It's Finally Finished!

 

The house remodel that we finished almost three years ago is officially finished!  I wanted to get a new dining room table for the new dining room and I couldn't pick a chandelier until I found the right table, so now that the chandelier is hung and the table finally arrived (I ordered it back in February), the Great Remodel of 2022 is finally finished!  Just in time to start the next project which is remodeling a bathroom and repairing the ceiling in my laundry room.  Yes, the laundry room that was also part of the Great Remodel has a huge hole in the ceiling due to the bathroom above it.  Leaking showers cause so much damage!  But the new bathroom is going to be beautiful!

Out with the old!

Let's be real.  This old table never looked this good or this clean.  This table is used primarily for storing Amazon deliveries. 

Utah!

 We went to Utah.  I realized I couldn't remember the last time I'd been with my people and Landon was on board with the idea (you never know with teenagers) so we drove to Utah the day after school got out.  The timing worked great because the weather wasn't great in WA and most of the cousins were around.  It was a quick trip and we wasted no time playing hard.

Pit stop at grandma great's house/pool

Henry living his best road-tripping life

Lagoon with the boys

After Henry warmed up on some kiddie rides we quickly moved on to everything else.  

Henry rode on every roller coaster he was allowed on, even Wicked!  He's a brave kid!

Ethan stopped by on his way home from work.  He's a dental assistant and works at different offices/locations.  And he destroyed Landon in the arm wrestle.

Henry always has fun playing with the Ditto cousins who are closer to his age

We ditched family to hang out with our friends from WA. The kids swam hard while I talked and talked with my friend.  Always my favorite pastime. 

You know vacations are exhausting when this happens :)

During all this, I also managed to buy a used car for Marcus.  He's a smart kid and figured out his Aunt April has a gift for finding great used cars so with her help, we were able to pull this off.  It's a great car and Marcus loves it.  His summer sales paid for it, not me.  

Beating the heat with the cousins at a pool and yes, I actually swam.

Henry and I tried to teach the younger cousins how to play badminton.  We've got some un-athletic cousins!  Henry was getting so frustrated and it was hilarious :)

Human slingshot is always a good time until someone gets hurt

I squeezed in a quick lunch with my high school friends and of course we forgot to get a pic with everyone.  You always think you'll be friends forever but it's pretty great when you actually are.

I took the boys to Music and the Spoken Word.  They've never been in the Conference Center before.  Everyone loved it but Henry.  

We did a little exploring and saw one of my most favorite paintings.  The clouds are actually angels.

I loved this new statue outside the Relief Society building of the Five Wise Virgins with their lamps

Henry can't even remember when the temple wasn't under construction

It was a quick trip and squeezed in a lot of people and a lot of fun!

The 4th of July

We lucked out with great weather for the 4th of July.  Ethan was home for several days and at at the last second, Randy's sister Heidi and her family ended up spending the 4th and 5th with us.  We packed a lot in, as usual.  

We always spend a lot of time on the boat when the college boys are home and this time Ethan convinced Henry to try surfing.  A LOT OF BRIBERY took place.  I can't remember but I'm pretty sure Henry earned a Panda stuffie (Henry is obsessed with all things Panda, and black & white are his favorite colors).

Ethan looking all patriotic as he hung my new chandelier in the dining room.  Every time he's home I have a handy-man project for him and he usually gets them done for me.  I love him!

Henry and his buddies playing at the park during our annual ward breakfast

Husking corn is such a trial!

Boating is not a trial but waiting to surf and teaching people how to surf is not always the funnest

Lots of people on the boat means lots of waiting for a turn

Ethan and Halle showing us how couples surf :)

We had a huge crowd of friends and family this year and the backyard felt magical

Parker pretending he doesn't like sparklers

My patriotic Glassy Babies 

Such a cool pic even though the firework show was LAME this year!

Parker holding Baby Enzo, the first great grand baby on the Balls side

We spent the 5th of July boating with Heidi's family into Seattle and eating at Ivars

We were only about 9 days into summer vacation and loving every second of it!

