August 2021

August was spent working on the house (our new never ending project) and getting ready for school. Emmie got ready for school by getting braces. She had been excited about getting braces for months. She wasn't quite as excited when she felt the pain that comes along with braces. However, she will most definitely love her straight teeth.

Emmie and her crew were off to middle school this year. These girls have had pictures taken together since kindergarten. Its so crazy that I don't have anyone in elementary school anymore. I somehow feel both happy and sad about it at the same time. 

Emmie was nervous about finding her locker and classes, as I'm sure most 6th graders are. We spent lots of time at the school walking her schedule and unlocking her locker. She was well prepared by the first day of school!

Owen officially joined the cross country team. He was super excited about his uniform! He laughed when he realized that his underwear was longer than his cross country shorts. Classy!

That mass of kids is just the JV boys!

Owen had a rough start for his first race of the season. There were SO MANY BOYS! he got caught in a group of boys and hit someone's foot and rolled his ankle and fell right at the beginning of the race. But he powered through and finished. He's one tough kid. His time was nothing to brag about by boys cross country's standards, however it was faster than I ever have/or will run a 5k and he did it with a rolled ankle!

August also brought with it a shower door for mine and John's bathroom. Finally!

And a finished photo of the kitchen...a blank slate ready for some decorations.

First day of school 2021. 

Ainsley: Senior (WHAT?!?!?)

Owen: Sophomore

Emmie: 6th Grade

Ainsley and I met up nearly every day for lunch during August. Leo got a walk and Ains and I got a nice visit during the school day. We were looking for good spots to meet and met at a park one day where pets weren't allowed for 3 months of the year. The city was kind enough to inform the public of this with ill-placed and hidden signage. And I missed the sign. Un-lucky for me, there was a cranky and horrible citation officer working that day, who sited me a ticket for not having Leo licensed (which I didn't know was even a thing). I was super irritated. She was clearly bored and wanted to make everyone else as miserable as she was. Even though I was more than polite and explained that I was not familiar with that law and would immediately take care of it she insisted on writing me the ticket. She took my name and information without requiring me to get my ID (she was too impatient to wait for me to get my license from my car) and I'm certain that I could make her life miserable if I reported her for that. Anyways...After a trip to the court house and John making a phone call the case was dismissed. I am no longer a criminal. 

And I should also note that the vet who I took Leo to for his license laughed when she saw him. Her exact words were..."This is the dog that got a citation?! My dog isn't even licensed. That lady must have been having a bad day." I still get irritated when I think about the whole situation.

San Diego 2021

San Diego! After hours spent on the phone arranging flights, and then a canceled and rescheduled flight, we were on our way to San Diego to visit Syd and her family. The kids and I flew out first and John joined us later in the week. 

It was Emmie's first time on a plane. She was terrified and didn't want to fly. However, by the time we were landing, she was taking pictures and loving watching the miniature world grow as we flew closer to the ground.

We spent our time with Syd enjoying the ocean. She is currently living in Point Loma and took us to and outlook on a Naval base. The views were amazing and we got to hike and see some tide pools.

We also hit the ground running and went to the beach on our first night there. I love the beach. The kids spent hours playing in the water and catching sand crabs in the sand. I spent hours watching for whales and dolphins. No whales this time, but dolphins every day!

On our second day we drove to La Jolla to watch the seals play and play at the beach again. We watched the seals play in the water forever and decided that they are the dogs of the sea world. 

We had heard there was a great spot there for kayaking and snorkeling. We packed snorkeling gear in our luggage on the plane and Syd and I spent about an hour attaching kayaks to the top of her car so we could snorkel and kayak in the ocean. We couldn't find the snorkeling spot, however, we had a spot on the beach next to where the kayaks were launching to go explore some nearby caves. Ains and I attempted to break through the waves to make it out to calmer water. It felt like the scene from Cast Away where Tom Hanks is trying to escape the island on his homemade raft. Emmie was pushing me over the waves. She abandoned me when water got in her eyes and I tipped over (crashed). Owen pushed out Ainsley and she fared better than I did. Eventually, with Owen's help, I made it over the waves. Sadly, within minutes Ains and I realized that we were getting sea sick on our little boats. And so we headed back in, where I capsized again. It was a lot of work for getting dumped in the ocean twice! But it gave us all a good laugh!

John flew into town a few days after us. We visited Coronado Island and hunted for sand dollars...

And we toured the US Midway. It was a huge aircraft carrier that has been retired and now sits in the harbor in San Diego. I was impressed and also claustrophobic as we walked around the boat.  

We also took the kids to Old Town. Sadly, most of the shops we wanted to take the kids to were closed. But we still made it to the Mormon Battalion Museum, where the kids got to pan for gold, and we got some yummy Mexican Food.  

This letter. displayed by the panning for gold was the highlight of our night.

We ventured out of San Diego and away from the water to go to the Safari Park. I'm not going to lie, it was a huge disappointment. Everything was shut down due to covid. But they don't tell you that until after you've paid and have entered the park. There were a couple of cool things that we saw, the safari tram was still going (although I think the safari at Disney World is better), we saw elephants being trained (we were lucky to be passing by during lunch time), we saw a lion active and up close, and we saw a cute dog that was a companion to a cheetah. Other than that, it was horribly hot, and we were miserable. Luckily we had some cups that gave us $1.00 drinks. Those ice cold soda's were the only thing that saved the day! We were only there until the afternoon when we decided to call it a day and go home and let the kids swim in Syd's community pool.

We also did something super touristy and took the kids on a seal boat tour. Normally we wouldn't have, but we had a free activity with out City Pass and so we headed out on the water. The tour was actually fun. We got to see a ton of seals and dolphins being trained by the navy.

On our last day in town we took John back to La Jolla. We went and watched the seals play again, looked at the pretty tide pools, and found where we can go snorkeling (for next time). 

Most importantly...we celebrated Owen's 15th birthday while we were there! His birthday was on a Sunday. So after church we loaded up and headed to the beach. It was our best beach day. The water was the warmest that it had been all week, we played in the waved for hours, Owen tried surfing, we hunted for more sand crabs, and of course we saw Dolphins. It was perfect. Then we headed back to Syd's and had home made sushi and fun-fetti cupcakes. And then he and Cy played video games until late in the night. 

It was such a nice and much needed trip. I am always sad to leave the ocean, and it was a great week with Syd and her family.