Everything Else - Non Aquatic

Selfies 2020

Olin had a couple of informal soccer practices with small groups and the dad taught him a new dribbling trick he really likes. It's pretty spiffy!

Rollin' ice cream truck in Kennewick. Yum!

How Dae found them this morning. This is where you end up (Olin) when you continue to wear near turtlenecks and long pants in 100 degree weather

I charged Dae with finishing up my bread's last step - baking it. I'd like to say it was a smashing success but that would be a lie...it looks fairly raw, so as I type I have it in the oven for Round 2 with very low hopes. ha!

Aquatic Lees

The summer has been as aquatic as it gets for our family. We've had fun and expanded our horizons which definitely needed to be expanded!

Floating the Yakima River with Amy & Ursula. It was much calmer and cleaner and more beautiful than I would have guessed. When we were younger we were always told it was warm, dirty, and filled with manure so I was pleasantly surprised. 

We rented a 2-person kayak from Greenie's and it fit me and kids pretty well. Kayaking was super relaxing but actually getting the kayak to and from location and up and down from the top of the car was no easy feat. 

Both Christian & Ursula caught a fish!

All-important snack time

Sooo much seaweed this was like paddling through carpet.

Fashioning their own fishing pole out of whatever they could find at the Columbia River with Fox and little sister Aoife

Bonds let us borrow their little kids' skis. The tethered ropes helped.

I tried to get up two different trips on slalom. Just couldn't do it. It required so much arm strength. I'll have to try it again one of these days.

Kids pretty much popped out of the water on the kids' skis but neither were able to stay up for more than a second. They both did it around 3 times. By far the hardest part (as I remember too) is getting your skis situated when you're hanging out under the water and there's current and you're holding on to a rope.

Exploring Seattle

We explored Golden Gardens Park in Ballard on Saturday. It was around 70 degrees and exceptionally sunny which made for a great outing. Lots of crabbers out. 

They worked tirelessly to 'dam up' this little stream that fed in to the water. They actually created a significant dam and recruited a good number of kids to help.

Sliver of sunset

Seattle Bouldering Project has a whole new process (you have to be a member, you only can reserve time slots at certain areas) but we had a lot of fun even with new restrictions. 

Christian worked at this green (it was deceptively hard) quite a few times until he was exhausted. He was so close!

Olin got a hang of this red and mastered it!

It was a treat that we could see him sleeping all weekend. Usually he's facing toward the wall in Richland so we can't really see him. 

Same legs, wildly different circumferences

We suspected one of our fish was pregnant, but when we came home she/he had died. So maybe it was a tumor. We named him/her Fishy so that he/she would have a proper headstone.

Olin started solving for x!

I asked the kids to write a poem or some creative writing instead of their usual language workbook. Both of them were like 'no thanks'. But Olin managed to write this, with about 75% help from me. 

This is from the Spring but I kept forgetting to post it. There are so many hilarities here. He was trying to explain that he had written pistil wrong but didn't realize his new spelling was also incorrect, as well as accidentally.

Finding More Activities

Me and Spike doing paint-by-diamond

Donut-peach picking at Ray French Orchard with AJ. I like them more than I thought I did, but I don't love them.

Hiking Candy Mountain with Hansens

Making 'silt bombs'

First kneeboard experience for both kids! They both got up and really enjoyed it. Olin was brave enough to go first even though he had never seen anyone kneeboard before and didn't know what it was. 

When he let go of the rope, he hilariously just floated on the kneeboard until we turned around to get him. Little 47 pounders can do that!

I could tell Christian was nervous but it definitely helped that Olin went first

Fox showed them how to make DIY Harry Potter wands with chopsticks, hot glue and paint.

Flexible

Not flexible. My hips are getting tighter and tighter. Need to work on that.

Finding Activities

That's pretty much the constant activity so far this summer: Finding Activities. I'd say we've been mildly to moderately successful.

Another bath. Look how long and big he is.

Activity: Blueberry picking with Heather and Amy's kids at Crimson Acres outside of Benton City. The blueberries were plentiful, organic and very tasty! $3 per pound. We might go back this week. hehe. 

My baguettes with recipe from Amy - Christian said "they look like yams!". They were actually really good, finally.

Doing worksheets upstairs at the dental office while I am at work, followed by...

Christian getting four teeth taken out! (by me) Upper baby teeth canines and first molars on both sides to make room for the permanents to come down straighter.

He did awesome. He didn't like the pinches of anesthetic but said the pulling was pretty easy.

He'll be this way for a couple of years I anticipate.

Activity: Replanting the aloe and his pup

Activity: Making a ship out of whatever we have at home. Christian made this straw propellor in the back, and a blow up feature in the front where you release the air under water and depending on which way you point the straw the ship will go the opposite.

Hilarious detour through a gravel road (!) on the way to Seattle when there was a big accident near Vantage. The scenic detour was actually quite pretty. 

Met Megan for a very nice 2 hour walk and coffee. This was Gasworks Park. Haven't been here in probably 20 years!

The nice park the kids like

The whole gang.

The only way they will tolerate going to Nordstrom Rack with me. They were in to their books because they just got some new ones at Amazon Books store in U-Village yesterday.