Boat Ride on the River

Last Wednesday evening the youth in our ward had a boating night where they met at the Columbia River here in Kennewick to have some fun in the water. Jack was all in for doing that stuff but Garrett did not want to get wet. Garrett went anyway and hung out with Curtis at the picnic area where he was tending the food. They called and asked us to bring Jack's sunglasses, some salt and pepper and bread. The girls and I drove over there and visited a little bit. We were about to leave but then the bishop asked if we wanted to go on a boat ride. The girls were excited to go and since we were going on the boat and not dressed for getting wet, Garrett decided to come with us also. I think he's glad he did.

Sitting in the back of the boat.

Feeling the water.

Sister Sheryl Walker was so nice to let the girls drive her boat.

It was so pretty and it brought back so many memories of being on Lake Cascade.

Later we went on another boat ride on a different boat.

We talked Curtis into riding with us this time.

And the girls sat in the front of the boat.

We didn't see Jack until the end of the night. He was having fun with the other youth.

I wasn't having a good day and just felt like I was moody all day. This is exactly what I needed to change my mood for the better. It felt so good just standing up in the boat and letting the wind whip past my face, just like I used to when I was younger. It was a blessing for me and a blessing for Garrett also. He enjoyed the boat rides and didn't have to worry about getting wet. Later he told me that maybe he would learn how to water ski if we got a boat.

I also later learned that Garrett's friend had decided to skip the activity that night because he too did not want to get wet. His mom said he thought he'd be the only one who didn't want to get wet. Maybe next year we'll keep these boys together if they don't want to get wet. 

This was our first time on the Columbia River and it was a great time! So glad the boys asked us to bring them some stuff.

Making Progress Again...Finally!

We had to get our van taken in to the dealership here in town to get it looked at and fixed, so we dropped that off Wednesday morning. Curtis's mission president had passed away and so that same Wednesday after work, he drove down to Nampa. Then the next morning, he and one of his old companions who lives in Boise drove down to Bountiful for the funeral, which happened at 11am. They stayed in Utah way later than they planned and so they got back to Idaho really late that night. Then Curtis worked in Meridian the next morning and after lunch time headed back home. He did not get much sleep but it was worth it to reconnect with old companions at the funeral. Now that we are done traveling for awhile, it is time to get serious about our house projects again. I think I needed that break because I really didn't want to do anything for awhile but now I'm ready to go! 

While he was gone, I wanted to surprise him by getting something done on the house. At first I thought I would just start painting walls upstairs around the front room and hallway. As I was wiping down the walls in the hallway to prepare, I was looking at the popcorn ceiling and knew it needed to come down before we could texture, paint and put lights back in. So I switched gears and decided that I could remove the popcorn ceiling on my own. I already had the experience of prepping a room with plastic and removing the ceiling. The only difference is now I would be doing all of it by myself. I got a little frustrated while hanging up the plastic because the tape would stick to it in the wrong places, etc. but I got it up and went to work. I did the hallway on Thursday and then Friday morning I finished off the small area in the new master bedroom that used to be part of the hallway. Wow, I got SO sweaty after wearing a Tyvex suit and mask to do the scraping. After cleaning up on Thursday, I got right in the pool and it felt so good! I'm so thankful we have our pool.

I just scraped to the end of the hallway. It was tempting to do more, but this was our priority right now. Eventually all of that popcorn ceiling will be gone.

Curtis was pretty pleased that I did all of that while he was gone. He and I were so tired that we just relaxed Friday night. Then Saturday he got busy with hanging sheet rock and he got me started on prepping the shower and tub for tile. We had to paint this stuff on called Redguard that helps seal cracks and keeps moisture off of the sheet rock. I did take a break in between painting the shower and the tub but I was so tired by the end of the day and so thankful that the next day was Sunday, the day of rest, because I really needed it! Charlotte was also sick with a fever and sore throat over the weekend so I stayed home from church with her and watched Bible cartoons on dvd. It was good because I was able to teach her about some things she didn't know before. Jack had started to get sick while we were in Nampa for Ellie's homecoming but thankfully he is feeling better again. I'm just hoping no one else gets sick! Charlotte felt good again by Monday.

As usual, it took a long time to prep. I covered the tub and shower base with heavy plastic first.

Curtis helped me do the seams and then I went to town on painting the rest.

First coat done and drying.

Sheet rock filled in the little nook by our master bedroom door in the hallway. We're going to put a shelf or something here. Not sure yet.

Curtis working in the pantry. He needed to reset that door frame and it took awhile to get it right. After that, he worked on the walls in there.

Fortunately I did not have to paint the entire wall around the tub since it won't get wet up high. We're taking the tile up to the bottom of the window. Again, first coat done and drying.

