We stayed at Fort Worden, which is an old Army fort. We stayed in Colonel's housing, which was cool. The houses reminded all the Rasmussons of Connecticut of the old, 100 year old house that they grew up in. Some of them thought the houses were haunted, even! There was a beautiful beach within walking distance, a light house, and Nils' maternal grandmother about 20 minutes away. We spent a lot of time at her house. It was a busy, fun week.
We got Ava's ears pierced at a tattoo parlor in Seattle. (She's been asking for months to get her ears pierced.) It was a much different experience than Claire's, haha. They were so pro. It was muy expensive, but I feel like we'll have a better outcome than we have had with the Claire's regimen. The guy that did the piercing was very sweet to Ava, and clearly a total professional at this business. Two thumbs up!
There is a needle sticking out of her ear in this picture. Look at her fists.
Nils' Grandpa built this boat, and it's been sitting in their front yard for close to two decades. I let Nils know that he's not allowed to do this.
Fremont Troll
"Whale Watching" (See story below)
We had a sawdust hunt- we threw a bunch of change into a pile of sawdust and had the kids search for it. They all loved it!
With Grandma Cook- can you tell I only took one sweatshirt? So chilly!
This picture of Par and Jenny hanging on Grandma Cook's wall just gave us all a lot of joy. So awesome!
FYI, the next several paragraphs are me complaining about crappy stuff that's happened, and about how we're annoyed with our children right now.
We decided to go whale watching right before the reunion started. We read reviews on the internets about how amazing it is. The reviews said things like, "This was the best thing we did on our vacation", "Will remember this for the rest of my life", "Totally worth it", "If you do one thing in the PNW, do this", etc. Well, we were sold! So, we spent kind of a lot of money on tickets thinking this would be totally fantastic. The company has a 96% whale-sighting success rate.
We spent 5 1/2 hours on a boat, on very choppy water, and saw ZERO whales. We saw seagulls, lots of water, a Canadian shoreline, and 3 sea lions on a buoy. We also saw sea-sick passengers, which was a real highlight. The great news is that we can go back any time and try again for free. I think we may be up for it in a few more years, but we need some time to heal emotionally.
This was about as exciting as it got.
Nils and I have been struggling for the past couple of weeks with patience with the children. We definitely feel like we're in the thick of life at the moment. It's probably normal to have peaks and valleys with parenting, but we are in a low valley right now, and we basically feel ready for the kids to move out. The non-structure of summer is killing me. I have summer-time guidelines in place, i.e., no screens before noon, rules for self-care, etc. By noon it's 12 million degrees outside and no one wants to be out in that. The teenagers don't want to do anything, because their brains have turned to mush, and the non-teens want to be entertained all day, which often means going somewhere that costs money. I guess we did too good of a job of making our house an enjoyable place to be, because none of these dang kids ever want to leave (unless it's somewhere expensive). GET OUT MAH HOUSE. Addie is perfectly content to sit in her room all day and read, Anders is content to scream at the XBOX all day, and Aani and Ava are fairly content to play with each other, rather than friends every day. In addition to this, there seems to be a level of slobbishness/laziness/lack of courtesy happening that is just really grating on us parentals. By 9:30 this morning, we were ready to give the teenagers up for adoption, due to their inability to get out of bed/off the couch and complete their responsibilities.
It doesn't help that the sun goes down at 9:30 pm, and it finally starts cooling down then so we want to stay up late and enjoy it. Therefore, we have no alone time in the evenings to decompress and build the love-levels back up for the offspring. We decided today to bring back reasonable bedtimes so that they all survive the next month. We're just tired. It will be fine.
As a side note, Nils has been swearing more than ever since he was called as EQP. I wuv him.
Anders went on High Adventure last week. They hiked King's Peak, which is the highest point in Utah, and about a 28 mile hike. When they got back and he walked in the door, he completely lost it emotionally. In addition to it being incredibly difficult physically, Anders' most prized possessions, his Apple Watch and his phone both got destroyed. His phone dropped out of his pocket right as he got out of the car on the first day, and he didn't realize it. It got rained and hailed on for 3 days. His watch spontaneously popped open and broke. He was very upset, to put it mildly. After he took a shower, he was able to talk to us reasonably. He was asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting the next day, and he talked about trials and how we have to go through hard things sometimes, but they help us grow. His YM president bore his testimony, and said this hike was the hardest thing any of them had ever done- including all of the leaders. He said they all wanted to give up at some point, but every single boy and leader made it to the top. He related the view at the top to our trials- how we don't see the big picture while we're in the thick of something hard, but the clarity will come, and we can rely on our Savior to help us through. Wow. I needed to hear that, because after witnessing Anders breakdown, I kinda thought these experiences were just a pain in the neck for everyone. I'm very thankful for the proper perspective. Anders has since talked about the positives from the experience, and expressed that it was a spiritual experience for him. As for his watch, Apple is going to replace it for free because it was defective. He's been earning money this week to buy a replacement phone, and in the meantime has been using an extra Android (the horror) that Nils has. Everything works out in the end, doesn't it?
Speaking of things being destroyed... that new car we bought for Nils 2 1/2 months ago blew up on his way home from work last week. I mean, it didn't blow up, but a piston punched through the engine block and ruined the engine. What. the. poop. Goodbye, $3,000. We didn't need you, anyway. 😐Super lame.
As it turns out, our neighbor owns a car dealership and was able to hook us up with a mechanic and tow truck, so at least we can feel like we can trust the work that's being done. We are seriously traumatized in the car-buying department, though. What are the odds that we'd have TWO nice (Honda, ahem) vehicles need new engines?? No more Hondas for us, I guess.
Our Blendtec blew up last weekend, too. Geez Louise. Refer to High Adventure lesson above.
In non-negative news, Addie went to Girls Camp and had a great time. They did goat yoga, which apparently is a thing. Addie happens to love and adore goats, so this was a major life highlight for her. Addie has been blessed to be naturally receptive to spiritual things, so she just eats it all up at girls camp and Young Women.
Hey, I got a job! When school starts, I'll be working in a physical therapy clinic 3 days a week doing office stuff. Our friend and neighbor owns the place, and 3 of my other friends work there. In spite of these stellar connections, however, I did have to interview with three different people who I don't know. As far as I can tell, this is the perfect job for li'l old me. Everyone is so nice and has been willing to work with the needs of my family in regards to the schedule. T'will be good. Thanks, Heavenly Father! I'm ready for a new experience, and this is about as good of a family balance as it's gonna get.
I was waiting for my interview- my first one in 16 years! So nervous!
All is well in Zion. We really are A-OK. Just gotta muddle through some yucky stuff, as per the norm of life. Good thing we have some good stuff peppered in!
