Glossing over July...

Choo-choo

Not even a global pandemic can stop our family train from chugging down the tracks.

Here are a few of the activities and events we've been up to in July.

Prepare yourself for unbridled excitement.

Will is planning on taking the middle three kids out to Utah for a few days.  Utah is significantly more open than California.  The kids miss their cousins.  Will has to go out to Utah for work.  Are those good enough reasons to travel during a pandemic?  I don't know for sure but we are saying they are!  Part of their trip to Utah will include a serious hike.  Will, Wyatt, and Clare have been doing practice hikes up Mt. Diablo.

Adell had us plant seeds as part of a Sunday lesson.  Most of our seeds sprouted up in less than a week.  Lorien and Adell's seeds have yet to show their sprouts.  

Wyatt and his friends got into some trouble and now are on parental lockdown.  They can't hang out unless it is at a friend's house with parental supervision.  It feels like more of a punishment for the adults.  Parenting is the WORST!  Good thing the kids are well mannered and kind when they are around.  I might follow through with my threats to sell them to the circus otherwise.  

On their second training hike, Will and the teenagers made it to the top of Mt. Diablo!

Will and I have matching infected hangnails.  That is marriage folks.  This picture also sums up how we are both feeling about parenting, the state of the world, and every other subject you could suggest right now.

Sometimes the kids take a break from fighting and have fun together.  I can appreciate parenting a little more in those moments.  

Wyatt and I got haircuts days before the official March 17th shut down.  I can go longer but after almost 19 full weeks Wyatt was ready to let a family member take a crack at cutting his hair.

He was not impressed with how it turned out (too short on top) but at least it isn't a reverse mohawk.  I don't think this story is on the blog so I guess I'll tell it now.  When Wyatt was in the first grade we had moved to the apartment in Menlo Park.  That meant a new school for both school-aged kids.  The first day of school started off with a mountain of anxiety for Wyatt when he forgot his backpack and I wouldn't go back to get it before he had to go into class.  It was a disaster!  Well, we decided to make up for that anxiety mess by deeply humiliating him on crazy hair day.  We convinced him to let Will shave a strip of hair down the middle of his head...a reverse mohawk.  Wyatt agreed and went to school with the hairstyle his parents thought for sure would win him friends and the title of "best sense of humor" for the rest of his school days.  Well, he set one reversed mohawk foot on campus and the whole place started pointing and laughing.  The kid wanted to crawl under a pile of rocks.  He settled for the playground slide.  He spent the whole day trying to stay hidden from pointing fingers and laughing faces.  Like I said, it was a disaster.  And I wonder why I think I'm a crappy parent?  

With his head newly shaved, Wyatt took a turn to clean up Lorien's undercut.  He added a lightning bolt for fun.  

In an exciting twist of fate, Will got on a canceled surgery spot out of the blue!  However, this means no trip to Utah for him.  We are going to send the girls anyway but Will is staying home to have his arm carved up.

With COVID 19 restrictions I couldn't come be with him more than drop off.  He sent me this selfie just before being wheeled back to the OR.  The surgery took less than an hour!  His rotator cuff was only torn 35% and there was no tare in his labrum (this is all on his left shoulder, by the way.  He had surgery on his right shoulder in 2014 and ripped his right shoulder out of the socket wakeboarding.).  The surgeon cleaned up and repaired the tear (very little repair, mostly clean up) removed bone spurs, and removed inflammation.  His recovery will be shorter and easier this time around!  He has no restrictions and can get to physical therapy ASAP.  I am happy for him.

I dropped the girls off at the airport for their trip to Utah.  They have a three-hour layover in Las Vegas but I think they will be good.  Adell was so nervous but Clare was cool as a cucumber.  

A couple of deer made their way into our yard and munched on Adell's pears before we scared them off.  Time to get that back gate closed!

The girls had the best time in Utah.  They got to do all the fun things, even if it was 100 degrees every day.  Thank you Dave and Angela for hosting them!

Peace out July!  Three families in our ward have announced their departure to Utah.  And two retired couples are moving.  COVID 19 is keeping school closed again in the fall.  We are annoyed but know we can figure it out.  Distance learning starts August 11th...we shall see how this round goes.