June 2021

We started June off with a California get-a-way. 

Four of us are NOT good travelers.

I am for sure one of them.  

Those poor kids inherited the Lund Carsickness Traits and they can hardly go to the grocery store without puking.  They wanted to go to the beach, but were very nervous about driving in the car for 6 hours. 

We came up with a plan to buy nausea bracelets (which I think are more of a placebo than anything) and we hopped them up on dramamine.

Consequently, they slept the entire six hour journey.

It was the most pleasant trip ever

Everybody needs a sister for a pillow

Mouth-wide-open slumbering

Poor Peyton, she suffers from new found anxiety. (I wonder where she gets that?)

We are tying to instill confidence in her, so that she doesn't need to worry so much.  We are trying to teach her that she can handle anything that comes her way because she is resourceful and capable with her own skills and intellegence.  

She breaks my heart sometimes because she tries to act like she is a tough kid, while tears well up in her eyes.

This trip will be good for her to see that she can handle the unknown

Of course, we hit a massive traffic jam in Victorville as we always do.

At least this time it wasn't in a blizzard

First stop.

Miguels in Corona.

Then we checked out the resort

Marriott's Newport Coast Villas

 On Sunday, we took it easy.

We woke up to overcast, rainy conditions and it was absolutely gorgeous.

The clouds were low and were kind of hanging in the trees and the trees and the landscaping is so green in Newport Beach you almost can't describe it.  Raleigh and I left early and drove up PCH and looked at the water.

We sat by the pool and listened to Oprah Super Soul Sunday

It looks like it is warm, but let me assure you IT WAS NOT

Then we People Watched and walked around Fashion Island

(HAHAHAHAHAAAAA....  look at unknown grandpa there, who just plopped himself in the middle of our family photo)

Walt was the only one who would pose in front of the koi pond for me.

On Monday, we woke up early and went on a killer walk

It was a huge uphill jaunt that went on for miles and our thighs were aching

Even the downhill portion was hard.

It was so pretty though and I totally enjoyed every minute of it

I appreciated that someone posted this on Memorial Day

I had never thought of this before and I like knowing this

Wouldn't you know that we would choose to come to California during the coldest week of the year.  And wouldn't you know that we would choose to go to the Beach on the coldest day of the coldest week. 

My old bones don't tolerate cold weather well, but couple that with wet, cold weather and I am miserable. 

It was wet and cold and I never really got warm the whole time we were there.  I kept piling on the towels and blankets and just looking at all of the people in their swimsuits, sitting on ONE towel or even worse the poor souls who made the ghastly decision to go and get in the water, made me want to cry.

My poor kids played in the sand and frolicked in the water for hours and they never said they were miserable or cold.  They just had so much fun

I was a block of ice.

And Raleigh kept putting things on me and tucking me in and kissing me on the forehead.

Finally after four hours, I started warming up ever so slightly.

Then I fell asleep.

It's impossible not to fall asleep with the gentle sound of crashing waves.

My mouth was wide open on seveal occasions.

Possibly with some drool coming out.

That evening we ventured up to the clubhouse and played some cornhole.

KK dominated!!

Who knew?

Then Rals and the Kids played ping pong and I rocked in a rocking chair.

So content.

Cold

But content.

Raleigh was literally obsessed with the idea of going to the Shake Shack.

It is a little sea shanty shack right in the middle of PCH outside of Crystal Cove.

We tried to go there two different times, but there was an insane chaotic line both times and little known fact about Rals Lund....  he DOES NOT do lines.  No Chick-fil-A for our family.  No in-and -out.  No Disneyland.  We would pull up and he would almost cry he was so mad and he would flip around in anger and just go home mumbling the whole way about how much he hates Californians and California in general.  He would say things like "why does everyone in this state have to go to the exact place I am going at the exact same time, now I have to go back to my room and eat a frozen freaking pizza because the people in this state are so selfish"

Finally, he decided we would go there for breakfast instead, so we could have a fighting chance of getting some food.  He also wanted to walk there since google said it was only a 26 minute walk.

I was reluctant 11 different ways, imagining all of the things that could go wrong with this plan...