Monday morning, Curtis was off to work and I painted another coating on both the shower and the tub.  The kids really wanted to go to the store to look at some stuff and so we did. When Curtis got home and we ate our dinner, it was time to work, him on sheet rock again and me on painting the third coat. After I finished painting, I helped Curtis. The sheet rocking was taking so long that we stayed up until midnight so that we could be done with it and move on.  We were exhausted but both of us had to shower before bed because we were covered in dust and itching from insulation. But we got it done!!

Lines in the ceiling from where the walls used to be for the hallway and closet. There was a board still attached and hanging down that we needed to remove.

Look at all of the patch work.

I bought a couple of Pokémon shirts for Charlotte while at the store, so she posed with her toy Pikachu with one of her new shirts on.

The next morning I took pictures of the finished sheet rocking. So glad that's done and we can move on!

Looking into the pantry.

The back of the pantry.

Looking out from the pantry to the kitchen.

The new closet.

The master bedroom.

The new master bathroom. Toilet will be on the left. Vanity with two sinks will be on the right.

Master shower and soaker tub. 

Tuesday morning I finished off the Redguard painting in the shower. Then I had the boys help clean up our construction mess a bit. They took garbage out to the truck and we moved some tools and things to the garage. After dinner, our next project was taking out part of the wall in the kitchen. We wanted to open it up and that had to be done before the flooring guys can come.

Covering what we could with old sheets, preparing for lots of dust.

The before shot.

Demo is so fun!

The electrical was "fun". Unfortunately, four of the six wires were pulling from a different direction than we hoped and will not reach the new outlet boxes. We're going to have to put in a junction box. It was too late to get one at the store so we'll have to finish that tonight since Wednesday was mutual day.

What it looked like at the end of Tuesday night. No kitchen lights for a couple of days.

This was taken this morning to get a shot from the other direction with more light.

We again stayed up until past midnight to work on this project. Tuesday morning I had to wake up early to get boys to the dentist but thankfully I was able to sleep in on Wednesday. My body does not like me staying up that late, especially two nights in a row. We felt pressed for time again because Stillman's family are coming to hang out this weekend. We want to get as much done before then as we could because we won't be working on it this while they're here. Next week it's taping and texture!

Another Friend Visits

 After we returned home on Sunday and unloaded the truck, we decided to relax for awhile. Curtis and I watched Relative Race. We are still behind on watching the last season, so we watched two episodes. Then since the sun was going down we decided to go on a walk. We found a new spot that has another beautiful view. Pictures just don't do it justice. Sometimes you just have to see it for yourself.

Curtis found out over the weekend that his mission president passed away. He spent some time reminiscing with many other people who had the same mission president and made plans to go down to the funeral, which is tomorrow. He thought about staying in Idaho so he could travel down to Utah for the funeral but we were already expecting our friends to come hang out with us in Kennewick, Matt and Chrystal Hayes and their family. We sat by them at church on Sunday in Nampa and the very next evening they came to our house for a BBQ and swimming in Kennewick. It was so great to have them here. Matt is from Kennewick and has been wanting to move back but is waiting for a position to open up for working here. For now, they make a yearly visit every summer. We have been looking forward to this visit ever since we moved!

Their whole family was in the pool. Jack wasn't feeling good and Garrett didn't want to swim.

Curtis shooting the water gun for this picture.

The girls saw their friend, Elie, wrap her hair in a towel and wanted to do the same.

Titus, Everson, Charlotte, Alice, Elie

We have been friends with Matt and Chrystal since Charlotte and Elie were in nursery back in 37th ward and have attended several of their Harry Potter parties. We love them and love being their friends!

Curtis and I got our van dropped off at the dealership this morning (another thing we needed to come back for). We tried to tell the guy to check the fuses and transmission stuff but he still seems to think it's the battery and didn't really listen. Hopefully they figure it out. Curtis is leaving tonight after work to go back to Nampa and then on to Utah early tomorrow morning with another old companion who lives in Boise to go to the funeral of their mission president. It's at 11am Thursday morning in Bountiful. He should be back by Friday and then we are planning to do some serious work on our master bedroom. We need to get this done!

Ellie is Home!

Last weekend was the weekend that our niece Ellie came home from her mission, so we made the trip to Nampa again, this time with Curtis. I didn't trust driving my van to Idaho again, especially after trying to use it to take Garrett to his therapy appointment and it wouldn't let me move the gear shifter. It was the truck from then on that I used. I told Curtis that we will be driving the truck to Nampa because I'm nervous about driving my van any more until it gets fixed. Thursday at noon was Garrett's appointment and then we hit the road after Curtis got home from work. We left around 5:00 our time and arrived to my in-laws' just before 10pm mountain time. 

