Raising teens again!

Despite the record breaking amount of rain this summer, we have had a marvelous time in the sun or raindrops ☔️with our 7 girls & 3 boys! No, we don’t have that many teens living with us now, but we have had intermittent family visiting! First, for the past 1 1/2 years we’ve had the two teen girls, Kailey & Lexi here (The older one is now 20) plus the 2 little ones, Khloe & Aubrey, that come over every day every other week. Then, an older artist 🎨granddaughter Emi moved in for what turned out to be 4 months, then Kailey gave birth to my first great granddaughter Aria 3 weeks early on June 14! ❤️ Two weeks later Kailey & baby went for a 2 month visit to family in Idaho. Soon after, our daughter from London, Stephanie visited for a week. (Hadn’t seen her in over 4 years.) Shortly after that, our oldest granddaughter Amber & her 3 kids, (We hadn’t seen her in 9 years.) came for a week of adventures. We hadn’t met Elias, Seeley & Carol Ann.

Finally Lexi went to visit the Idaho family for a week, all 3 returned, and our artist moved to a place that is more suited for her painting! Sooo, we are back having JUST 2 girls and a baby. Whew! The 2 little girls are in school 📚now but we love walking to get them at 3:30 every other week.

Do you feel exhausted just reading this? Lol.
Actually I think I thrive on organized chaos. I’m a little bit OCD. Doing tons of laundry 🧺didn’t bother me, especially knowing that it wouldn’t last forever. 😅 The only “crisis” we had was the fridge & freezer 🥶became overwhelmed due to copious amounts of food stored plus the doors being opened so much, which resulted in some strange noises and it struggled to keep things cold enough for a day or two! Can you say “DON’T open that door till you know what you want!” 17 times a day? 😂

So, since April we have had a baby 👶🏼shower, ( spearheaded by our oldest daughter Nicki visiting from Cal) fun eating out with all the above mentioned family plus another grown granddaughter Leah, our youngest son Doug, (First time grandpa.) many hiking 🥾adventures, teaching them to play Mexican train dominoes, 🇲🇽🛤️ car rides, walking at Potter Marsh & observing salmon 🎏 and birds, 🦅 ( Yes we did see Eagles) slow walking with David through the forest, tromping through a creek with Doug & 2 dogs, hiking at Thunderbird Falls & dipping toes in that creek, Emi teaching the little girls how to paint on large canvases, and many more excursions that I cannot recall!

Whew. That’s a lot of fun for one summer. I’m feeling super grateful! And now that baby is back it’s time for Fall cuddles, more walks, and for sure more Pickleball. ☺️ We are blessed for sure!