roller blades

*Took the quads to Oak Glen last week. I can't believe this is right in our backyard.

*Due to Cam's height increasing by the minute, we finally bought him a new bed. He loves having a bigger place to sleep. Being my neat and organized kid, I'm not surprised that every morning he makes that bed like it's going to be in a catalog. ;)

*Since Cam and I have cycling, I've wanted an activity to share with Kendall, so I bought myself a pair of roller blades recently. I've really enjoyed it, however I have had to press pause until I get a certain Amazon purchase in the mail: wrist guards. I'm horrible at stopping and a recent fall made me realize I could really do some damage if I'm not more careful. :)

*My sister's family arrived last week and we had our first outing a few days ago. We took them to Thermon Flats, which was so fun! We had the place to ourselves and they all loved it. Tomorrow we are introducing them to our hikes! Woohoo!

*I gave blood for the first time this past week. Our church hosted the American Red Cross and the whole process was super easy. The worst part, as weird as it sounds, was having to clench my fist over and over before being poked. I HATE having to do this. It grosses me out and always has whenever I've had to get my blood drawn. Ugh. 

*I'll be flying solo today at Costco. With the Covid numbers as high as they are, there really isn't a good reason to have more people than need to go. And for the kids, without samples, reading the books and perusing the tech stuff (I don't let them because of all the touching involved), it just isn't as enjoyable for them. "Not enjoyable" and "Costco" should never be in the same sentence... :(

going to a real restaurant

*We had a cousin sleepover this past week. It included lots of video games, movie watching, making movies, and enjoying hanging out together.

*Chris took Kendall to get her stitches out on Friday. She was quite brave. ;)

*We went out to dinner last night!! We had to make reservations and there were obviously some tweaks to the experience (using your phone for the menu, masks worn except when seated at your table, etc.), but it was such a fun night and made us feel quite normal.

*My reading has sadly really slowed down since I started working again. I have been able to squeeze in, Full Circle. I'm not really an avid Full House fan, but for some reason I read a few things about the book and thought it sounded interesting. She talks a lot about her battle with depression/anxiety, which I find very interesting. She writes in a way that helps you truly understand what people go through when battling the illness. She also talks about how therapeutic running has been in her healing. While I don't run, I have been doing a ton of walking during this quarantine and feel like I can relate to magic that is being outside, walking or running.

*Another book/study I just finished was one of my old Beth Moore studies. I went through this years ago but it was just as good a second time. I've done a few of her studies and have loved each one. Some of my favorite times during the quarantine have been in the morning, when I'm the only one up and I sit on the back patio reading.

*Before dinner last night, we stopped at Costco. On our list:

-Greek Yogurt

-Kirkland Protein Bars-all four of us are ADDICTED to these.

-Swimsuit for Kendall

-Almond Butter-Cameron goes through more nut butter than anyone I know

-Butter

-Sandwich bread/Hawaiian rolls

-Work out shirts for Cameron

-Bananas

-Watermelon-they are so cheap and good here

*Today's agenda includes church, a Walmart grocery pick-up, and a bike ride with my dad and Cameron. I then have one more week of work and I'm officially done till August. And MOST exciting for the week is the arrival of my sister's family on Friday! While they have to quarantine for two weeks once here, we are all still super happy to have them for an entire year. :)

feeling normal

*Kendall's official birthday celebration came in the form of a slumber with our quarantine "family", the quads. The boys came over for  pizza  and the girls remained and stayed the night in a fort downstairs.

*So far, we've been pretty strict with the quarantine and not getting together with others. The last few weeks we've loosened a little. This included a get together with Chris' brother and his family. The kids had a blast.

*After a lot of thought, we also decided to head up for a visit with Chris' parents. It was SOO nice and great to feel normal again. We all had a super relaxing and fun weekend. 

*Debbie had bought Kendall a Diamond Dot kit, which occupied her for hours. She loved it!

*In addition to Hallmark movies (I think Kendall and I watched five!), golf for Chris, and outside time for the kids, we also ate extremely well, as always. Here are the kids making homemade lemonade.

*A couple of days ago, we got together with some friends at a park. As Kendall was roller skating by a leashed dog, he lunged forward and bit her hard in the back of her thigh. Luckily my friend, Jessica, had her first aid kit already out and she helped me clean Kendall up. Poor thing was in a lot of pain and just in shock at what had happened (as we all were!). She is doing much better, thanks to two visits to the doctor (three stiches at one and a tetnus shot at the other). I'm so thankful Jessica was there to guide me in getting the woman's information. I don't think in the chaos of the moment I would have remembered. 

*My work has picked up tenfold so I'm going to sign off simply because I need a break from staring at a screen. Plus Cam and I are off to a training session with his running coach. His school cross country coach has a side company which provides individual coaching for runners. So far Cam has LOVED the daily workouts and reporting in on his progress. :)

*Kendall and I were so excited to see the latest season of Good Witch come to Netflix. We love watching it and I love even more that it is one of the most squeaky clean shows out there!!

*I have never been interested in DIY home projects, crafts, etc. However our barstools had started peeling and looked horrible. After my mom told me how to recover them, I was quite proud of the final product! Much easier than I had anticipated!

