first week of summer: water play, treats, and record breaking heat

 we made it through our first week of summer vacation! there were a lot of fun moments, but i'm not going to sugarcoat things for my future self....it was also very hard! i don't know how i can possibly still be surprised by the amount of fighting my kids do after all these years, but i am. i know it won't be like this forever, but right now it feels like there's no end in sight. throw in some extreme heat and every one is a bit crabby. thankfully the kids are at a day camp this week, we were all ready for a healthy break from each other :) maybe not ashford, but he just doesn't realize it.

ok, now onto the fun stuff. last monday we met our friends kay, wyatt, and fritz at the mounger pool in magnolia. it was not open last summer, so we were thrilled to get to go back! they only do 1 hour swim sessions, which is annoying, but it's better than nothing. we had to get there early and wait in line. we had so much fun swimming, but i forgot to take any pics. after that we grabbed a bunch of snacks at the grocery store and went to ella bailey park to hang out.

tuesday we met our friends alison, eleanor, and callum at golden gardens for the afternoon. thankfully it wasn't too crowded and there were plenty of parking spots, which isn't always the case in summer. it was a beautiful day and the kids had fun together. before we left, we walked down to little coney's to get ice cream cones. we are all about the treats lately.

wednesday we stayed home most of the day. azalea and i went to the library in the morning to pick out some books. ashford played minecraft over zoom with his friend fritz. every news outlet kept talking about the heat wave that was coming (forecasting 100 degrees for multiples days in seattle over the weekend). keep in mind, no one really has air conditioning here because it's rarely needed. and i learned it has only been over 100 degrees in seattle 3 times since they started keeping records. whoa. in the afternoon we spent a little time at the school playground, but the kids got bored quickly, so we came back home. 

thursday was also mostly spent at home. i ran errands in the morning. the kids had lots of screen time and i hung out on the deck. in the late afternoon they had a play date with simone and thelonius. the boys stayed here and their mom took the girls to their house. it worked really well. 

friday we went back to mounger pool (i think we will be there a lot this summer!), this time with our friends alison, eleanor, and callum. it was a great day for it as the weather was really starting to heat up.

 

 

azalea has never been one for letting me do much to her hair, but finally at 10 years old she is indulging me. i spent so much of my childhood french braiding friends' hair and getting mine braided, but i hadn't done it in such a long time. it looks so cute on her, though i need to practice a bit more to smooth out the bumps.

 we were actually supposed to go camping over the weekend with our friends vanessa, matt, and ewan, but the area we had a reservation for was forecasting 110 degrees all weekend. no way! we made dinner and watched a movie in front of the fan friday night. after the kids went to bed, i sat on the deck and read my book because it was much cooler out there. and i love my twinkle lights.

saturday morning my friend julie invited azalea and me to meet her family and some other friends from school at secret beach in our neighborhood. it's a hidden beach near rays restaurant that i have only been to a couple of times. it was already in the 80s by the mid morning, so it was a perfect place to be. this picture makes it look like no one was there, but it was actually fairly busy. azalea and i stopped at venture coffee on the way.

 

 

in the afternoon we decided to take a long drive out of the city, so we could enjoy the air conditioned car ;) it ended up getting to 101 degrees in seattle (it was only forecasted to be 96). insane. we got dinner at chipotle and ate outside, which was hot but it was at least in the shade. saturday night was pretty miserable for sleeping. despite our best efforts to keep the house cool, it was anything but! 

 

we were all up early on sunday from fans in the windows and sunlight streaming in at 5am. we hung out at home most of the day. lots of screen time. thatcher decided to book a hotel (using points) for us for the night, so we could actually sleep comfortably. we checked into the holiday inn express a few miles away in the afternoon and it was the best decision ever. we had a lazy evening eating pizza and playing video games/reading in the AC. so nice! 

 

 

we wanted to stay another night but that hotel (and every other one in the area) was sold out. i guess every one had the same idea! it ended up getting to 104 degrees on sunday, which was an all time record for seattle, but monday said "hold my beer!" i guess i'll have to post about monday's temp next week.

i dropped off the kids at their day camp this morning. there is AC in the building and they have a good plan in place for any outside play. i'm enjoying some peaceful hours to myself this week.