First and foremost being, we walk there and THERE IS A LINE.  Then what, Anger Management?  Walk home....  cursing and famished?

Well....  I am so happy to report that we made it safley, after walking 26 minutes along PCH with three kids on scooters.

No one died and we arrived to NO LINE.

He was SO happy like a kid in a candy store

I will also take this minute to comment on my Doc Brown hair which I had the entire time we were in SOCAL.

The humidity de-stroyed my hair.

My grey hair that I cover up with blonde and light brown highlights goes total aphro when the slightest hint of moisture hits it.  And my grey hair is all around my face.  Walt calls it my "black lady hair" and yes, that is exactly what it looks like.

I was a wreck the whole time, nothing could have tamed it.  I shamed the family the entire week.

Instead, I will just have these gentle photo reminders of my sexy beach hair.

Peyton did jumps and tricks the entire walk.

Shake Shack ✅

Followed up by a trip to the Newport Coast Villas Pool

😂😂😂

(not pictured: 7 warm towels, 2 sweatshirts and a blanket)

Yep!!  That's a fire pit

And yep we needed it

I started to feel guilty that we were SO vacation lame.

Like we literally did nothing.

But, Raleigh said this is exactly what he wanted to do.

Rest and Relax from all of the yardwork he did.

That was good enough for me, I am having the best time doing nothing

I listened to podcasts all week.

Oprah is my favorite.

I am changed after listening to them.

I was deeply moved by the one about EGO.

It was so good, I started it over and re-listened three times.

I am so motivated to change now that I know more...

When you know better, you can do better.

While we were on vacation, our grass grew a lot.

We were shocked because while we were freezing in CA

St. George was in a heatwave and nevertheless, the grass is doing so well.

We threw the rest of the lava rock up on the hill.

We just didn't feel like we were physically capable of handling the white rocks.  They are so much more heavy than the lava rock is.

Next, we went and bought sand for the patio.

I only joined in on the last hour of sand pouring and I thought I was going to die and can't imagine how bad Rals felt. Of course, he never uttered a word of being uncomfortable.

It felt like it was a thousand degrees.

We chose the stone that we are going to use and it will be a slow process as this upcoming week in going to be 113 and not a lot of yard work will be happening we will only be able to work in the earliest and latest hours of the day

Raleigh bought me a buffalo check hammock.

I fell out of it twice and felt like I broke my arm before I mastered the balancing.

It's pretty dang comfortable once you're settled in

Raleigh set up the projector and the screen and we watched game 3 of the Jazz/Clippers Series outside.

It was such a fun night even though they lost

We celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary this month

We went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse and reflected on the past 13 years

and made plans for the next 13.

NOW....

Let's talk about stress for a moment...

Nana's Birthday

She loves her birthday.

She's had some really good ones, but this one was shaping up to be not so great.

And she let me know...  in a text that she sent....  wherein she told me how hard she was going to have to work ON HER BIRTHDAY and how she was going to need a gift.

Well, I planned to get her a gift, but now the pressure was on to try and soften the blow of the workload that I had heaped upon her ON HER BIRTHDAY like a horrible, mean boss with no feelings or compassion whatsoever. 

I spent 4 days leading up to her birthday (like I could think of NOTHING else) trying to decide how I could make this day a somewhat bearable day for her.  I decided to buy a bunch of little, cute gifts and I tried desperately to wrap them in a cute paper with cute bows...  and then I left a little gift in each of the houses that she was going to inspect.  

It took her until house 4 to realize it was ME leaving the gifts.  

But the best news is...  I think she had a good day inspite of the fact that she had to work so hard.  

I felt quite accomplished at the end that she didn't even cry because she was so exhausted.

She's the best.  She would do anything to help me look good at work.

Even work her buns off ON HER BIRTHDAY!!

One Saturday, we decided to wake up super early and get started on our corner patio.

This portion of the backyard will be for the fire pit and for sitting and talking every evening.

We chose square stones in four fun sizes in colors that complimented the wall.

They were heavy and dirty.  And IT WAS SO HOT.

115 degrees at it's hottest point.

Thank goodness there was a little cloud cover and better goodness was Raleigh's mister.

It literally saved our lives.

