weekly 2015.9.20

We got home from Bear Lake about an hour ago. It was a quick trip, but we had a great time. Stick’s friend offered the use of his cabin for the week, and when people offer cabins, you say YES! Unfortunately, that whole school/work thing meant we could only spend the weekend there, but it was a nice break from regular life all the same.

You know how when people offer their cabin you never know what you’re going to get? In my mind I guess I pictured log walls and semi-nasty dusty old hand me down furniture. This “cabin” was nothing like that. In fact, it was a “cabin” in theory only. In reality, it was a really nice house, with 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, beds for 20, granite countertops, leather furniture, satellite TV, a Wii, a boat, two ATVs, a loft with air hockey and fuse-ball and a slide going down to the next floor. So yeah, the kids were in heaven.

The “cabin” had a beautiful view of Bear Lake which I’ve never seen before and was surprised to see how turquoise the water is. I’ve also never ATVd before and it turns out its really fun. The kids LOVED it. Although it’s a toss up whether they loved the ATVs more or the cabin’s Roomba more.  They were pretty much obsessed with the Roomba. (In case you are wondering, a Roomba is a robotic vacuum that runs all by its self.) We saw a Bull Moose walk through the neighborhood, I saw a shooting star and we also went down to the lake. The lake was cold as we expected but tolerable. The kids were able to walk and walk out into the lake, it was amazingly shallow for a long long way. Oddly enough, the cabin had no wi-fi, so we’ve been offline all weekend. It was nice to have a break from cyber-space.

Rachel was able to join us for the weekend and we loved having her. It amazes me how when one person is gone, and there’s still SEVEN of us, it feels incomplete. Having her with us felt great and we loved hearing all her funny stories from BYU. She’s gone back to Provo tonight.

As far as our week….let’s see. Spencer and Harry had two soccer games, they won both. Harry had to go to an emergency dentist appointment when we realized he had yet another abscess in his mouth. The dentist found not one, but two abscesses. He’s a new (to us) pediatric dentist and Harry was so thrilled to play video games during the entire exam, which were up in the ceiling above the chair. Since the two affected teeth will be falling out soon, the dentist didn’t really want to mess with them, so Harry is just on antibiotics which seem to be helping.

Aaron is still working his night manager job while the school tries to find an adult to do it. I think he’s enjoying it, but it makes for a long day.

Thomas carved a neat wooden spoon with three loop rings in it. He’s doing a great job keeping up with his homework this year.

All the boys helped our neighbor boy with his eagle project which involved power washing trash cans to earn money for the project supplies, then they sanded down the metal fence with surrounds our church park grassy area. Then the fence needed to be painted, but we were at Bear Lake at that point.

I had my yearly MRI this week which I always really hate, but I survived, with the help of some Valium. Ha! I will get the results next month when I see my doctor.

Stick and I went to dinner at Loveland aquarium Wednesday night for the SEAU opening social. It was fun but a wild night. First we had to drop Spencer off at soccer at Union Middle school. Then we went to the dinner, which we had to scarf down so we could go pick up Spencer from practice. We took him home and got back to the aquarium in time for dessert, then we ran through the actual aquarium because my Book Club had started, and despite our hurrying, I got to Book Club 45 minutes late. The aquarium was actually better than I anticipated, so we may have to go back and take the kids. Also, in case you are wondering, we are missing our third driver and will be super happy when Aaron gets his license.

Stick got a new (company) car this week, a Toyota Sequoia. Wow, it’s super nice and so high tech. Cars have some a long way since we bought our Excursion in 2000. Our excursion has a tape deck in it, so the Sequoia seems like it’s from another dimension. We wanted to take it to Bear Lake, but it couldn’t quite fit all 8 of us, plus luggage for 8 plus food for 8. So we drove our trusty Beast instead, which we still love, tape deck and all.

Rachel is not going to have time for a weekly this week so she gave me permission to write a few things that she told us while in Bear Lake.

First of all, she and her roommate slept through a midnight fire alarm at their dorm. When she finally woke up she texted a friend who also lives in the dorm to confirm the fire alarm, and was told that yes, it was a fire alarm, and to GET OUT. When she and her roommate finally left the building, the last girls to do so, they got a big lecture from the RA for not leaving when the alarm first went off.  I hope her dorm never actually burns down ‘cause apparently she will sleep through the alarm.

There is a boy in two of her design classes that got home from a mission to Japan just a few days before school started. He has attempted now to ask her out on a date for two weekends in a row but been unsuccessful due to Bear Lake this weekend and her other date last weekend. Poor Japan loving boy who wanted to take her to the Japanese Club opening social…. Anyone want to bet that he’ll try again this upcoming weekend? She’s not overly excited at the prospect.

Speaking of clubs, Rachel joined the Hip Hop Club and the Special Olympics Club. She’s nothing if not diverse.

Several of her friends and roommates are jealous of her date last weekend with Mitch and are requesting that she set them up with him. Since the date with Mitch, she has had lunch with him a few times, although she does not like like him, they are just friends.  She told me that when she goes to lunch she just looks for someone who is sitting alone and sits down by them and starts chatting.  (That is how she met the adored Mitch.) I think this is a great system.

Over and out!