All Types of Outside Time

Not a lot of pictures from this week, but lots and lots of outdoor activities. Besides the normal reading, eating, and playing games in the backyard, we had a few excursions:

On Thursday, Bean and I went to the protest in Downtown Livermore. It was a very positive experience--peaceful, lots of participation, and everyone was wearing masks. Social distancing was a bit harder, but we did the best we could. Bean was in a bit of a slump most of the week, with school done and nothing very purposeful to do, so this was a great mood booster for her. We're trying to get involved and stand up for something important. After the speeches at the park, we marched a loop that ended at the main intersection downtown and everyone took a knee for 8 min and 46 seconds of silence. It was extremely touching--it was a LONG time. Hard to imagine dying under someone's knee in that time.

I didn't take the boys with us because I honestly wasn't sure how Peanut would handle the whole thing. He's not doing very well around lots of people and he doesn't handle being hot and tired on a good day. But there is a car parade protest tomorrow that I may take everyone to so he can be a little part of this as well.

That evening, we got to swim for the first time this season. We have friends who are incredibly generous and understanding. They had invited us to swim in their pool, but when we explained that we weren't totally comfortable hanging out with people in close contact yet, they offered for us to use it without their kids swimming.  So we finally took them up on the offer. Bean and Bug spent a couple hours in the water while everyone else cooled off and then sat around the pool talking. 

Daddy-o's friend hung out nearby so they were able to have a good conversation. We're trying to get used to these new ways of socializing, and getting the boys comfortable with ways we can safely see people. We can't live hidden away forever, but we can be careful. That's what we're working on right now.

Friday, we went blueberry picking again. It was much, much cooler than the rest of the week had been, so we also went for a walk in a park near the Stanislaus River while we were there. I was joking that I was going to make the kids fall in love with Ripon so we could buy a house with a pool (much more affordable out there than in Livermore.) Well, there were a few pretty spots along our walk, but tons of garbage everywhere and the kids were not impressed, haha. I think we'll keep renting without the pool for now.

Saturday was another Bay Area Ridge Trail day. The whole family came and we did another 5.5 miles in the Oakland hills with beautiful views of the green canyons. It was a perfect temperature for hiking and there were a lot of hills so quite the workout. Best part--very little complaining from any of the kids, so it really was a lovely hike.

On the way home, I had to drop off something for my one science family that lives in Castro Valley. They are a the very top of a very windy road up into the hills and by the time we drove up and back down, Peanut was completely sick and threw up in the garbage bag. Poor baby. But it didn't stop him from wanting ice cream when we stopped at the Meadowlark Dairy a few minutes later :). Perfect follow-up to a good hike.

Daddy-o joined a couple of the other husbands at my usual Saturday social distance hang out. He's gotten to see friends 3 times in the last week, and I think he's really enjoyed it. The first few months, he didn't really talk with anyone in person for any length of time. We just keep teasing him that he needs to sit down while he talks because he gets so animated and is drawn towards whoever he's talking with. It's hard to unlearn many of our normal social behaviors!

To Grandmother's House We Go

Sunday, we did our first social distancing visit with family. It's been a few months since we've seen anyone and we've been missing everyone. It's hard to visit and stay apart, but we did our best and it's certainly better than nothing. Grandma and Grandpa live close enough that we can go up for the afternoon, so we brought lunch and had a nice afternoon outside.

After lunch, we got to pick cherries from Grandma's orchard.

So many cherries, and they are delicious!

Very different than picking blueberries or strawberries, which are really the only fruits the kids have a lot of experience with.

We brought home a huge bag of these--going to have to make ourselves sick on cherries this week!

 

We found a few boysenberries ripe enough to eat, but most won't be ready for a couple more weeks.

And grandma let the kids pull up a couple potato plants as well.

It's pretty much like being at a farm at their house. We cut some asparagus to bring home, along with everything else. And the kids went to visit grandkid trees (each of them have a plaque on a tree they picked out) and over to the neighbors fields to see the llamas. They love being up there when cousins are around as well, but we're not quite ready for that type of interaction yet.

One of Grandma's beautiful flowers.

And the tree frog we found on the gate.

It was really nice to see family and get to visit in person for a little while. I'm glad that we've got good weather right now for all of this outdoors interacting. Not sure what we'll do when it's 105, or if this is a problem next winter (which I'm assuming it will be). Not as fun to sit outside for visits when it's raining or 40 degrees. But for now, we'll happily spend time outside. Peanut was excited to add 4 more hours to May's total (and he ended with 104 hours, Bug had even more!) We're chipping away at that 1000 hour goal.

We got home in time for a short fireside with our bishop, dinner, and a quiet evening. Daddy-o dropped some cherries off at a friend's house and caught up with him while the kids and I all read. I've been listening to The Book of Lost Friends while I run or walk in the mornings and was finally down to the last couple hours and when everything started to get tied up, so I volunteered to do all the dishes if the kids would just not talk to me, haha.

I love historical fiction, and right now, a book about the post-Civil War south and all the injustices the freed slaves still had to endure seems like a good fit considering the most recent police killing, and all the other videos and stories surfacing showing blatant racism--hard to read at times, but so important to understand. We're in a pretty scary place right now as a nation, a society, a larger community.  Growing up, when we learned about racism, it always felt like something we had largely overcome--maybe because of the racial diversity that I lived around, or maybe just because I, as a middle class white girl, was ignorant of what others were experiencing. But it's clear that we still have a LONG ways to go as a country. And it's clear that a lot of people are (understandably) fed up and angry and scared. Our family continues to pray for comfort for all those who are hurting. I think our summer school may spend some time on learning how we can help. Should go along nicely with our Civil War unit coming up.