Going Out with a Bang 1: Water Park Fun

While we don't officially start school for a week yet, the next one is going to be full of classroom set up and in-service days, meaning the week we just completed was kind of our LAST OFFICIAL WEEK of summer.  We packed it with fun activities and made the most of it!  Realizing he was not going to get anywhere near to taking his 4 weeks of vacation this year, Dave also took a week off.  This was one of the greatest weeks of summer for us!  We made two lists: one of neglected things to get done and one of fun stuff to do together.  Fun items were little things like "Go out for breakfast" or "Spend a day at the pool, all 4 of us" or "Have some friends over" or "Worship at a new-to-us church".  We feel both rested and accomplished in crossing nearly everything off both lists!

  

We kicked off this Last Official Week of Summer with a trip to the water park with Dorina, Shawn and their girls.  For this outing, Dave hung back to get work done before he took his week off.  We had the best time racing each other down water slides, bobbing in the wave pool, floating in the lazy river, playing tag in the fountain park, and catching up while waiting in lines.

  

After almost 8 hours in the water park, we had an awesome dinner at Pieology-- a new pizza place for us.  The girls amused us with their stellar selfie-taking skills.  Kinda scary just HOW good they are at this!

Spending a day in a water park is unintentionally becoming a summer tradition for us!  (Summer 2015, Summer 2014, Summer 2010)  Something about flying down a water slide brings out the kid in you!  I think it's such fun, we'll have to keep this tradition alive!

A Summer in the Margin

While the first part of our summer was packed with Disneyland, Mount Hermon and camping, the July section of our calendar was blissfully blank.  Dave's schedule is pretty busy and normal this summer and we're trying to save some money for some home-improvement projects, so I decided to embrace all that blank space and intentionally celebrate a nice wide margin in our summer.  The girls and I are having the most delicious, lazy summer!  We sleep long.  We read 700 page books together.  We watch entire seasons of Fixer Upper on Netflix.  We play board games at night.  It has been the most restful season we've had in a long time!

We kicked off summer with some pedicures, courtesy of Auntie Kris.

I got us a pass to the community pool for the summer, so we've been spending nearly every afternoon there.

As my sister and I did when we grew up going to the community pool every day, the girls are becoming strong swimmers.  They are swimming laps, going long distances underwater, and learning how to dive.  While they play "Marco Polo" with friends they are meeting from the community, I am sitting in the shade getting lots of library books read.

 Best part about our pool is that it's somewhat of a secret!  A day care group does come every day, but only for a bit.  When they leave, we literally have it to ourselves!  

We've been eating lots of delicious food this summer!  Our garden and fruit trees are the best they've ever been!  We can hardly keep up with the peaches the size of softballs and huge bowls of tomatoes I'm plucking every few days!  A favorite way to use those tomatoes has been this bruschetta recipe: yellow and red cherry tomatoes from the garden, fresh basil leaves, garlic, salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar and olive oil over warm toasted bread.  Yummmmm!

 For Christmas we gave Dave the gift of permission to buy a new grill.  He finally cashed that in this summer and bought a Traeger, which smokes our meat and makes it the most delectable thing ever.  Come over and let us smoke a brisket or tri-tip for you!!

We've gotten lots of time with our dearest friends.  Building forts, playing badminton and flashlight tag, and talking until late at night with Phil and Jetta.  Playing outside with the girls and catching up with Sara and Arend. 

 And swimming and eating popsicles with Amy and her family.

For her birthday, Delia got rollerblades, so we've also been spending lots of time at church breaking those in.  And when our temps soar into the 109 degree range?  No problem!  We just have Daddy let us into the nice cool church basement!

We do venture out for some errands from time to time.  We went blueberry picking and stocked the freezer with 33 pounds.  We gave the cars a good cleaning.

There has been work too.  One week of summer was dedicated to VBS, where Dave and I once again taught interactive stories up in the Bible room to the 4 rotations of kids (which were huge this year with our numbers being over 100!).  Ella has graduated up to "helper" this year and enjoyed co-leading a crew of students.  We did the Cave Quest VBS, so the girls got creative and dressed as bats on the theme dress up day.

We've also done a lot of house chores and projects.  Ella got all my windows washed for me.  And I spent a weekend totally scrubbing down and affixing new hardware to our 50 kitchen cabinets.

I'm about to say the bad words: school starts in just a few weeks.  But, we are rested and recharged; my house is in great shape; everything we wanted to do came off the summer to-do list; and, though living a life of leisure is certainly heavenly for a short time, I think we're ready.

We Made It to the Top!

Two years ago we went to Yosemite and it was sadly all dried up.  When I saw the recent photos a friend posted of the waterfalls actually going this summer, I was inspired to head back and see the Yosemite we know and love-- one where the rivers are roaring and the falls are flowing.  We made a plan to take the girls on the biggest hike yet-- to see Nevada Falls, a waterfall I have not seen since we hiked to top of Half Dome the summer before we had Ella.  Well, here's the thing about ambitious plans when you have two little hikers-in-training and two adult bodies that have aged 12 years: they change!  We had our butts kicked so thoroughly by the Vernal Falls hike and were so pooped that we did not make it all the way up to Nevada, but felt satisfied enough to just catch a glimpse of it.

