*happy sigh*

I feel like we didn't do anything important this week. But we enjoyed each other. So that's important I suppose.

I took very few pictures this week, but the kids took a ton of random photos, which I will give you the pleasure of viewing between my witty monologues. ;)

The girls found a website where they could costume
a "magical girl" (it's an anime thing)

Monday was mostly spent putting away all of the vacation stuff, washing clothes, filling the fridge with perishables, and other such post-vacation catch up stuff.

I made pancakes for breakfast and pasta for lunch for the girls and Mira was fascinated that this bowtie noodle came "untied." Haha! By dinner I had no energy left, so we at cereal.

It's been so hot here--in the mid- to upper-nineties for weeks and weeks. So on Tuesday when I asked the girls what they wanted to do that day, they said, get snow cones and go to the splash pad. I helped Julie that morning, but in the afternoon, we did just that. It was a fun excursion, except next time I need to remember that I can't lay on my pregnant stomach to keep an eye on the girls, so bringing a camping chair will be in order.

I asked Steve to work from home on Wednesday so I could go to a lunch with the other ladies in Utah who got published in the same anthology I did. The books finally got printed and sent to us, so we had lunch to celebrate and sign each others' copies.

I also took a trip to DI earlier in the day because I could leave the kids at home with Steve. They hate coming to DI with me because I can never make my trips there fast. I needed a couple more summer maternity shirts, which I found, but I also found a TON of other fun stuff. I love thrift shopping. I think its the adrenaline rush when you find a good deal. :)

Steve had game night that night, so the girls and I had an easy dinner and then they played outside with friends until bed time. It was a super easy no-kids sort of day for me!

Thursday morning, I set up a play date with one of Emilia's friends. We ended up taking her to the library with us, and then they played until Emilia had to leave for a day camp with the other Activity Days girls. After I dropped her off, Cecily and Mira left to play at a friend's house down the street. I had the whole house to myself! It was such a treat.  I ended up being really grateful and really torn as I pondered my sanity for getting pregnant and messing that up for another five years.

While they were gone, I plotted out a pattern for a quilt and started cutting the pieces out of old sheets I got for free from my neighbor when she moved and some pillow cases I found at DI a while back. I'm excited about the pattern. I think it will turn out really cute. Of course, this is only the 2nd quilt I've tried to make, and this one is for someone other than my daughters, so it's a little more nerve-wracking, too. I'm making a quilt because I'm helping my friend Camber's daughter redo her bedroom. She's starting college in the fall, but decided to live at home to save money, but her room is a basement room with almost no decoration. She also suffers from severe anxiety, depression, and body image issues and I thought maybe having a space that speaks peace to her soul might help in some small way.  I know it helps me see life from a better place when my space is organized and pretty. I also thought it might give me the opportunity to become better friends with her so she could feel comfortable confiding in me or coming to me if she needs help. She has a great relationship with her mother, but sometimes mom is just not the person you want to go to in a pinch, right?

The girls made these three Duplo figures at the library and told me they were Huey, Duey, and Luey from Ducktales.

I worked on cutting out quilt blocks again on Friday for a couple hours, but still didn't get them finished, unfortunately. I ended up staying up until 1am last night getting the last of them cut out. Part of the problem was I cut out a bunch and then realized that I calculated the number of blocks based on the size of the blocks I was cutting, not the finished size after sewing. So then I had to go back and cut out more blocks from the fabrics I'd already cut--and I didn't have enough fabric for some of them and had to find an alternative fabric and cut out all those squares again.

Since I'm helping her with this, and their family doesn't have much money to contribute to it, I've been scanning the online classified ads for free stuff I could use to decorate with. So far, I've found a nice wood bookshelf that needs some TLC, other scrap wood to build shelves with, some tree stumps I plan on making into a side table, and on Friday, I found a yard sale where they weren't charging for anything, they were just giving it all away. So I dragged the girls in 99 degree weather to Payson to look through piles of free stuff. They were excited to find a bunch of treasure for themselves--except Emilia--all she picked out was a purse. She's becoming such a tween!

