Fun Summer Days!

The last few weeks have flown by as summer usually does, and here we are with less than two weeks to go until school starts! Brian's parents came out to our place on Friday the 2nd, and they hung around our place until we left for our vacation rental on Wednesday. We took it easy, Brian and his dad did a bit of work on our upstairs shower, we had our neighborhood get together at Hartman Park, we followed the dog around to make sure he wasn't peeing anywhere - you know, the usual! Adam took an interest in one of our dolls and started playing with it, it was very interesting to watch. Every now and again he engages in some kind of play you might expect from a kid much younger than him, but it's still encouraging to see him involved in some kind of pretend play.

The view from our vacation house was fantastic! We loved being right on the beach. The house itself was nice enough, nothing too spectacular, but we made it work. We had a very relaxing few days! On Thursday we took the ferry over to Lummi Island and hung out on a beach there. We went to the town restaurant for dinner, it was pretty good! Friday we mostly hung around the house, a few of us went over to the grocery store to get some stuff for dinner. The sunsets were beautiful and the kids enjoyed the fires we made two of the evenings. On Saturday we had to take off pretty early so Adam could make his social skills group and Brian's parents had to head home. It was nice to have some time at home over the weekend as well, Brian was able to make some progress on the shower and I was able to relax after all the planning and work it takes to take any kind of vacation with our family!

Last week was a very busy week. Lynsey had her Sambica camp and Nathan had his Lego Robotics camp. Both kids really enjoyed their camps, but all the shuttling back and forth made for a hectic week! It was nice to spend some alone time with Adam, he came with me to the store a few times and he was so calm and relaxed. It was a very pleasant experience! He is either crazy easy to take with you or very challenging. Brian went to Menlo Park Wednesday afternoon and came back Thursday evening, so I was alone with the kids for one evening. We didn't do much this past weekend, Brian and I did go the Facebook adult party at GasWorks Park Friday evening which was fun! Saturday morning was an adventure, I had connected with the owner of one of Jasper's litter mates through a Facebook group so we had a puppy playdate which was fun:-). This past week we haven't had anything formal going on but the days still seemed to fill up. This is life with busy kids and now a dog! I did do all the back to school supplies shopping which is always more work than I think it will be, but what a sense of accomplishment to check everything off the lists:-D.

We are getting used to being dog parents, and Jasper is getting used to being with us. I would say he is 90% potty trained, as he has only had a few accidents in the past week. He still likes to use certain rooms in the house as his potty pads when he sneaks himself into these rooms, hopefully he will eventually abandon this completely so we can stop being so careful to watch for him all the time. It is a bit easier now than it was at the beginning, but I still have to always be looking out for where he is. The kids are driving me crazy some days still with their arguing about him, but I imagine once school starts this will settle down. I guess we will find out! 

Camping down by Long Beach, Washington tomorrow. Long drive ahead and lots of work still to do to prep, but hopefully it's all worth it! The kids are really excited so I guess I should get on board as well haha!

Puppy Life!

The last few weeks have been a blur. Having a puppy is quite consuming, phew! One big milestone that we have reached this week is that he SEEMS to have caught on to going to the bathroom outside. I hesitate to call him potty trained, but he hasn't had a poop accident for over a week, and only a few pee accidents this week (none in the last few days). He has started sitting by the door, sometimes scratching when he wants to go outside to go potty, so this is a pretty good sign in my mind! What a relief, I really did not enjoy the indoor bathroom incidents:-l. He still hates being alone but I feel like we are reaching a bit of a new normal. Slowly but surely he is being trusted in more parts of the house, maybe one day we will be able to let him roam around freely when we aren't home (but we definitely aren't there yet!). The kids often fight about him, but then there are also times when neither of them wants to do anything with him. By and large, I do feel that even though the novelty has worn off a bit, they are both still pretty good about doing stuff with him, especially when I ask them to. 

Nathan finished up his swimming lessons last week and graduated to Level 2! We went camping on Friday to Deception Pass and had a great weekend with the Neibauers! The weather was good, not too warm but warm enough. Not great swimming weather, but all the kids all gave swimming a shot. Adam I think was wistful for the days of the Mexico ocean (who can blame him!) but he did give swimming in the ocean a chance! A bit too cold unfortunately! The lake right on the other side of the beach was much better for swimming. Even Jasper got to do some swimming in the lake:-). 

Brian tore out the shower in our bathroom, so the projects just keep on happening! The cubby unit is done but still needs some parts to be painted (hence the lack of "after" pictures - the room also needs baseboards still!). He is making progress on replacing the shower, I am hoping this will only be a few weeks and not several months! 

This past week has been quite crazy with Adam in Little Bits Equestrian camp and Lynsey in Volleyball camp. Adam did okay in his camp, I feel as though he enjoyed the City of Redmond one more but that could just be because it was more familiar to him. This one was also 4 hours long instead of 3, and I wonder if it was just a bit too long for him. He didn't do too badly, he just had some moments apparently - they never had to call me which is good! Lynsey enjoyed her volleyball camp, hopefully it helped her with some of her basic skills. She liked it because her friend Ari was there, too - friends always make things more fun! It felt like a really busy week for some reason, but I was able to do some cleaning and other prep for Brian's parents' visit. They got here yesterday evening. Brian and his dad are at Seafair today so just Frances and I with the kids. I'm sure we will find something fun to do!