Sunday, June 25, 2023

2023, June 19-25

Spring transitioned into summer, and Mike transitioned into a new job. We had Kai for a few days, and Eliza and Dad camped in the front yard. 

We took Kai to the groomer on Monday, so now he looks like a Teddy bear. He even posed for you. 

While we took Kai to the groomer, Eliza was taken to BUH by the neighbor. While there she learned Pickleball and did some yoga. 

Mike got offered a job as a financial planner with TomiPlan in the afternoon. Landon thought this image he took of Dad looked dramatic and epic. Mike thought it looked like Dad was tired and Landon needed to clean his camera lens. Fergus liked having a warm lap to sleep on. 

Hallie likes Kai. Hallie says Kai is soft to pet and he snuggles up to her and follows her around the house (unlike our feline critter who definitely belongs to Mike).

Tuesday and Wednesday Eliza did Taekwondo (currently she is doing tricking and then her regular class). Two hours of continuously moving is good for this energetic 12 year old. 

Our Sorento is in need of serious repairs, as in at least a new transmission and possibly a new engine. We're contemplating whether to pay for repairs or buy a new-to-us car instead. We need something for Mike's new commute. 

While taking Kai for a walk, we came across this mother duck and her brood of ducklings.  


Mike took Landon to Dr. Campbell (sports medicine/orthopedic)for another check-up. Landon hasn't been wearing his brace, so the doctor chided him a bit, and he's on a plan to get back to full activity in the next six weeks. 

In the afternoon, Mike needed to chill out with some kite time. 

He tried to persuade Fergus to join him. Ferg is content to sit near Mike rather than with him. 

Eliza and Hallie joined in (Landon was at work). Kai likes playing tug-of-war with anyone who is willing. As the late afternoon approaches it is fun to have other neighbors walk past our house while we are outside. We met at least one family we had not known before. Two cute kids and their own dog. It was nice.


He's a good travel companion while we run errands. We took him back to his other family on Thursday, where he'll stay until early July. 

Mike started his new job on Thursday. He was feeling anxious until he realized it was 6/22, a number that he has a weirdly uncanny way of seeing in all sorts of places, like clocks, calendars, and (today of all days) on his rental car's odometer. It's probably a coincidence. . . . Or is it?! Whatever it is by the end of the first day at his new job a lot of the anxiety had left. Our family is proud of Mike and his new endeavor. 






 On Friday while doing work from home, Mike heard an unusually loud bird. Turns out the bird was sitting on a shelf in the open garage (the back door from the house to the garage was open too). By the time he got a camera, the bird had noticed him and flittered over to the van parked in the driveway. It kept chirping and keeping its distance until it found a companion with whom to chitter. 



Hallie helped the lady who does her nails to clean her house in preparation for showing it to sell. Here she is working away. It's always more motivating to work on someone else's house than one's own, right? Good music and new people to meet and talk to made time go by fast.

Here is Landon after a long day at Splash Summit. The hot weather hasn't really hit yet, but it's still a grind at times. 

On Saturday, he got the chance to spend most of the day with friends celebrating Sonny's birthday at an escape room and going to the mall. 

Eliza had BUH lessons on Friday, and we got a picture. Ivy and Aspen are great at getting pictures and videos. Eliza came out of the lesson smiling from ear to ear. Hallie asked her what was so amazing. Eliza responded that she got to pole bend in her lesson. The most we can tell you is that it has to do with weaving around poles and that they do it in rodeos. We have to laugh. We are still learning. 

While Landon was partying, the rest of us went out to dinner and for shave ice. Eliza is eating a kid's size.

Landon neglected to let us know his plans for the evening after Sonny's party. Apparently he went to a stake dance. We had to remind him of the importance of communicating his plans, but he didn't seem convinced. 

The dance was held outdoors on account of the pleasant early summer weather. We could hear the music from our house until about 10:30. Coincidentally, Eliza (who likes to camp out on occasion) decided she wanted to do so that same night. She eventually fell asleep. Mike kind of slept. Sleeping in a tent on the hard ground with mosquitoes and a cat who likes to attack the tent at random isn't his favorite. 



Eliza is taking music/ukulele classes at BUH. To distinguish her uke from her peers, she has embellished it with stickers. 


Sunday, June 18, 2023

2023, June 12-18

The kids have kept busy with classes and other activities. They learned about entrepreneurship for teens and celebrated Father's Day.

Eliza started the week learning yoga among other classes at BUH. She also learned to play Pickleball on Monday, but we have no pictures to show of it.



Hallie got her nails done in a patriotic summery picnic theme.


Mike babysat the pets. He has a certain animal magnetism that draws them to him. Fergus asserted that Mike was his person. For the most part, Kai accepted this. Besides, he gets plenty of loves from Hallie and Eliza too.
 




We got a couple of new flag-like thingies to add to Old Glory for Flag Day. Eliza sewed the pennant garland this week at BUH.
 


Landon caught Fergus blepping. Kai went back to his other family later in the week, so perhaps the kitty was just happy to be the undivided center of our affections again. 


Mike had an interview in Midvale midweek. We're feeling hopeful that it results in good things. He may have broken the car though, as it needed to be babied in order to drive right on the return trip and afterwards. He took it to the mechanic on Friday. We haven't yet heard back. . . . 

Eliza worked at Guide 'N' Gallop on Thursday. She got to make friends with the goats as well as the horses.
 

We finally got Landon to clean out his backpack this week. Hidden within, he had a trove of drawing made over the last few months.
 






Eliza made these earrings for Mom.
 

On Friday evening, Mom, Dad, and Eliza went to the Spanish Fork food trucks. At the park were booths for the annual Iceland Day Festival. Eliza made a little rock elf she named Skerry (derived from Icelandic for rocky) and planted some Icelandic poppies.
 



On Saturday, our neighbor Hannah joined the four of us at a "teenpreneur" event organized in part by parents from Eliza's homeschool group who are entrepreneurs. Both the kids and the parents learned quite a bit about both the mindset and background of entrepreneurs.
 


Here's Eliza in her Bridle Up Hope shirt bought at the BUH shop during the open house last week. 


Here she is getting a sketch made by a 16-year-old who works at Lagoon doing drawings. 


As part of the event, the kids broke into work groups where they brainstormed to create ideas for a marketable product in the vein of the TV show Shark Tank.
 


Watch Landon's (impromptu!) presentation for his group at this link. They proposed edible tape to hold together food like burritos and burgers that tend to fall apart while being eaten. When the organizer asked who would purchase this idea if the group had it available for purchase, many hands shot up! 



After the event, we retrieved Kai from his other home. He loves to ride with the windows down! We also stopped by the Provo Farmers Market to get a couple of delicious food items from El Puestito


In the evening, we went up to Gma and Gpa M's so that Landon could mow the lawn, Grandma could see Kai, and Mike could take in the view. 


Kai left his mark on Eliza.


Father's Day Sunday dawned with a walk around the neighborhood. Both pets took part. Fergus will join whoever is walking, so this could become the usual state of things. 


The thistles are in bloom, and the cottonwood fluff is everywhere. 


Landon and Kai accompanied the grownups for Beto's breakfast burritos and Dutch Bros. Kai even got a Pup Cup.
 

Eliza made it into social media again in an advertisement for Guide 'N' Gallop's barrel racing. 


Weather for the day was quite pleasant, if windy. Storm clouds threatened during the day but abated in time for our Sunday Social. Mike even got some kite time in. 


Prior to the social, we enjoyed some outdoor time with pets and neighbors. 




Mike bought himself this LEGO gift, an up-scale minifigure that's about 6 times as tall as a regular minifig (truck and beehive for scale).