Smoke and Seattle

 

The wildness of 2020 just doesn't want to S-T-O-P!  The weekend of August 15th-16th we had some major lightning storms.  The flashes and thunder cracks kept me up for most of the night Saturday to Sunday.  Lightning struck in places all over the Bay Area and started several fires.  The dry, hot weather did not help things.  The lightning strike fires quickly turned into full rushing wildfires.  We've had the biggest fires in history since the lightning storms.  To make matters worse, the two biggest fires are raging north and south of us.  Like I keep telling my family,  we are not in any danger but it is troublesome.  The air is also incredibly smoky.  

Smoky, smoky, smoky, it has been uncomfortable to be outside for any amount of time.  The cloud covered sun makes the light red and eerie.  It feels like we are living on Mars.

After a week of incredible heat and unbreathable air Will and I decided on a Friday night to escape the Bay Area for clean air.  We checked our unused frequent flyer miles to see how far away we could get with short notice.  Our options were Southern California, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, and Seattle.  Seattle was the only place where it wasn't going to be hot and smoky.  So off we went (with some drama and fighting on behalf of some of the kids). 

It was too sad to see all the smoke as we rose over the Bay Area in the plane.  We also flew over the biggest fire north of us.  

We arrived in Seattle late at night Friday night and took Ubers to our hotel.  The air was fresh and smoke-free!  Saturday morning we got up and explored the area around our hotel in Renton.  Will found this cool walkway we dubbed the secret tunnel.  All weekend we sang a song from the Avatar The Airbender cartoon about secret tunnels.  It was a good family joke.

 

We also discovered loads of wild blackberry bushes and picked ourselves a feast.  

Lorien graciously offered to do my makeup for the day...I agreed and woop!

Saturday was a day of exploration.  We met dear friends from our Boston days and took the ferry across the Sound to Bainbridge Island.  

We enjoyed a hike around the Gazam Lake where Lorien tapped into all of her Orion Elementary School charms: finding a banana slug for kissing and climbing on rocks.  Orion used to have a family camping weekend every year in the Redwoods.  We went once or twice and it was always a tradition to have the kids smooch a banana slug on the trip.  Good times.

We enjoyed dinner at a restaurant called Proper Fish with our friends and said our goodbyes.  

Sunday was another day of exploring, except downtown Seattle this time.  We did all the touristy stuff we could!  First up, a ride on the gigantic Ferris wheel.  

Next touristy stop was Pikes Place Public Market.  We wandered the shops and stands enjoying the outside air.  We ate some delicious food from a Chinese Market stall and some treats from a bakery.  

Our last touristy to do was the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum.  Dale Chihuly was a Seattle artist who pushed the boundaries with blown glass sculpture.  The Museum is like a glass version of the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory.  It is beautiful!  We also enjoyed learning about Chihuly's process for assembling chandeliers (totally random and unplanned...) and watching a glass blowing demonstration live!

After the awesomeness of downtown Seattle, we went over to our Boston's friend's house for dinner.  The Feinstines have been our friends for twenty years.  We met in the Revere 2nd ward.  Suzanne and I were visiting teaching companions.  We learned a little bit about being foodies from the Feinstiens.  Dinner was spectacular, no surprise.  Harlan made us sourdough pizza!

Monday we tested out remote learning from anywhere and the hotel's wifi abilities.  The little kids were able to attend school just fine.  Clare was ok with one or two hiccoughs.  Wyatt was ok too but didn't pack his charger cord...so it was a bit of a bust once his battery died.  Alas, we learned home is best for distance learning and that our kids are not adaptable with their education strategies.  

Once school was over we packed up, checked out, and hit up Pikes Market one more time where we found the famed and disgusting gum alley.  One fun discovery, in the office building next to us was Wizards of the Coast.  Will and I didn't know what that was but Wyatt did!  Apparently, Wizards of the Coast makes Dungeons and Dragons.  After dinner from the Mecca Grill, a hole in the wall middle eastern food place Will found.  

We loved our time in Seattle.  The kids were hit and miss on their love.  Lorien, Adell, and Colter had the most fun.  Clare and Wyatt didn't feel like the trip was worth the interruption to their education...so we probably can't actually learn from anywhere this year.  Well, maybe we will just leave Clare and Wyatt home the next time we want to go.  That should work!  

Back To School! Sort of...

