A New Bed!

We finally got Mike's running medals on the wall! 

You can CLICK HERE  to see the evolution of the project.

Once upon time, we redid Lauren's room. Remember?

Just a few weeks ago, Lauren told me that she would like a bigger bed. I told her that her room needs a "reset" so she can start over for her senior year. I told her that I would get her a bed if she completely cleaned out her room. Well, that was some major motivation! She got working right away, and moved mountains (almost literally).

She chose a bed at IKEA, so we headed down there in the Highlander to pick up what she needed. I didn't even think about getting a queen-sized mattress home. Duh. They said it would cost $90 to deliver. Crazy! They would help us get the mattress on the car, but they could not help us tie it down. I was not hopeful this would work. And Mike was at the gym (at work) running, so he wasn't even available to give us advice! We called Collin as a back up, and he said we could definitely do it.

Lauren's technique was to tie the twine onto a water bottle 

and throw said bottle over the car. It was effective!

I didn't think it was tied as well as it could be (well, i knew it wasn't that great), but we went with it anyway. I told Lauren to stay where she was so that she could watch me drive through the parking lot as fast as I could. She was to watch and tell me if the mattress lifted off of the car. The fastest I could go was 40mph. She said it lifted a little. So, I said we would take back roads home, and not go over 40. Good plan! 

Oh my gosh, what a stressful drive. Lauren was like, "I don't know why you're so worried, Mom. We got this!" As we started the drive, we kept a close eye on our sideview mirrors to make sure the mattress wasn't moving. After about 20 minutes, Lauren said, "Does it look like your side has less mattress over the edge?" I said, "I don't think so." She wasn't so sure, and finally said I had better pull over and check it. Good thing I did! It had totally moved back and was off to the side. Yikes! After that, we stopped every 15-20 minutes to check and move it. Nerve wracking!

This is what it looked like when we finally got home. I was SO happy to make it with that mattress still on the car.

The hallway was a jungle for a while, but she finally got it done.

Doesn't it look great? 

The duvet cover is totally Lauren. 

(The sheets are orange, and she also got purple pillow cases.)

Lauren added some more artwork to the wall: SLEEP IS GOOD. (Yes, we give her free reign. We are crazy.) And she started a design on the canvas headboard.

I like the new layout, don't you? Change is always fun. She is still sorting through clothes, but you get the idea. Super cool! (And if you think I gave in too soon and should have made her clean more, you really are wrong. I won't tell you how many black garbage bags full of stuff she hauled out of that room, but it was A LOT. Her room is one million times better than it was.)

I think it was the very next day when we had a huge storm. It wasn't as 

bad as they thought it might be, but we still lost power from 8pm until 1am. 

The kids hung out in Lauren's room and giggled til it was very late. Good times!

The Year of the Puzzle

Yes, we got another one!!!

And this puzzle is so much more fun than the last one.

Do you think we will finish it before we go to Arizona?

Quick Trip to New Hampshire

As part of Mike's training for the Leadville 100, he really needed a mountain to climb. Since he already traveled to Idaho and Colorado, we were hoping he could do something more local. Mount Washington was the choice, so off to New Hampshire we went!

Only Matthew & Michael came with us. We drove up Friday night and stayed at the cute Swiss Chalets Village Inn. Michael didn't want to sleep in the same bed as Matthew, so we made him a little sleeping bag out of the bedspread. :)

In the morning, we dropped Mike off at the trailhead. His plan was to run up the mountain and down it TWO TIMES. He thought it might take him 8 hours. We went to Storyland in the meantime.

Storyland is a cute little park. Michael started out by meeting the Old Woman who lives in the shoe. We also saw the spider who scared Little Miss Muffet. Hahaha.

Alice was a little confused, and the Three Little Pigs weren't so little.

We hit the water rides first. The lines were so short that the boys 

went on the Bamboo Chutes ride over and over again. I just went once. :)

We got a text from Mike while on the balloons. He was doing well! We looked off in the direction of Mount Washington and waved. Haha.

Mike finished at about 8pm, about 2 hours late. He had taken a tumble on his way down, and was slower than he wanted to be. But he made it!

We then drove over to Lincoln to stay at the Franconia Notch Motel.

This time we got a cute little cabin! Michael was happy to have his own bed.

We went to Flapjacks in the morning. 

Matthew had the Hungry Bear breakfast.

And then we went miniature golfing. Matthew killed us! He got TWO holes in one.















It was a fun, short trip.

Lake Compounce and a Puzzle Update

After Michael's basketball camp yesterday, I took the boys to Lake Compounce for some fun. We had the best time! It was a hot day, so most of the people were on the waterpark side. The lines were really short.

Michael is such a daredevil. He went on the drop tower. Crazy!

I was crazy and went on Boulder Dash.
That ride is so crazy fast and scary.

The girl is saying to Collin: "Are you taking a picture?"

Believe me when I say that I was really having fun ... screaming.

At the end of the day we found the best ride ever. It's a roaring rapids ride that is hidden in a far corner of the park. We were in line behind that man in the white shirt when I noticed his shorts were dripping wet. That's when I decided not to go on the ride. Good thing!

The boys got soaked the first time ... And the second time ...

... And the third time ...

... And the fourth time ...

And the fifth time!

Yes, it was a fun day :)

So, it's about time for a puzzle update. We were working on that awful Soda Fountain puzzle for a little over two weeks. Well, it wasn't really awful. It was just hard. We were down to the floor. I did the sections with the lines, and then we had to fill in the pieces that all looked exactly the same.

This puzzle was hard because of all of those sections with identical pieces:

The little girl's purple dress, the plaid dress, the angry lady's

red sweater, the other lady's blue coat, and on and on and on!

 Last Saturday we decided to GET IT DONE. 

Mike, Matthew and I worked for hours. HOURS!

When we finished, Mike said: "That was NOT fun."

Boy, was he right. But we did it!

While we were in Maine for the 4th of July, I had to run into a grocery store to pick up some contact solution. This puzzle jumped out at me!

Matthew worked on it all by himself and completed it in a few days.

I think it was very satisfying doing an easier puzzle this time.

Now the question is ... Will we take a break or start another one??