Draft Day

 Matthew and his friend Cannon have been SUPER excited for Fantasy Football, even tho we still really don't know if there will be a season yet (thanks COVID 😕). My sister and brother-in-law are really into it as well and they formed a team with the boys and their friend Sam, and me too. 

Today was draft day, and Cannon and Matthew could hardly contain themselves. They have been studying, talking with my sister and really trying to figure out who to draft. 

Cannon came over and we got Michelle on video chat.. and we all drafted "together".

Matthew took the draft VERY seriously..haha!

It was a fun evening and I think we all are happy with our teams. Hoping for an actual season so we can play each other!

Early Morning Ride

 Matthew generally wakes up WAY earlier than his sister, and usually is bored waiting for her to wake up. I have been trying to take him on walks while we wait for Evelyn to rise, but even that was getting "boring". 

So this morning we rode our bikes to the dirt bike track. At 7AM. And he had the BEST time riding around with the place all to himself!

I loved my time with his and love watching him do things that bring him joy!

Passing the Torch

 

Doug showed Matthew the ropes of lawn care today. He is such a great teacher, and he is also really good at mowing, so it was fun to watch him working with Matthew today. 

Passing the torch. The way it should be! 😀💓

Happy Birthday Doug!

 Happy 50th Birthday Doug!!

What the birthday boy was greeted by this morning!

Gifts and cards from the kids and I before he headed down to work.

Due to COVID, we weren't able to have a family get together like we usually do for his birthday. But we still had Doug's aunt Mary over for burgers, wine, and good conversation.

I reached out and had people send birthday cards to Doug. We got over 65 cards.. it was incredible, but not surprising. He is loved by us and so many others!

He thoroughly enjoyed reading them all. 

How are you 50, sweet husband? I love you and am so thankful to be able to grow old with you!

Happy Happy Birthday!!

Shave Ice

 The kids and I were kind of in a funk today. COVID and all that it means is just hard, somedays more than others. 

I decided we needed to get out of the house and do something. A friend had recommended a new shave ice place in Lake Oswego, so I gathered the kids and we went to try it. 

It was a good choice! It tasted amazing and lifted our spirits. The kids and I had great conversations on our trip and all of us were in a better place when we got home. 

Sometimes all you need is just to get out of the house and get a treat!

Thankful for a fun little outing today. 

Bathroom Surpise!

 Someone was busy while we are on vacation!! 

Our upstairs bathroom is one of the only rooms in our house that has NOT had any updating since we bought it. Lots of reasons why that I won't go into. 

My friend Jen's two kiddos are two of Evelyn and Matthew's best friends and they are over her quite a bit (they are our original "quaran-team"). Jen is a sweet friend who works so hard as a single mom and I love hanging out with her. 

Anyways... Jen decided to surprise me and she gave the bathroom a makeover while we were gone! New paint on the walls and ceiling and new decor to give it a fresh new look.

Seriously! I could NOT believe my eyes! I immediately burst into tears and was sobbing off and on the rest of the day. For reals. I cannot believe someone would do that for me!! So incredibly grateful1

It looks amazing and I truly can't express my thanks and gratitude to her enough. I LOVE it!!

Thank you Jen!

COVID Vacay

 VACATION HAPPENED!!

We honestly didn't know if it was going to be possible to go anywhere this summer to to COVID. I am leery of lots of things (hotels, rest areas) plus most attractions are closed. 

BUT.. we knew that camping was a pretty safe bet, being outdoors and packing our own cleaning supplies, so we decided to go for it. 

Ready to go!

Our favorite campgrounds were booked so we decided to try Cottage Grove Lake. They did a great job of keeping every other campsite free so people could be socially distant. They cleaned the bathrooms often (but I still made everyone take clorox wipes and soap when they went...shocker!) and the hosts were nice. And it was just beautiful!

Due to some different things we got to the campground later than expected. It was hot... all we wanted to do was jump in the lake! We hustled and got camp set up and the kids were in the water as soon as possible!

We did something fun this time around.. we rented a tent trailer!! We have often talked about the possibility of owning a trailer of some sort and so we tried one out. There were so many things we loved about it but in the end we know we would need something with more storage. But it suited us perfectly this week and we really enjoyed it!

Dinner, night one!

Our campsite was RIGHT on the water... we had our own beach! The evening was warm and we were in the wate until late evening.. so much fun!

Sun going down over our campsite...so bright and lovely!

There was a "no alcohol" policy at the campground.. we didn't know that until we got there. We followed all of the COVID guidelines and other campground rules... except that one! Solo cups were handy to have! 😀

Beautiful sunset that first night. 

Marshmallows by the campire... a must when camping! 

Matthew and Evelyn both loved their personal sleeping quarters (they each got a pop out.. Doug and I slept on the two sofas in the center of the camper) and Matthew read with a flashlight before bed each night this week!

Morning sunshine! 

Another camping must... hot cocoa by the morning fire!

The pop up trailer was small but we still had room for all of us comfortably. Lots of Uno was played this week too!

Morning walk around the campground

..followed by more lake time. The kids spent most of their days in the water.. it was glorious!

But there was still lots of on land silliness! 

Matthew built several of our campfires this week.. Doug was a great teacher!

Quirkle is our camping game.Every trip! 😀

Evening day 2 shenanigans..

Sunset day 2

I visited Wildlife Safari often as a kid as it was close to where we lived. This camping trip idea actually started with me finding a groupon for Wildlife Safari. We tried to find a place to camp and have fun that was within a hour or so of that, which we did. We got up early one morning and headed down 1-5 for a day trip. It did NOT disappoint and the kids.. all of us.. LOVED Wildlife Safari!

"The Hill". Growing up we traveled this part of I-5 often, and this hill was always my favorite... so I took a photo..haha!

Matthew LOVES cheetahs. LOVES them. So when we told him there were cheetahs at Wildlife Safari, he was all in and super excited. When we finally got to the cheetah area and he saw them, he actually got teary.. it was so sweet. Needless to say the cheetahs did NOT disappoint!

"The Hill" going back to camp. The beauty and amazing animals we saw at Wildlife Safari was incredible. They take such good care of the land and the animals. Truly one of the best experiences the kids have had. SO glad we went!

We did get a little bit of bike riding in but not much...

We instead had LOTS of fun in the water. 

Campfire and star watching... night 3

Last day fun...

We got up and headed out the next morning, thankful for an fun week away together!