Catching Up

On Sunday the 4th of June, we drove over to Lewiston for our nephew Alex's graduation party. Because both our families have church at noon and we didn't want to miss going to church we got up early, got dressed for church and drove straight to their building and got there with 10 minutes to spare. Stillman was released from their bishopric and a new bishopric was called. None of our kids wanted to go to class so we just did Sacrament only. Directly after church is when the graduation party was because Alex's seminary graduation happened to be the same day at 6:00. It was fun getting to visit and the drive over there was beautiful but we left for home after the party was over since we still had to drive 2 1/2 hours and the kids had school the next day.

There is so much green this time of year. The farmers really utilize all the land they can. The hills were just covered with crops and it looked beautiful!

Our family with Alex.

My brother and me.

The next day Alice had her last t-ball game that she would be able to go to since we'll be gone for the actual last two games. I had Jack and Garrett come to watch because it was their last chance and after all, the girls came to their band concerts, so they should come watch at least one of their games. At one point Alice was playing pitcher position and got hit in the nose by the ball and got a bit of a bloody nose but she didn't cry and after sitting out for a little bit, went back in a played the rest of the game. Such a trooper! Afterwards, we all went to Dairy Queen to get a treat. Funny thing is though, Charlotte decided she didn't feel like she wanted anything so she didn't this time.

This time it was an ice cream cone for this girl.

Chocolate milkshake for him. (I'll bet he's glad he came to the game now.)

Dr. Pepper for Jack and nothing for Charlotte since she didn't want anything.

The next day Jack had his last band concert but because Charlotte had softball practice at the same time, Curtis went to the concert with Garrett and I went to Charlotte's practice with Alice. I wished I would have just made her skip her practice so I could have seen Jack but she really wanted to go to her practice. It's a tough choice to make sometimes. Jack came home with an award for "Most Improved". I'm excited that I'll get to see him in the marching band next year. Unfortunately, Garrett has decided he is done with band and won't be with him, but he needs to do what is best for him and if he's not happy with band then I'm just fine with him dropping it. Hopefully he'll find something else extra he can enjoy learning or doing. I think he would benefit from martial arts but I don't know if I can talk him into it. We'll see. 

I got a picture of him after the concert.

We're getting some more surprises in our backyard that I am loving! This back yard is turning into our little oasis. I can't even see through the fence that has the grapevines anymore because it's growing so much.

I love these purple flowers!

Pretty tree with the grapevines behind it.

Last Friday Curtis and I drove to Moscow for the day for a work summer party while the kids went to school. I had Sister Gale be a back up adult in case of an emergency while gone but Garrett was in charge of the other kids. Both of the Gales dropped by to check on them and even bought them a treat of their choice. I think they have adopted grandparents now, lol! 

Once again, it was a beautiful drive. We got there a bit later than everyone else since we didn't get away as soon as we hoped and we had the farthest to drive. It was a party for the Richland and Clarkston offices. Stillman ordered us some burgers and fries and we scarfed those down at the golf course before playing some golf. I was a little nervous about playing since I was the only female and probably least experienced so I only hit a few times. I started with just doing the putting when they got close to the hole. Then there were a couple of times I tried the longer distance drives. I did pretty well I guess for a beginner. Last time I played was on our anniversary in 2020 I think. Anyway, our golfing got cut short by heavy rain, so we found a place that had board games for us to play. We ended up playing our golf card game with Stillman and Michelle while others played something else. Then we walked across the street to eat at a pizza place. Curtis and I weren't impressed but he did try some calamari. The best part was axe throwing and that was the last activity. We started out by doing a little fun competition that involved hammering nails in a stump. I won that one! Then we did some throwing of different weapons. 

It's so beautiful up there!

At this point it was raining and I was done playing. I was the driver of our golf cart. We were the only ones that brought jackets and I'm glad we did!

Calamari

Tasting the calamari. I did not try any.

Spicy Sausage Potato or something like that. We didn't care for it.

Having fun.

Last weekend we finally bought closet inserts for Jack's closet downstairs so they could unbox their clothes and other stuff. Garrett will have one closet for now since they are temporarily sharing a room. We put the boys in charge of building them but we did help.

We had to pull down the old boards off the walls that I had already painted. We thought we were going to reuse the same closet stuff but changed our minds. I painted the yellow spots on Monday since we had to wait for spackle to dry on the holes.

