Summer Week 2 (Sequalitchew, Staircase)

Sunday

Inspired by some old pictures of Michael and Ben sitting on Rachel and Mom's shoulders (respectively) dueling, Rachel and Josh did a recreation.

Michael wanted in on the action, but he may be just a leetle big bigger than he was before.

After that things got a little out of control.

A formidable team!

It got pretty intense.

We all learned some great lessons about gravity.

Monday
Sequalitchew revisited again. This time Ben, Isaac and I invited our friends so we could all explore the other trail Ben found a few weeks earlier.

It started with switchbacks. Awesome.

At the top we found the location of an old observatory and the new trail.

It was our first hike with masks. That was educational. Not particularly fun, but doable.

Eventually we came across another trail that went down to the beach. And I do mean DOWN. Isaac and I stayed at the top after I cam to the sobering realization that I would have to get Isaac back UP after he struggled to go down the first section. It turns out that I chose wisely...further on there was a section that was so steep it required a rope to climb. My friend took Ben and her kids down while I waited up top. 

It's always fun to find new places to explore.

Tuesday

We drove up to Staircase for the day with some friends. It's been a couple of years since we've done this hike and I read online that the dirt road up to the park was in good shape. Also, I figured Isaac could handle it without needing help. Luckily, that turned out to be true and he did great as long as he didn't realize he was tired.

Our intrepid crew.

Isaac insisted on putting his feet in the water and found it to be freezing, though he didn't let that stop him.

Wednesday
This day shall go down in history as the day that Josh found out that his braces are coming off. It's been a long two years and he was determined to get them off early and.....they are coming off right on time.

Friday
Another great day - the day we finally got the garage reorganized after we had to move everything for the emergency bathroom/garage reno. It's been a while and it's been increasingly difficult to walk through so it was time.

The COVID Diaries, Week 8

Monday

On Sunday we did a repeat art project and made more window clings. So Ben and Isaac were very excited to put them up Monday morning. We learned a few things from our first time around - the colors like to bleed and the sun bleaches some of the colors out sooner than others. Jason joined us and created a beautiful bird and a peace symbol. Ben went to his math roots and went for pi. He has memorized something like 67 digits of pi and is still working on it. 

Ben has been struggling to be motivated to do schoolwork so we went on a field trip in the morning. I texted his friend's mom and asked her to keep him busy while Ben, Isaac, and I made some chalk art in his driveway. It's difficult not seeing friends and play soccer.

Our bathroom renovation continued this week. It was the last week so we were able to see exciting progress almost every day.

Tuesday
Another bike ride to the garden where I had to come to terms with the fact that one of the beds just wasn't going to grow...anything. My friend dropped off some purple string bean seeds so we planted some of those and more carrots and peas.

Slow but steady on the other bed.

A quick stop off at Aunt Rachel's house on the way home. Hopefully she doesn't mind these little invasions during her work-at-home day.

Wednesday
Paint and floor! Since we couldn't find any bathroom paint in our garage collection of buckets-of-paints-that-came-with-the-house, we had an excuse to get it painted in a new color. A trip to Lowe's and we had a lovely light blue for the painters to use on the walls and ceiling. I love it!

By the end of the day we had vinyl flooring (new!) and vanity (new top!) put in.

Wednesday evening is also when an unexpected but always welcome visitor arrived! Uncle Doug!

Thursday
Uncle Doug made us a lovely fajita dinner. Then jet lag caught up to him and the rest of us played Uno Flip. Also there was some arm wrestling during which Jason schooled the older boys.....

....and was vanquished by Isaac.

And the bathroom was soooo close to being done I could almost hear the boys using their own shower instead of mine.

Friday
The state parks had opened up at the beginning of the week, but we opted to wait until later in the week to avoid the hiking-starved crowds. We headed to Mima Mounds ever hopeful that we'll make it there during the peak of spring flowers. I can't decide if our expectations are too high or if missing the peak of spring flowers will be our new thing (sorry missing the peak of fall in Shenandoah). There were some pretty flowers, but it wasn't as stunning I was hoping.

And this time "we" included Doug! In case you are wondering who is my mom's favorite child, check out who she is allowing to take MULTIPLE pictures of her with him.

Just saying. ;)

Also, do these mounds look like they are covered in wild flowers? Yeah, didn't think so.

Saturday

Our marvelous contractor and his crew finished the bathroom on Friday, but we waited until absolutely all the paint was dry before putting up the curtain and rod. We are going to paint the vanity white, but otherwise the room is looking great. Silver lining to cost and mess of unexpected house damage during a pandemic.