*I'm still really enjoying my daily podcast walks. Lately I've been loving all the beautiful roses everywhere. Chris calls me an old lady for noticing and talking about the roses, but I don't care. :)

*Another activity I've learned to love is reading outside. My favorite time to do this is in the morning with a cup of coffee, but as long as I can find shade, I enjoy doing it anytime of day. :

*Last weekend we hiked part of the the Vivian trail to San Gorgonio. This was another strenuous hike for Kendall and she not only loved it, but wants to now tackle the summit. Yikes! I've done it once with Cam and while it was a tad long for my liking, I will obviously do it again so I can be there to celebrate such a huge accomplishment for her. :)

*Speaking of my girl...she turned 11 yesterday! In an effort to make her birthday more special during this quarantine time, I reached out to some school/church friends and family and asked them to send me pictures of themselves with, "Happy Birthday" signs. Everyone came through (including her principal!) and she loved it. :)

harry potter

*We've done a couple of social distancing activities with my dad lately. First was a bike ride...

...then a hike this morning. This was the longest, most strenuous hike Kendall has done and she really liked it! She has recently taken more of an interest in hiking and Cameron and I couldn't be more thrilled!

*Last week was my birthday and I got to plan our day. We headed to the desert, where I wanted to take a family walk around a nice neighborhood. This was a little trickier than we had anticipated since we forgot that most nice communities are gated. But we made it happen (thanks to sneaking in when the gate opened). Next we got Cheesecake Factory to-go and ate outside. It was the most beautiful day and turned out exactly as I had wanted.

*I got a couple of Amazon gift cards for my birthday. I've wanted a new mug for a while and I spent an embarrassingly large amount of time looking for the perfect one (but actually looking was half the fun!). It just came today and I love it! Thanks, Grandma Wanda!

*These are the BEST protein bars around, in my opinion. They are basically the knock-off version of Quest bars and are much, much cheaper.

*Chris and I just started a really interesting documentary:

quarantine week 4

*Drove to the beach one day for a family walk. 

*So thankful to be near the desert.

After one of our hikes, we used my "free birthday hamburger" coupon from Red Robin. A masked and gloved waiter walked our order out to our car, then we found a picnic table at a 

deserted church to eat. :)

*We've experimented a couple of times with making homemade pizza on the grill. We are still perfecting it. The main struggle is transferring the floppy crust onto the grill without it falling apart. Luckily we haven't had any huge disasters!

*Easter started with the kids' favorite "special occasion breakfast", Land of Nod (aka monkey bread).

Post-Easter egg hunt.

*We are still doing "family Crossfit" several days a week. I dread it before, but enjoy doing it and enjoy even more when it's done! :)

*Zooming with the cousins...

what we've been filling our time with...

So life hasn't been too exciting around here, but I wanted to at least document a little of what we've done because I think it will be interesting to read back on years from now...

*I'm doing much better in not checking news all the time. Checking news just equals increased worry.

*I'm onto my second John Grisham book. I used to love reading these. I won't admit how few books I've read in the last few years, so it's been great to get back into it.

*We've been having LOTS of family movie nights and it's been fun to re-watch movies Chris and I probably wouldn't have normally re-watched if we didn't have kids. So far we've showed them:
-Ocean's 11
-Ocean's 13
-U-571
-Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
-Frozen II (umm...we didn't finish this. Chris and I thought the plot was weird. Ha!)

*Getting donuts one morning meant WALKING to get donuts. Finding ways to kill time seems to be the aim :)

(this was before they prohibited even eating outside the restaurants)

*The kids are officially on spring break right now. I think both are looking forward to "school" resuming. They enjoyed seeing their teacher, interacting with their classmates during lessons, etc. Here they are watching an illusionist Kendall's teacher had perform for the kids one day. Such a fun treat.

*I cannot take credit for this idea, but it was a hit! I saw it on a blog I follow. You just divide up the items your kids would normally have for lunch and separate them among the muffin tins. It's a little more time consuming, but what else do I have to do?? :)

*Chris and I discussed this for a while, but we, along with the quads' mom, decided to allow them to continue to play/swap houses. Both families are pretty much quarantined and at this point, we really view them as extended family. It has been a life saver for boredom. Here they are celebrating the quads' birthday last week.

*Our church wanted people to post pics of their families watching the livestream. Here is what Chris posted.

*I know some trails in LA have closed due to the huge influx of people, but luckily the Palm Springs trails are still up and running and soooo beautiful!! I noticed somewhat of an unspoken rule with people facing out (away from the mountain) when someone passes. I guess it's the hiking version of social distancing but it's neat to see people respecting the guideline.

*About a month ago Chris dove back into the world of Crossfit. The timing wasn't ideal to have it shut down so soon after he began, but his coach has been sending workouts to everyone. The kids joined us one time and Chris and I have actually really enjoyed working out together on our back patio. 

 *And that's about it!! On today's agenda, we'll be walking the golf course. Since it's deserted, we thought it would be fun to walk all 18 holes.  After that we'll be supporting our local businesses and going through the Sonic drive-thru (all month kids meals are only $1.99!).