Friday, August 29, 2014

Summer break... La fin!

Believe it or not, my Summer break is coming to an end.
Actually, I am quite ready to go back and see my friends. This week I was at Zoo camp and I sure had a lot of fun!
What? Oh, that's Maman saying: "Yeap, a little too much fun." Apparently I was getting less than stellar reports from the zoo counselors. Come on people, relax, Summer is for fun, just as is the rest of the year by the way.
I had already locked the bathroom stall from the inside and crawled under at the beginning of the week but thought that "a celebratory prank to mark the end of the week at camp"( my words) would be understood and appreciated: so, locking the bathroom stalls I did again. Ok, this time it did not go unnoticed... but, come on, that was fun!

But let me go back in time a little bit. As the weeks of Summer were evaporating in front of our eyes, the kitchen seemed to be the focal point of discussion for the Ps. See, they had decided to do some remodeling in there and it pretty much consumed the last 2 weeks of Maman's break.

I'll walk you through the changes:

Day 1- All is fine, the kitchen is empty, ready for tear out. This is also day 1 of not using the sink and suing the bathroom and for the sink and for kitchen space!

 Day 2: No more counter tops, drawers or doors and a ton more dust! Maman would end up spending nearly 2 hours every evening cleaning the dust
 Day 3: Hard to see the difference but enough has been done that some new appliances can move in. And this is where we find out that the gas line needs to be moved and after it got moved ( a few days after), we learned that we need to change the entire gas line under the house and that it will take another 10 days before it happens.


 It's also the day I decided that it would be fun to go camping. It was hard to convince Maman but after all, we did not go that far since we camped in the backyard. I said "WE" because of course there was no way I was going to sleep alone out there.
 I was super calm and not at all excited that night...


 But after my bedtime story and looking at the stars, it took me not even 2 minutes to fall asleep.
Day 4:Things are shaping up, aren't they? There is still dust flying all over the place.

 It is a super hot week again. We have had a lot of those this Summer. So Maman and I find a cool place to hang out before returning to the dust.


Day 5: It is supposedly completion day. But, as we all know, nothing ever goes as smoothly as planned. But indeed, counter tops are added making it look like it's nearly done!

Papa did not get to see day 5, the final, since he was running the Hood to Coast... well, he was limping more than he was running since his leg was hurting before even starting.

Day 6: Maman and I drive to see Tina and Lilian and we had a very fun day. We found this cool outdoor pool and it looks like my little sister loves water as much as I do!












Day 7: I think I read for most of the day while Papa was trying to install the faucet for the new sink and Maman kept cleaning up the place.
Day 10: The sink is functional! Followed soon by the dishwasher. Maman is sure happy to not have to wash dished in the bathroom!

There was a full day of work done on the kitchen on day 10 and voilĂ ... for now... We are still missing handles and pulls, a hood ( that's going to require some major work), the back splash ( guess who decided to add more tiling to his to do list?) and some painting.
But it looks great and we can finally move back in the kitchen, just in time to cook lunches for my back to school next week!

Before
 After
That's all for today. I am off trying to figure out what kind of prank I could pull off at school...

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Outdoor fun in August

We  are having quite a hot and sunny Summer and it makes being outdoor even more fun; although, if you ask me, this outdoor thing is quite overrated.
Give me books, give me Lego, give me food and I am plenty happy staying inside. I would say "give me screen time" too but it seems that lately, I don't get to see much of any screens. Since the P's had decided to attach screen time with behavior, I am having a tough time keeping my 45 minutes a day. Lately it sounds more like 45 minutes a week at the rate I loose it. Pfff, not fair if you ask me.

But, back to the outdoors...
I certainly drag my feet when it comes to leave the house or any place we stay at, but once outside, I do enjoy it, most of the time.

Here are some of my outdoor experiences this month:

First, Papa had a work party and it was on the river so Papa and I had a little fun out on the Willamette. We tried the paddle board for the first time and we liked it! Swimming was fun too and the water was not too cold.










Bend: We spent a week in Bend and we brought all our outdoorsy toys: swimsuit and goggles, hiking shoes, bikes and the canoe; and we used them all!


Canoe on Elk Lake: there was a smoky haze that day from all the forest fires around but it was still great to explore the lake. I jumped in from the boat and the water was free-zing!









Dillon Falls Hike or Being the most wanted guest in the outdoors: the trail was great and the calm water of the Deschutes was welcoming, But that day, mosquitoes were out in force to welcome us and get pieces of us. We tried to outrun them but it got a little too tiring; so we headed back to the falls for lunch, a calm one we thought. But it was chipmunks this time that were out in force. And the only thing they wanted was our lunch!



Along the Deschutes on our bikes: it was another hot day and we left from the condo on two wheels this time. The P's really liked the scenery; as for me, I was hot and quite happy when after lunch we started heading back... although I had not realized that a lot of the way back was uphill, up big hills too! But with a little enouragement, I did it!



Sparks Lake:  Since we had the canoe, we decided for round number 2 of putting it in the water. This time a bigger but also quieter lake with no motor boats. It was beautiful... that's what the Ps kept saying. As for me, I kept saying that I was hungry but nobody seemed to listen. Oh yeah, they said I could always try to catch fish. We finally found a landing spot and I finally got to eat. On our way back, we went to the marshy area where the water is shallow. I decided to get out of the boat to explore. It felt like quick sand though and soon the canoe was stuck and I had to pull it. That was fun!











The pool: ok, that is an outdoor I don't mind at all! I got to swim every day and that was the best part... oh, wait, no; the best part was staying up until 10:00pm to go look at the stars out there. We saw the big dipper and two satellites traveling fast in the sky.







That's all for now folks. Maman will try to do a little movie that she will add later on.
Two more weeks of fun and then it is zoo camp for me and back to work for Maman!

PS: Talking about Maman, if you are wondering, she came with us on the trip... it's just that she is the one standing behind the camera! You see her?