After two days at the beach, our third day was a relaxing at home day. The Wilkins came up and we played volleyball, the kids watched a movie, the adults played hot dice and Skip Bo (I won hot dice, but was miserable at Skip Bo), and then ended the day with a lovely dinner back at the Wilkins' house- homemade root beer and all.
For day 2, we had another day at the beach. Yesterday we lasted until 5 PM, which is the latest we have ever stayed at the beach. Today we stayed until about 3:30. It wasn't super hot, and was almost chilly at times, but I think because it wasn't so hot we didn't get too exhausted, and I think that helped us stay longer. The kids were really having the absolute best time- it was really, really hard to leave.
Ben didn't go the second day- instead he and his dad went golfing, which is a fun new tradition of theirs. Ben isn't a fan of the beach, but being able to go golfing with his dad means a lot to him and he really enjoys that tradition he and his dad are starting.
We were very happy to be able to get out of town and head to Bear Lake with Ben's family. This is our 9th year going, and it is always wonderful. I can't believe how well our kids get along with their cousins- they all play together so incredibly well. t's really neat to watch them grow up together. Families are the best!
Just as I knew he would, Ben commandeered the paddle board. That's why I didn't feel guilty buying the paddleboard as a reward for us working so hard to get the deck painted- I knew Ben would LOVE it. He did. And, he told me he wanted to buy 4 more so we can each have our own and go paddle boarding as a family. We will see.
This deck we are having built is taking forever. There are so many different parts!
One thing is painting the new deck cover. It's about 3 stories up. We kept trying to hire it out but nobody could do it.
So, we ended up getting stuck with that task.
It was a much bigger job than we expected! I thought it would take us a couple of hours, but instead it took us about 6. And it was so high! Both Ben and I were praying that nobody would die. Thankfully, nobody did.
The girls were great helpers. Audra held the ladder- which was hot and exhausting- Claire did a lot of the painting of the lower parts, and Camille kept handing Ben the different brushes and rollers that he needed. I was running around making sure that there was enough paint and that everyone had everything they needed.
It looks great! It is nice to work together to accomplish hard things. They don't know it yet, but I ordered a paddleboard for everyone's hard work so that we can have lots of fun at Bear Lake next week. It arrives on Monday as a surprise for the family's hard work.
Audra is at marching band camp this week, so I asked Claire and Camille what they wanted to do, and they said they wanted to hike Lair O' the Bear. So we went up and had a lovely time!
It took A LOT of bribery to get this girl to finally get the vaccine, but she finally did it. In 5 weeks, we will have another fully vaccinated person- happy day! We are proud of her for being brave and putting her phobia aside to help save the world!
