July

Here are some snapshots of our summer days in July.

Raspberries are ending this week. We picked on Monday, but I might go back and pick more tomorrow because Andrew ate them all in one sitting. 

When we got home, I set the box of raspberries on the counter and turned around to do this or that...I came back and he had been sitting on the table with his feet tucked under his bum, eating all my raspberries. 

Once a week we hit up Semiahmoo. 

Avery has been living over at Bea's lately. 

On this day they were in the shelter of the tree house hiding from a rare summer rain storm. Bea had smuggled out their house cat inside a pillowcase.

We brought all our bikes and rode around Lake Padden. 

The kids loved it, but we went too fast and had way too much time to kill at the playground, which equals time for Evan to get mad and yell at everyone. 

For some reason whenever we hang out with the Blacks Evan has developed this pattern where he gets super angry and yells and stomps and cries. I take him aside and talk him through it and he somewhat snaps out of it. But it stresses me out. It makes me so uptight and nervous to hang out with our best friends. 

I'm not sure what the answer is, but I've read lots of books, talked with lots of smart people, tried lots of different techniques, puzzled it out for hours with Jim, prayed and cried and all of the things that moms do when they want peace and happiness and balance for their kids. 

I mention this because this entire blog post would be a lie if I didn't include this very real and present element of our summer. 

Some days are practically perfect! And some days are real puzzlers. 

But I'm so thankful for friends that don't judge me, don't give up on us, and empathize with me because, it turns out, they have an explosive child living under their roof as well! 

My garden! I really and truly did not expect things to grow like they are growing. You can tell that I didn't expect it because I planted them much too close. They are growing into each other. The beats have been completely covered by the tomatoes. The green beans are starting to wrap around the tomatoes because the tomatoes are shoving their way into the green bean teepee. 

I've never had garden success, so this is all so new and surprising and fabulous. 

I stand out there every day and marvel at it, and plan for what I will do differently next year (now that I know it actually works).

Yesterday we rode down to the "ball forest".

I put a lawn chair in the bike trailer so that I would have a place to sit and read while the boys ran around and found "balls" (pellets).

Then the Blacks joined us, and the boys took off their shirts and ran around Lord of the Flies style, and I abandoned my book to conversations with Lisa. 

PS yes, Evan had a stomping, crying, yelling fit in the short time that we were playing together at this forest. It comes and goes like a summer storm. And I am left trying to smile with wet, itchy clothes on.  

Today while Avery got a cavity filled at the dentist, me and the boys walked over to the skate park to be loud (instead of trying to keep them quiet in the waiting room). 

They thought all these ramps were slides. They had dirty bums when we walked back to the office to retrieve a numb Avery.

Then we went to Semiahmoo.

Poor Avery wanted to stay in the car. I thought she was just still sad about having a numb mouth.

 She slept most of the time. Turns out she is sick and fevered. 

I hate sick kids. It sets me on edge. 

Plus Jim is out of town for recurrent training. I swear my kids save up getting sick for when Jim is gone. 

Plus Semiahmoo was so fun today because that tide was so low. There was lots of neat sea life, and everyone was jumping off the dock. 

Someone remind me that it's normal for kids to get sick and she will be on the mend in no time. I always forget that when we are in the thick of it. 

Jimi, My True Love

Our anniversary was so fun this year. 

We got a babysitter for the afternoon and ran up Oyster Dome. 

We were on a time limit because the babysitter had to be home by 2:45, so we really had to push. 

Oyster Dome is not good for going fast. It is straight up and steep up the mountain. 

We go sooo close to the top, but ran out of time. It was a good thing Jim made us turn around when we did because going as fast as we could - on foot and in the car - I got the babysitter home at exactly 2:45 on the nose. 

We got cleaned up and then went out to eat with the kids. 

Then ice cream and the park.

15 years! 

