Week 12 (March 22 - March 28th)

Ollie's favorite thing is to play with other dogs at the dog park.  On Monday it was doodle day :)

I have never seen pink reflected in the water, but I loved it!

These beads can be so frustrating at times.  I spent time fixing Cam's creation (that sat on shelf for a couple months and had gotten broken) and then moved it into the office to protect it and bumped my elbow, causing so many beads to fall.  Again.  Lame.  

Tiff came to town and we were able to have her over for dinner one night and another night I went out with Sara and Tiff for some yummy mexican food combined with a lot of talking.  I sure miss Tiff and wish I got to see her more often!

Allison and Gabby came to preschool, b/c I told them there were cupcakes available, but then they stayed and hung our for a bit.  The kids loved having them there.  

Konrad ran into a tree at the dog park.  It was the loudest bump and created a bump and it was bleeding.  Poor guy!

Cam met up with Klara at the swing park and spent a sunny Saturday with a great friend.  

Sam pulled out her rollerblades.  

Ollie still prefers the shade to the sun :)

Allison had another RVC tournament this weekend.  Another parent sent me this picture of her :)

Sam and I tried out Code Names Duet and really enjoyed this two person version of Code Names!

I had the best afternoon/evening yesterday.  Two of "my" YW went through the temple and one got married.  We raced from an amazing session at the temple to the very end of a reception.  I am so grateful for these YW, who are now adult women, and my amazing friends who were just as happy as I was to celebrate these girls we love.  Being back in the temple was the best.  Feeling the peace.  Surrounded by people that I love.  Feeling the love of my Heavenly Father fill my soul.  

Week 11 (March 15th-21st) (Senior Night, Chair Soccer)

Our key holder has become a mask holder and bottles of hand sanitizer for the preschool families to use when entering and leaving.   

living her best Asynchronous learning life :)

She gets annoyed when I want to take pictures of everything, but her ranch cheeto burger needed a picture

My preschool days lunch.  Sunny-D, vanilla protein powder, lots of spinach, and some frozen berries

Senior Night for Sam

So glad we were able to be there in person to celebrate her!

A bruise on Sam's foot from the diving board:

St. Patrick's Day fun:

Allison's last home volleyball game.  They were able to play in the big gym b/c the JV game was cancelled due to a positive Covid test.  She had a great game.  She was able to play all around which was fun for us to watch.  She had a couple kills, some great saves, and some amazing serves.  She has gotten so much stronger the last few months.  

Dinner INSIDE Taco Time.  That hasn't happened in a year...

We had a Stake Youth Activity where we played chair soccer.  Allison and 3 boys from our ward were the last 4 standing and each got a prize.  Ian, with a broken collar bone was took home the 1st place trophy! (the best trophy I've ever seen actually!)

Cam and her puppy

We went to my parents to watch BYU play UCLA for March Madness.  The Molen's came as well and I think we really just ended up talking in the media room while the game was on in the background.  

Sitting on our new couch in Konrad's office that you can't really see right now b/c its the same color as the wall :)  It's also covered with a blanket to protect it from Ollie's nails.  It turns into a bed, so it will still give Kimber and our airbnb guests a bed to use when they are here.  

• Cam has gymnastics in Puyallup on Wednesday's.  It is normally about a 25 minutes drive.  This past Wednesday it took us 50 minutes to get there and she was 20 minutes late to class.  Traffic going down the hill was bad again.  It hasn't been bad for the past year, but something changed that day and it was back to the normal back up between 4:30-5:30.  This week we will have to make sure we leave earlier!
• My family was all in Arizona this week and we were bummed not to be there with them.  Especially b/c it would have been fun to meet the Kenyon's foster children.  They speak Spanish and it sounds like they had a great time speaking with Doug and playing with all the cousins.  It seems like they had a good time have two little girls around (1.5 and 3)
• Day light savings happened and we are enjoying our lighter evenings.  I took Ollie on a walk around 6:45 and it was totally daylight still!  
• We had a few days this week that we were ready to re-home Oliver.  He had a few days where he wouldn't eat and one day when he was so upset with Konrad that he wouldn't go to him or look at him.  We stopped using the e-collar and the chain collar and focused more on being positive rather than negative corrections.  Missy came over on Friday and helped us with him again and made it all seem a little more possible.  We also found a sitter for him for over spring break, which hopefully works out so we can use the same sitter for our Hawaii trip this summer.  We went from 95% sure we were going to find him a new family, to just plugging along.  We have just really realized we aren't dog people.  We want to keep trying for the girls, Camryn especially, so we will see how Spring Break goes and if we are going to be able to leave him when we travel.  He is 8.5 months old, so we are getting closer to the end of the "horrible first year of owning a puppy"...hopefully things will just get better.  

Sam's Very Last Dive Meet

 Sam had an 11 dive meet for Leagues to conclude her diving career.  She did great!  She wishes a few dives had gone better, but we were all very proud of her.  