And I am supposed to record the following for posterity:
--Isaac was the first to pee in the new potty
--Michael was the first to poop in the new potty
--Michael was the first to take a shower in the new bathroom

Ben and I continued our Saturday morning walk tradition sans Rachel (something about drill...likely story!). We stopped off at Rachel's house though to raid the candy currently residing in her kitchen.

We saw several bunnies and scads of flowers on our walk. Sadly only the latter hung around for pictures.

This weekend is turning out to be a little taste of summer weather and I have to say I'm okay with the rain and cooler temps coming next week. It is exciting to have the ability to get and hike, but I am not ready for us all to be home (still) in the heat.

The COVID Diaries, Week 7

Monday

If your bathroom doesn't look like this, are you even doing this pandemic right?  Just a question to think about.

Right, so at the beginning of the week the bathroom didn't look like much. Luckily, one contractor and one plumber and two painters later it improved quite a bit by the end of the week.

Random Facebook post inspired a craft project. That and the crazy amount of toilet paper rolls we've accumulated. We actually save them to make fire starters, which is not so weird. But we just kept on saving them long after we had enough for a summer of camping, so then it got weird. But then I saw this project and I knew we were back to being cool again.

A bag full of markers and the shoe box kept Isaac busy while I meticulously removed every last scrap of TP from the rolls.

Which is just about as fun as you'd image it would be.

A couple of glue sticks later and we have a car garage.

 Later in the afternoon I did some weeding and planting. Two upsides - kids left me alone out of fear of getting roped into it and the lilac bushes a friend gave me might actually survive. Might. Setting my expectations low.

Wednesday
There was a lot of banging and sawing and just noise, but by the end of the day we had a new bathtub.  Super exciting.

Saturday
Keeping the tradition of our running/walking/whatever group alive! The weather wasn't great when we started.

But Ben was determined to make it to Aunt Rachel's house because there was a crazy rumor spreading about a lemon meringue pie. Usually we take a chocolate break at her house, but he was willing to change things up for lemon.

And lemon it was.

Mouth puckering lemon.

It turns out she used ONE MORE CUP OF LEMON JUICE than the recipe called for. She is going to try redeem herself next week.

The skies were grey and foreboding, but Ben was insistent that we finish our walk. We did so. And it took days for our shoes to dry out.

Ben may not get to make any more walking decisions for us for a while.

The COVID Diaries, Week 6

Well, I've officially started losing days.

Sunday
Maybe I went on a bike ride? I know we started our church later than usual because of a high stakes Catan game that got started late. We watched a Holland talk and then....ate dinner or something?

Monday
Second week of continuing learning was less stressful as everyone knew mostly how the routine was going to go.  I think this was the day the contractor came to have us pick out floor samples for the bathroom. Maybe?

Tuesday
Unsure. Seems like we biked to the garden at some point early in the week.

Wednesday
First day of the bathroom demo before the bathroom reno. And why are we doing such a ridiculous project in the middle of a pandemic? Behold, the effects of a slowly leaking toilet. Don't worry, there's more hiding under the tub and the walls.

Isaac keeps finding random beads around the house so I finally brought out my beading gear and tools. I haven't used this stuff for a few years so I let him use whatever struck his fancy. 

A lot struck his fancy.

Ben is often easily distracted from his school work these days and joined in the jewelry-making fun.

Yeah, this was definitely Isaac's idea of a good time.

I think we may have used up all of my fun ideas on Wednesday because in the afternoon we did some chalk art.

As you can tell, Ben wasn't the most productive with his school work on Wednesday, but Isaac got a really neat chalk balloon out of it.

Thursday
Michael has been hired to do some yard work at Rachel's house. Sometimes it involves me hauling the mower over there in the back of the van and sometimes he bikes over to chop down unsuspecting bushes and dig out enormous roots.  I don't know the particulars but they've arranged some sort of payment system that may or may not involve a bass guitar. I've decided to stay out of it.

We heard quite a bit of banging throughout the day and at the end of it the bathroom looked like this:

Like our new window view of the garage?  Our contractor assures us it's temporary, which is exactly what you want to hear from your contractor!

Friday
All the work Rachel, Mom and Michael have been putting into destroying things in Rachel's backyard created a far amount of waste that needed to be hauled to the dump. While I was bagging up a bit of it I found a little friend. I invited her in the house, but she seemed more interested in the hole in the paver stones in the yard.

Interestingly enough, when you've spent the better part of 6 weeks not going anywhere, going to the dump can seem like an exotic adventure. We even drove on the highway!

Saturday
There was rain, there was sunshine, there was chocolate - another Saturday morning 5k on the books.