That night, Cecily asked me to draw with chalk with her. It was a nice summer night, so I agreed. We sat on the driveway and I drew a monster and a design that reminded me of Anna's dress (from Frozen). She drew an emoji (It's sideways in the second picture), and an octopus (3rd picture). Mira joined us at the very end and drew a girl and some flowers in front of a sunset.

One of the days, the girls found a bird they thought was hurt. I think it might have just been young and not good at flying yet. It let us touch it without flying away, but it clung to that brand really tight when I tried to pick it up and put it in a box so our cat wouldn't eat it before I could figure out how to help it. I read online that young birds often stay near the nest and their parents help them get food for a week or so before they're completely ready to be on their own. So we left it there and I made the kids stop trying to "help" it.  We think it eventually flew away.

Mira and I went to rummage sales right away Saturday morning. I'm still looking for a few things for the room makeover. I didn't find any of them. But I did find a bathrobe for Emilia, some new ties for Steve, some hair bows and headbands for the younger girls, a cherry pitter, and some crafting items all for under $10. It was a good rummage sale day.

After that, I spent a couple hours weeding the front beds, with a little begrudging help from the kids. After lunch, we found some new music on Amazon to download and then listened to it while we cleaned all three of our bathrooms.

After giving Steve a haircut, he drove up to Murray to test drive some used Siennas while I made dinner. The girls got out our facepaint and traded facepainting with the neighbor girl.

The day ended with a pretty sunset. All in all, it was a very good week. *happy sigh*
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Washington Vacation

Lots of pictures in this post. We drove to Washington last Friday/Saturday to spend the week with the Nelsons (Steve's sister). The 5 1/2 hours to Boise on Friday was made longer by us not getting ready by three like we wanted to and instead trying to get through Weber county in Friday rush-hour traffic. We ended up stopping in Brigham City and having diner food at Peach City Diner, which Emilia pointed out is a rather odd name for a diner in Brigham City. The reviews on Google said their ice cream was amazing, so we got the 6-scoop special so we could all try a flavor. Apparently the people in Brigham City have little to compare it to, because all of us were underwhelmed by it.

We stayed at a hotel that night, but Mira conked out in the back seat by 9:30, even though we had a movie playing. That girl is good at sleeping in the car (unlike Emilia who was up until we arrived at our destination both times, including when we arrived home yesterday at 12:40am).

While Mira slept in the car during a gas stop, Emilia took Ceci's hand and explored with her. First they checked out the big lights and all the bugs flying around them, and then they found some ancient gas pumps hidden behind the convenience store. They felt like they'd come upon dinosaur bones. :D

The 8-hour drive on Saturday was mostly smooth with only 1 hiccup outside Sunnyside, OR. Our Pacifica has been giving us problems for almost a year now with the gas gauge dropping to zero after showing half-full a few miles earlier. We found out when it first happened that it's just a sensor on our secondary fuel pump. It's annoying, but not annoying enough to spend more money on this lemon of a car. When driving around town, I just fill gas whenever the gauge drops, but since we were on a long trip, we didn't want to have to fill gas every 2 hours because the stupid sensor didn't know what it was talking about. We paid close attention to how many miles we could drive on a tank of gas and how many miles we'd already driven. So when the engine just suddenly died on the interstate, and the check engine light blinked on, we thought it was totally unrelated.

