This and That from Summer

Summer feels like forever ago. Despite the many unnecessary restrictions to help prevent the spread of COVID, we still managed to have some fun.  Like all summers in WA, we try to spend as much time at the lakes and outside in the sunshine as we possibly can. Not just because we are soaking up the sun but because it’s not crazy hot outside so summer is actually enjoyable. After two trips to UT this summer, I realized I’d forgotten just how miserable the desert heat is. Summers in WA just can’t be beat!  So here are a bunch of random photos from this summer....

Here is Ethan using his Go-pro and phone to teach his church friends how to make a giant chocolate chip cookie via Zoom. So thankful for his dedicated church leaders who got creative with activities for months on end when we were restricted from gathering.

Landon and Parker had great fun at the off-limits skate park. The police draped chains across it to keep the kids away. Still haven’t figured out how kids on scooters can get COVID but oh well.

This summer I learned how to surf. I’m terrible but it sure is fun!

Swimming at sunset on Pine Lake

 

Ethan doing a back flip into Lake Washington. We have so much fun at the lakes until the lifeguards start their shift and then fun is limited by all their rules, like making the kids pass a 100-yard swim test to prove they can swim 30 feet out to a floating dock. Lifeguards and COVID have a lot in common. They both cancel fun!!

This screenshot is of our city’s drastic attempt at making sure COVID continued to ruin all fun. $500 fines for any people standing on beaches or docks. You can swim and you can fish. So my friends and I found a loophole. We sat on the beach with fishing poles while our kids swam. Apparently if I hold a fishing pole I’m immune from COVID. 

Eating breakfast in the hot tub.  I had no idea my cookie sheet/trays would float!  We do crazy things to break up the monotony around here.

I arranged weekly play dates at beaches that were open.  We got tired of wondering if the police would slap us with a $500 ticket so we just found other places to play.  Apparently this open beach is immune to COVID.  We had a great time!

We discovered the Redmond Bike Park and it was a ton of fun for all the boys.

This giant frog lives in our hose box thingy. 

My friend invited us to play at her lake house for the afternoon.  I visited with my friends, the boys swam, and Henry played on my phone the entire time.

Are you sick of lake pictures yet?  This is Chism Beach, my very favorite.  We played there for hours!

 

Henry was grumpy and refused to put on his swimsuit so he spent the beach day in his pajamas and when it was time to go him, I cleaned him up and put on his swimsuit.  Makes perfect sense, right?

My summer marketing baskets were a huge hit!  I had no idea they would turn out so cute but I surprised myself.  I also have a friend in AZ who makes my marketing tags for me.  Its the best arrangement!

Meydenbauer Beach is a second-favorite beach.  The beach is super rocky but the views of the mansions and yachts make up for it.

 

More Redmond Bike Park fun

Did I mention most of my friends have most if not all boys?  When we get together there are only one or two girls.  There are two girls in this picture (that you can't really see) and that's pretty much what it's like every time we all get together.  Weird, right?

We spent a good chunk of hard=-earned money on landscaping in our backyard.  It is beautiful!  I wish I had a before picture but imagine stairs made of rotting wood that were mostly covered with dirt that had slid down the hill.

Empty parking lots are fun to ride our bikes around.  Henry looks dead but he was just fine.

Before the city enforced a $500 fine for using the dock, they put up this barricade which barely slowed us down.  I have a really hard time with arbitrary rules, just ask the people who know me from the YMCA.

This is a trail that Randy made in our backyard and this is the bridge that Randy built as one of his COVID projeccts.  I can't remember if I posted about it before so here it is.  And Henry fell right off into the mud (which is a small stream when it's not summertime).  Of course I took this picture before helping Henry.  He wasn't hurt and it was hilarious.

Seriously, the Redmond Bike Park is amazing!

The paddle boards saw a lot of use this summer

Henry LOVES blackberries and our trail in the backyard makes it easy to get them.  Randy makes the best blackberry pie!  No pictures of that because it's devoured in two seconds.

