Summertime in Sunnyside

We spent the first month of summer at home in Sunnyside, doing swim team and unofficial cross country summer practice. But something was wrong: I could NOT get a good night's sleep! Jeff was breathing more and more loudly. We called it snoring, but it wasn't really traditional snoring. It was super loud breathing. After throwing around idea after idea after idea and trying idea after idea after idea, (and losing newborn proportions of sleep on my part), we finally landed on the possibility that his snoring was allergy-related. Maybe he was allergic to something in our 70 year old dank damp basement bedroom. That very night, Jeff slept upstairs and felt AMAZING the next morning. We were sold. On Wednesday, July 3rd, we did the switcheroo, moving our bedroom upstairs to the playroom and the playroom downstairs to our former basement bedroom. Now we are sleeping in the large room above the garage, and Jeff has noticed such a difference. Since the room is not very well air conditioned, we sleep with a fan running. That plus Jeff's less-allergic quieter breathing has given us real sleep at last. And we love having a light airy large bedroom!


Photo outline:

1. Burger Ranch
2. Bedroom switcheroo
3. Last swim meet
4. Independence Day

1. BURGER RANCH: Rose had a coupon for a free burger from being student of the month at the end of school, so we cashed it in. Jeff ordered Amber a plain bun with cheese on it, and she ate it! The girl is a natural vegetarian. The fresh fried asparagus in spicy fry sauce is a local delicacy.

Climbing the stagecoach at Sunnyside's own local fave, Burger Ranch.

Fried fresh asparagus at Burger Ranch. Yum.

Amber, practicing her two-wheeling.

2. THE BEDROOM SWITCHEROO:

View #1 of our old basement bedroom

Basement bedroom view #2

Basement bedroom view #3

Upstairs bedroom view #1

 Upstairs bedroom view #2: we had to get creative with the lack of closets. Jeff got a freestanding clothing rack and gave me the closet just outside of the room.

 New bedroom view #3: since we had the space, we put our two recliners and our old TV in the corner of the bedroom. We have never kept a TV in our bedroom before, but this is quite a cozy bedroom-sitting room combo.

New bedroom view #4: view from our bed. The windows face east, so we have no trouble waking up nice and early on summer mornings. I laid in bed watching someone's fireworks out those windows on the 4th of July.

3. THE LAST SWIM MEET

July 3rd was the kids' last swim meet before our summer travels begin. It was Rose's third meet and Jay's fourth meet of the season. Jay won his backstroke heat and Rose won the sportsmanship award for her team.

4. INDEPENDENCE DAY

On the 4th of July, we hosted an informal race/run at our house for friends and cross country runners. It was a nice morning for an easy 10k. (I jogged it slowly with friends due to my sore foot.) That afternoon, we went to a White family barbecue and swim at Dan and Leslie's house. Then in the evening, we had a ward swim at the Sunnyside city pool. We went home long before the fireworks started because the kids were tired. Rose was the only one who wanted to see fireworks, so I went outside with her at 10pm and we watched what we could see from our trampoline for a few minutes before retiring to bed. 

Most of the crew (Jay and Amber dodged the picture, and Grampa Dan took the picture for us)

Christy and I were a checkerboard of stars. Thank you, Old Navy!

Annual patriotic picture.

Cousins! Rose and Layne are buddies.

Tate, Amber, and Grayce, enjoying pea pods from Grampa's garden.

Every mom needs some daughter-hair-stylists.