Laying stones for a patio is slow and painstaking work.  

Each stone has to be leveled and set perfectly.

I did a lot of standing and watching in front of the mister.

But it turned out SO well

I love it

It'll be so nice on those days that hover closer to 105 or less to sit out here after the sun goes down behind the house.

Raleigh's birthday was probably considered a huge bummer.

I always feel so wretchedly sad for him on his birthdays because his family isn't ever going to wish him happy birthday.

I stressed myself out looking for good gifts.

I am not a blessed with the gift of choosing cool gifts.

Sorry to everyone that I love.

When you receive a lousy gift from me, it in NO WAY indicates

my level of love for you.

It's just a huge personality flaw that I truly am working on.

One day, I truly hope to be classy.

When I gain some class, I will be able to choose quality gifts and beautifully wrap them and birthdays won't scare the H out of me.

I bought him two... TWO, Travis Matthews shirts.

They are cute and he looks cute in them, but man alive...

I think he was pleased.

I must admit...they gave off the vibe of a tiny bit of class.

I also bought Backyard Yahtzee and we played and it was super fun

 Papa and Nana brought a Bundt cake over

which was so delicious and they helped him to feel loved on his birthday

We wrapped up the day with Taylor's wedding.

She was supposed to be married in June of 2020, but 2020 wasn't having it.

It's been the longest engagement ever.

But the wedding was so much fun

Raleigh and Tyler liked watching the dancing.

I told Taylor Mormons don't dance

We had such a good time with these two

Literally a laugh a minute

It was only 95 degrees during the ceremony

and WE were facing West.

So much sweat in all the wrong places.

I was just sure one of the bridesmaids was going down

To say that I am thrilled that my bed finally has 20 pillows on it, would be an understatement.

I love pillows... the more the merrier IMO.

My husband however.... sigh

He has a daily routine to make the bed.  He says it gets his day off to the correct start.

And he always makes it, until recently, when we added pillow upon pillow and still plan to add more, I might add... he is rather discouraged. 

He made up a pillow placement chart, because he kept getting it wrong.  

He kept putting grey pillows on top of grey pillows...

Oh boy.

And every morning, there is a little bit of covered up resentment/frustration toward me and my lovely pillows...  although he would NEVER express it outloud.  

He sortof mumbles under his breath

(Deep breath out...  "oh I hope I am doing this right." he mumbles (almost) inaudiably, but not quite enough, so that I can still kind of hear him....  "my wife will be so upset if I put one of these in the in incorrect place....  and she'll come over here and start re-arranging them right in front of me... and I think they look just fine the way I arrange them.... but she'll re-arrange... I just want to make the bed... with only 4 pillows like the good ole days...  oh these pillows stress me out....  Deep breath in....  Deep breath out)

ALL five of us got a nagging summer cold with watery eyes, runny nose and they most annoying cough ever.  Some of us had fevers (me).  

Some of us felt like poo (me).

Some of us worked with a fever and poo (me).

Just keeping it real.

This day it was 118 degrees outside and I had to cover for my full timer who had to help his sick wife.

I didn't know if I was coming or going.

I never should have been driving a SPRINTER VAN full of sheets and towels, near small children on vacation, in my condition.

It was a rough week.

Sam asked me at one point

"WHY do you keep blowing your nose?"

Well, I don't know!  The alternative seems so much worse.

Allie's birthday finished up the month for us.

She is so sweet and kind

I love her so much.

She got her own insurance plan through work and she made a series of dental appointments to fill 13 cavities that she was too scared to have filled when she was a kid.

She did all of the dental work in 4 different appointments

And then she paid for all of it.

That is pretty amazing for an 18 year old.

What a girl

 June was a great month.

It had potential to be so stressful for me at work, but all of my friends helped make it flawless...  we went the entire month without a single cleaning complaint and only a few maintenance complaints (which we were able to rectify very quickly)

UNBELIEVABLE

I am pretty proud of that

June showed me that life is pretty freaking awesome

I love my family so much.

I am so blessed to get to go through this life with them.

June and all of its celebrations always kicks my butt.  

We survived another one and not only did we survive this year...  we THRIVED!

I am so happy to report it's over and it was a complete success!!