An 80th, 60th, 50th, 2 X 21st, and an 18th Birthday celebration at Resort Del Poppa is certainly a great way to kick off the month! The road trip up there was good family time even though it was a little longer than we expected. We loved hanging with Poppa before spending the night in the bus then getting around to finishing the bird house that he had gotten for Christmas the next morning. Then prepping for the big party to come later that day we headed to Grammy's for costumes... yes costumes. And of course, grocery shopping for the food fest included with the party.
Let the party start! The Marty's, Kyle's, and Bakx's came to join. The dogs thought it was a party for them with all the property and Duke to hang out with. There were birthday shirts, sashes, hats, decorations, gifts for all including a life size throw throw burrito! Lots of decorations were around, Kan Jam was played, VR played a part, the cabana was the place to be! Mommy got some amazing hot sauce that she is still enjoying from the Kyles. We made a plethora of Auntie Kimmie's chili and corn bread for a big dinner for all and Grammy started a jam session with the girls and Bakx's.
The next morning many of us took a walk toward the top of the canyon! Then Daddy started a little shooting practice. Before the Murder Mystery Adventure began. And what an adventure it was. Spoiler alert... it was Poppa. Dana did an outstanding job narrating as we all got in costumes and in character! It was definitely a fun experience with such a great group of people!
That night we had more shenanigans with outdoor games and smores before our last night in the tent and preparing for the road trip home the next morning. It was another fun road trip home with the family, and we prepared for the next week to come. The girls had gymnastics camp that week. at least for the beginning. They truly looked forward to 7 hours a day of gymnastics.
That Tuesday, mom was headed home from work and unfortunately the clutch that had been going out for a while on her Subaru sort of went out a little more than was usable, and the car started to overheat. However, being the awesome car that it is, got home just fine. Maybe not as usable as before we went to the mechanic the next day. This mechanic is super awesome for the family but really has never liked the WRX. He said it was time to get rid of it. Mom didn't agree, but we started to discuss possibly getting another car. Daddy had an interesting thought that since we will have a new driver in 1 1/2 years, we could cater the buying experience to Cienna.
As we contemplated our next moves throughout the week, the Shoenbergs arrived in town for a few weeks. We enjoyed getting to see them again and the girls had fun working out with Sadie!
Meanwhile in a nearby place, a real tragedy happened. Mommy got a text early Thursday morning that the girls didn't have gym camp that morning. Of course, that was weird, and she asked if everything was alright. The text back said that the gymnastics center pit caught on fire. Then it was all over the news. Someone broke into the gymnastics center about 2am and at some point, lit something that caught the pit on fire. It engulfed the entire gymnastics center in toxic smoke. The sprinklers went off and the firefighters saved the building! But there won't be any gymnastics done there for quite some time.
We had Clara and Paige over the next evening since there was not going to be practice. Then the following day we all came together for a mini practice in the Mini Gym next door that didn't burn down and had frozen yogurt after as a team. While Kaylee and the rest of the team finished practice, Cienna went with a bunch of her 8th grade buddies and watched The Greatest Showman as a backyard movie.
Back to realizing we will need another vehicle to manage, after sorting out our priorities and compromising, we started looking online for a new/used car. After quite some time we found one that we may have been interested in through a company called SHIFT. A low mileage 2016 VW Jetta. So, we went for a test drive the following morning. We had a good experience and liked the car. There were some features that were not perfect so we expressed this and they immediately said that they would fix them no charge and gave us more money off for any hassle. By the end we got many discounts and took the car for the week before leaving it with their mechanic to fix the imperfections. While they had to wait for the part, they gave us a free rental car (Toyota Forerunner) for as long as it takes, so far, a week and a half. The new part has come in and has been installed and is being programmed at a dealership. They will be returning our car to our doorstep any day.
We all went to watch Lexie get murdered as a singing telegram in her musical CLUE before they headed off to Hawaii and we got to doggy sit Lula. Meanwhile Clara came over for cardboard candy machine making and trampoline fun.
Over that weekend Denise worked hard to book us gymnastics practice time at AGA, a nearby gym that opened their doors to us to be able to use their facilities and be able to continue having fun at gymnastics. The hours were a little different since we wanted to work around AGA schedule and when there was room to workout. They will be able to go at those times till school starts, then we will see what awaits us next.
Many of the gymnasts went to Seal Beach for a farewell bon fire and dinner on the beach for Sadie and Shelby, then we got to have Sadie over for a sleepover, also with Clara and Paige for her final night in town. They stayed up too late eating Handels, playing VR, and having fun before waking up the next morning and walking together for a Starbucks breakfast.
The final camp of the summer for the girls was their second session of "Acting Out". Unfortunately this time it interfered with new gymnastics practice times, so they shared the week but made it work. We also got many visitors in different sizes to stay with us that week/weekend. Grammy and Max showed up. We had fun spending time with them. Max was excited to play with our dogs but may have been a little overwhelmed when we added 3 more dogs to the group. We got to doggy sit Ash, Zelda, and Nala. 3 large dogs and 3 small dogs made for a wild time.
Grammy was able to see the super fun end of the week Acting Out performance. Cienna even fit in a monologue even though they had limited time at camp to practice. We took Adi along to give ice cream sandwiches and cards from our team to thank the fire fighters that helped save our gymnastics building. Grammy liked the Hawaiian flowers in the front of station 45. That night we invited the Marshalls over for BBQ'd ribs. Taking the total dogs for the evening up to 7. Adi, Nicki and Lexie stayed for a sleepover, and made their own "Starbucks" drinks at home in the morning saving a bunch of money!
Next was the summer gymnastics season party at the main Y branch facility. We were in charge of awards this time around and borrowed a friends Cricut to make vinyl stickers to go on medal hangers as gifts. We had a lot of fun doing it together and they turned out great. All the team members were recognized for their hard work and accomplishments through the season. Each one was called up and applauded. Coach George said nice things about both Cienna and Kaylee as they got their award. Mommy had to do a lot of the other presenting and made it through just fine. After the ceremony the pool was open just for them and we had some delicious dinner and treats.
This last month ended with Kaylee getting about 6 inches cut off her hair and Cienna stepped on Millikan campus as a freshman for a high school gymnastics "practice". They ended up just moving and setting up equipment for three hours from the wrestling room to another room across campus.
Just a couple weeks left of summer, and we'll continue to roll with whatever comes next.
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