Week 19: A.C. for existing portion of the house reinstalled.
Things seemed to come to a screeching halt this week due to baseball playoffs. We had some really good momentum going after Brandon's week off but with games all weekend we were only able to spend a few hours working on the remainder of the plywood on the first floor this week.
July 15, 2023
Week 20: Caldera and State Tournament
Again not much movement on the house which we felt. We can literally feel the time ticking down until Fall, but you can't work every minute so we work as hard as we can and then try to enjoy these moments of vacation and baseball. After we got back from Caldera Brandon tried to reconnect the electrical to the A.C. so that we can have our air back as it's been hot but whatever he did tripped the breaker and we were unable to get it to reset. So when that happens you call Uncle Ryan who laughs at you and then hops in his truck and comes right over to help fix it. Thank you Uncle Ryan!!!!
Sadie is making sure if the house blows up her bird is safely outside. :)
July 22, 2023
Week 21: Standing walls on the 2nd floor.
I discovered a few things this week.
1. My fear of heights is a little bigger than I realized. I usually can rationalize my way out of over reacting. However, standing the outside walls on this 2nd story pushed me to my limit. The combination of how heavy they are and knowing there's nothing I can to do stop them if they would fall and the height issue had my head literally spinning.
2. Left alone for to long 4 year old twins can get into A LOT of mischief.
Sitting in the shade while Mommy cuts studs for the walls. We had planned to spend a day trying to put some kind of perimeter around the 2nd floor for safety but the time it would take plus it being in the way while we were building made us second guess if that made sense. One of the biggest benefits of how hot its been lately is that the kids actually don't want to be out on the roof for that long. The heat really bounces off the plywood and it's pretty miserable but for our purposes with littles that's okay because then they want to go back inside and we don't have to worry about them. Anyway, so we set up a tent over my cut station in the middle of the addition and the rule was not more than 2 littles at a time and they had to SIT in the shade the ENTIRE time. It worked pretty well.
We used wall jacks to lift these walls into place and it really is safe. Brandon has bracing in place and they're really sturdy. I know this but it's still too much for me. Can't wait to be done with this part.
So much new space. So exciting!!!
A silly little bird built a nest behind the siding up here at some point during demo and now has a nest full of babies. We kept hoping that they'd be gone by the time we got to standing these walls but here we are....Standing this wall meant they lost access to their nest and while I know they're just birds we felt bad. The mom and dad bird were going crazy all day flying around trying to figure out how to get in so softies that we are Brandon cut a hole to give them access to their nest.
Back to the 2nd thing I learned... Twins can get into A LOT of mischief when not being properly supervised. Ya, today that looked like giving each other hair cuts. Isn't that lovely. I can't even look them in the eye. All I can see is mullets and bangs. :(
Aubrey
Maddie
We spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evening standing walls. The 2nd span of outside wall was finished Monday and then we started on interior walls which was pretty exciting. The kids were able to help a little more and it's fun to start feeling the space more. We worked on the new laundry room, Sadie's room, the bathroom, and the boys' room this week.
Ice cream sandwich break in Sadie's new room.
Oh and we tried to fix this little situation. Unfortunately there's no fixing it because you can't put the hair back but Maddie's looks alright if you part it in the opposite direction from where it naturally falls, and we're just going to have to get over the bang thing for Aubrey. We did however solve the problem of getting them mixed up thing for a while. I guess that's a positive. I guess... sigh!
Planning your only family vacation of the summer the same weekend as the State Tournament is not advised. However when you're 1 family of 7 sometimes that's the only week that works so you try to make the best of it and honestly who are we kidding we can't remember the last time a family vacation was relaxing anyway. One of the things that does not come with having 7 children is much free time and the little bit that can be found usually comes by sticking to a good routine which vacation is not conducive to. So typically we come home exhausted from managing our chaos on vacation and this year was really no different. This time we were just tired from so much driving and long days in the sun and packing and repacking instead.
This said the memories are always worth it. We love watching the kids make memories with their cousins, the laughter, the bonding with Aunts and Uncles over silly stories like Sadie's friend "George" at the pool or the infamous Aquaphor stick. We love playing games at night and watching movies. We love the way the family looks out for one another swapping around kids for walks or swimming or the park. We love the shared meals and the late night chats with siblings. All this is what we missed the most while we were absolutely loving cheering our boys on in State. We didn't get to be a part of most of those stories this year but we're thankful for all the extra everyone else did so that Sadie and Hazel and Evie could be in Caldera all week and we're thankful that we got to be there for a day on each end as well.
DAY 1: We squeezed in all the things twice on Day 1. Biking, swimming, paddle boarding, canoeing, the park, the pool, movies, treats, yes please!!!
Bubble Braids by Auntie Kendy
Stopping to pick the flowers with sweet Miss Hadley
Cousins
Evie and Ellie-Jo
Aubrey
Maddie
DAY 2: We headed to Sherwood but the 5 girls stayed to play for most of the day before the twins headed back home with Uncle Robert.
So Sassy!!!
DAY 3: The oldest 3 girls had more fun swimming and hanging out with cousins, Grammy watched a lot of baseball as the games were being live streamed which was fun and apparently as the tournament went on more and more people joined in to watch which was fun for us to hear.
DAY 4: Word on the street was Payton and Sadie really missed the boys. Apparently Wyatt's on the go always needing to be doing something is appreciated to a point and they get a little bored without him. That said Sadie helped a lot with the girls and with Tommy and Hadley while we were away which was much appreciated and the were all up to welcome us back when we rolled back in 10 p.m. Sunday night.
DAY 5: We crammed as many things as we could into our last day and although I was hoping to squeeze one more day in at the pool, it turned out that half of the group was checking out this night and once most of the cousins were gone the kids were ready to go too. I think the boys and the twins could have done another day if we'd pushed it, but girls were partied out and we were all tired so until next year that's a wrap.
Tommy and Evie
Evie
Maddie
Hazel
Uncle Brandon is definitely the funnest uncle in the pool.
Hadley
Ollie showing the boys all the golf balls he found in the lake.
Wyatt making lunch while Brandon and I finished up at the pool with the littles.
This girl loves a baby snuggle just like her Mommy.
