August 2017

Let's be real, it's October 20th as I type this and August seems a distant memory. It was a whirlwind of prepartion for school, I know that because I really had to dig in to prepare to tutor our five challenge A students. Lots of orientations with parents and finding the treasure trove of the CC Challenge A director page on facebook, both wonderful and overwhelming at the same time. Of course the big deal of August was the solar eclipse. We were not immune to the craze and while a little late to the planning game still managed to get a great little cabin on Mt. hood and find a random resout out in the boonies of Oregon. It was called Kahneeta and you could rent tepees there which is pretty cool. They had a pool so after the "main event" we spent the afternoon swimming in hopes that we might miss the traffic back up to the mountain. There had clearly been many fires in the area so it made an already eery event even stranger. You could see where the green grass of the park where we watched the eclipse met the black of the charred scrub hills. It turned out to be a great family trip! The eclipse was certainly a unique sight and Jeremy is hooked, we may be making excuses to see more around the world. We had a ton of fun having cousin Morgyn along for the kids and Jeremy's mom met us with my nephew William. I love that she is such an adventurer. Beginning in June or July ( I can't remember now) we embarked on a mission to change Trinity's thought process with anxiety. I don't often update on the kids in a personal way anymore, I just came to the conclusion they might want a little more privacy in their lives. However we don't hide the fact that the kids have some particular things that they deal with and for Trinity that has been a jounrey from a young age with anxiety. Ever since Morgyn had gotten a ball python trinity was suddenly obsessed. She spend hours researching and finding you-tubers that bred reptiles or owned and taught about reptiles. She begged us for one. So I cut her a deal. Three months of cutting out the negative approach she had fallen into with her attitude toward anxiety and she could have a snake. Thinking I was crazy I brought it up with her doctor who laughed and said it sounded like the perfect motivation. Now I was stuck with it, lol! and I will say so has Trinity. It's been so awesome to see her take that deep breath when she is experience discomfort from the anxiety and yet lift her chin and face the situation head on. It hasn't been easy and we are incredibly proud. Her mood has stabilized a fair bit and her whole demeanor has changed. So yes she earned the snake, she brought it home last weekend. But that will have to wait for October's post. Thanks to everyone that helped us enjoy a great summer! 

 It's hard to rub that zinc stuff in!

 Pics from the trip to Mt. Hood for the SOlar Eclipse

 our one water park day

 oh you know just those puppy snuggles

 somehow my friend Morgan and I got to talking about dolls

and she was impressed I still have my cabbage patch doll

 sometimes on a hot summer day you treat everyone to lunch out!

 still enjoying the karate thing

 how many grapes can you fit in your mouth?

 Trin in her happy snake place. This was after an evening of arguing over screens. I had kicked them outside to help me weed and low and behold I saw the grass wriggle. I was impressed Trinity was able to catch it as it was just a wee baby one.

 as many beaches as we could get to