I really didn't want to have to find a mechanic or buy a new car on a Saturday in Sunnyside, OR, close to half way between our departure point and our destination. So I sent up a prayer that Heavenly Father would make this something easily treated (or at least treated by us, even if it wasn't easy) and not our car no longer functioning. Luckily, the car died not only near an off-ramp, but near a decently large city. Steve was able to restart the car and take the off ramp where he parked on the side of the road. The kids, eager for a chance to move, got out of the car and Steve opened the hood. Now, normally, Steve freaks out over any car-related problems. It's just not his thing. He can fix or build a computer from scratch, but give him a malfunctioning car and he loses his cool. Just moments after the hood was opened, a man stopped his car across the road and asked if we needed help. He said he'd been in our situation with his family before and wanted to help if he could. Steve waved him off, saying we could figure it out, but the guy was persistent and came over. Steve added some oil, just to be safe, and restarted the car. The whole time, having this guy there forced Steve to keep his emotions under control and to me, that was a huge miracle. What could have turned into a huge fight or stress was just two people talking (three when I threw my 2 cents in). Finally I asked if there was a Napa auto parts nearby so we could at least see what the code was for the engine light. The guy said he'd lead the way to it (it was only about 2 miles down the road). Once we arrived, the nice man headed out, and I went into the store to ask them to check the code. The guy behind the counter at the time grabbed his device and got the code, but unlike the Napas here, he had to take the device back into the store and plug it into the computer to see the code. It was while we were standing there at the counter that I noticed he was wearing a CTR ring. CTR rings are a Mormon thing. It stands for "Choose the Right" and we often wear them as a reminder to be good people. I knew automatically that this guy helping us was LDS and it made me feel like I had a team member instead of someone who was going to be annoyed with me for asking questions. I asked him if he was LDS and told him we were too, on a trip from Utah to Washington. We chatted for a bit until he explained the code had to do with the secondary fuel pump and the sensor. So it was the same problem! Turns out (we think), that the car had a safety in place that told the engine to shut off if the sensor didn't detect enough gas to safely run on. So our (EASY) solution was simply that we had to fill gas every time the sensor stopped doing it's job properly. It made the journey longer, but it really was an easy fix. It wasn't until I was sitting down to write this though, that I realized how many little miracles were given to us in that situation--that we were near a city and an off-ramp and a NAPA; that there was a man willing to stop and help and that even though he couldn't really help with the car, he helped keep Steve calm; that the guy helping us was LDS, which made me feel calm as well; and that God answered my prayer exactly and made this seemly huge problem be something that was easily fixable.

It never ceases to amaze me how good God can be to us.

We made it to the Nelson's house by 6:15 and they made us a lovely dinner of enchiladas. Sunday, we went to church together and the kids played their hearts out. Of course, Cecily hurt herself that day. She jumped off the steps, intending to land on a bean bag, but missed and landed with her foot under her bum, not only hurting her bum, but nearly breaking her foot. She usually only cries for a few seconds when she hurts herself, but she cried for a good 20 minutes after that. We gave her some ibuprofen and an ice pack and Mira read some books to her and she was up and about soon after--with a significant limp. Once again, it could have been a disaster: we were supposed to go on several hikes, along with a tour of Seattle, all of which would have been much more difficult if she'd broken her foot. But it didn't really swell or change colors, so we don't think she broke it. And she was able to do all the hikes we went on with a little carrying on Steve's part.

 Monday, we decided to go on a hike through the forests near their house. They were so beautiful. The type of place that makes you believe in magic and that fairies really could live there.

It was one of the hottest days of the year that day and by the time we were done with the hike, everyone was hot and I felt close to heat exhaustion. Luckily, we were only minutes from their house and a fan and some ice water cured me pretty quick. The kids jumped into their above-ground pool and cooled off that way.

Tuesday, we went into Seattle to Pike Place. It was so much fun to see all the vendors and try some of the food and get souvenirs that everyone was excited about.

Pike Place is located along the pier.

The original Starbucks store is located in Pike Place.

I could have stayed there for hours more, but we'd planned to go to a tide-pooling beach in the afternoon and low tide was at 3pm, so we headed there around 2:15. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the tide pools!

The kids had fun digging in the sand and catching the crabs that lived under the rocks on one side of the beach. They named them all and asked if we could bring them home. Umm...no.