We haven't been to Snoqualmie Falls in forever so I had to get a picture with Ethan wearing his mask.

Vasa Park is also a fun place and yes, I saw out to the dock and jumped off the diving board.

Henry loves to dance to music.  This was one of our more epic dance parties that led to dancing on the table without shirts on.

We found a fun park surrounded by beautiful mansions.  We pick up food from Habit Burger, then eat at this fun park, (where people stare at my wild pack of boys) then drive around and covet the wealthy.  

Thanks for reading the summer re-cap.  It was a good summer but also an angry one.  I never thought I'd have to get so creative trying find ways to play outside without breaking rules.  Turns out breaking rules is not a problem for me. 

Thanksgiving 2019

Thanksgiving was one for the books!  We broke from our traditional Thanksgiving ski trip at Whistler and drove to Boise to celebrate my grandma's 90th birthday.  I'll be honest, my boys were grumbling about not going skiing but ended up having a great time and Whistler had NO SNOW!  We definitely won this year.

This is what the middle of a 7-hour drive looks like.  Little did I know I was sitting on Henry's chocolate chip cooke which remained on my pants throughout  most of Thanksgiving dinner until my sister rescued me.

We left for Boise on Thanksgiving morning because Randy had work and the boys had school the day before.  It was a good thing too because the roads were clear and we never saw a single cop.  However, things were super depressing when we stopped to gas up and get lunch at McDonald's and discovered that all the fast food restaurants were closed for the holiday.  My boys were so disappointed as their dreams of feasting on Big Macs on Thanksgiving Day (their ultimate feast as opposed to the typical Thanksgiving food they don't really care for) were dashed to pieces.  Instead, we ate at the only food place available: a gas station Subway.

We were a sorry sight and I felt bad for us spending Thanksgiving on the road, even though I knew we were only a couple hours away from a real Thanksgiving meal.

We timed our arrival in Boise perfectly as we walked into the church full of 150 people just as my dad was introducing us.  It was awesome!  This was also my FIRST Thanksgiving with my family since I got married.  I was excited to be with my people!  My grandma has a huge posterity and all but a handful of cousins were there to celebrate her all weekend long.  Despite the cold weather and our huge group, we still managed to have a good time and eat really good food.  Spjute's know how to cook and feed a crowd!

 I booked a hotel room in the same hotel as my dad and sister, so we spent our evenings and free time with my siblings while all the kids swam.  I am reminded once again that it's not about the location of a vacation.  Sadly, it's really the hotel pool that is the measure of a successful trip.  If the kids are happy, I'm happy.

I'll let the pictures tell the rest of our experience...

We were a massive group so we had to meet at church buildings for all the activities

A few kids brought their Bay Blades (toys that spin) and the boys were in heaven

Walking to the Boise Capital building where we took a giant family picture

Marcus and Uncle Dan ringing the giant bell because boys will be boys no matter how old they are

I love us!

After more swimming, we got pizza and ate at dinner at the hotel.  It was a great set up.

My boys are fish

On our last day there, we went to my Aunt Ann's cabin in the mountains.  It's beautiful and off the grid and we were so busy hanging out and eating good food that the only pictures I have are of my boys playing on Uncle Brian's fire truck.  We had so much fun playing in the snow, shooting guns, and playing games.

The last activity was dinner (hot dogs, all-you-can-eat milkshakes and nachos) and a huge Nerf gun battle.  My boys were dripping sweat and took it very seriously.  The bounce houses were also a nice bonus.

We drove home Sunday morning and are lucky to be alive.  As soon as we left Boise, the snow started to fall and the roads were terrible for a few hours.  Semi trucks lined the sides of the road as they chained up and then removed their chains over and over again.  Randy was driving when we hit a patch of ice that sent us sliding and fishtailing from one side of the road to the other.  It seemed to last forever and I was certain we were going to roll off the side of the road.  Miraculously we didn't and I attribute it to the prayer I offered before we left.  Seriously.  We were being watched over.

