Day 27 :: My Dream House

I'm living my absolute dream. 

I remember when I was first pregnant with Avery, I imagined having a home full of kids and we would play games and we would teach them about Jesus and it would be full of love and fun. I prayed and prayed that I could have a happy family. 

It's been way super harder than I ever imagined, but it's also exactly what I have always wanted. 

PS me and Jim both had to give talks for Father's Day. thumbs up. 

Look at how cute Jim is.
Glasses and greying hair. 

My dream house included a dad like Jim. He cares and he is involved in all of it. 

He teaches the kids about Jesus. 

We have so much fun together. 

All weekend long we watched the US Open. Suddenly I am into watching golf with him and it's a delightful twist I didn't see coming.

Dream house games with my kids, 

messes all over my dream house because we are busy playing scrabble and eating brownies on a Sunday. 

Dream house going up in the mountains with friends every Saturday and sometimes my kids come along too. 

Dream house football throwing on the beach plus weenie roast with friends on a Father's Day. 

If you would have told me when I was a kid that this would be my life, 

I would have been so happy,

 but I would also say "yeah I know because I always wanted it to be like this".

FIVE YEARS AGO

Kauai South Shore Wiamea Canyon

 DAY 4

This day we road tripped to Wiamea Canyon. 

We stocked up on supplies at a little market, filled my hydroflask with ice and diet coke that stayed icy all day, ignored the guy walking down the street yelling and cracking a literal whip, bought wafer cookies and wipes for when nature would inevitably call in the wilderness.

PS we never buy wafer cookies unless we are on vacation with the Blacks.  

Onward we drove to the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific". 

We hiked Canyon Trail to the top of Waipo'o Falls. 

You can see the full view of these falls from a helicopter, but not so much from the trail, because you are standing on top of them. You have to really lean out dangerously while gripping a tree trunk to see them. But there were little falls to dip your feet into and beauty all around.

We were sitting here having a lovely time when my phone alarm reminded me to check in for tomorrow's flight. boo waaa boo hoo. 

We hiked back to the car and continued up the mountain to a few more overlooks, and then to the very top where the road said "that's about as fer as you can go". So we got out and hiked along the Pihea Trail. 

I didn't realize we were going to be able to see the Napal'i Coast cliffs from here! It made me so happy. 

It is a ridge line around a bowl of beautiful. 

Joe sprained his ankle here. Good thing we were on our last hike of the trip. 

We made our way back down the mountain and over to Polihale State Park,

which is super remote, miles of beach, dirt road, four wheel drive only, road that led to an amazing beach.

 

For some reason I get very clinched and angry when four wheeling or doing any kind of rough driving. I imagined us being stranded out there with a broken car and no water and lots of desert heat. Or stuck in the sand and never ever recovering, and turning into skeletons.

But guess what? It was fine. None of those catastrophic things happened.

Instead there was the most amazing waves and sand and water to swim in. 

You can tell we are at the end of our vacation because this is the only picture I have of this fun place.

I haven't swam in ocean waves (the kind that puts you through the washer machine) in so long. 

It was such a blast and different that our usual snorkel water. 

On the travel day to Kauai, Jim was flying stand by, and the flight me and Joe and Lisa took was looking full. He opted to go super early in the morning that Wednesday, and beat us to Hawaii by 7 hours. 

During that time he got the rental car and checked into the house and stocked the fridge with drinks and had it all ready for us when we got there. 

The rental car took him one and a half hours because they were so busy and they couldn't find his car. So as a reward for his patience, they gave him this Jeep for the week. It was perfect. Except why does the back door of the jeep have to be so small with protruding notches everywhere to snag my hips? I got so many bruises getting in and out of that thing. 

We made it there and back on the sandiest beach and bumpiest dirt road without any problem, and I insisted we get some Jo Jo's on our way back to Poipu...and guess what, they were closed because of an ICE SHORTAGE.

That sounds fake to me. 

Oh! This day was Father's Day too. Happy Father's day guys. Darn we didn't get a dad and kids picture.

