them with me babysitting.  Such a different world we live in today.  Plus the instructor was extremely thorough in teaching the girls how to properly wash their hands.

Kristen loved learning to take care of the "baby"--feeding the baby, burping it, wrapping it like a burrito--and most impressively, she is now certified in CPR and First Aid for infants and toddlers.

Ward Breakfast

Our ward had a breakfast for Pioneer Day.  Chris was key in helping to plan and organize it.  To make things simple, breakfast burritos were ordered from a local restaurant (Santiagos), and fruit and drinks were provided.  Ward members were invited to bring chairs and blankets to sit on and some kind of shade structure if wanted.  As people began to settle in with their plates of food, the telltale sound of sprinklers turning on could be heard and a mad scramble away from the sprays of water ensued.

Some people moved to dry areas where the sprinklers were inactive and settled in again, the food table was re-situated, and other families crowded under the pavilion.  Someone used our small plastic table as a guard against one of the poorly placed sprinkler heads.  Who turns on sprinklers mid-morning?  Don't these people know that watering is better in the early morning hours?  Apparently not.

And twenty to thirty minutes later, the next zone turned on.  All those in the line of fire (or water) had to make a quick scramble again.  Fortunately it didn't take away from the good conversations as well as the fun for the kids.

Chris' Night Biking

Chris hasn't been able to participate in a lot of the biking adventures with his friends this summer, but he was happy that the annual night bike ride was scheduled when he was home.  Biking always does his heart good (in many ways).

Open your eyes!  It is already dark enough!

They Thought It Was Pineapple

Well, this was a surprise...

I set it out for dinner and my family thought it was pineapple.  It tasted pretty much like a red watermelon, but I will admit the color kind of psyched us all out.

Driver #2

Misha started her online driver's education course in May and finished a week before her 15th birthday.  Unfortunately we had to wait for the certificate of completion to arrive and it took over a week to get here.

Congratulations to Misha for working so diligently to finish the course.  I took her to the DMV on Monday morning.  We actually didn't have to wait long which was amazing, but I don't think I have ever been to the DMV when I haven't had to return to get paperwork.  This time it was for Misha's social security card.  I think sometimes they make up paperwork requirements because I know we did not have to have Amy's social security card when she went to take her driver's permit test.  They were happy with Amy just telling them the number.

The dude that was helping us said it had to be the actual copy and showing them a copy of it from my online files would be considered a "fraudulent" use of the card.  Puh-lease!  So we returned home to get Misha's card and drove back to the DMV.  Misha passed her test and then the real waiting began.

The DMV had eight counters to assist people and ONE counter for picture-taking.  All eight counters funneled clients to the one counter for picture-taking.  We waited well over an hour just to get a picture taken!

Success!

That Pesky Picnic Table

When we were first looking at the lot we now live on, it was dotted with these funky seats made from tree trunks, a heavy steel table, large landscaping rocks, and a picnic table.  Chris undertook the project of replacing some of the boards (or maybe all of the boards) and then had the girls stain the table to be used down at the beach.

Fast forward two years and we had moved the picnic table while on vacation so that the landscapers could work on our beach area.  Unfortunately, we returned home to find that a careless worker had backed over or into our picnic table rendering it unusable.  Once again, Chris undertook the project to rebuild the picnic table into a usable piece of furniture again.  He tried to reuse as many of the pieces of wood as possible.  He has invested a lot of $$ and time into this table.

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).