Week #26:A Big Fat Lip and A Long Bike Ride

This week...

...I got a fat lip in my softball game. I was playing catcher because the normal girl had stitches in her finger and didn't want to be handling the ball so much. I was poised and ready for that ball to come right to my glove, and then it didn't. It hit me smack on the lip, and tooth. It really swelled up, and then it was really sensitive for the whole week. Here's my fat lip so you can feel sympathetic.

...we went on a bike ride, a long bike ride. Not so bad going out, but Lainey had a hard time on the way back in. We usually ride back through the neighborhood that borders ours to the East. It seems to be relatively slow on traffic and therefore kid biker friendly. What I failed to realize, even as we started our ride, is that this was Lainey's first time pedaling her own bike for a long distance with the family. All last year she rode in relative ease and comfort in the bike stroller. Needless to say, the ride back was full of me coaxing, her crying and fretting, and then me getting really frustrated. She was just too tired and on the brink of exhaustion. I tried to hold her while pedaling with her bike on the back of mine. Didn't work. Unfortunately on a bike ride like that the only way for everyone to get home is on their own bikes. Too bad so sad for Lainey. She had to work her own pedals.

...Lainey saw Dr. Doofenshmirtz at the library. Celebrity sighting!

...our neighbor let us take turns with his new bike. Our neighbor, Joel, is the bike man. He collects vintage and unusual bikes as a hobby. He restores them and takes them to bike shows. This is his new bike. It has a seat for three on the back. I tried to take it for a spin, but wimped out. I had visions of me toppling to the side and sending the littles in the back sprawling on the pavement. Not good! But Joel and Jason managed it just fine.

(Photo Bomber Ben)

...we went swimming! Sister Haines is a woman in our ward that lets us come and swim in her pool. We are so blessed that she lets us come so often. We enjoy the swimming, but also the time we get to visit with her and her granddaughters. The kids are really progressing in their swimming abilities because they have the chance to be in the water so often.

These are some of the lilies blooming in Zae's beautiful garden.

...I caught Lainey red handed. This girl LOVES tomatoes. She eats them like apples. I think it's awesome! (And look at that responsibility. She eats it over a bowl so it doesn't drip.)

...we give you a finished look at the bookshelf that Jason made for our master bedroom, with temporary decorations, of course. We're still deciding on a look for our room. Hopefully soon we can finish it off.

...Emma babysat a little girl named Bria at our house. She really didn't have to do much because Benjamin and Lainey followed Bria around with her blanket and her binky at the ready to get her what she needed.

Week #25: Temple Walk By Night and Kitchen Backsplash

This week...

...we walked 11 miles to the temple. We did it at night this time so that we could see the temple all lit up. Emma went with me again this year. I thought she would have a better time because she had better shoes and she'd already done it once. That was not the case. Her feet were really hurting by the time we made it into the second pit stop. I told her she could ride, but her desire to actually walk all the way kept her going.

Getting started

At the pit stops, we tried to come up with as many operating temples as we could. I think they wrote down about 125 different temples and only 25 of those were duplicates or not actual temple sites. I thought that was really good.

These fantastic girls were my walking companions for the second half of the walk. Emma, Emily, Cali, Mckenna, Cecily. They were a fun bunch.

This was our marshy view as we left Columbia Park.

Once we actually got to the temple, all of our pain and pressing forward just seemed like a blur. Our feet were already feeling better just being on the grounds.

...we finished the back splash at the Zirker Ranch house. We used an awesome gray grout. I love how it turned out.

...I went one morning with Paul to Cub Scout Camp. It was fun to be there with Paul and his group. The leaders put A LOT of work into that camp. The theme was Cubs in Shining Armor and they learned ALL about knights over the three days. They had trading cards that were a hit, a variety of stations and hands on projects, as well as archery and BB guns. 

Here he's making a box to store treasures.

Archery was a big hit, literally. Ha! Paul really enjoyed this station and even hit the target several times.

