Summer 2013: Planes, Shakes, Jazz and Lots of Water

For the first time, all 6 Garlands went to see a movie on the big screen together:

Because I had a feeling the movie would be too loud for Rachel (I was right!):

Half price Sonic Shakes after 8pm?  We’re there!

25 flavors to pick from… peanut butter and bacon shake? anyone?

Extra thick, right?

Sarah: chocolate
Josh: peanut butter cookie
Zac: chocolate
Rachel:  strawberry banana
The Devoted Mr. Garland:  banana cream pie
Wendi: chocolate cream pie

6 of us at church.  Because church is awesome.

We attended a homeschool seminar… Classical Conversations.  The kids had their own classes: Sarah had Trigonometry Camp (here with friend Cora), the boys had GeoDraw (GEOgraphy) Camp, and Rachel had play camp.  All while I got to learn and brainstorm ideas for our upcoming homeschool year.  We all had such a great time.  Bring on the new school year!

Our former next door neighbors and good friends (who now live an hour away) invited us over for a bbq and swim:

Oh my how we love them!

So thankful!

I hate complainers, but back pain has been a huge bummer this summer for me.  I do my back stretches and try to stay in shape, then I’m simply transferring laundry from our washer to our dryer and I feel that twinge of pain that means I will be sore for a week.  I walk around like I just got off a horse.  Ugh. Enough with the whining.  A hot tub is always a welcome treat. (Any tips for relieving back pain… send them my way!)

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Swimming with the Johnsons:

Zac with his new toy at the Wave:

Backyard Hullabaloo (a game) with neighbor friend Brody:

Lastly, a free jazz concert in the park.  A cushy shuttle bus ride from off-site parking was a highlight!

Picnic dinner, balloons, friends and dancing:

Beach Tent Camping

A Garland first:  Tent camping at the beach!  We joined our friends (Cliffs, Kikers and Sauders) for their church’s weekend at a group camp site in Carlsbad.  The ocean waves were just down the bluffs from our site, so there was no need for white noise as we slept.  Our tent is the big red/maroon one… we kept the rain fly off so we were able to stare up at the meteor shower as we fell asleep.  Only God!


Our trashed tent:  the devoted Mr. Garland and I love these two borrowed cots (thanks Shihatas!).  We seriously need to get our own someday. 

4 sleepers:

Even batgirl needs her beauty sleep:

Morning campfire…

Evening Group dinner, followed by a talent show.  Trombone playing, dancing, football tossing, the works:


Giant-mallows:

And just down the steps…





Boogie boarding and sand play.  What a treat it was to simply wake up and grab our boards for an early morning surf in the waves:



The toe grab:

You know you’re playing hard when even 8yo JOSH falls asleep at the beach:


What a wonderful weekend, meeting so many new friends and camping in new places.  We loved it.

Tidbits

Rachel loves to paint:

I turned 41 (dogs Caleb, Mocha, people Rachel, Zac, Sarah, me and my favey DQ ice cream birthday cake!, Josh, Alisa and Jessica in our garage).  I injured my back the day before, so I headed to the doctor for some birthday pain meds to help me make it through family camp.  Back pain is no fun.

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Jeff’s work (Philips Healthcare) held a “take your kids to work” day (in the summer!  So great.)… so much fun for them! Rachel and I joined in for the first few hours.

A controls engineer gave a science/physics talk for the first hour.  He did every cool experiment in the book!

Zac practiced ventilator assembly:

Jeff shows Rachel how to run the Solid Works cad package (heh heh):

Water dripping from the dining room ceiling… is never a good thing.  And sadly this is the third time for us in our home.  Plumbing has never been our home’s strong suit.

Our upstairs toilet backed up, so water (thankfully clean water!) filled our bathroom floor, and gravity took it downstairs to be captured in blue buckets.

A few water stains in our ceiling… we may have to get some drywall repaired, but it could have been worse, right?!

Look, mom!  A waterfall in the dining room:

Our boys love their legos.  City Legos, Chima Legos.  It’s all good:

Pearl, our sweet cat.  We used to have 2 cats, but we lost one recently… Rex is sadly no longer with us. 

Let’s end on a happy note though…  Evie, Siena, Renee and Sarah… 4 sweet wet suited friends: