We had SO much fun. The past two weeks have flown by quickly and we had a blast! The summer weather is in full swing, and the pool has been so nice to have this year. We are already tearing through the sunscreen, the kids are tanning up and I'm washing more towels! The boys are officially out of school now too so we are finding our way to a new schedule. It'll be a bit of a sad year without swim team and water polo. My big boys always started their summer days riding bikes with friends to the pool, hanging out and swimming, going to the store around the corner, sometimes getting free breakfast at the community center, fitting in a tennis game, and riding home again. Saturday mornings were always spent cheering them on at meets or games. It's such a funny thing, because we miss all we had, but love the freedom the new ways are offering too. Sigh. There's just always something, isn't there?
My parents came in for a visit for about 5 days and we soaked up every minute of it. It really was so fun, despite pretty much everything entertaining and fun still being closed. They brought their bikes, and the big boys went on several lengthy morning rides with Grandma and Grandpa, around town and down by the river. We swam nearly every day, and the kids discovered some new games with Grandpa. And of course, Frisby Golf! They played some in the back yard, Mariposa and we made it out to a course in Rio Rancho too. I'm terrible, but the boys seem to catch on quick (Asher gave Gpa a run for his money) and Dawson has a pretty decent throw already! Grandpa has been spreading out his disc collection over several states by giving them to the grandkids, and my boys are treasuring theirs. He also had a little lesson on what makes a good disc and when to use it, and they listened intently (see pic...so funny, it was serious business though!) We walked some nights too and we were able to show them our favorite neighborhood owl. Also games. I love playing games, and it doesn't seem like we've done as much as we could've with our being at home so it was awesome! My mom kept beating me at Banana Grams, so I will need to brush up on my speed. We also played Pit and lots of Cover Your Assets. The last night of their visit, we ordered Dion's for the first time in 3 months and lived it up. It was seriously so good. Dining rooms are also open now at 50% so things are beginning to slowly open up. Yay! We enjoyed having them here so much. It made it seem vacation-ey, and summery and normal-ish. Everyone was sad to see them go, and although we tried to convince them to eek out a day or two more, they had to move on to a visit with my sister. It may be the last time we see them for a couple of years, which hasn't totally sunk in yet, but if they do go out on their mission this summer as planned, then it will be a while. Still crossing fingers that flying won't be such a big deal in the near future so we might try for a trip to Tahiti with the fam. I'm not holding my breath on that one though; things are just too weird still.
The Botanical Gardens opened up for reservation only visits and we jumped on that. It was beautiful and SO nice to be out somewhere else. Dawson had his first outing (as a side note, he has taken to calling Lamb's Ear plants he sees by another name....it is now Ear of Lamb, and it's cracking me up) with a mask, and although he said it felt weird, he was a trooper and didn't mess with it too much. The everyone-wearing-masks thing is still strange but I'm betting it will seem normal soon. I think we want to go to the zoo next, so we're waiting on that one still.
Asher is now as tall as me. I swear it happened about a week ago. That's sort of a strange transition as a parent, since he will never be shorter than me again. I think he's liking it though, hehe. Ash had a fun Saturday. His soccer buddies from school got together (gathering limit of 5 still, sheesh) and played at the park for a couple hours, and will definitely be doing it again. Later that day he played tennis with Noah, so things are creeping into some sort of normalcy and the kids are excited.
Beckett brought a toad home from the park one day after an impromptu frisbee golf game with my parents. The day they left, we found 3 more under our trampoline at home. It looks like last year's Reitz yard inductees survived the winter and are in fact still around eating our bugs. I say carry on little friends!
Saturday night, Corey and I had planned to walk around the temple, hit Trader Joe's and get some Bahama Bucks on the way home. Let's just say things didn't go quite right. After a nice walk, we went back to the car and it would not start. Now, to be fair, the car had shuddered a bit earlier in the day, Cor had it checked quick at Auto Zone and they thought he should clean off any possible corrosion at the battery. He did it, and it had started fine the next couple times so we figured all was well. Not so. Thankfully, the sunset from the temple is beautiful, and the weather was nice so if you have to be stranded somewhere, this is the place. A super nice Sheriff spent a half hour or more with us seeing if he could charge the battery. We ended up calling a tow truck, and when offered the option of a jump start and tow, we said yes. Had we known the two options were separate services, we may have chosen differently. A guy showed up to try to charge us up, and no dice. We waited a half hour for him. Then, the towing option was another long wait so we tried getting a ride with Uber/Lyft. We hadn't realized what a blow that industry had taken. The app searched. And searched. And searched for a driver. With the recent rioting and Covid-19, there are apparently VERY limited pick up services (if any). Picking up strangers at night during a pandemic and politically riotous times is not a popular line of work. That was an unexpected blow so we called nearby friends. Jessica came to our rescue, around 10 with her twins in tow, because Chris was out of town. Such a bummer and we felt horrible but were grateful she came to our rescue. We really were in a bind, and we love good friends. Jessica, we owe you BIG. To top it off, the tow company didn't get to our car until 11:30 and Corey had to meet him at 12:30 at the garage we had it towed to so he could cover the remainder the cost that our insurance didn't cover (still not sure they can make you do that....I would've refused and said bill me, but he just wanted it over with). It made for an interesting and long night for sure. On the bright side, there's never been an easier time for us to be down a car.
Sunday night was awesome. We had a great church meeting that afternoon, and were able to attend Taizley's baptism via Zoom. It was great! We miss everything since we are so far away, and they happen often, so this was a real treat! Seeing everyone there sitting at the church with masks on was an interesting glimpse into what's to come, but it didn't detract for the ordinance a bit and she looked so pretty in her white dress. Happy baptism day Miss T, we love ya!
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