Summer Videos

 

Dahlias!

We made a day trip up to Royal. We visited and then Jeremy and I drove up to Moses Lake. Laura cleaned my teeth in exchange for Jeremy doing some handyman work. Also, we had to bring home a desk for Elizabeth that Laura had at her house since we are virtual learning again this year.  This year, we are setting up their desks out in the dining room rather than using the table.  

While Jeremy and I were up in Moses Lake, the kids went kayaking and shot a bunch of things. They shot rotten apples, cans, milk cartons and a huge zucchini. Nathan had fun blowing up the zucchini with a shotgun.  Also, we checked on Papa and Gram's growth chart. Since May 26th (exactly 3 months), Elizabeth had grown .75 inches and Nathan had grown 1.5 inches!  In the last year, Nathan grew 4.5 inches. 

Elizabeth visited the Flower Farm. 

She made herself a dahlia hat! Her regular hat had a few fake flowers on it, but boy did she spice it up with real flowers!! It was beautiful! 

 

Evening bike rides

Elizabeth and Charlotte and I rode to the end of the sidewalk! We had a good ride/walk for me. 

 

Nathan's 13th birthday party

We didn't have a regular birthday party for Nathan due to Covid.  We had a few outside get togethers with the grandparents and had cupcakes and presents! 

On the actual day of his birthday, I made him his favorite dinner and we had cupcakes. 

Papa Ray and Kim came down. We sat outside and had some cupcakes! 

The very next day, Papa Norm and Gram came down and we had DQ and opened some presents. 

Then, Grandma Pam came. I was at work so not many pictures were taken, but this one is quite interesting! Nathan is quite a bit taller than Grandma Pam! Also, his glasses frames had broken. Both ear pieces snapped off! The first one broke when hit with a beach ball. The second one snapped off a day after that! Anyway, we had to wait 7-10 days to get new frames. He tried everything to keep them on. He taped them to his head but that didn't work well. Finally, pipe cleaners worked the best! 

 

The broken glasses debacle

 The kids were playing around with a beach ball and Nathan took one to the face. It snapped his earpiece right off his glasses! I called the eye doctor and luckily they were under warranty so we had to wait 7-10 days to get new frames. The very next day, his glasses fell onto the carpet (because he was trying to wear them with just one earpiece) and the OTHER earpiece snapped off!! Unbelievable! 

Now, he only had the lenses part and no way to wear his glasses for 7-10 days. His old pair we had were children's size and literally wouldn't fit on his head anymore. We tried! His head is too big!  So he tried different ways to keep his glasses on. 

First, he tried taping them to his face. This worked decently for just sitting and not moving around. 

                                                            

He experimented with different tapes which didn't work. Eventually he figured out a way to use pipe cleaners and scotch tape to wrap them around his head to keep them on!! He had to deal with this for over a week before we got his frames. 

Makeup Experiments

Elizabeth has been very bored this summer since we can't go swimming or do anything fun. We decided to experiment with some makeup. Also, Walmart pickup accidentally put in a whip cream we didn't order so she was quite excited about that!  

 

Crazy Storm

 We had a crazy thunder and lightning storm last night! I was caught in it out on my walk. Luckily, I got home before the huge sheets of rain started coming down. I saw some great lightning in those pink clouds. I got the lightning on video but didn't manage to capture any on just pictures. 

Lightning was going like crazy in those pink clouds! 

This is how it started. A light pink that got brighter and then flashes. 

Drying Lavender

 

Jeremy and Elizabeth pulled apart some lavender that was dry. Jeremy is going to put it in his pens! 

Nathan at 13

 Nathan is 13! He is a teenager! 

He is 64.75 inches tall and 124 pounds. He's really been growing quite fast lately. He  has grown 4 inches in the last year.  He is now officially taller than me by .25 inch and just about weighs as much too! He says he is going to try to grow as tall as Jeremy. 