Here we are eating lunch behind the caution line and watching them launch gallon size water bottles and gigantic cabbages out into the grass field with a life size trebuchet. This was a highlight of the day, and there were many. (For me it was the Chicago style popcorn from Costco that they had on hand for the volunteers. You know, the stuff with cheesy and caramel popcorn together? Yum!)

...we've had puzzles on the brain and puzzle pieces on the table. My mom always has a puzzle out when we visit. We all like to sit down and place pieces during our stay. It's been hard to keep the little grandkids away from the table through the years. I tried to take a stack of puzzles home once when Paul and Emma were little. Ha! Who was I kidding? I couldn't find a place safe enough from Emma and Paul and their climbing abilities. Plus, I didn't really have the time for puzzles with more than 10 pieces. That has been the case for over eight years. 
  My kids have always loved puzzles, especially Paul. We graduated from 10 to 20 and up to 35 piece puzzles. We do them over and over again. Just recently I realized that we've come to a new stage. When we visit Grandma Zirker, it's my kids who are helping her with her puzzles, and they're actually quite good at them. Claire especially will spend an hour at a time searching the pieces and figuring out where they go.
    On our last trip to Grandma's, we brought home a collection of Disney puzzles. The puzzles range in size from 150 to 300 to 500 pieces. I thought they would be fun for me to do, but the kids have been equally as involved and excited. We've arrived at the stage where I can have puzzles out and the kids don't just pull the pieces down and make a mess. Yay! Here's a look at the ones we've been working on...
Phineas and Ferb

The Jungle Book - this is always the sad part, when you have to take them apart. And it was especially so with this one because it was SO HARD! Oh man! I wished I had taken a picture of the finished product, but I forgot. 

The Little Mermaid

Mickey and Minnie Mouse

Princesses

...we had some splash park fun. We met our friend Jazmine with her kids Angel and Eva over at the ball fields so the kids could get wet.

...Benjamin, Emma, and I went for a bike ride. We went out to the hill on Rd 44. We thought this would be such a big bike endeavor, almost impossible. However, it wasn't that bad. It was so much fun to coast down and we actually pedaled our bikes on the way up.

...we made a mess. Emma is growing up a creative project lover like me, only I feel like she's getting a huge head start. This week we had a day when Emma got out all of her craft supplies and let everyone use them. It was a day of imagination and creation. It was a day when the mess didn't matter.

...I found a fun picture of me. I'm working on a project for Paul's second grade teacher. When I agreed, I had no idea that it would take me 20-30 glue sticks to get it done. Yeesh!

...I took a walk in my mom's garden. I do so enjoy flowers.

Week #24: Silverwood Queasies

This week...

...we went to Silverwood! We were determined to go this year because we had hyped it up last year, all year, and then didn't go. I'm glad we went right as the summer started. There were hardly any people there and the kids were so excited to go. 
     We left Monday night after my softball games, which put us on the road pretty late. The kids zonked out during their movie and then Jason and I just talked all the way into Idaho. We stayed at the Spring Hill Marriott. Jason has a friend that hooked us up with some of his hotel points so we could stay overnight. The friend travels a lot and has tons of points that he can't always use. We got a nice room for free! There was plenty of room for everyone. Benjamin got the pull out bed all to himself, Claire was happy to sleep on the couch next to him, and Emma, Lainey, and Paul shared one of the beds.

Breakfast was amazing! It was the best continental breakfast I've ever had at a hotel. It was a veritable endless supply of breakfast choices that looked edible and even delicious. They had fresh fruit, muffins, boiled eggs, several cereal options, juice, milk, yogurt with granola, waffles!, eggs (not mushy or runny), sausage, etc. That made my day!

(You can see the wall art in the background. It was a foam material that the kids could not stop touching.)

Here's a shot of the lobby. The kids also liked the touch screen on the wall giving you information and directions for the area.

Jason was so tired from driving late at night. After breakfast he collapsed on the bed in hopes of taking a nap.

The kids had something different in mind. They pounced on Jason to wake him up. They wanted to go swimming.

I think their attack worked. Here's the group starting off in the hot tub. Oh yeah!