That's me with the umbrella. I'm really a party pooper about water and sunblock. I'd rather stay dry and carry an umbrella around with me.

That day was also Emilia's birthday, so we celebrated that night with her favorite fooods: pizza, chocolate cake and ice cream. She's 10 now. Sheesh!

Wednesday, we went to Snoqualmie Falls. We started out at the top of the falls on the viewing deck. I had to use the restroom right away, so everyone agreed to wait for me. But when I got back, Nicole and Laef were gone. He'd jumped off a rock trying to fly (he'd worn his superman cape) and instead hit his head on a metal sign. It bled profusely like head wounds often do and she hurried him to the nearby lodge to get him cleaned up. He was a little less enthusiastic when he came back, but not too bad off besides the large bandage stuck to his hair.

We then hiked to the bottom of the falls and found a gorgeous riverbottoms with warmish water and beautiful sand. We weren't expecting (and hadn't prepared to stay so long for) this delightful turn of events and ended up with six very wet, very sandy, very happily tired-out and hungry children on the drive home. Nicole is a very prepared homemaker, though, and had stuff we could throw together for dinner, so it was all prepared by the time everyone had rinsed off and changed into dry clothes.

The Nelsons brought their dog, Millie, with on this excursion, and on the way home, she was wet and cold and we didn't want her running around the car, so Jane wrapped her up like a baby in her hoodie. I'm pretty sure the dog fell asleep like that. Aren't pets funny?

Thursday, we decided to do 2 hikes near Mt. Rainier. Tristan took the day off to join us. It started out as a very overcast, misty day, but by early afternoon, the mists had cleared off except for over the top of Mt. Rainier itself. The clouds didn't dissipate there until we were on our drive home at 6 o'clock that night.

The first hike we went on was the Naches Peak Loop Trail, which we thought was going to be about 3.6 miles. That's a long hike for our kids, but I thought they could make it all right, especially if we stopped in the middle for a good snack. It turned out the hike was closer to 4.5 miles by the time we were done and my entire family was pretty pooped. The views and wildflowers were totally worth being pooped though, if you asked me. My children would have given you a different answer.

There were many times when I couldn't help but think that this is exactly the type of place Heidi (from the book) lived and that healed her friend. It was magical in a different way than the forests near the Nelson's house were.

Even though we were exhausted, we'd driven for over an hour to get there and I didn't think we'd be back to Washington anytime soon, so I pushed for us going to one more place: Grove of the Patriarchs. It was a very short hike (.3 miles) and my kids had never seen old-growth forests before. Looking back, it maybe wasn't worth pushing everybody to their limits. But it was beautiful.

That's Emilia up there in the light pink jacket. Those trees were huge.

Mira and Cecily and Kate in the roots of a fallen tree.

It took 7 people to reach all the way around the tree.

Look at all those rings!

Friday, Steve and Nicole took the kids to a nearby lake/park while I stayed home and watched a chick flick and went on a walk. The kids played and played and played. They were sad to say goodbye early Saturday morning.

We left at 8:30 Washington time and didn't get home until 12:40 Utah time. It was a LONG drive that included some not terrible, but not really good either, food at a place called Rooster's in Pendleton, OR. And it was EXPENSIVE. $13 for a weird taco salad that included fajita peppers, shredded beef, and chili-flavored mayo that I think was supposed to be dressing. I wouldn't recommend it. But at least there was paper and crayons to entertain the kids.

We were all pretty tired today and did not make on time for 9am church. Steve also found out this morning that his grandmother passed away last night. She'd been struggling with dementia for years and had only been declining in other areas of her health, so it was a mercy, but it's never easy to lose a loved one. My prayers will be with the Watts family.

One last picture from before we left. Mira peeled an orange to eat for lunch and realized that she'd peeled a heart into it. Of course, there had to be pictures. This is the only one that wasn't blurry.