This summer has flown by! I'll try to remember by month what happened.
May
The end of school was busy as usual. Aaron and Seth finished their soccer season. They both did great. We joined the Dinosaur park league, which was so nice to be so close. Aaron rode his bike to practice and Seth's practice was wedged between piano for Aaron and Rachel and Basketball for Danny. It wouldn't have worked if I had to drive to the other soccer park. Danny played with his club team and also played on an intramural basketball team for his school. I was the unofficial team mom for the basketball team because they had a hard time getting the team organized and communicated to the parents. The girls still did their dance classes at the cute studio close to our house.
We went to Ryan and Venessa's for Memorial Weekend. We went to the beach by ourselves on the first day because everyone else had work and school. We had a great time boogie boarding and playing. Aaron ate too much junk food, once again, and threw up in the rocks. Danny hit a sneaky squirrel in the head with a rock by accident. He didn't bother us again!
The next day all the cousins and Grandma and Grandpa joined us at the beach. We had a great time. Sunday we had our regular vacation church family testimony meeting. Grandma and Grandpa came with us for that. We walked to the HOA and went on a hike.
The week before Memorial Day a job opened up at the Elementary school for a Teacher's Aide. I applied and was interviewed that day. I have several friends who work at the school so that was really helpful. The interview went great and they said they'd get back to me in a week. They called the next day with a job offer. It all happened so fast. I called the Principal at the middle school to make sure he couldn't offer me the sports secretary job. He said they weren't ready. So I took the job. I'll be working the full hours of Elementary school. It's taken me most of the summer to adjust to the fact that I'll be working pretty much full time. It's going to be a busy year.
June
School ended. Yay! A few days after school got out we went to Visalia to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa. Bob and I left for a few days for our Anniversary. We went to Cambria. We toured Hearst Castle, went for a bike ride into town for some French pastries, watched the seals and ate at some great restaurants. The weather was a little cold, but we had a nice, lazy weekend. And then Bob flew home and I stayed with the kids for the week. We had a great time shopping and swimming and going to the arcade. The kids hit some major jackpots there so it made it exciting. We also finally got to take Bob to Superior Dairy in Hanford. We did boys against girls this time. The boys took it seriously and downed their ice cream fast.
We brought Grandma back with us when we came home from Visalia. And we got back just in time for Danny and Bob to turn around and drive back to CA for a basketball tournament. This is pretty much the only tournament Danny's team travel's to (we love that they mostly just do the local tournaments) and we've never made it there. So this year Danny really wanted to go. Bob and Danny got to have a nice boys weekend. They stayed at Kristal's house about 30 minutes from the tournament. They had a game Friday night and Saturday night. So Saturday morning they got to go to the beach. They also found some awesome places to eat. After the Saturday game they raced home so Danny could go to the last 2 hours of the stake dance with his friends.
Grandma came back from Visalia with us so she could watch the kids while Bob, Danny and I went on our stake's Pioneer Trek. It was super hot that weekend in Utah, where we did the trek. But we still had a great time and really bonded with our trek families.
The month of June felt like a whirlwind. We didn't have any downtime to have a lazy summer day or catch up on things. As soon as school got out it felt like I just had to get through trek and then things would slow down. But when we got home from trek, we had 4 days at home to recover and then get ready for our 13 day trip to Oregon and Tahoe.
July
We left July 1 for Oregon. We drove straight through to get there. 16 hours. The kids did great. There were 40 people staying at the farmhouse this year. We were celebrating Grandma Monte's 85th birthday.
The first day in Oregon we went to Portland. Ryan's family and Grandma and Grandpa came with us. We went to VooDoo donuts first. It was ok. Then we went to the International Rose Test Garden. It was amazing. Such beautiful flowers everywhere. Seth and Ruby really got into it and took our phones around to take pictures of all the flowers. They actually got some pretty good ones. After the rose garden we split up and just our family went to the Nike Store since it's based in Portland. And then we rode the Arial Tram that connects two parts of the hospital. The kids thought it was pretty cool.
Sunday we went to church and celebrated Grandma's birthday. We had cake and took pictures in our matching Barnhart Family Reunion shirts. That night my mom and dad took pictures by the creek on the farm. We got some really great ones. Danny and the other kids went fishing every day. And we picked blueberries all the time. It's amazing how many of those blueberries you can eat every day when you don't have to pay for them!
Monday was 4th of July. We drove to Lincoln City. That morning when we were getting ready to go I took a step and all of a sudden my ankle was killing me. It felt like I pulled a tendon or something. So I had to limp all day. We went to the 4th of July parade. That was fun. Then we went over to the beach and played for a while. We did fireworks in the backyard. Danny and Aaron helped Grandpa with tons of fireworks. The close museum was doing big fireworks too so we could watch those at the same time.
Tuesday we went back to Portland and rode a ferry up and down the river. Wednesday we went to the indoor waterslides. I wasn't feeling very well when I got up but I thought it would wear off so I went to the waterslides with everyone. I took it easy for a while and then Danny really wanted me to ride a slide with him so I decided to try it. I got most of the way up and started feeling light-headed. I sat down and hoped it would stop. But it didn't. I threw up blueberries all over the stairs. Danny ran and got Bob to help me. But then some lifeguards came and said they'd clean it up. I went and got cleaned up and then I felt great. We had a fun rest of the day at the waterslides. Aaron really wanted to go to the aviation museum so he talked Grandpa into taking him halfway through the day.
Thursday we drove to Tahoe. Friday we played at Sand Harbor. We always have such a good time there. Saturday we went to the Air show. The kids really enjoyed sitting in a Tesla and getting all the free stuff from the vendors. We left the Smith's at the air show and we went to hike along the Rubicon trail. Ruby really liked that it was like her name. We had a good time, even though there was some whining at the beginning. It's just so beautiful there! The blue lake is amazing. Monday we went to Donner beach and we took the jet ski. Danny was old enough to drive it and take the kids on rides. Bob loved that he didn't have to be out there the whole time. It was a little cooler there than it has been sometimes so we had a harder time getting in the water a lot. We also played games at night and had smores and expoded a watermelon by putting hundreds of rubber bands around it. We had a great time in Tahoe once again. This was our 7th year in a row going there. We're so grateful the Smith's let us come stay with them every year.
The week after our big vacation was Scout Camp. Bob had to go help also. It was nice to have a week to be home and get things done. I cleaned all the carpets upstairs and the stairs.
This weekend Rachel and I went to stay at Kristal's with Grandma to celebrate her 13th birthday. We had such a great time. The weather was perfect. The first day we went shopping most of the day. It was very successful. We rode bikes to the beach that evening and got dinner. The next day we spent the whole day at the beach. Rachel can stay in the water forever. We found a fun part of Huntington beach that has a sandbar just a little way out. We had a lot of fun there. Then we rode bikes around the beach. We got cheesecake at the cheesecake factory that night. Rachel loved it. Saturday we were lazy in the morning. Then Kristal taught us pilates and we went back to our sandbar spot at the beach for a few hours then we drove home.
August seems like it will be just as busy as the rest of the summer. We're going to Utah this weekend for Sarah's baby's blessing then Rachel and I go to girls camp as soon as we get back. Then there is only 2 weeks until school starts. But I assume I'll have to start work earlier than that to get a little training.
I also have been having weird anxiety stuff for a while with my breathing and muscle tension and sleeping problems and now I think my tingling hands might be related too. I went to see Valerie. I think it's been helpful. I'll write more about it next time.
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