Ten on Tuesday

Looks like I have a number of random photos that haven't been shared. Here are ten:

1. Bowls. Remember when Micah gifted me a joint pottery lesson? Here were our results:

2. Hiking. Nathan's done some hiking this summer. Here's a shot on a hike with Asher back in June:

3. Paragliding. Nathan's also taking paragliding lessons! He started at the end of June, working wing control on the ground before they're allowed to hike up and actually launch. He was making great progress until he sprained his ankle. ;P So, he's on hold a little while he's rehabbing the ankle but will hopefully be able to resume lessons soon.

4. Noah's rental. During much of July, Noah was on Hokkaido island in north Japan. He decided to rent a car and drive around the island, visiting national parks and sleeping in the car. (It was cheaper to rent the car for the month and sleep in it than to pay for hostels. Apparently, it's a common thing in Japan, as he found plenty of areas for parking that included restrooms and showers and even laundry facilities sometimes.) Here's the car he rented...

5. The view. While driving around Hokkaido, Noah checked in every so often. This was his view during one of our calls. I believe this is on the eastern coast. There have been lots of very cool photos. :)

6. Moving. As I've mentioned, we moved Micah out of his lease in Boulder and back home at the end of July. Here's a glimpse of the "stuff" that came home with him. He definitely accumulated plenty while in Boulder but we're finally mostly unpacked...with a load going to Goodwill and most stuff put away in his room and the overflow stored in Noah's room for now, lol. 

7. Good friends. At the start of August, I got together with friends from our homeschooling days. It's always lovely to catch up with them!

8. More good friends. And later that week I got together with some of the boot camp ladies and had another fabulous time. (I've managed at least a couple other gatherings with friends lately also but neglected to take photos.) Love how many awesome friends I'm able to hang out with!

9. Mt Fuji. While I was hanging out with friends, Noah summited Mt Fuji! He got one of the limited reservations...hiked up to one of the mountain huts...spent the "night" there...and got up to finish the hike to the summit at sunrise. Along the way, he got a hiking stick that they'd stamp/brand at each checkpoint/hut along the route. Apparently, it came in very handy bracing himself against the wind and has since been shipped home to us here.

10. Steamboat. And last weekend, Nathan and I enjoyed a couple days in Steamboat Springs. We wanted to see how Stevie (our new EV) handled on mountain drives (he did great!). We made it up there Saturday afternoon and enjoyed time along the river doing some people watching and then meeting up with friends from boot camp (who have a house in Steamboat and were also up for the weekend) to visit and go to the free Saturday concert. On Sunday, we rode the gondolas, did a little hike (easing Nathan's ankle back), enjoyed more yummy food in town, did some shopping, and headed for home, stopping in Laramie for dinner along the way. Fun times!  

So. That's some more of what's been going on around here. :)  

Twenty!

It's official. We no longer have any teenagers! Micah turned twenty yesterday!

Here are the photos I grabbed before we headed to his birthday dinner at the new Hot Pot Spot here in town. He'd spent much of the day down in Denver with a friend, thrifting and wandering. (That jacket was one of his prized finds.) It was our first time doing hot pot (not Micah's first time but his first time at this particular place), and we had a wonderful meal. We grabbed some desserts at Whole Foods on our way home, and spent a very low key evening just chilling. Welcome to your twenties, lol! ;) 

Let's see. This past year was full for Micah. He finished his BA in Philosophy at CU Boulder in May. Before that, he spent the fall semester enjoying life in a rental house with roommates, helping lead the Taekwondo Club, working part time at the Boulder Escape Room and on campus and, well, thoroughly having a college experience. :) He also switched medications for his arthritis, visited the urgent care a time or two and had a small hole in his retina repaired. The spring semester was much the same, without Taekwondo Club, the escape room or the medical stuff, and with more classes, tattoos and experimentation with his look.  

This summer, he stayed in Boulder and worked at the escape room again (part time). He's been adding certifications and skills and networking and looking for a longer term job. With his lease ending, he moved home last weekend to continue looking for that job. He's still finishing the unpacking and settling in but is enjoying the newly painted room.

This kid. With his motivation and tenacity, the coming year is sure to be another exciting one...full of changes and growth. Can't wait to see what happens! Happy birthday, Micah!