You know what's up in the world in 2020.  Even if you are reading this in the future you know...2020 was a mess.  Part of that mess was COVID19.  Part of that mess was distance learning to prevent the spread of COVID 19.  Our little corner of the world was no different.  The kids went "back" to school on Thursday.  They got out of their beds wearing a variety of attire, sat down at the kitchen table, opened their screens, and "went" to school.  It was for sure the weirdest first day of school we have ever had.  I hope it will always be the weirdest.  

We learned some things about distance learning last spring.  We learned that most of the kids will not do their school work if we leave them alone in their bedrooms.  So this time everyone has to be down at the kitchen table working at the same time.  We told everyone, in this house summer vacation ends on August 13th. 

After one day of learning at the kitchen table, we learned a few more things.  We learned that our kitchen chairs were probably made by Catholic priests in charge during the inquisition.  They are wildly uncomfortable if you have to sit in them for more than 30 minutes.  We also learned that all that school crap has no place to go when it is time to eat a meal.  And while we all like to eat in front of the TV, eating three meals a day for 180 school days in front of the TV is not as awesome as it sounds.  

Wyatt and I put our brains together and came up with the idea of building a long desk in the living room.  After all, our living room doesn't get much use as far as living goes.  We are screen people and there isn't a screen in our living room.  We also don't entertain...so what's the use of a formal living room.  No one wants to come over and talk to us and no one is allowed to anyway.  We priced out materials, made plans, bought materials, and got to work.  

 

We borrowed some chairs from Will's office and got the desk 100 percent set up in time for school Monday.  It is going to be a great year...

Lorien starts school on the last day of August...so while her summer vacation is officially over because she still lives at home...she gets a little pass to not be downstairs bothering the children while they are at school.  

Another room painted...

 Inspired by all the projects I got done at Ashley's house last weekend, I decided to dive into a project at my house.  Lorien has officially decided she isn't going back down to LA for school.  She will still attend college at SMC but all of her classes are online...she can be anywhere.  We gave her the option of having her own apartment but she would have to help with rent this year.  She picked free living.  So it was time to move her out of Wyatt's room and switch everyone around.  Clare and Adell will share now.  Wyatt gets a room to himself for a little bit.  Colter and Lorien will be roommates.  

We hauled everyone's crap out of their respective rooms, painted Colter and Adell's old room, and moved everyone's crap back into their new spaces.  It was a jumbled mess for a few days.  Good thing my housecleaner thought she had COVID and had to cancel this week's cleaning (she did not have COVID and there is a lot of sarcasm in that "good thing" phrase...you just can't hear it).

Adell helped pick the paint color...even though it won't be her room anymore.  She and Colter agreed on a pale purple color.  It turned out just fine.  Now everyone can fight with slightly different people.  

Breaking the law for friendship?

 

So, I don't know if I broke the law or not.  I am pretty sure I did not...but...here I am blogging about it for the record.  I went out to Connecticut to visit two of my dearest friends.  We've been tryng to organize a get together for a hundred years.  Finally, we gave up on fun and agreed to get together to help Ashley get some projects done.  

We worked our tails off for three days and accomplished so much!  Not to mention this weekend happened during a nationwide heatwave with nearly 100 percent humidity in the North East.  I don't think I have ever sweat so much in my life.  I was thankful for two things: thankful I had made the effort in the last two months to regularly drink 100 ounces of water every day.  And: that I grew up in the North East and was very comfortable in humidity.  It just felt like home.  Always damp, always sweaty, if I flapped my arms hard enough I could have started swimming through the air.  

Even though we were working our butts off we managed to fill every second with fun.  We did a matchy-matchy day with our leopard print t-shirts.  

We worked, laughed, ate, talked, and occasionally took care of children.  Mostly we worked.  We moved Ashley's kid's bedrooms around so her daughter could have a turn having a room to herself.  We cleared out her breezeway and turned it into the toy room.  We set up a new bed frame, cleaned up and organized her bedroom.  What else, we really organized and sorted stuff in every single room: bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, living room, breezeway, and even the garage and basement!  It was impressive.  Here are a couple of before and after shots of the breezeway:

The truth of truths, you can accomplish even the most unpleasant task with pleasant company.  Every minute was a joy because I got to talk and laugh with these awesome ladies the whole time.  I'd go back and do it all over again in a second.  

                              

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.