Curtis worked on the master room getting walls framed in and setting up the tub and shower base. We were trying to get as much done as we could because we thought Home Depot was going to come re-measure for flooring but they said they can't do it until the drywall is put up. I'm fine with that. It gives us more time! They were kind of pushing us to get it done so they didn't have to hold on to our carpet anymore but now it looks like they won't come measure until the middle of July. 

A nice big shower and tub in a much bigger bathroom!

Our walk in closet. We would have made it bigger but because of the window, it's going to be long and narrow, but it will still be much better than what we had.

Curtis cut out the door for our new pantry!

I'm so excited to have a pantry and connected to the kitchen!

I was surprised on Monday when I got a message from Charlotte's teacher about 30 minutes before they were to have an awards assembly, to find out that Charlotte was to receive a Citizenship Award. I had to drop what I was doing, change my clothes, and drive over there but I'm happy I was able to be there. Both of the girls earned awards for perfect attendance for their 3rd trimester. So proud of them!

The paper plate was an award that their class made up. She was voted for "funniest tweet". We're not really sure what that means but it was cute.

Alice also got a letter from her teacher. It's been a great first year of school for her. I can't wait to see how these girls grow!

School Carnival, etc.

Alice and Charlotte both continue to improve as they play their t-ball and softball games. It's fun seeing how much they have improved from the last time they played two years ago in Nampa. I hope they continue to keep playing.

Alice waiting in the outfield.

Charlotte up to bat. This game was a tough one as many of the players were gone due to musical performances at their schools. Our team only made 2 or 3 runs while the other team had at least 15.

I decided that it would be a good time to take these girls out to ice cream at DQ after Charlotte's game on Thursday (the 1st of June). 

Charlotte got a large vanilla cone. And yes, she ate it all!

Alice got a rainbow shake. She only ate about 1/2 of it.

Part of last Friday and all of last Saturday I spent time doing more yard work and finally got the area under the pine trees cleared out. I filled 7 big black bags with pine needles, pine cones, and weeds. After working on that all day Saturday, I was happy to get to cool off and clean off in the pool with the girls. 

Here's what it looked like back in the middle of April. They had some sort of wooden gazebo in the middle that had fallen over. I ended up removing all of that.

This was what I worked on Friday. At first I was just focusing on grabbing the pine needles and pine cones and any tall weeds.

This was on Friday also. I had already pulled out a bunch of tall weeds that had been growing.

Saturday I cleared the rest out. There is only one small bush that I left. All of the other growth I wasn't sure what might be weed and what might be flower, so I figured it would be better to just pull it all out and start over.

I'm not sure that I will keep those smaller rocks there in front of the big ones but I left them for now. Ah, now we can hang up our hammocks and it enjoy this part of the yard. 

Now to think of ideas on what to do with this space. Maybe plant some flowers or bushes? Maybe add some stones in the dirt to walk on up to the hammocks? We haven't hung the hammocks yet but hoping to soon.

After I had worked in the yard for part of the day on Friday, I had to quit and get cleaned up so I could take the girls to their school carnival. They had lots of fun games inside and outside of the building.

They started out the carnival by decorating their goodie bags. The bags were used to hold any of their prizes and goodies they got at the carnival.

Playing hungry hippos. I thought I was going to have to push both girls around but Charlotte ended up just pushing Alice and was satisfied with that.

One teacher set up this little golf putting game where he built a box robot and made it so some of the parts were moving like a real robot. It was cool!

The girls got colorful hair extensions. They had to take out their braids to be able to put them in.

She got one on both sides. Colorful strands of ribbon basically that are clipped on with a bead.

She's the one that really wanted to have it done, so she's a happy girl. It's hard to see the extensions in the picture though. One on each side like Charlotte.

Inflatable horse racing.

Adding some more color to their hair.

Pig racing...with electronic pigs!

Getting fun balloons, a dog and a butterfly.

The boys were gone that night, or at least part of the night. Jack was gone on a band trip to Silverwood overnight. Curtis and Garrett went on a church campout. Garrett decided he was really not happy about all of the bugs and had Curtis bring him back home. Fortunately they were only 30 minutes away. The girls were disappointed to see Dad bring Garrett back because it was supposed to be a "girl's night". Garrett just went downstairs and played his video game so we didn't really see him and Curtis went back to the campout.

Last Saturday Alice lost her first tooth when she was eating an apple. We didn't even know it was loose and she didn't realize when it came out, so she must have swallowed it! She was happy and we discovered that the tooth next to it is loose as well and the Tooth Fairy still came even though there was no tooth to put under the pillow.