When he grows up, he wants to be a sewer worker. He figures since he doesn't have a sense of smell, he can do jobs no one else wants! This is also what he wanted to be last year. 

His favorite books are Sylo, Pendragon, Harry Potter, and Ranger's Apprentice. 

His favorite shows are The Mandalorian and Star Wars THE Clone Wars.

 His favorite movies are Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings,  and Star Wars. 

His favorite games to play are puzzles and legos. 

At school, his favorite subject is PE.  His least favorite subject is Language Arts due to the poetry which he dislikes. 

There were no big food allergic reactions this year and Nathan didn't develop any new allergies. Nathan has been taking allergy shots for the last year. He now goes in every 3-4 weeks for his maintenance shot. They couldn't get his maintenance dose as high as they wanted it. They tried to bump him up 3 times and he had full body hives. They were very uncomfortable for him and scary for me! So they settled at a lower dose. Even at a lower dose it seems his environmental allergies are a bit better. He doesn't seem to sneeze as much, he doesn't get hives in the grass anymore (he just itches). Also it is currently ragweed season and he's not affected much whereas Elizabeth is sneezing like crazy.  He's still afraid to try foods that bother him due to his Oral Allergy Syndrome. That was the primary reason we started the shots. 

He is still wearing his permanent dental retainer on top. The orthodontist says we can do a phase 2 orthodontic phase anytime to completely straighten out all his teeth. Since we did phase 1, phase 2 won't take long or be difficult. We think we will do that next year when (hopefully) covid is not as prevalent because we have to go to the orthodontist every month. 

Nathan's been working with Jeremy on several of his handyman jobs so he can learn skills and earn some money! He enjoys doing this. He makes some of his own woodworking projects as well. He's made some wooden guns.  He's also a pro at driving now as well. 

Middle school has changed his love of school. For the past 6 years, I was able to write about how much he loved school. Boy, did that change last year. He now hates school and does not ever want to go. He is still a good student. He managed to get all A's for the year except for one B+ in Math a quarter. So he does really well! He just doesn't like any of it. They put him in the advanced classes so they are harder. He doesn't like math anymore and he strongly dislikes LA. Those are 3 of his 6 classes so that really makes him not like school. He also started orchestra this year. He loved his teacher, but did not like playing the cello. So he won't be doing that this year. He likes art and PE and says geography is ok. He rode his bike to school and home except for in the winter when it was cold and dark at 7:30 in the morning. I didn't like him riding in the dark or on slippery roads. I would drive him.

Here are some things he doesn't like: 

1. Clothes Shopping

2. Dressing up nicely

3. Poetry

4. Mean teachers

5. Really hot weather

He still enjoys playing tennis.However, they cancelled that on March 13th and he hasn't played since which is sad for him since he enjoyed it. He also still runs. He runs a mile or a mile and a half most evenings around 8. He runs a mile in 8 minutes and his mile and a half is 12 minutes. Running is one of this favorite things to do outside. He also enjoys biking and target shooting at Gram's. He likes to be outside when it's not too hot. 

North Cascades National Park-Washington Pass Overlook

We stopped at the Washington Pass Overlook.  That was also a very beautiful view! We were up pretty high and saw the winding road that we would drive when we continued on our way. 
e

 We found snow!! The kids had never played in August snow before! 

North Cascades National Park-Ross Lake

Our next stop was Ross Lake.  It was also very beautiful! We found a non-busy turn out and had our lunch. 

 

North Cascades National Park-Diablo Lake

Our next stop was Diablo Lake. This lake was amazingly beautiful!! It was a teal color!!! Elizabeth loved that! The color had something to do with the glacial waters breaking down a certain kind of rock. The color of the rock made the lake this color. There were glaciers in the mountains above the lake I kept taking pictures of they were so pretty! The top pictures are pictures from down at the lake. Then, we drove and saw the view from the top! 

See the hummingbird on that tall flower on the left in the picture below? That was pretty neat!