The Vernal Falls hike is actually a short one, just over 2 miles round trip.  But the straight uphill you travel for 1000+ feet makes this hike a strenuous one.  The girls had their share of griping, but overall did pretty great considering what we were asking them to do!

We were encouraged when we easily made it to the bridge.

Then came Delia's favorite part of the hike-- that steep granite stairway and its over 600 huge steps.   Delia comes to life on this part of the path and has to repeatedly be told to slow down and wait for her out-of-breath parents.   This happened the last time we hiked this trail too.

The views of Vernal Falls are sooooo worth every extra heart beat, every drop of sweat, and every gasp for breath.  They are unlike any other, making this my all-time favorite hike.  Mist soaking you from the falls, and vibrant rainbows at the base, and people getting engaged around you (for real, we saw this!), just add to the majesty of this sight.

We took in the view of the falls for a good long time and then ventured into brand new territory for the girls-- the second half of the crazy stone steps that take you straight up to the top of the falls.  This is where this hike started getting HARD for almost all of us.  There were tears, there were muscle cramps, there was dehydration.

But, WE MADE IT!  Up at the top, you get another reward-- a great view of all that water tumbling over the cliff and the tiny dot people on the path we were just on far below. 

At the top is also the gorgeous, crystal-clear Emerald Lake that feeds the falls.  We parked it on some huge boulders by this lake and ate our lunch. 

  

After lunch we ventured up the Silver Apron, a great stretch of smooth stone where water gently cascades down.  If the lake you ended in didn't feed a huge waterfall, this would make an amazing waterside!

Once we caught sight of Nevada Falls (see it up there in the picture below?), we felt okay about skipping 800 more feet of elevation gain and taking our worn out selves back down the path.

  

The way down was easier on our hearts and lungs, but harder on our legs.  We made lots of efforts all day to encourage the girls when they were feeling tired and discouraged.  Dave asked, "Do you think Vernal Falls would be as spectacular if you didn't have to work so hard to see it?  Isn't it satisfying to know you've seen something many people aren't able to?"  Delia said, "NO.  I think the falls would be most amazing if you could just walk right up to it!"

Some ice cream in the village and a good long dip in the icy Merced River on the valley floor perked our weary little adventures right up.  The cool snow-melted water felt soooo good on our tired toes and watching the kids swim with a view of Cathedral Rock in the background was super neat.

I'm so happy to have had another opportunity to see my favorite falls this summer.  I thank God for able bodies.  For an ease to the terrible drought we've been dealing with in California.  For family members who are willing to take on hard challenges together.  And for His magnificent creation!

Mount Hermon Video

This year our family was interviewed for the end-of-the-week video Mount Hermon always makes for us.  Each of the 4 of us had a line and it's nicely laid over clips of the week's activities.  If you look closely, you can see Ella flipping pancakes too.  I can't figure out how to embed the video in this post, though, so if you want to see it, you'll have to make a visit to the Mount Hermon website. 

 Here is the link!

Interview with the 9 Year Old

Can't believe my baby is 9 already!  I loved her comments on the eve of her birthday: 

"Tonight, as you put me to bed, you will gaze in my eyes for a long time and think, 'This is the last time I will hug my 8 year old daughter' and your heart will feel happy and sad."  Delia maintains a flare for the dramatic and a goofball side to her personality, but has shown a lot of growth and maturity this year.  We're so proud of her beautiful heart and the way she loves people and the Lord!

Age: 9

Favorite color: Purple

Favorite foods: Shells and cheese, "Favorite Soup" (chicken tortilla), Cheez-Its, all desserts

Favorite book: Treasures of the Snow

Favorite movies: National Treasure, Secret Life of Pets, Finding Dory

Favorite songs: Let's Dance and Sia songs (like Cheap Thrills and Elastic Heart)

Favorite things to play: LEGOs, Shopkins, and rollerblading 

Favorite parts of school: Art and reading (specifically when the teacher reads TO us)

What I want to be when I grow up: A professional dancer

The perfect day is: Rollerblading, swimming, playing outside, then movie night followed by a family game of Dance Charades

My best friends are: Kate and Caroline

The best part of this year has been: Our trip to Disneyland

I am most proud of: Staying out of the hospital this year!

I hope when I'm 9, I'll... Get better at rollerblading, get better grades, and make more friends

4th of July

After spending the past two years with family on the 4th, it was fun to reunite with Phil and Jetta and their kids for a 4th of July similar to ones we've done in the past.  (We had lots of fun looking back at these old photos, maybe you will too!  2012, 2013)  Our day was full of everything you'd expect from a 4th of July and it was fabulous.

We swam for several hours.

We fellowshipped around the grill and feasted on BBQ chicken, corn on the cob, watermelon, beans, and red, white and blue Jello.

We decorated the traditional flag cakes with fruit-stand-fresh strawberries and blueberries.

And then we all headed out for the fireworks show.  This year we found a "secret spot" that had NO other people and an amazing view.  We were also the first ones out of the crowd.  The only drawback was sitting in dry, crunchy grass.  

So, we just saved the sparklers for when we got home.  Hope your 4th was as full of friends, food, fireworks, and fun as ours was!