{C} Summer Goals

Solidifying that dunk!

{T} Can You Find Ty?

I promise that T is there!

It may be time to upgrade to a bigger bed!

{T} happy #12

Our T turned twelve today and we celebrated him by filling balloons with notes of all the things that we love about him.  He had to pop the balloons to retrieve the notes and it turned into a VERY loud activity!!!  Sorry to the neighbors for that one!

TY @ 12...

favorite food: Pancakes

favorite restaurant: Sharky's

on a perfect day I would: Fly my remote controlled plane and drive go-karts

favorite season: Fall

best snack ever: Apple and a glass of milk

favorite sport: Football

my best subject in school: Math

I'm really awesome at: Flying my RC airplane

favorite color: Green

when I grow up I want to: be an Air Force Pilot or a Mechanical Engineer

if I could go anywhere it would be: Australia

my parents are too strict about: nothing

what scares me the most: Heights

when we stop for a treat, I like to get: nothing

favorite book: Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban

the cutest girl I know: Lizzie

if I had one wish it would be: to Fly

favorite game: Unstable Unicorns

one thing I need to work on: I don't know

favorite superhero: Falcon

the food that makes me want to barf: Mushrooms

coolest person in the world: Hacksmith

the car I would love to drive when I turn 16: the Leaf

most memorable day this year was: when school was cancelled for COVID-19

one thing I want to learn this year: Physics for engineering

if I could meet one person from history it would be: the Wright Brothers

4 words that describe me: Healthy, Happy, Athletic, Creative

my best friends are: Jack Case, Hayden Fish, Korbin Paine, Liam Klenke

Father's Day...return to "Can You Beat the Daddy?"

So it has been a couple of years since we have held a "Can You Beat the Daddy?" challenge for Father's Day and I for one was thrilled to bring the games back.

The first challenge was to take a frozen t-shirt and use any method to thaw it and get it on their body...it gave everyone a cold wake up in preparation for the rest of the games...

Then it was the Chocolate Unicorn challenge, stacking as many Oreo cookies on the forehead as possible....

Next up, everyone grabbed a straw and raced to suck up their jello cup first....

(Tanner obliterated everyone!)

The last game was the Candy Bar game (no pictures cause you can bet I was playing that one!)

Probably the funniest part of the candy bar game was Haley stealing multiple candy bars from Tanner and him finally saying "we are the same household!!!!"  

Turns out that the answer is "yes", the daddy can be beat but we were all winners with the laughs and enjoyment of our time together.

Happy Father's Day Rich!

{T} Cardboard Creations Continued

T continues to use our endless supply of cardboard (and our not so endless supply of glue sticks and masking tape) to keep busy.  

In the past month he has created FORTS...

And ARMOR....

And Nerf war BARRICADES....

And more ARMOR (also known as Mark 2)

And even more ARMOR (Mark 3)...

{K} Flying Sky High

K is spending the summer working in Utah and has a good friend that she runs with and bikes with and now we can add the activity of "flies" with.  

Caden is a licensed pilot and today he took K on her first flight.  

(and I may or may not have spent the entire morning watching their progress on the flight path, just making sure that little dot kept on a moving)

"New Normal"

So today marks 3 months since the world literally SHUT DOWN!

What we thought would be two weeks became a month became two months and now there is discussion of whether things will be back to "normal" by this fall....what is even "normal" anymore?

There has been a lot of discussion of "new normal" being thrown around as well as other new words/phrases that have become part of our 2020 vocabulary....

"unprecedented"

"flattening the curve"

"social distance"

We continue to be healthy and well and are trying to enjoy the chance we've been given to slow life down and soak in time together.

I love this quote by Robert D. Hales, 

“when you can’t do what you have always done, you only do what matters most.”

What matters most has been family and I'm grateful for ours.

Also, a healthy dose of humor doesn't hurt....

If Dr. Seuss could write about COVID19 

(sorry I don't know who to credit this to)

The buildings were big, and the people would smile,

Travel they would, mile by mile.

But sick they became and the numbers, they grew

Businesses worried, communities too.

Things stopped for a bit, the world slowed its roll

The virus had certainly taken its toll.

But what they then saw, from slowing things down

The people now had less reasons to frown

Families now gathered, 'What games shall we play?'

'Pass the blue crayon, give mummy the grey'.

'Daddy is home guys!  He'll read us a book'

Then all of us together will gather to cook.

The lungs of the planet caught a small break

Less travel meant less pollution to make.

People realized they'd all be okay

They don't need so much to get through the day.

Maybe the virus that caused so much stress.

Showed the whole world that more can mean less.

Weekend in Seaside, OR

We might be in the midst of a worldwide pandemic but sometimes you just need a change of scenery.  We haven't been anywhere in the past three months and decided it was time to get away.  Rich and I took J and T and headed west to Seaside, OR to get some sunshine and ocean air and it was just what we needed to pretend the world isn't currently upside down.

(although this sign was a vivid reminder to us that the world is a different place currently)

{J} & {T} On the Road in the "Beav"

 When Tanner and Haley's cross country adventure in their RV got sidetracked d/t COVID-19, they landed here in Portland to wait for things to "blow over".  It seemed like the perfect time to have J and T take a weekend adventure and experience the RV life in the Pacific NW.

So grateful for Tanner and Haley being willing to make this happen and grateful for the memories that were made by all!