Going Home

 I have not posted about my Mom's health, but I guess I ought to, since this is a journal for our family.  Mom was diagnosed with Stage 4 Colon Cancer 2 months ago. We planned to be out to visit this summer, but Miranda called me and mentioned that all my siblings were going to try to get together for Mom's birthday, which fell on Mother's Day this year.  After a bit of thought, I decided I did not want to be the only kid missing from this epic celebration.  I did not tell Mom I was coming out and I bought tickets to fly into Springfield. I coordinated with Jonathan and Kristy (since they live closest to the airport).  Kristy picked me up at 8pm Thursday and on Friday, Jonathan an I drove down to Mom and Dad's house.  Miranda and her family was already there.  Deborah and Andy and their families arrived Friday night, and Adam flew in from Oregon late-late Friday night and surprised Mom on Saturday.  It was awesome and amazing and so worth the trip!

I had a 4 hour layover in Narita after the 3 hour fright from Okinawa.  I worked on getting my steps in and did some laps around the airport before the long leg of the trip.

I'm on the plane and ready to be bored out of my mind for the next 11.5 hours.  Whoopeee!! 

I had a layover in Dallas and then it was only 1.5 hours to Springfield.

Mom was at the doctor's when I arrived.  When she got home, the little kids lured her to check out this sweet tent we'd just put up.  She went inside and I snuck down so when she came out of the tent, I was there.  It was fantastic.

Totally made it worth the long flight and travel!

Of course I went to Walmart on Friday!!!

And I drooled over the quantity and variety of fruit and was bitterly jealous of the low prices. 

And Adam surprised Mom on Saturday morning and it was the best thing ever.

5th Grade Field Trip

 Delaney is unhappy that she doesn't have any great field trips this year.  But she did have one very little one and she really wanted me to go on last week.  It was a very exciting trip to...... the middle school.

I got to hang out with a bunch of excited and rowdy 5th graders as we took the bus to the middle school and got to tour it.  The 6th graders giving the tour did a most excellent job and were pretty thorough.  Delaney is not happy to be moving into middle school next year.

Trying out the cool chair in the library.  She may or may not have rocked it too far and fallen backwards and gotten stuck.

Checking out the hallways and feeling amused by her silly classmates. 

Learning about Seminar class.

Good Grades

 I got to go to the Elementary School Award ceremony. I love that it is short and sweet!  Just the 5th grade classes.  Apparently Delaney got all A's this last quarter.

Miscellaneous

I am still making blankets.  Just not as much as I would like. I need to be less busy so I have more time! I do love the scrappy ones. 

This poor little bird managed to get in the house and flew dramatically into the blinds on this window.  He hid here and refused to budge, so I had to use a scarf to scoop him up and carry him outside, where he flew away quickly. 

Waiting at the eye doc.  I love that both of them are reading!

This kid needs glasses. I took her to the mall to try some on and she hated everything.  I even took some pictures of her with them on so she could see how she looked.  She was not impressed. 

 I found this selfie on my phone and it made me happy!  She has been so diligent with her patching and her eye has improved significantly.  Hooray!

Josh is staying after school on Wednesdays for Wood Working Club.  He made me this bench!  I am impressed!

Back at the Beach

 We wanted to go to the beach on a lovely Saturday.  Somehow we decided to head towards Sand Dollar and Sea Glass Beaches and find a good place to stop. If we didn't find a new place we could park, we would just go on to Sea Glass Beach.

We followed the road around the coast and passed our parking spot for Sand Dollar Beach. There were cars taking it up already, so we continued on.  We saw a sign that said "Beach" with an arrow, so we were adventurous and followed it.

We ended up driving down this for a bit!  It ended in a parking area with about 10 cars there, so we joined the crowd.

The path down to the beach popped us out to this glorious sight.

It was a lovely beach with soft sand, which is rare. But the soft sand and lovely beach was just here.  You could walk to the right and in 1/2 mile or so you would find Sand Dollar Beach.  To the left, you would eventually get to Sea Glass Beach.  We went left.

It was mostly this coral rock and no sand.  No good shells to find either.  And no sand dollars.

These girls did not care!  Oh, did I mention that we brought the dog?!  Levi was thrilled to be out sniffing stuff.

Much climbing was done. And much fun was had in the process.

I needed a picture of this because it made me think of my geologist sister and how much fun she would have with these rock formations. 

 Trying out their poses.

Being silly.  And making me laugh. 

 Levi did a surprisingly great job getting up and down the rocks.  He was having a blast.

I know, they made me take a million pictures.  Be glad I did not post them all!! 

I think they wanted every mountain climbed to be documented.   

 And they sound this little cave.  It was not very exciting.

Levi enjoyed the sand, but boy was he a stinky mess when we got home! 

 I do not know why Callie is flaring signs.  I think she's just too cool.  Actually, she is, since she found this nifty little cave here.

 Rylee is sulking up there.  Apparently I forgot to take her picture and she was mad.  Since I had taken 500 pictures already, I don't know how she knew I had missed one!

 Selfie at the Beach! I'm loving it!

Levi loves the beach, but is not a huge fan of the water. He prefers knee deep or less.  So Callie was particularly pleased with herself that she got him to swim out and back from that rocky island.  

 And here he is, swimming back in!  He was such a good dog.

We did walk all the way around to Sea Glass Beach and it was a lot of fun.  We made it halfway back before Levi cut his paw on something and we alternated between walking him back, stopping so he could lick it, and getting him to walk in the water to rinse if off.  It ended up being a little cut on the side of his main paw pad, and it stopped bleeding once he stopped messing with it and we got him in the car.  We may need doggie boots for him. Our awesome felt-bottom boots were amazing and kept our feet safe.