2017 :: week 34

August 20

August 21

Solar Eclipse Day! We live very close to the path to totality, but opted not to travel the approximately thirty miles to be in it. I waffled back and forth and am still undecided about our decision. Regardless, we had fun. Tony worked from home and we went up to the school to watch with the kids. Unfortunately it was pretty overcast so it was hard to tell if it was getting dark because of the sun getting covered up or the cloud cover. Thankfully it cleared up right before we hit peak coverage. I believe we had 99.7% coverage. It got pretty dark, the street lights turned on and the cicadas got loud. It is amazing how much light .03% of the sun still provides. A few days before the eclipse I talked with the kids about how important it was to NOT look directly at the sun. Apparently I did an effective job because I made Will cry and tell me I ruined the eclipse. Lauren refused to look at the sun and had to be lead around because with her eclipse glasses on she couldn't see anything.

August 22

Elliott and I are still trying to get into a routine. This is the first time I haven't had a midday pick-up or drop-off in four years! Tuesday we met up with Stephanie and Kendall at Sheridan's for some delicious food.

August 23

August has been a lot cooler this year than I remember it being in years past. We went tot he pool after school Wednesday afternoon and the kids had fun jumping off the diving board. I zoomed in to take this pic of Will and Lauren jumping off the diving boards at the same time as I sat next to Elliott while he played with the over-sized Connect Four game. It feels good to see my kids have fun together and enjoy doing the same things I enjoyed doing when I was young.

August 24

Melanie and Leah, the first family visitors of the week arrived Wednesday afternoon. Thursday morning Elliott and I went over to my parent's house so hang out with Memaw, the aunts and cousins. Memaw bought some lemon cookies that Elliott likes. Tyler, Leah and Elliott collaborated to get some.

August 25

Laura and Jill arrived Thursday night and Friday morning. Friday after school we visited our dad at work. The kids like to m&m machine in the break room and watching the cars drive by on the highway. We have a good dad.

August 26

Our eleventh anniversary! It was a busy day. Yard/housework in the morning. Baptism at noon. Haircuts for TJ and Anthony. BYU football game. Visiting with family. Pool time with cousins!

2017 :: week 31

SUMMER 2017 :: WEEK 11

The week with a lot of housekeeping...

July 30

We went for a family walk Sunday afternoon. I subbed in nursery which is more taxing than a usual Sunday.

July 31

Monday was the first of many days of errands.  The drain next to our hot water heater and HVAC system backed up and a small amount of water began to accumulate on our basement floor. We called Snake-n-Rooter and sent Dave out to clear the drain. In less than half an hour we were as good as new.

August 1

Tuesday we took our car to the Honda dealership to get it checked out before we drove approximately 2,500 miles to North Carolina and back. They recommended new tires and brake fluid. We hit the dealership on an extremely busy morning and after waiting ninety minutes for our diagnosis decided to come back another day. I also wanted to call around and check prices. We met up with the Throssells at Valley Park in the late morning. The kids had fun exploring and climbing after spending the morning stuck in the lounge at Frank Ancona.

August 2

Elliott wants to be like his big brother. Will has been wearing a hat to and from the pool and Wednesday afternoon Elliott insisted on wearing the hat home. We made a late afternoon trip to the pool after a long day of getting new tires, replacing my driver's licence and shopping for travel supplies.

August 3

Thursday evening we made our last visit to Bluejacket for the summer of 2017. Insert crying emoji. The pool was open for another ten days, but we would be out of town. We love this pool and the many neighborhood friends we see when we visit.

August 4

On the road! We had a great day of travel even though we left later than I had planned. We stayed up late and slept in to make up for it. The beauty of driving and making your own timeline. Despite our "later" start we made great time and arrived at our hotel around 8:30pm.  The kids were fantastic travelers! We drove across the entire state of Missouri before we made out first stop. In fact, we traveled through five states (KS, MO, IL, KY, and TN) and only stopped three times all day. I packed a lot of food so we could stop at rest areas to eat. The Smokey Mountains in Tennessee are beautiful. It was so green! We traveled through rain and fog and can understand how the mountains got their name.

August 5

Saturday was another great day of travel. We got up and on the road in good time and were able to visit our friends the Tanzies in Hickory, NC. The kids had fun playing together for about an 90 minutes while the adults visited. They graciously fed us lunch too. We made it to our beach house on the Outer Banks in time for a late dinner and quick trip to the beach. The joyful noises my children made as they frolicked in the waves made all the prep work and time in the car worth it. Look at that gorgeous sky! A perfect ending to our roadtrip and start to our week at the beach.

2017 :: week 33

August 13

On the road again! We had planned on attending church in Mt. Vernon at 10am, but we got up and were finished with breakfast by 8:30am. I found a 10am Sacrament service in St. Louis and we hit the road, arriving with ten minutes to spare. We drove across Missouri and arrived home around 3pm. As great as our vacation was, it sure felt good to be home. We took short naps, unpacked and...got ready for school the next day.

August 14

We got right back in the swing of things and Will started school at 8:10am Monday morning. He was a bit nervous about it, because we didn't know who would be in his class and he hadn't met his teacher before. He was very pleasantly surprised when he walked into he classroom and saw several buddies from kindergarten as well as kids he had played kickball with at recess last year. Lauren had a "meet the teacher" conference in her kindergarten classroom that started right after school started.

August 15

Lauren has been helping me walk Will to school for the past two years, but Tuesday morning it was finally her turn to walk to school for herself! She was very excited to start kindergarten and picked out the new outfit Nana bought her to wear for her first day. After school Will walks to her classroom and "picks her up" and then they walk down the hill together. Elliott and I will wait for the kids at the playground most days.

August 16

Elliott and I spent the morning looking for eclipse glasses. Our hunt took us to Union Station where we spent some time looking at the train exhibit. Elliott loved it and I had to literally tear him away. Last year Elliott and I had some alone time while Lauren was at preschool. but he spent most of it napping. I am looking forward to spending some quality time exploring the world with him this fall.

August 17

Some more garden produce. I am so excited that our zucchini plant did well this year! We added a grape tomato plant this year as well and it has been the hands down favorite. Lauren and I fight over who get to eat them. They are like candy!

August 18

Hillary and Matt drove to from Dearborn and arrived just before dinner. They are both in between semesters and graciously offered to come see us on our home turf. We ate with them and then joined some friends at church for a dessert potluck at the Shawnee Mission Park. We roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. Elliott really wanted to get in the water.

August 19

We hung out at our house most of the morning and then went to the pool in the evening. Hillary and Matt were good sports and went down the water slides with Will and Lauren several times. That evening Matt and Anthony went on a hunt to find cookie dough candy. They were unsuccessful. Hillary and I discovered that Hy-Vee has some pretty decent and reasonably priced fountain drinks. Matt introduced us to Better Call Saul (prequel to Breaking Bad.)