It was kind of a nice change of pace not having the dvd players this time. Garrett did bring the Nintendo Switch videogame system but he didn't play it the whole time. We actually started out the trip by playing a game. We chose the topic of Harry Potter and went through the whole alphabet picking something that related to our topic with each letter of the alphabet. Jack didn't feel like playing and Alice had started the game with us but then stopped after a couple of rounds. Each of us had to repeat everything we already heard before adding on to the next letter. It was fun. At one point I started writing down all of them on Charlotte's doodle board so it would help her but by the end we challenged her to do it without looking and she did really well. Jack actually said he doesn't like watching movies or listening to audiobooks while driving. It makes his stomach queasy or head hurt. We did ride in silence for awhile and the kids actually looked out at the scenery and were enjoying it.

Charlotte was so happy to sit in front with us.

Having fun in the back.

On Friday Curtis got a ride with Eric Roundy (our previous bishop who works at the same office) to work in Meridian. I had scheduled to go to the Meridian temple in the afternoon with Dad, Laverne, Grandma, Joyce, Stillman and Michelle. Jess and Diane ended up coming to town also and joined us, as well as Kevin and Jan Poulsen, who are the parents of my friends Ashley and Brittanie. Dad and Laverne invited them along because they are friends with them. Most of us did initiatory first and then all of us did an endowment session. It had been years since Stillman and Michelle have been able to go to the temple. We all drove to Boise afterwards to eat at Chuck-A-Rama. Curtis got home before I did and took the kids out to eat at City Buffet, the same place I went to lunch with my friend Sarah the previous week. That reminds me, I saw my friend Sarah again and her husband and a couple others from 37th ward at the temple after our session. I think they had just finished doing baptisms. It was fun to see them there! 

Our temple group: Joyce, Kevin, Jan, Jess, Diane, Grandma, Dad, Laverne, Me, Michelle and Stillman.

After I got back and Curtis got back with the kids, we just relaxed and watched some Sherlock with his parents and the boys. I decided I could only handle one episode and went to the room to finish my book, Holes. The movie Holes followed the book extremely well. I felt like I was watching the movie. There were just small differences. This was a book I had grabbed out of the little library in front of the school recently.

It was nice sleeping in the next day. My in-laws were subbing for someone at the temple so they left around 10am. And the whole reason for making this trip was to see our niece Ellie return from her mission. Her plane did not get in until 5pm so we had some time to kill. Alice's suitcase is falling apart so she went shopping with me and Curtis to look for a new used one. We went to D.I. and Saver's. Neither store had one she approved of but we did find a bunch of other things. Alice got some shirts and a jacket, shoes, a toy alicorn (unicorn with wings), and camping chair. We also found some more ties for the boys and church slacks and a pair of flippers for swimming that is the boys' size. Jack had been wanting some so I was excited to find them! We also found a white desk that we liked for the girls to have in their room. It was a good thing we brought our truck! 

Anyway, after dropping off all of our thrift store finds and picking up the other kids, we headed to the airport. There were lots of family and a friend that showed up to welcome Ellie home. 

Alice and her alicorn. It was only .75 cents at D.I., which is why I let her get it. It pays to go with mom and dad to the store sometimes, ha ha.

Someone made some signs for the airport and Alice held one of them for a little while before handing it over to Keaton.

And she's home! Even Aussie their dog came to welcome Ellie home.

Everyone that came. Even Colby, Cindy and Lehi made the drive up from Utah and got there just in time.

It was a great reunion. Later, most of us went to my grandma's to eat and play games and visit. The Cleaver's did their own thing so they could get Ellie released from her mission, feed her and get her settled at home. 

This was the crowd playing Golf. I have never seen so many people playing this game. I would have liked to join but there wasn't room, so I went back and forth between the rooms, watching and visiting. Katie and Curtis ended up in a tie for first place. This was the first time Katie ever played and I think she enjoyed it.

We had to make sure we got back to my in-laws' and in bed at a decent hour Saturday because the next morning was Ellie's homecoming talk and their ward starts at 9am. It's been awhile since we've gone that early. The girls were all ready to go to church before the boys this time! 😁 We ended up being a few minutes late but we made it. Afterwards, we saw a few people we knew from our old wards in the hallways. We had even sat by our friends, the Hayes' family. It's fun running into people we haven't seen in a long time.

Ellie did a great job on her talk and it was fun to listen to her speak Spanish at the end when bearing her testimony. After Sacrament meeting we went back to change our clothes and pack up our stuff. The Cleavers' had an open house and we got there early so it was nice to have some one on one time. After visiting and eating cake and soda we got on the road to head back home. It was a great weekend and visit!

My brother Colby, me and Charlotte at the open house. I love this picture and I'm loving my new hair cut more and more.

I wanted to get a sibling picture of who was there (5 out of 7). Laverne took this one.

Charlotte took this picture with my phone. We may not all be looking at her but it looks like we're at least all looking in the same direction.