Staycay

Welp, this was a summer for a staycation!  We mourned the loss of our trip we had planned to Oregon and Washington (beaches, food, shopping, Seattle, Portland, bikes, beach combing, space needle, Ivar’s, Ye Old Curiosity Shop, Fireworks from our top floor rental over the ocean...sigh, tear drop...) and we planned a fun time at home instead.  Corey needed to take some time off, and had marked it off anyway, so we kept it going and tried to find things to do here.  It was a bit more challenging than we’d anticipated, but we ended up sleeping in later, hanging by the pool, playing games and watching movies til late many nights.  It definitely felt like vacation!  Plus, with how hot it’s been for the past week (100 plus degrees), staying cool was the goal, and we just kept feeling SO lucky to have that darn pool.  

One day, we drove around to the crest and hiked around the Sandia’s.  It was so beautiful up there.  I’d forgotten how pretty it can be here when you get up into the mountains.  The boys found some awesome fossils embedded in the rocks (including a tiny trilobite), checked out the spectacular views, found a million ladybugs, some new butterflies, ate lots of trail treats, and came home tired and happy. Nature did not disappoint.  

                  

             

              

    

Asher still had the soccer workouts going on most nights, so after we dropped him off, the rest of us went off to play some tennis.  Now, none of us really knows much, although Beckett has taken some lessons, but we had fun anyway.  Tennis lessons have actually been on our short list as a couple and we plan on playing some more....date night perhaps?  

Dawson wanted to sleep in a tent in his room one night so we ended up setting a bigger one up in the family room (waaaaaay too hot to sleep outside right now anyway), and let the boys swim, make cone s’mores on the grill, then watch a movie in their tent. Asher and Dawson sleep their for a couple of nights and probably would’ve done more if we’d let them.  We thought about actually going camping, but the state camp grounds have been bouncing between open and closed and have been pretty crowded to boot.  We did eat out a few times too.  Also, I made some jam and apple fritters.  Yummmm.  We loved hanging out and relaxing with these fun boys, even if they do beat us on most of the games we play lately.  Sheesh!  Overall, it was very vacation-y, despite not leaving the state.  Now we just need some family to come visit so we can have another round of stay-cay!  Waiting for takers!

Celebrating Freedom

Everything about this year is turning out to be, um, different.  But, celebrating the 4th this year had some normalcy to it, hooray!  

                    

             

             

           

Leading up to July, we finished off June with some good things.  The boys all wore their ‘Mac n Cheese Monday’ shirts right after Father’s Day and have been wearing them religiously on Mondays since. We’ve seen the baby lizards out and about, I have two types of hollyhocks blooming in the yard, which I’m thrilled with.  I love English gardens, and although actually having one here in the desert seems an impossibility, the hollyhocks are plants that grow well here, and that makes me smile.  We pulled out the slip and slide one day, after realizing that Dawson hadn’t really ever played on one.  He and Beckett had a great time.  The boys have been playing some soccer, and Asher started doing soccer workouts in the evenings up at the high school with their coaches, albeit with many stringent safety measures in place.  He’s loving it though.  Asher and Cor made up a fun new game in the pool with our 'watermelon ball' and it's really fun!  We had a family over for a night swim recently too. That was a first for us since the whole stay at home order back in March.  It was nice to hang out with friends!

I’ve reflected a lot on our freedom in the United States this past couple of weeks, and all the sacrifice that comes along with it, seen and unseen.  The Allens, a wonderful family with eight children who used to live in our ward tragically lost their Air Force pilot son in a crash off the coast of England.  It’s been so heart breaking to think about, and I find myself crying a little every day for them.  But, it’s been amazing to see the good things that people are doing to rally behind the family, with prayers, love and any way they can.  It’s been strengthening to me to see their family gather together and get through this horrific time with faith, love and purpose.  It reaffirms to me that there is more after this life, that we are all in this together, that family is most important, that God loves us so much, but that REALLY hard things will still happen in this life. It’s all been heart wrenchingly beautiful.

                                         

Our country has so many heroes sung and unsung who defend all the things our flag stands for every day.  We have a great country, built on great values.  I worry about our future though.  We take our day to day ease of living for granted.  I see our nation dividing over something as simple as wearing masks.  We just don’t all see it the same way.  I see it as a simple thing we can all easily do so that we can live as close as possible to normal.  We have always been given rules that allow for further freedoms, that’s what freedom truly is.  You do certain things to allow for other desirable things.  We have laws set in place to keep us safe and free.  I see this as an extension of that same ideology.  We can wear a mask so that a small business can keep it’s doors open, we can wear a mask to help keep a friend’s diabetic son safe, we can wear it so the elderly neighbor next door can safely shop for needed groceries.  We can come together to weather this tough time, stand together and do what it takes to get through it.  But, will we?  I don’t love wearing a mask either, and yes, it’s hard to talk, and they slide around and its’ hot.  But, I’m asked to do it, for the greater good, for each other, and for the hope of things to get better.  Mask wearing seems a silly thing to get worked up over when so many other things are still not right in the world.  When we pick our battles, they should be ones that are worth the fight.  Mask wearing doesn’t even make the cut for gathering the troops.  

Stepping down off of the box now:).

Summer has been awesome with swimming, games and family.  The 4th of July was fun. Corey, Ash and I ran our own little 5k that morning, watched a fantastic tribute being streamed live from Utah by the ‘Follow the Flag’ group, and had Aaron and Meagan and the girls come over later that afternoon.   We sang to Emery for her birthday, ate cake, BBQ’ed, swam, did fireworks in the street and watched in awe at the insane amount of big fireworks only a block or so away.  I’m never seen neighborhood fireworks like that in my life!  They were coming from every direction, and I’d swear they were all within a half mile of our house.  The kids even watched them from the pool after we brought things around back again.  With all of the normal firework displays cancelled, people took things into their own hands and celebrated our country anyway! It was a fun night.  Happy Birthday Emery, and Happy Birthday America!

                                

                

Braces, Round One

Somebody has braces!  We had Asher’s braces put on this week, and are excited that it shouldn’t take much more than about a year.  Woo-hoo!  The office we’re using is super close, the orthodontist (Dr. Dunn) seems personable and friends gave him a thumb’s up too.  I think Asher looks kind of cute with them on, and he doesn’t mind them.  On the way home from the office, I stopped for a Sonic shake as promised.  He was all positivity and smiles the first day, and kept saying it didn’t hurt at all!  Of course, the next day, he thought he’d never eat again but he’s come around since then and is doing fine now.  After kissing corn on the cob and caramel goodbye for a while he’s ready to go.  Whew!