I think back to "us" when we were first married, in our 20s. What a lifetime ago. I think it's so interesting how the me from 2002 is not the same human being as me from 2017, and yet I am the same. 

The other day Lisa mentioned that her and Joe had so much more fun and money when they were first married than they do now. I looked at Jim and we immediately agreed that we have much more fun now in our life than we did when we lived in Spanish Fork and SLC...teaching and living in an apartment and being dirt poor and Jim working on his pilot career. We didn't have the money or the desire? to go on many adventures. I guess learning how to be a teacher and a pilot were our adventure. 

Then enter having kids. That is a game changer. The game was CHANGED.

I think about what kind of a person I was when I had little babies. I imagine Jim and I in a nest. And we focused on feeding our young in that nest, and the world was on mute around us and we nested and raised those baby birds.

Now that our birds are older, the world has become a bigger part of our family because there is no way to prevent it. They start school and get friends and our world has expanded and included all the good and the bad and the ugly that there is out there. And every day Jim and I head back to the nest and discuss how to do it all. What new technique to try as we attempt to raise these birds who have their own personalities and temperaments and quirks.  

There is just too much. Too much of everything and too much to do to keep them happy and busy and balanced. I don't know how. 

Enter the obvious and the cliche and true: with Jim on my team, I think we will figure it out. 

Fallon, My Love

I like vacations that are only about 4ish nights. Short and sweet, leave on a high note.

UNLESSSSS the vacation involves cousins. I hope next cousin vacation I remember that rule. Cousin vacations need to be at LEAST a week. At least. 

We arrived in Fallon, and the kids just scattered. To all the corners of the compound. They were so happy and busy. 

First we stayed a night in Vegas. Jim got a deal on a room at Mandalay Bay. Our room was awesome and on the 60th floor. 

We swam with cousins, then ate with cousins. 

Then Jamie got us cheap tix to the shark reef. 

Larsingtons forever and ever. 

Andrew dug around in the lego box the entire time. 

My dad just had hip surgery about a week prior. I think at this point his biggest complaint was cabin fever, so our visit was a good distraction. 

These precious girls played and played together. You are looking at some concentrated sweetness here. 

We did SEVEN! puzzles. 

I love puzzles. I don't care if that makes me nerdy. Instead of watching a tv or staring at our phones, we all gather around the puzzle and talk and crack jokes. Nettie said "I'm ok with doing this the whole time, so don't expect me to suggest any activities." (I'm summarizing)

So this was our main activity and I just loved it. 

But yes, we did get out of the house and do other things.

Like, go to Despicable Me 3.

The girls are planning and practicing for the best cousin show ever. 

They were out here all the days. 

I loved watching June and Elsie's face while Annie and Avery were up there practicing,

so I got right up close, and June kept groaning in agony. 

She did NOT like me up in her face taking a picture. haha it cracked me up. 

Also, look how messy they are. And the fly on her head. That's a sign of a good summer day. 

I love their little morning faces.

I love sitting on the steps after a run.

dead bird

The Petersons hadn't seen the new barn yet, so we took a field trip.

Then we headed home for the show.

We were seriously laughing out loud. They had some funny jokes and clever threads throughout the skits. I am really impressed with their humor. They worked so hard. 

I was feeding chicken to the "penguins" with their open mouths and waddling feet. 

Adults only to the Wok. 

It was weird because usually when me and Jim go out sans kids, we are so relieved to be "free". But as we were sitting there, we realized we had hardly even seen the kids all week. We didn't have that same feeling of relief. 

One night Mary got out a puzzle of the map of the world. I wish we would have done a time lapse. 

It is one of my favorite memories...all of us frantically completing the world, while the kids hung from the rafters. It was about 10pm when we finished. 

You know it's a good time when Robbie, Aaron, and Jim are involved. 

The last night was spent at the pool we rented out.  I was clinging to every second, knowing we had to fly home the next morning.

We needed another few days. The kids were so sad to leave.