We tried ear candleing (it is where you use a candle to suck out the wax buildup in your ears)
Gideon made this "tiny daddy" to carry with him everywhere he goes. It is just a stretchy band that he ties in knots to make the body. But it is his little companion everywhere, and he talks to it and tells it that he can't be with his daddy, so it will be his "tiny daddy". Gideon put him in his pocket toward the end of our hike to take a "nap", and it must have fallen out. When we got home Gideon was devastated to learn his "tiny daddy" was missing. Luckily I had another stretchy band to make him another one. 
So with summer here, Hawaii had "flattened the curve" which meant we weren't getting a lot of new corona virus cases. Things were slowly starting to open up. We could go hiking and to the beach just not in groups of more than 10. We still had to wear masks everywhere, but most places were opening back up. I took off the month of June teaching piano, and then started up again in July teaching about half my students in person, but they have to wear masks, and so do I, and I sanitize everything in between lessons. We started being able to go to church every other week (half the ward at a time), and every had to stay 6 feet apart, no singing, and wearing masks and sanitizing. I played piano arrangements for the hymns since we weren't allowed to sing. It was nice to be able to go again, even if it was for just a short sacrament meeting. We started doing Waimea Wednesdays which meant that we went to the beach every Wednesday morning with a few other families and let the kids play all morning! They loved it! Gideon didn't like to go in the water, so he mostly climbed on the rocks and played in the sand, but the other kids loved to jump off the rocks into the water and play in the water and sand. We got to go on several more hikes which was fun! Travis was still gone doing Ranger Training, and by the end of June was not going to be able to complete the final part of the course, so he was going to complete Airborne training instead and made it home the end of July! So, he missed the whole summer as well. But we are just happy he made it home safe and sound. Joseph and Jessica are still living with us. Joseph has been unable to join the army as he has gained about 20 lbs, and has been unable to lose it so far, and hasn't been able to get another job either. It has been frustrating, and we've been trying to get him to help out around the house to pay "rent" and not been successful. Joseph had his 19th birthday, and I had my 39th in June. We both had yummy birthday cakes, and had good days. Samuel wanted to earn money to buy a laptop, so he and his friend went around all summer cleaning people's garbage cans for money, and they both earned enough to buy new laptops! We participated in a ward hiking challenge, and went hiking 2-3 times a week, which was a lot of fun, and got to explore a lot of the beauty of Hawaii. We had dentist appointments, got oil changes in the car, go the car registration renewed, my military ID renewed, temple recommend renewed (temple still closed though) and lots of other normal things too. Betsy also started getting really low in iron again, so we had to do two more iron infusions in July and a pill camera to find out what was going on again. We discovered she has more large polyps growing in her small intestines, so she will need to have a procedure done in Oregon again to have them removed. It will take awhile to get everything figured out with all the new problems caused by COVID restrictions. Luckily Travis is back, and should be able to watch the kids while we have to travel for the medical procedure.
Gideon is so happy that daddy is home, he doesn't even care that he's asleep. He just sits next to him and tells him stories!
Caleb working on his rock sculptures
Gideon encouraging our friend Sis. Wallace to get up Koko HeadInside a WWII bunker
When Malachi learned Travis was doing Airborne school, he wanted to "practice" and jumped off the top of the stairs into a huge beanbag trying to find a perfect parachute! I think our couch broke!
No comments:
Post a Comment