Painting Micah's room

So. It's been on our list for awhile now and we finally did it. We repainted Micah's room. Oy. ;P 

Let me back up for a minute. Micah's been down in Boulder still since his college graduation in May, given that his lease ran through the end of July. With that coming up, he's decided to move back home while he continues looking for jobs rather than sign another lease in Boulder and get locked into living there for another year. All good. :) 

Once that was decided, we realized we'd best get on the repainting...as it's definitely easier to paint while the room is mostly empty (before Micah moved back with all his stuff). Why did it need repainting, you ask? Well. It was, um, ugly. If he ends up doing video interviews, we figured a nice neutral background would be better than an ugly green one, lol. So, Nathan and I painted over the Fourth...let things air out and completely dry while we were on our road trip...and recently finished putting thing back in the room. 

Here are some quick before and afters (just of the paint portion of things):

Yup, the walls were that ugly green. The ceiling was a bright yellow (difficult to see in the photos but trust me). And the closet was a poop brown (though if you looked closely you'd see that some of it was also that bright yellow where we gave up on painting last time).

Here are some of the things we learned:

• Don't let your 7 year old pick the paint colors for his bedroom. ;) Back when we painted the green, Micah was going for a jungle theme??
• Remember to NOT paint the wall you'll need to lean on until after you've painted the ridiculous strip in the corner between the woodwork and the corner/door/etc. 
• Even though the paint assures you that it'll cover things in one coat, it will not. Especially if your walls are textured and a dark/deep color to start with. We ended up doing three coats of the one coat paint.
• Replacing your old, old work lamps with new LED ones that don't make the room into an oven is TOTALLY worth it. 
• We need to do a better job of remembering how much work painting is. Seems like we let just enough time pass that we think it'll be fine, lol.

So, the room is mostly all put back together now. (We'll let Micah finish that part when he actually moves back.) We took the opportunity to also change out the drapes for blackout drapes (the room faces west and gets really warm in the afternoons) and replace a few things like the light fixture and outlet covers. In case you can't tell, the ceiling and closet are now white and the walls are "varnished ivory." Would love to redo all the floors also but that'll have to wait for another day. :) 

Whew.

Thankful Thursday: Road trip wrap-up

...as I was saying...we got back on the road on Sunday but broke up our long, long drive by stopping at Nathan's parents' home in Montana to visit for the afternoon and evening and spend the night. We then finished our journey home on Monday, taking a different route than we've taken before with a small detour to see another wooden troll. She's named Mama Mimi and is just outside Jackson, WY.

We got home late on Monday...2240 miles later. Whew.

So, things I'm thankful for:

• Our rock star 2008 minivan. So thankful that Vinnie continues to reliably get us all over the country. While we'd have loved to drive our new EV, it just didn't make sense for this long a trip so we appreciate still having the option to drive Vinnie.
• Vehicle motion cues on the iPhone. I've never been able to really read in a moving vehicle...I get motion sick. But. I recently discovered a feature on my iPhone that uses little dots to somehow magically help with that. Game changer! I'm still not reading books or anything (I almost never read whole books on digital devices anyhow) but being able to read my emails and such while being a passenger was fantastic. (If you don't know about this and want to...go to settings, accessibility, motion and turn on your "show vehicle motion cues" toggle. You're welcome.)
• Gas station hand soap that smells nice. With all our stops for gas or to stretch and switch drivers or to eat or a combination of those, I ended up washing my hands a lot on our road trip. I truly appreciate those places with soap that smells nice and not like disinfectant. It's a little thing but makes a difference.
• Extra drivers. Yup, it's nice having everyone able to drive. We have our road trip process pretty well down by now and the extra people to switch off is good. (In case you care, if I'm not driving, I almost always get shotgun because I get sick in the back. So, for me, it's particularly nice having someone different to talk with every couple hours. On this trip, it was also useful for Nathan to be able to sit in the back and prop his ankle on the cooler to elevate while others drove.)
• Family lodging. Sincerely thankful for being able to stay in Cassy & Charlie's cabin and at John & Nancy's house during this trip! Not having lodging costs makes a world of difference.
• Family food. So grateful for the plentitude of food all different family members provided along this whole trip, too. I ate too many cookies and kifle but also ate pretty well with all the bulgogi and lumpia and grilled chicken and salmon and watermelon salad and burgers and fresh fruit and ceasar salad and egg salad and just everything. Yum!
• Air conditioning. We didn't have any issues with AC during this trip but I'm always appreciative for air conditioning...such a fabulous invention. 
• Adorable niblings. I got to visit with thirteen of my sixteen niblings (nieces & nephews) during this trip and they're awesome. It's lovely chatting with the grown niblings and hearing about their lives and so much fun playing with and talking with the little ones. Thankful to have so many wonderful niblings!
• Watching my boys with their cousins. It's not often enough but I love watching my boys with their cousins, particularly the ten little ones. Micah does a great job of getting them all riled up and letting them climb all over him and Asher does a great job of keeping them all safe. Happy sigh.
• Trying a different route home. Even though it added about an hour to our trip, we tried a different route home from John & Nancy's this time. Much of Wyoming was still pretty uneventful to drive through, but the different route offered some terrific views for a portion of the drive (in the Grand Tetons area). Plus, we got to see Mama Mimi. :) 

