Country Fair and Rio Games

We went to the “Country Fair with Ocean Air” (yes, country, not county), Mike finished up classes for the semester, and we camped out in front of the TV to watch the XXXI Summer Olympics. Ah, summertime in its prime!

Monday seems rather boring looking back at the calendar, even though we are exhausted at the end of each day. We did not walk Roxy this week as her owners’ relatives moved across the world from the Philippines to California and came in super late at night.

The kids attended gymnastics, and as Hallie has sat there for the kids for many hours she has met several other grandparents and parents who help pass the time with great conversations. It will be interesting to see what the fall schedule brings in just a few weeks.

This sort of thing certainly will not be happening. 

On Tuesday Hallie started off her day at one of her favorite places: getting her nails done by the beach. Angie the nail tech is so nice and makes for easy conversation, and when she is done Hallie feels happy. It doesn’t hurt that the scenery is beautiful and there is always a cast of characters that walk by the shop. On the way home from Ventura, Hallie ran a few errands which equaled yummy goodness for the family. World Market had Bird’s Custard Powder, so Mike made Nanaimo Bars (thank you for the recipe, Aunt Kira). Vallarta had tapas to make more empanadas from last Sunday’s recipe, and they also sold yerba mate so Mike was happy to have more mate to drink. We did not know how much Eliza like cinnamon gummy bears until Hallie brought home a bag of them from WinCo and found that suddenly one morning they were almost all gone into a cute five-year-old’s belly.

On Wednesday, we went to the Ventura County Fair. Grandma and Grandpa M., Cru, and Sawyer met us at a parking lot at Ventura High School where we caught a school bus to take to the fair. We did not want to pay $10 for parking. This was the first day of the fair, and it was only $1 to get in. A lot of people had the same idea we did, and we stood in a very long line. Thank heavens after the fair doors opened the line seemed to move quickly. We looked at livestock and drooled over the very expensive fair food. We ran into some relatives and two sets of friends from church. We stayed until about 2:00, then we had some lunch at In-N-Out before heading to gymnastics and tutoring.

"Mackinac Island Fudge." Yeah, right. 

Best of Show: Hmm. That building looks familiar. . . . 

Eliza charmed her way into getting a whittled owl.

Hello, Dolly

Hallie started Thursday off by going to a doctor’s appointment in Ventura. As soon as she got home she traded spots with Mike and he left for work. The rest of the day is a blur. Good thing she had a camera. The trio went to a place called Paint a Dream, where each kid painted a ceramic sculpture. 

Friday, Mike and Eliza walked Roxy while Hallie headed to gymnastics with Landon. While at gymnastics, Hallie ran to return something at Kohl’s and on her way out found Capri pants that fit right off the rack. That is a Non Scale Victory in our book. Mike dropped Eliza off with Hallie on his way to work. The girls headed to Nothing Bundt Cakes and CosmoProf for a few errands before Landon got done, and of course we brought home a cake or two.

While walking Roxy, we made a stop at the park. Eliza had to monkey around a bit. 

After lunch we headed over to our friends the Taylors where the kids played for a few hours and the moms had a chance to chat.

In the evening our friend Julia invited us to see Finding Dory on base while Mike worked. This time Hallie stayed awake and watched the whole thing. Another family from church was there and they have boys close to Landon’s age and he was so excited to sit with them.

Around 10:00 a.m. on Saturday our friend Madyson and her cute little boy Charlie came over to go swimming with Hallie and the kids for a couple of hours. The rest of the day was spent loafing around until Mike got home from teaching his last class for the semester (now he gets to grade final papers . . .). In the evening Hallie took Eliza school supply shopping (yup, she is starting Kindergarten).  

Hallie purchased a temporary trial of Sling TV so we could watch the Olympics on our Roku. Saturday and Saturnight the fam watched gymnastics and swimming. After church, we did much of the same. On Sunday morning right before we headed out the door to church, Mike surprised the rest of us by shaving his goatee for the first time in three years. He reports that it’s weird to feel the air on his naked skin. We’ll see how long this lasts. 

Landon built a little temple with Jenga bricks. He wanted to make sure to get a picture of it. Creative, this kid.