We had a great time and it was fun to celebrate Grandma Spjute!  She is an amazing example of love, faith, and endurance.  Happy Thanksgiving!

My Mistake

I took the boys to the pool on Saturday and in our typical mad rush to get out the door I forgot to grab Parker's swim diaper.  No problem, I thought.
We had been swimming for about twenty minutes and loving that there were only two other people in the whole pool when all of a sudden Landon starts yelling, "Poop!  Poop!"  I look down and sure enough there was poop floating around in the pool. 
Parker was the culprit, of course.  I sheepishly approached the lifeguards who were apparently oblivious to anything happening in the pool or they would've figured out what I was about to tell them, and confessed that my son pooped in the pool.  They were nice about it and said, "You'd be surprised how often this happens."  Sick!  I so did not need to know that, I thought.
Lucky for him, Parker is one cute kid and so loveable because his mom and brothers were less than happy about his little incident that put an end to their swimming fun.

Our Swiss Family Robinson Adventure

It's a sad thing that the fall weather in RI has come so early because we usually squeeze in a few Saturday beach trips before it gets too cold.  Instead, we ended up spending our Saturday afternoon at the pool while Randy was helping someone move.
I'm happy to say Landon finally embraced his inner fish and splashed me with cannon ball after cannon ball all the while Parker was jumping in and grinning from ear to ear.  Parker copies everything his brothers do so naturally he put both hands together, leaned forward, and dove headfirst into the pool.  I was glad to see another son has inherited Randy's swimming abilities.  Of course all this jumping into the pool was getting lots of attention from other swimmers and bystanders because that's what happens anytime I take the boys out in public and because we were having a lot of fun.   But things got even better and more entertaining when Marcus and Bean started reenacting the scene from Swiss Family Robinson where the guy is wrestling in the water with a giant python.  The boys broke through the surface of the water grunting and gasping as if for their last breath before being pulled under by an imaginary python.  It. Was. Epic.  I'm glad a lazy summer afternoon watching an old Disney classic could later inspire such theatrics in the pool.

Note to self: The lifeguards must be blind because they never once blew the whistle or tried to rescue my boys from what looked like a legitimate strangulation by python.

Watching Swiss Family Robinson with friends, inspiring great fun in the pool

More Vacation

Our 2014 Summer Vacation has come to an end.  The boys and I fly back to RI tomorrow afternoon.  We've been cramming so much fun into every day like we do every year that it just feels routine.  It's going to be a big adjustment when we get home and have to get back to daily life.  I can already hear the whining.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  This vacation has been full of mini trips.  First Seattle, then to Randy's parents' house, then camping, then to my Dad's, then up to Boise for a few days, and finally back at my dad's.  I'm so ready to be done packing and re-packing suitcases for quick little trips!

Taking the double-decker train into the "Big City"  {Salt Lake which is most definitely not big}

riding a train is as exciting as Christmas morning for these boys

The annual grandkid picture in order by age

The boys first time bum sliding in Farmington Canyon.  I used to do this when I was a kid.  I feel old.

"We love bum sliding!"

Rocking the road trip with 7 kids in the minivan.  Boise or bust!

Pickup trucks mean we're not on the East Coast anymore

Playing at the parks American Ninja Warrior Style

Moms get to swim too

Parker ate dinner with Linz. {It's a mockup of her headstone in my Grandma's garden}

Parker discovered the freedom of water wings.  Now we both have fun in the pool.

My anniversary strawberries delivered to me in Boise.  Twelve years, baby!

There's no such thing as too much swimming

Lunch with my high school friends.  We laughed until we cried.  Love that!

Building boats to sail down Grandpa's waterfall.  It didn't work.

Fake birthday for the birthday buddies, courtesy of the grandparents

Fake birthday cake which was just an excuse to make cinnamon roll cake.  It is soooo good.

Thanks to all our family and friends who took time out of their busy lives to see us.  We seem to turn order into chaos wherever we go which is why it's so nice of everyone to be excited when we visit.  Or maybe the excitement is just an act?  Hmmm. . .