We stopped off at the "guy cracking the whip" market and got some weird treats as souvenirs for the kids (including these whistle candies). Did you know Lisa and Avery and my mom can't whistle? But they can if they have these candies. It's not an annoying noise at alllll. 

We got cleaned up and went looking for some food. We had a heck of a time finding open places or places that weren't packed full of dads getting their Father's Day meal. 

We landed on Brick Oven Pizza and waited a million hours to get a table. Then a million more to get a pizza in my mouth. 

We played the "name the artist to this song" game while waiting. The songs were all one hit wonders from the late 80s though, so it was very hard. Jim won by a lot. 

Back at the house for our last night in paradise, we laid on our lawn chairs and listened to 90 rap music, courtesy of the party right directly outside our house, cars parked in the street, dancing in their headlights, music so loud. It was fun to be prairie dogs to their party, until the cops came and said they couldn't be hanging out half in half out of the street with music that loud. 

It was an awesome day to end the most perfect vacation. I just loved it so so much. 

June

June 2020 ends tonight, so here is a compilation of what we have been doing all month.

It is the same 3 or 4 activities, over and over:

There is a "take the dog on an adventure" activity, 

neighborhood shenanigans,

ride/run at Galbraith, 

beach,

and the one that is pictured the least: playing on devices. 

Here is a "dog activity".

We have our 4th dog obedience class tomorrow. She is such a good, smart dog. It's fun watching her learn. 

But she's still a naughty puppy who ignores us sometimes. 

Here is a "Galbraith ride/run" activity.

The Foxglove wild flowers are going off this year! 

Here is a "neighborhood shenanigans" activity.

Today there was a rumor that the ice cream truck was coming to our neighborhood, so every single child hung out on the street today playing, waiting for her to show up.

She showed up at 7:00pm. We spent ALL DAY waiting. That was our summer activity. 

This is another dog activity, except with Scout.

The Blacks live on a dormant golf course, so we often run around the trails burning lots of energy.

Then I go home sneezing and itching from the grass allergens. 

We spend a lot of time on the porch with Koda. 

It's so fun to be loved so much by a dog. 

Her ears are so expressive. She lays them flat on the back of her head when she is happy to see you. It's a sign of submission, and I just love it. 

Then when she's on duty or at full attention, her ears stand strait up, letting you know that she is dead serious about things. 

The weekly beach activity. 

Would you believe the sand comes right off her? 

Andrew is sooo good at Nintendo.

This was one of the last days of school. There at the end, Avery struggled. 

School work would usually end in tears and rants. 

I hate distance/crises learning. 

More beach.

We've had a few sleepovers. We love the Dicksons. 

We would NOT survive Corona without them. 

One day it rained ALL DAY. And then this rainbow showed up, and the whole neighborhood came out to freak out about it. It was so so bright. I've never seen anything like it. 

Father's Day! 

I love how much Jim loves animals. He always has. 

We would not own a dog if it weren't for his harebrained idea.

One day he was like: we need a dog in this family, and the next thing you know he has the perfect dog picked out and in our home. 

For father's day, the boys played lots of MarioKart together, then we went and had dirt church with our bests. 

beach, 

neighborhood,

dogs getting wild in the creek, 

Galbraith ride, 

trail run.

Round and round. These are our early summer activities on repeat. 

There is not much else we can do. But also not much else we want to do. 

This day we ran up Chuckanut Mountain. 

I had such an itch to climb a mountain, and this satisfied. 

The Red Huckleberries are in full harvest right now! They are everywhere. We fill our bellies. 

Did you know huckleberries cannot be grown agriculturally? They only work when grown in the wild.

Koda likes them too. 

This is Groot, the Dicksons Frenchy. He is Koda's neighborhood buddy. 

He comes over and knocks on the door and asks if Koda can play. 

Yesterday we ran a new trail at Galbraith, and this viewpoint was SHOW STOPPING. 

It's just so beautiful out there. 

This was us all day today...up and down the streets with all the hood friends. 

Currently they are gathering blankets and pillows and filling the Dicksons truck bed for a "late over". 

That's a wrap, June 2020.