Summahhh

   Don't let the title deceive you, hot diggity dog....

It was a long one, and hot enough to fry an ...

Washington: Certainly the highlight of the kids' summer was their visit to GramE Jan and Grampa Tom's in Washington! Alex and Danica spent a week, while Lincoln stretched his visit to two weeks. Here's GramE's recap.

I decided since their visits are few and far between, and they are growing up so fast, it was time to really immerse them into life in Pacific Northwest. No time for phones or electronics, we were gonna experience life rather than virtual life. I had to pace things so Tom didn't wear out too much but we had an active, memorable time. 

Day one was horseback riding in the Olympic national park for me and Dani. I hadn't been on a horse

in over 20 years. Let's just say I am glad I only booked an hours ride....which really turned out to be an hour and a half. Was so beautiful and I was not only able to do it with my grand daughter but also scratch an item off my bucket list😄

We did the Port Angeles underground tour which proved to be fascinating and educational. We also all went to Victoria, BC to the amazing museum and saw the Egypt traveling exhibit and IMAX movie. Introduced them to Rodgers chocolates and saw a humpback whale on the boat ride home. It was a heavy tide shift and Alex and Tom got a bit seasick😣.

Mini-me?

Danica and I went whale watching out of Pt Townsend over to Friday harbor. We saw both the local J pod orcas and quite a pod of transients killer whales. We saw J pod before the baby birth and death so Danica has followed that sad drama pretty closely. 

Tom had given me a flight over the Olympics for my bday and Christmas present last year. It was for 3 people. Conveniently, Alex does not like heights so Danica, Lincoln, and I had a 2 hr flight. We could practically see to China that day. It was sooooo amazing!😄

We saw a grey whale, the Olympic Forrest and glaciers and the entire coast land. Fabulous day, fabulous gift Mr Tom!! The pilot was a fighter pilot in the Army? And very very accomplished. When we landed, I couldn't even tell when the wheels touched down. Truly a perfect flight!

I took Danica camping and Lincoln. On separate trips so Dani and I had chic flicks and popcorn and our trip to Friday harbor. Lincoln proved a bit more adventurous.  We had 2 nights in the trailer and then he wanted to tent camp on the beach. 😯 So,we did. We went to Ft Casey and tent camped on the water front. Toured the light house and the fort. Very educational. Let's say Grammy got a new appreciation for her trailer and comforts.

Alex hung a lot with GPA, they had quality time and went garage sailing!

Showing Dandy this stuffed rooster garage sale find!

Our home time was spent riding John Deer mowers until I simply called a halt to the noise. Three John Deere's running all over with yelling kids was more than I could take by day 3. Can't tell you how much we spent on gas😂. GPA had purchased some cool BB guns and the boys were enamored and good marksmen. They were careful to not shoot Dandy dog or each other...phew.

We played card games, (Lincoln even bought a card shuffler at a garage sale), a pie in your face game (another garage sale find by GPA), and laughed until we hurt. Played a minute to win it with Oreos, big fun and yummy too. There of course were garage sale treasures and GPA totally enjoyed his boy time hunting for...well..TREASURE?

SO SO MANY THANKS to GramE and Gramps for an amazing time! The kids absolutely loved it!

House Changes: Resigned to the fact that it doesn't make sense to downsize now, we opted instead to de-clutter and participate in the community garage sale. Despite me registering for a garage sale in Houston, on the same day, at a church with the same name (?!), we offloaded a bunch of stuff, or later sold it online. The monster air hockey table found a new home; for which professional movers had to be hired while I bit my nails!

The pool looks cleaned up with new grouting and coping and hopefully is good for another decade!

With the exception of 2 bedrooms and closets, we had the entire house painted; every wall, ceiling, door, shutter and cabinet. That was a time consuming, messy and expensive month, but we're happy with the updated and brighter white-on-white look! The cabinets we painstakingly painted ourselves 6 years ago just looked too yellow against the new walls and trim, so had to be painted as well. We fled to the lake several times to escape the fumes and sleeping under plastic!

During...

Old cabinet color against new white walls

Alex's photo shop rendering of the teal island..

After..  teal island and painted cabinets

After

OKLAHOMA: Another amazing Gala team weekend at the Pogue Oklahoma Ranch fell on Scott's birthday. It was all about relaxation, games, trail walks and rides, good food, storms and great company.

Judy, Paul and Matt

Horse-crazy Danica spent 6 days at horse camp at Bar J Ranch in El Dorado, Arkansas! We dropped her off (with a few tears from both of us) then showed up 6 days later and watch our cowgirl's show!

 

Robber's Roost, her bunk room, right over the tack room.

Hershey, her trainee for the week. He was 'stubborn, sweet, responsive, scared of fly spray, but always happy to see me".

I loved watching her throw this saddle on!

Ummm... welcome to rural Arkansas?! 😲😳

Yee-haw!

Itchy: We discovered that Danica inherited her father's extreme sensitivity to poison ivy, with her first, nasty outbreak contracted at the lake. A trip to urgent care and several medications, lotions and potions later, the poor girl itched, scratched and oozed for weeks. Yikeez!

July 4th: Minuteman participated in the downtown McKinney 4th of July parade float

Stay cation: After our big family trip at Christmas to Hawaii, our budget decided on a few days exploring locally. Arlington- We stumbled upon the 'Dirt Cheap' store (no joke). As soon as Scott saw the full, plastic-wrapped shopping cart marked $10, he steered it into the check out line. Lincoln was right behind him with his own cart. So the next 30 minutes was spent sorting through the carts and piling the must-have finds into our truck, while leaving the undesirable items (2017 calendars, food and drinks; drinks, make up, bras, etc.) in the cart in the parking lot.

 

Now we're set for sunglasses and size 9 flip flops. For life.

Although hard to top that excitement, we then went to a Rangers game, where they won, and stayed for the post-game fireworks show. Lincoln made a friend across the stadium via cell phone flashlights and they signalled to each other at dark.

Fort Worth- We visited the Stockyards where we watched the cattle drive, and the kids had to go the children's petting zoo.

Lincoln found his heaven on earth in downtown FW.

We tubed the afternoon away and listened to local bands at the amphitheater on the Trinity river.

Guess who found a horse?!

Dallas-Managed to track down electric scooters (an adventure in itself) before zooming around local landmarks.

Fortnite- Otherwise, this was summer. Lincoln bought and built his own gaming computer, Alex played on Xbox and Scott got a laptop for he and Danica.

What's that sound? Brain cells dying...