The Struggle Bus

Sometimes things just don't go like I plan and sometimes it's because of my kids.  I took the boys to the grocery store to get supplies for the annual banana cream pie/Father's Day desserts (one for church and one for Randy's dessert) and what should have been no big deal turned into a small adventure.  Landon stayed in the van while I grabbed a few items and when I came back out, we couldn't get the van to start because the battery was dead.  Landon learned the hard way that you don't turn off the engine and leave all the things running while you sit and wait for your mom.  Of course my little jump start kit thing was not in the van and of course Randy was out on the lake with his seminary kids so I told the boys we were walking home because I was not about to call a friend to bail us out on a Saturday night.   It was only a couple miles and luckily not terribly hot.  

Walking home, mostly uphill, but we can do hard things!

Landon and I drove back to the van in Randy's Audi and after some nice guy in the parking lot helped us pop the hood, we were able to jump start the van with only a little help from the Audi Owner's Manual and Ethan on FaceTime.  Landon and I were quite proud! 

And this random picture of my boys carrying trash bags down the same street was due to the garbage man strike.  Nothing stresses me out more than garbage cans not getting emptied!  The City arranged for a drop-off station and the line of cars was seriously a couple miles long. 

Imagine sitting in your car with stinky trash for hours, just to drop off your trash at a designated site.  I did what any Spjute girl would do and figured there had to be another way so I drove past the line of cars, parked at our office that was conveniently located just past the dump site, and walked our trash bags over.  As we walked into the parking lot a worker immediately started yelling at us that walk-ups were not allowed so I smiled really big and the guy took our trash bags anyway.  I think it helped that I had cute little boys with me.  We walked away trying to avoid the evil eye from everyone who was waiting in the line of cars.  Major win for us!  I am thankful for the garbage men, even if I don't think they need a raise :) 

Seattle

We never go to Seattle.  But I had to take Parker to his lacrosse game on Bainbridge Island and convinced Henry's BFF and brother from another mother, Jack, to come with us.  We got to the ferry terminal and found out we wouldn't make it on the next ferry so Parker was going to be late to his game.  Not cool when your team needs your mad skills.  I desperately sent out a text to the team and managed to get Parker into a stranger's car who's son also plays on the team.  Hooray for nice people who don't judge my bad parenting and arrived super early to get in line at the ferry!

While we waited 45 minutes for the next ferry, Henry and Jack went exploring with me.  These two held my hands and were more than a little scared of all the people.  Seattle has completely changed the waterfront which was news to me, so there was a lot to see and these little boys were more than overwhelmed by everything.  It was kinda cute taking them into the city for the first time that they'll remember.

Driving onto the ferry is always cool

Bringing card games to play on the ferry ride is proof I'm not that bad of a parent.  On the way back we even had a bunch of Parker's teammates join us for games.  This game is called Mantis and I highly recommend it.  Henry usually beats me every time. 

Mother's Day

Do I care that tomorrow is August 1st and I'm blogging about Mother's Day?  No, I do not.  This past Mother's Day will go down in the history books as one not to be forgotten because my college boys surprised me be driving through the night to show up in time for Mother's Day.  I was expecting them late Sunday night/early Monday morning.  And I was already preparing myself for some serious praying for their safe travel and that the van wouldn't blow up and then they miraculously showed up before I could even pray for them.  God took good care of them anyway.

Driving to church with the whole fam.  Maybe my boys will be reverent when they get married!

Opening presents in my bed.  Randy got me new dishes because it was time.  I love them!

And more Glassy Babies to add to my huge collection, all courtesy of Randy 

More of my collection, minus about ten more that are on other shelves :)

We got to hang out with Marcus for a few days before he flew to Florida to sell pest control.  Ethan was around for a bit when he wasn't with his girlfriend Halle who is from the area.  Henry is almost as happy as I am when all the boys come home and took advantage of having brothers to play lacrosse and wiffle ball with.

We went to TopGolf so we could make some memories and spend lots of money on overpriced food.  It was fun. But I will probably never forget watching the awkward blind date happening next to our bay.  The guy had to be close to my age with the dad bod to prove it and the girl was probably not much older than Marcus and super cute.  It was actually so awkward it was hard not to stare.  

Henry discovered an old favorite Lego game that Marcus and Ethan used to play.  Henry still doesn't like Legos but he sure loves to play games.

We took the boat out in balmy 55 degree weather so naturally I was fully clothed and wearing a coat.