Memorial Day Weekend and Field Trip

 Last weekend I finally took the girls to go check out our local mall in Kennewick. It's a nice little mall and plenty busy. It reminded me of the Boise Town Square except only one level and a bit smaller. There were lots of the same stores and a food court. The girls really wanted to make a Build A Bear stuffed animal but I said maybe on their next birthday. However, I gave in when they found these cute balloons that they could walk around like pets. They loved them! We also dropped by to see my old friend from Nampa that I hadn't seen in about 13 years. It was so good to see her and to meet some of her friends that she works with. We visited for quite awhile and since she works at Kay Jewelers, I had her clean my wedding ring while we were there. We have tried to get together a couple of times over the past few months but it always fell through so I talked to her about trying again for Sunday after church. She just needed to talk to her hubby first. After we finished our visit, the girls and I stopped in the Children's Place store where I bought them some clothes and jewelry. Yep, we were splurging today. But how often do we go shopping at the mall? Rarely! It's okay to splurge once in awhile 😀

Charlotte got a dog and Alice got a unicorn. These helped keep the girls preoccupied while I visited with my friend, Shannon.

We didn't have quarters for them to ride the toys but they sat in them anyway.

Alice with her unicorn.

Charlotte with her "fire" dog.

Alice wearing her new sandals, shirt, necklace and bracelet we bought at the mall. We had to make a 2nd trip to the mall to replace the necklace though because the rainbow charm broke. Fortunately, they had one more left that we were able to exchange it with. She was one happy girl. Every shirt she picked out had unicorns.

Well, we finally made it happen! We got together with my friend Shannon and her family on Sunday after church at their place. I should have gotten a picture with her but I didn't. Next time! But we did get one with the girls and Shannon's dog. It was a nice afternoon and evening. We ate dinner together where the men grilled up hot dogs, brats and hamburgers. We visited for awhile and then some of us played a couple of games. Curtis ended up out in the garage with Doug showing him his rifles and guns. I think Curtis has found a new friend too because they just hit it off. They also found out that they work really close to each other so they might go out to lunch occasionally. Their family has a Garrett also who is 19 years old and then their daughter is 16 years old. She's a pretty girl with red hair. Our Garrett likes her and we plan on trying to get them together with some of her friends to hang out some time. He can hardly wait 😉 They also have twin boys that are almost 12 years old. We had so much fun visiting with their family. I told them we would have to invite them over for a pool party some time.

The girls loved playing with the dog.

Curtis and I worked most of the day on Memorial Day. I did a bunch of yard work while he did plumbing in our master bedroom. We finally quit a little before 5:00 and decided we should do something fun with the kids. So we quickly changed, gathered them up, and went to McDonald's for dinner and then over to the theater to watch Guardians of the Galaxy 3. I was surprised and pleased to see the type of seats our theater has as this was our first time to this theater. Recliners with little tables! It was so comfortable. The movie was good but we didn't like it as much as my brother Stillman did. 

I wouldn't normally wear a hat and ponytail to watch a movie at the theater but there was no time to shower first. I did have to pull my hair down during the movie though because it wasn't comfortable.

The very next day Charlotte had her class field trip and I joined her. There wasn't enough room on the bus so I drove separately to meet them at the Reach Museum in Richland, which was right by the river. It's a nice museum that has stuff about the different wild life in this area and also how Tri Cities was connected to World War 2. There wasn't enough time to really read about everything, so we'll have to go again. Charlotte was telling Alice about it later and wants to go back with Alice. 

They had a fun activity learning about lots of different fish that can be found in the river.

In the same room I discovered this art piano. It looks so cool!

The sign says it was dedicated to a principal/teacher from Richland school district.

After the museum we drove over to a nice park that has a huge playground that was designed for the Tri-Cities. The park we ate lunch at is called "The Playground of Dreams". I should have taken more pictures. They had a light house, boat, train station, and lots of other things related to the area.

Here's the train and they have a little ticket booth behind it (the green thing). It was such a fun looking playground. Will get more pictures some other time when I can take both girls there.

It's been a fun weekend and week so far with all of these activities. And Garrett's therapy appointment went well yesterday. The therapist gave him some things to work on. I'm not sure what that is but I figured it was probably just between the two of them but maybe it's better if I don't know? I just hope it helps! His next appointment is in a few weeks.