July 2018

We returned from our road trip early in the morning on July 11th. By noon all of the laundry was done and the van was emptied and things were put away. The next day, my sister Peggy and her husband Cory came by for a visit on their way home to Anchorage. The Bloom family came over and joined all of us for dinner. We had seen Peg/Cory a few weeks earlier at the reunion. Their road trip has been months long, not weeks and they are happy to be heading north.

Ryan and Beth hosted a birthday dinner for us on the following Sunday. Weather was hot but there was a nice breeze that made the outdoor BBQ pleasant and the kids enjoyed the pool.

It was time for me to renew my CA driver’s license and I opted for a “real ID” which meant I needed to go in to the DMV office. Luckily, I had made an appointment so I was only there for an hour. There was a 2 hr line just to get a number. But I am now “REAL”.

On my birthday, Michelle and kids took us out for breakfast at Boudin’s in the Fountains. The rest of the day, Rog pampered my with flowers and ice cream. Can’t ask for a better day.

At the end of the month, the whole family went to Lake Tahoe for the annual lunch at Jake’s on the Lake. Rog got his complimentary hula pie and we spent a couple of hours walking around the docks and the shops.

This month was Karissa’s date. We went to the Sacramento iMax to see a 3D documentary on pandas. We stopped across the mall for pizza before heading in. I think it was Karissa’s first 3D movie and the theater was almost empty. When we got back home, Karissa spent the night here and we saw another Amazon documentary on pandas. The next morning was the usual chocolate chip pancake breakfast before she got picked up to head off for a day at the State Fair.

For crafts, the kids get to come more often in the summer. We made inukshuks, the stone figures Canadian Inuits make. The next week, we made brownie pops. Final craft of the month were geodes and gems.