And that concludes my tale of our reunion road trip. :)

Family reunion

We're home! My mom, siblings and I managed another family reunion this year. (We haven't been great at getting everyone together but made an attempt last summer and are trying to do better.)

So, last Wednesday, Nathan, Asher, Micah and I drove (and drove and drove) from our place here in Fort Collins to Lake Coeur d'Alene, ID. It was a LONG day of driving...16 hours on the road. Whew. We just drove straight through, stopping just for gas and food. Big thanks to my baby sister and her husband for the use of their cabin, where we stayed.

On Thursday, people started arriving and gathering at Cassy's home. There was lots of playing and talking and eating... 

My brother Joe's kids were thrilled with all the things to do...their cousin Blaze (Cassy's oldest, same age as Joe's oldest) had set up a slip n slide and waterpark area along with a little arcade area. Case (Cassy's youngest) introduced everyone to his new bearded dragon lizard. Plus there was a trampoline and play structure and plenty of things to ride outside (bikes, go kart type things, etc). Case also challenged most of the big people to arm wrestling. :) 

We all ate too much (especially the cookies that Joe's family brought) then retired for the night...with Cas & Joe's families and my mom staying at Cassy's...Zach & Bekah's families sharing an AirBNB nearby (though we were missing some of the big kids)...and us at Cassy's cabin (obviously missing Noah, who's still in Japan and having a great time). 

Friday we gathered again at Cassy's and managed to take a group photo:

We were missing Noah, all three of Zach's grown kids (two of them actually got there just after this but we couldn't wrangle all the littles again so will try to add them to the photo later...the other had to work), and two of Bek's grown kids (who were in a wedding that weekend). Yeah, it's only going to get harder to get *everyone* together with nine of the grandkids being adults with their own lives now. Still. This was pretty darn good.

Beyond photos, there was LOTS more playing...with the water and just climbing on bigs and on the zipline in the basement and making a torte and in a big basketball tournament.

Oh! And we managed some photos of all five of us!! It's been a good while since we were all together.

Also on Friday, though, Nathan unfortunately sprained his ankle pretty good. It's the same ankle he sprained more than 30 years ago when we were dating and I warned him not to try to play soccer against my baby sister, Cassy. It's not been the same ever since. And, yes, he was playing basketball against Cassy's son, Case (currently the same age that Cassy was when she helped sprain Nathan's ankle all those years ago). ;P

On Saturday, everyone met at the lake. (Bek had to leave, though, to go to that wedding her sons were in.) Cas & Joe took their ten kiddos to play on the AquaPark and beach in the morning then we all met at the cabin for lunch. After that, boat rides were given in groups and those not on the boat played at the beach park...splashing and playing with kayaks. (Asher helped on the boat while Micah and I helped in the water. (Micah and I get motion sick.) Nathan got one of the boat rides (since he could sit on the boat as well as on the shore) and was shuttled back and forth by Cas on their side-by-side.)

We said our goodbyes to Zach and his crew from there then mom, Cas, Joe and I (and our families) met back up at Cassy's for some more play time and visiting and eating. At one point, my 4.5 year old nephew sat down next to Micah (they love Micah) and asked if he wanted to play a game. Micah said "sure, what game?" And the response was "I'm a tiger and you're a person." Then he and his younger brother proceeded to attack Micah. :) Man, we have adorable nieces and nephews!

And then we said our goodbyes and headed back to the cabin for the night...and got on the road again Sunday morning. Whew. More wrap up tomorrow...