Lloyd Journey: July 2024

NEOS LOG JULY 2024 We took Karissa to her ice skating lesson so that we could see the progress. We remember taking her to the ice rink for one of our special days together a few years back and she had to use a bucket that she pushed in front of her. Now she is skating backwards, doing circles and starting jumps. Amazing progress.

She has also made a summer bucket list of things she wants to do this summer. She came over for A full day to knock out a few items; we watched Titanic, made oreo cake pops and painted rocks. The following week she came over for s'mores at the bonfire and we finished off a week later with a trip to mini golf.

Meanwhile, Max took a trip to Alaska for his senior adventure. With excessive layovers, he finally made it to Kodiak Island where his next destination was fogged in for 4 days. He finally got his seaplane ride to the beach on the mainland and hiked across Katmai National Park to get up to Brooks Falls. It was a significantly more difficult hike than he had imagined but he made it and spent many hours watching the bears catch salmon in the raids at Brooks Falls. He had a couple more extensive layovers to get home, but was not affected by the airline delays due to software malfunctions.

We got together at Ryan and Beth’s a couple of days after Max got home for July birthdays and he treated us to a great slide show. At the end of the month, the Blooms came by for a final farewell to the college freshman as they left for a month-long road trip ending at Missoula to drop Max off at the University of Montana. They plan to hit a number of national parks in Oregon, Washington, Wyoming and Montana.

Meanwhile, Pops and I have been battling equipment failures. We were able to get the water heater going again, but had to replace the robot vacuum and the microwave. I am still trying to get my computer going but haven’t had a lot of luck with it. The bathroom project is progressing nicely. Rog finished taping the drywall and then put on a skim coat to cover the textured ceiling and walls. That included a few days of sanding before I got called in to paint. By the end of the month, we were ready to start on the floor.