We watched from home and I recorded each dive so I could post it on social media for our friends and family to see.  Sam took 7th with a score of 292, her highest score at an 11 dive meet.  It's crazy to think how well she could have done this year had it been a normal year, with 12 weeks of regular meets and then a few more of post season.  She improved every single week.  6 more weeks could have been amazing.  

Sam's friend Elisabeth actually hit her face on the board during a dive and it was pretty scary.  Their coach ran over so quick and the lifeguard actually had to get out of his chair.  She was bleeding from quite a few cuts and scrapes.  Luckily she came out smiling and was able to laugh it off.  She even got back on the board and finished her last 3 dives.  

I took this picture to send to Sam so she could figure out where she was in comparison to the camera :) I had asked her to wave to us, but she was waving at different cameras she saw around the room.  

After Elisabeth's accident:

I cried during Sam's last dive.  I'm so sad this chapter of life is over.  Why do they have to grow up and move away???

From 1st-11th.  1st place, Heather, had like 490 points.  

I asked the girls to take a selfie, so here is a picture them taking their selfie:

and here is their selfie:

Saying bye to Coach:

Dive was a fun sport to have a child involved in.  I'm grateful Sam wanted to try something new back in 2017!  So proud of her and how far she came!  The head swim coach mentioned that back her freshman year she was getting scores in the 50-70's and this year she got up to 192.  Huge progress!

Week 10 (March 8th - March 14th)

Sam has been drawing a lot lately.  

Shopping at Fred Meyer on Monday and I was so cold that my fingers start to turn white.  It always starts with my pinky and moves to the rest of the fingers.  They go numb.  It's awful.  

Ollie spent 4 days with Missy Kelly doing some board and training.  Took a couple days to adjust but then he enjoyed him time there :)  Hoping this will help us figure out to leave him with other pet sitters while we vacation.  

Missy said he loved playing with Azul

Our Oliver James meeting Missy's nephew Oliver James :)

Allison had her first in-person day at Bonney Lake High School!  She was all smiles when I picked her up, so I think she had a good day.  I am really hoping this will be a good thing for her.  We learned that online school is not her thing.  She really struggles keeping with assignments and her grades show that, but then when she turns them in she has all A's...maybe one B.  Hoping face to face time with her teachers will make her feel more accountable.  She's a great student...she has just been running about a week behind for the last few months.  It hasn't been fun for anyone involved.  I just keep telling myself she's on the honor roll...it can't be that bad.  In the moment me doesn't like it though.  Neither does she.  Covid created some major problems for students....

I made Konrad take this picture of me heading up to work with all my liquid. Everyday I laugh at myself as I struggle to open the door to the preschool room.  

I got to be the second leader for Cam's Primary activity.  These 7 year olds are the best.  So many were my preschoolers and it's fun to see them growing up!

Sam switched out her hanging chair for her hammock and I call it her cocoon :)

Another picture from "doggy bootcamp"

He's home!

Jammie Day at preschool:

We had some beautiful sunrises this week...love seeing a beautiful sky when I wake up :)

We had a gorgeous 60 degree day on Saturday.  

Cam can ride the next size up bike.  I can't believe how quickly she's growing up!

Does this lawnmower look like it should blow bubbles?  It's electric.  We will see how it does :)

Signs of spring!

Soaking up some sun on the warm porch

Pickle ball with Ken and Sara

Al and her friends took Ollie for a walk

The girls lost a volleyball in the lake...they hoped it would float into the cove, but it didn't.  Allison took our new kayak out to rescue it.  

We have been training Ollie on the electric fence in our yard.  He is terrified of going close to the white flags around the perimeter of the yard, so it's doing it's job.  He loves to sit and watch the lake.  This time we were impressed b/c he wasn't barking at the girls down on the dock.  

That pink tulip is my favorite right now!

Allison's club team, Rainier Volleyball Club, after their games on Sunday.  The won 2 of the 3.  

Chloe brought Sam the cutest dinosaur that she made!!!  

Sam made a chocolate pudding pie for Pi-Day (3.14)

It was so yummy!

We are moving things around.  The bottom bed used to be in Sam's old room/Konrad's new office, but we bought a couch for the office and moved the bed upstairs to Cam's room.  She is very excited to have bunk beds.  One bed for her animals, one for her :)

• Sam had another great dive meet.  She got 182!  
• I got my first covid vaccine.  My arm hurt for 2.5 days and I had a headache, but otherwise it wasn't too bad.  I'll get my second shot in about a month and I've heard that one is much worse.  I'm nervous.  
• We went and met two families today who are interested in watching Ollie for us when we vacation.  Both seemed like they'd love him and deal with his anxiety.  One would have to kennel him during our spring break trip but has two dogs Ollie could play with.  The second is always home but has a dog that was afraid of Ollie and didn't want anything to do with him.  Neither family is big on walks.  After talking to Missy, we just aren't sure they will be the right fit.  We are now waiting to see if Jordyn wants to watch him in the summer and make some money and then we will make appointments with some other rover sitters if she can't do it.