Boat day!

We don't do it often, but every now and again we go up and borrow Grandma and Papa H's boat.  We're grateful to have access to one, especially with the kiddos being such water babies... And not having a pool this year.  I think the pictures are pretty self explanatory.

 

We brought Ozzi with us since he has such bad separation anxiety.  He did really well.  Wouldn't say he liked it, I'm pretty sure he ended up a little sick... But he was a champ and the kids loved having him with us.

Sheep lake with Alan

The kids and I had been wanting to go on a hike.  I brought it up to Alan and it turned out he was supposed to meet some friends on the trail end of their backpacking trip up at Sheep's Lake.  We drove separately since his plan was to stay the night and then give his friends a ride home.  

Awesome neighbor Alan!  If you look at his feet.... He brought all his backpacking stuff and forgot shoes!  He did the whole thing in sandals!  When we got up there the kids happily helped him set up his tent. I love that they're helpful.

 It was cool enough that the kids didn't want to go in the water. Until Kayda offered Carson $30 if he went in and under.  He did it, and yes, I made her give him the money.

When the kids were ready to head back

Alan decided that he didn't want to stay the night. So we helped him pack his stuff and headed down the trail together.  He planned to drive up to the trailhead and pick his friends up the next day instead of staying.
 

Dillon's Invisalign

We finally got a consult for Dillon for braces. The deal was, cosmetic was his choice, function was required.  He ended up with multiple things for his bite the orthodontist was concerned about.  Some of which was an overbite and a cross bite. Combine it with the fact that he's a grinder we opted to have him get braces.  Invisalign was about $400 more, which isn't fun BUT Daddy and I kind of forced him that route.  He's responsible and there are so many restrictions and pain that come from braces that don't exist with Invisalign.  The only pitfall is having to brush your teeth after you eat and put it back in.  Which can be really annoying at school for lunch. 

The assistants there are much better with their scanner now.  It took about 10 minutes. When they first got the machine Kayda was one of the first patients, it took 20+ minutes.  Sad that we've been dealing with braces for so long.  He got scanned June 15th.

Time to get the trays!  July 7th.

 

Phoenix with Friends

Covid quarantine in Washington is ridiculous and keeps getting worse. Lucky for us, Darcy's dad has an air bnb in Phoenix.  There were a lot of cancellations because of covid so we were able to sneak in a long weekend.  We actually went down during the week and I did my teaching from one of the bedrooms.  I guess that's a perk of online teaching, especially with the craziness it is right now.  So we headed down and were happy to embrace mask free, almost completely normal life.  

We spent most of our time at the house and playing in the pool.  A lot of Cornhole also.

We went to a restaurant that has live music, picnic tables, and fire pits thinking it'd be a fun evening.  Unfortunately the food wasn't good and the kids were too antsy and bored to wait for the music to actually start, so we didn't stay long enough to see it.   There was a caricature artist there.  We couldn't get Dillon to do it because I wanted him to take off his sun glasses.  We can actually see the resemblance for Carson.  

Kayda... Not so much.

We found an open water park so of course we had to go!  They had 6 feet marked out for all the lines... Nobody paid any attention. I think a lifeguard said something once.  They had some waterslides that work like rollercoasters that you ride a tube on.  They were pretty fun.  Dillon, Dad, Austin and Landon did a speed slide that has you stand on a platform that drops out from under you.  

COVID crazy part 2 - Ozzi

First came the bearded dragon.  Then came a puppy.  We looked and looked to adopt a rescued puppy.  Unfortunately, we didn't qualify for a lot of the places (we have no fence and no intention of fencing).  We did qualify at one place and they had a constant supply of puppies...but they were adopted faster than you could blink.  I started looking for puppies to buy, it was hard though because we are firm believers in the superiority of "mutts" and most every dog being sold is a purebred.  Then I stumbled on a post about pit bull, lab, plus more puppies in Oregon.  I contacted them and arranged to come see them.  We aren't ones to buy a pet without meeting them in person and I'm so glad we hadn't arranged for a specific puppy.  There were ELEVEN puppies.  Some were blonde, others black, some brindle.  Some had white spots on them, others didn't.  They were all super sweet when we went to meet them.  The dogs all ambushed Carson waiting for pets and sniffing him out.  They lost attention quickly and wandered off.  Except one puppy.  He waited until the rest left and then went to cuddle with Carson.  That was it.  Carson had a puppy and the puppy had a boy.  

We followed the same process with names and the whiteboard.  Carson chose Ozzi.  We often just call him Oz but it definitely suits him.  

We let him explore the long grass in the pasture (longish I guess).  He LOVED it and would have to bounce around instead of running. You'd randomly see this tiny dog head pop up over the grass.  

Ozzi is probably our most photographed pet now, despite Kayda jamming up our photos with Tido over the years.  Since he's out and about there is more opportunity for him to do things that the kids simply can't resist photographing.  Here are some as of August 2021.