California

 We started off our summer with a trip to California. Kyle and I picked the girls up from school and headed right to my parent's house; we picked them up and drove to Sea-Tac, arriving exactly one hour before our flight was scheduled to depart. We didn't plan on the traffic starting in Lynden, getting stuck behind school buses, and heavier than normal rain on our drive! Thankfully, there was no line to check our bags and it took about three minutes to make it through security. When I texted my mom to let her know we had made it to our gate, they had barely made it off airport property! It wasn't exactly how we wanted to start our vacation, but we didn't miss our flight so it was all okay!

California bound!

We spent the first three nights at Jon and Sarah's house. Friday was 105 degrees outside, which was a bit of a shock for our Pacific Northwestern selves! We didn't quite know what to do with such heat, and decided the best thing was to spend the day in the pool! Reed and Kieran are both on a swim team and have spent significantly more time in a pool that our girls, but everyone had fun and despite lots of sunscreen, we all still burned our poor white skin.

When we weren't swimming, we were busy playing games and relaxing inside in the air conditioning!

Movie time!

Momma Joan turned 90 on Sunday, so the plan was to do a birthday dinner for her on Saturday and to spend the afternoon together. However, Kyle and I both got rather congested/hoarse Friday evening so we decided to postpone the party until Sunday. Before heading over to Jay and Kelley's house, we were able to watch Reed's piano recital. 

Aunt Laurie was also here from Arizona to help celebrate. We had a delicious dinner of hamburgers, salads, and fresh fruit, finished off with ice cream and caramel sauce for dessert. Before dinner, the kids made paper airplanes and tried to get them up onto the walkway/bridge! We were also able to get some nice family pictures. 

More end of the school year fun

With school ending June 10, the past few weeks were a flurry of activities as we wrapped everything up.  I know I mentioned in an earlier post that Haleighs class went on a field trip. Her teacher is amazing when it comes to taking pictures and he sent home a newsletter with lots of photos from each of the three places they visited.

Lydia's class had bike day last week. They were all encouraged to bring a bike or scooter to school and they raced around the bus loop!

They also had a piñata to celebrate the end of the school year and received a certificate of successfully completing preschool! Unfortunately, it was a rather rainy morning and they had to be inside in the school gym instead of out by the big trees

Annaliese and Haleigh also had Field Day. Thankfully the rain held off so they were able to have an afternoon of fun outdoor activities. I didn't volunteer to help out so there aren't any pictures.

Annaliese also participated in a 3-on-3 soccer tournament with a few friends from school. They only had 3 girls on their team, so with no subs, they had to play hard the entire time! Despite the lack of subs, playing against older girls, rain and wind, I think they still all had a fun time!

The other big news is that I wrapped up my last day with Peacehealth. For the first time since my days working at Family Fare, I'm not working in healthcare. We have decided that I will spend the summer home and transition into working with Kyle and Sage Mindset Coaching. It is obviously a big changebut definitely one that we are both excited about. 

Toasting the end of an era with Huckleberry Lemonade (courtesy of my GI clinic coworkers!)

And as always, here are a few of the randomness pictures I found on my phone from the past feew weeks.

Mom didn't think Kyle could do squats with her on his back!

Family fun night at school

Annaliese and Esme-also at Family Fun Night

Lydia with her friend Jude (Jude's mom babysat Lydia twice per week.)

Beautiful day to run around Lake Padden

Hopping on the bus for the last day of school!

Annaliese did a book report about Sally Ride.

Some of Lydia's art projects

Haleigh's classmates all made a big card and wrote notes to each other on the inside.

I know that this post is rather lengthy; I started writing it a few weeks ago, and then time went on and they kept having more activities. I guess maybe splitting it up into multiple posts would have made more sense. But here we are, midway through June, with the longest day of the year behind us. We've already returned home from our big summer trip and are now looking forward to fun adventures closer to home. 

Mt. Shasta-the training

One of Kyle's good friends, Adam, organized a guided hike up Mt. Shasta to celebrate his birthday. Mt. Shasta is 14,180ft in elevation and is not an easy climb. Kyle spent quite a few weeks training with weekly hikes up Vedder Mtn, the Chanterelle Trail, Excelsior Pass, or the Pine and Cedar Lakes trail. He always wore a backpack weighing roughly 40 pounds and typically hiked up as fast as he could and ran down. There were hikes in the rain, snow, hail, and maybe a little bit of sunshine. He always went early in the morning so there were a few gorgeous sunrises as well!

I went along once!