New Things

This week has been a bit quieter and more relaxed than last week. We haven't done any more on the playhouse however, I did finally make a purchase on Amazon for some new swings and they arrived today! We put one together and tested it out on the old swing set. The kids love it! We can't wait to put it on the new swing set when it gets built. Originally I was going to get 2 regular swings and 1 that was different. After looking for weeks and realizing we might not have enough room for 3 swings I found these saucer swings online and it had a lot of good reviews. I was then going to get one of these and then a regular swing but some people said that their kids wouldn't even hardly use the regular swings anymore since they had this saucer swing. So I made the decision to just get 2 of the saucer swings because it can hold up to 440 lbs making it possible for multiple kids to use it at one time. I just hope they last awhile. The material looks similar to a trampoline.

Last Sunday in the evening Curtis and I wanted to go walk a new trail and there is one not far from us that is like a mostly flat hiking trail with it being close to the lake and made of gravel.  It's called Kingfisher Trail. I really wanted to walk the whole thing to see how far it goes and I did look it up on the way over. It's about 3.75 miles one way. So that totaled our walk to 7.5 miles that took over 2 hours and we are not used to that yet! We learned that we should wear the right shoes and use the bathroom before going on long walks because we were having a hard time holding it in on the way back, with no outhouses anywhere! Curtis could have gone in the bushes but I wouldn't let him because it wouldn't be fair. It's not as easy for women to do that, lol. It was a beautiful walk though and we got to see a few deer, several rabbits, lots of birds, and even a mouse.

We found a little hidden area that looked so beautiful!

View of the lake from the trail.

Some areas were covered liked this and we loved it.

I had to zoom in from far away to get a shot of the rabbit before he took off. They are fast!

Curtis had worn the wrong shoes and his feet were killing him by the time we finished the walk. My legs were a bit sore so I stretched out when we got home. The kids were back at home waiting for us so that we could start another camp fire with Nikki's friend Angie who was over visiting. We always tend to get to bed pretty late when we do campfires but this time we did not do s'mores. I brought out some healthy snacks of carrots and sugar snap peas that most of us enjoyed.

On Tuesday we went out again with my parents. They have been doing a lot of walking so we thought they might like to join us and so they did. However, I was a little worried about having them walk this trail since it was gravel, not paved like they were used to doing. It turns out I was right to be worried. While we didn't walk the whole trail, we still didn't turn around to go back soon enough. Their bodies were aching that night and they did not sleep well. Next time we do this trail with them it will be on bikes for sure!

We took them to our little spot we found.

It almost looks like we could be in the Florida Everglades or something.

My dad got a good picture of one of the rabbits this time. They are so cute!

 Nikki started her first official job yesterday at Del Taco. On Monday she was feeling depressed because her two best friends Angie and Logan had already found jobs. She thought she might not get one. Well, Monday night she received a text from Jack in the Box asking if she would like to come in for an interview the next morning at 10:30. She said yes but then I asked her if she knew which location. She had done her application online so she wasn't really sure. I knew there were at least 2 locations in Nampa but later we found out that there are at least 4 in Nampa now. We went to the one closest to us on 12th Ave about 15 minutes early just in case it was the wrong one. Sure enough, it was the wrong location but while she was there they told her she could come back to that location on Saturday for an interview if she wanted that so she said sure. We were a little panicked because the other locations are on other sides of town quite a bit further away. After calling the one by the Franklin exit they told her the correct location she needed to be at was the one furthest away out by the Idaho Center! We raced over there and ended up being about 5-10 minutes late so the hiring manager who was going to interview her was in a meeting and the assistant manager interviewed her instead. We were both thinking it will be totally okay with us if she does NOT get this job as we do not want to be driving clear across town all the time.

As we were driving out of the Jack in the Box parking lot Nikki got a call on her phone from Del Taco asking if she could come in that day around 3:30 pm. Of course she said yes! After getting interviewed they hired her right on the spot and started getting her I.D. and other information. She was so happy and excited! We were blessed for her to get a job here because it's one of the closest restaurants to our house, only a mile away, so she can easily walk or ride her bike to work.  I told her that if she has to work late when it's dark then I will come pick her up. She has a goal to get her driver's license by the end of the summer. We may be getting her a car sooner than we planned! After we go home from her interview we almost immediately got back in the car to go get her some work shoes. She needed some that were non slick. Garrett also had to get some shoes since the shoes he had been wearing were so small that both of his big toes were poking out! We knew those shoes would be too small for him when our neighbors gave them to us but he insisted that they were going to be his. They were size 6. We just bought him a size 8! He's grown a lot this year and is nearly as tall as me now.

Anyway, Nikki's first day of working and orientation stuff was yesterday evening. She watched some videos but was also put right to work taking orders in the drive thru. She was overwhelmed because she didn't know the menu or the computer and not feeling too happy about things after work but that's just how things go when you start something new. It's not always easy at first. We told her she'll be fine and that she just needs to get used to things. She's a little worried to go back to work again tonight. I'll be lucky if I can get a picture of her because I asked if she would put her work shirt on early so I could get a picture for my blog post and she did not want to do it!

Just after I finished typing that she didn't want to do it, she came back out with it on. What a good sport! We decided to take the picture outside and this is the first time she saw the swing so of course she had to try it out and she loves the swing so you get to see both!

It's bright outside so it was hard for her to look up for the picture but she also didn't want to get out of the swing, lol!

At least she's happy about getting to wear a t-shirt and jeans to work! She just needs to get a smaller size of shirt though. This one is size medium but they were out of small.