This summer has been busy. Danny is doing so much better, but just recently. It was a good 2 months of him really not liking us. I've asked him a little about it and he won't tell me anything. But during that time he pretty much got a girlfriend. He was texting her all the time. He got his phone taken away alot. But in the end he knew it wasn't right and we had talks about what a big deal it was. He agreed, but didn't know what to do about it. So we ended up just blocking her phone number and he was fine with that. He's been much better since that.
We stayed home for 2 weeks after school got out. We decided to move our trip to Visalia to July because the Deans were moving away at the end of June. So we had more time to spend with them. And because Danny had a basketball tournament in St. George. We played with the Deans as much as we could during those weeks. Then Bob and Danny went to Scout Camp. They did a driving tour of Nevada with RVs. They had a good time. Then I went to girls camp. Danny watched the kids in the morning and they went to friends' in the afternoon. It worked great. I had a good time. The Jovaag girls went so I was excited about that. They had a pretty good time, but they weren't excited to go again.
Then we left for McMinnville Oregon for a family reunion and Grandaddy Gene's 85th birthday. We took 2 days to drive there and stayed in Reno on the way. We stayed in a farmhouse that had blueberries all around it so it was fun to pick berries and eat them any time we wanted. We went to the indoor waterslides, and air museum that were close by. We floated in the river. Danny enjoyed fishing in the creek several times. We road a steam train along the coast and went to the Tillamook cheese factory. And did fireworks in the front yard. The weather was great and never rained. We stayed for 5 days.
Then we drove up to Vancouver, British Columbia. We went to sacrament meeting there. We were disappointed we didn't get to hear any strong Canadian accents during testimony meeting. Then we went to a little hike that crosses a wobble suspension bridge. It was so pretty, but raining, so the ground was all muddy. Ruby loved it and even stepping in the glacial river and didn't mind the wet feet the rest of the way. But Danny was worried about his nice white tennis shoes getting ruined. From there we drove over to Kitsilano Beach. It had a fun playground and a volleyball tournament going on. By then the sun was out. The kids loved the playground and throwing rocks in the ocean. Ruby loved to get dirty again and rolled around in the wet, rocky sand.
The second day in Canada we took the ferry to Vancouver Island and then the bus to Butchart Gardens. It was sunny again and a little warm. The gardens were gorgeous. I was so glad we made the trip out there to see it. The kids got a little whiney after walking around for too long. But we got ice cream cones and that helped and Ruby walked almost the entire time. It's awesome to not have to travel with a stroller. Then we went to the Butterfly Garden nearby. The kids liked that more. We had a really great Butterfly garden near us in Georgia that we loved to go to with Danny and Rachel, but this one was pretty good too. Then we caught the bus back to the ferry. We had a good talk with the boys because they were a little embarrassed we were taking the bus. Hopefully they have a little less judgemental opinion of the bus now.
Next we went to Seattle to stay with Grandma Monte and Grandpa Gene. They were so nice to let us take over their apartment. We went to see the Locks and the fish ladder. There were scientists there that day catching the salmon and putting trackers in them. It was fun to watch. We ate fish and chips nearby and then went to Pike Street Market. It was a little too crowded for the kids to like it much. But they got to see some fish thrown and we checked out a few shops. That day was Grandpa Gene's actual birthday and they took us out to their favorite local pizza place. The next day we went to the Seattle aquarium. And then over to a fun park near Renton. And then to Ikea where we met some of Bob's mission companions and had dinner. We loved getting to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa. And the kids loved using their pool and gym and basketball court.
We drove home through the night to make it go faster. It wasn't quite as great as I thought it would be, but Bob did most of the driving and it was nice to get home. We were gone 11 days. We've found that week long vacations feel too short a lot of the time, but by the time we get into the second week, we've had a great time, but we're ready to get home. So it was a perfectly timed vacation.
We're home now for one week and then next week the kids and I will go to Visalia. We're craming a lot of appointments and visiting teaching and helping friends who are moving into this week before we leave again. We're also going to the new waterslides tomorrow. That should be fun.
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