 
Here's the group at the end. Paul's making a final salute to pool fun. Benjamin is mad because we had to get out of the pool. Lainey is trying for a thumb's up, but only made it to sideways. Yeah, thumb's sideways!

We checked out of the hotel and stopped in at Walmart to grab beach towels and other little things before heading over to the park. We still had our sillies at this point.

They had to stay in formation as we walked into Silverwood-oldest to youngest. Look at that empty parking lot! Yeah baby! We picked a good day to go...except that it rained as we were finishing up and so we didn't stay for Boulder Beach. Other than that, the day was great! Good thing we swam at the hotel.

Silverwood here we come!

We started out with smaller rides to get some in for Lainey. She and I would do a lot of waiting later in the day as the biggers went on the roller coasters.

Next, we moved on to the bumper cars. Everyone was willing to try except Lainey. Maybe next time!

The Tilt-a-Whirl...

Driving the old fashioned cars...

Just hanging out with Lainey...

 

Emma went twice on the cork screw just so that I would have someone to go with. Emma's looking nervous right from the start. My chipper smile didn't last long. I forgot that roller coasters aren't my thing.

The Scrambler: This was the second ride that Lainey went on. She absolutely loved it! She grabbed Jason's arm and squealed through the whole thing. I thought she was scared. Nope. She was thrilled!

Claire and I started out on this ride, but then we bailed because she wasn't sure she could handle it.

Lainey was feeling bummed that she couldn't go on Tremors.

Jason started out the roller coaster experience for our kids on the cork screw. He told Paul and Emma that he would give them $5 for every one they went on, knowing that they probably wouldn't make it on that many. Benjamin heard the offer of $5 and he wanted in too. Jason took a video of Ben through the ride. Poor thing! He was pretty cute at the beginning - you could see that nervous feeling take hold of him. The ride really jostled him around and he was done for the day. His stomach couldn't handle any more. He was more than happy to sit out on Tremors.

Claire decided to earn $5 on Tremors. I thought that Timber Terror was worse than Tremors or I never would have encouraged her to go on it. Well, that's hind sight for you. As you can see from the photo, she had her arms locked straight out and that terrified look on her face the entire time. She kept asking Jason when it would be over. Just like Ben, her stomach was done after this ride.

Paul doesn't look like he feels well either on this ride. He kept his eyes open the whole time though. Unlike Emma who said she put her head down at the beginning and never lifted it again until the end. Haha!

We sampled the snow cones...

Jason took Emma and Paul on the Thunder Canyon Raft Ride. Ben and Claire were feeling pretty queasy after their roller coaster experiences.

They went on the Roaring Creak log ride. Ben got brave and went with them.

We stopped for ice cream. And we were cold.

Then it started to rain. And we were cold.

We took a ride on the train. And then we were ready to leave. We had to listen to Lainey whine the whole time because she had to go to the bathroom. The wet ones in our party were cold. The train ride took a little longer than we remembered.

Goodbye Silverwood!

...we made a renovation trip to Mattawa. We worked on my mom's back splash in the kitchen. It was so fun to see it come together. On our trip to Lowe's to pick the tile, the first tile that Jason picked up was the absolute right one. We knew he was good at picking things out, but that was just too good. ;) So a much heavier cart and lighter wallet later, we walked out with our mosaic tile, supplies, and excitement to get it installed. Here's my instagram (IM) of Jason putting the tiles up. You can see the yucky yellow glue under his left arm that has been exposed for the past year since we took the old back splash off. Oh man, was it good to cover that up.

...we pulled the perler beads out to beat the summer blues. It seemed to work for just about everyone but Paul. Just a week into summer break and he's already bored. 

...our lilies looked beautiful. We got some starts from my mom. We took several clumps and made sure to take them from different parts of her garden hoping that we would get a variety of colors. We transplanted them; they grew strong and even bloomed. They were all pink.

...the kids made a flower basket at Grandma Zirker's. They picked them; she arranged them. The garden is a highlight of our visits during the blooming seasons.