We had a little surprise in the house when we got back and it took a little investigation to figure it out.  We had a bunch of perfectly round white spots on the floor, some on the counter and a few on our windowsill in our room.  They didn't wipe off easily and as I looked closer I realized it was bird poop!  But, nothing was flying around.  I found some feathers in our room, so I knew my suspicions were right.  Thank goodness it didn't take long to find the dead body.  She must have had all kinds of fun chasing it around judging by all the poop everywhere, it was flying around for a few days.  Elsa was also a bit of a mess.....she was biting and scratching and I finally took the flea comb and combed her and she was infested. I was a lot surprised since we have been putting flea stuff on her regularly for about five months. We gave her her first bath with Dawn dish soap (since that kills them), but since she goes outside and sleeps in the dirt they jump right back on her. It is much more manageable now but she still has them and I need to do some more research to figure out what is a good product. I tried making a lemon concoction but she doesn't like it when I put it on her and I would have to do it every day and I want her to like me. We will definitely be giving her baths more often since she was really dirty. 

Ainsley had her intrasquad gymnastics meet last weekend. They brought in judges to score the girls routines so they would have an idea of what they need to work on before their first real meet. Beam was her first event and it was hard to watch since she has struggled so much on her back walkover but she nailed her routine! The two events that she thought she wouldn't do as well on were surprisingly her best. She got her first 9.0 on vault and she was really happy about that. I asked her what surprised her most about the day and she said floor… That she got such a low score. Overall she did great and I think she was pretty happy with how she did. After that, she had a pool party with her friends and enjoyed hanging out with her teammates. She has made a lot of progress over the last few weeks and is working on some pretty hard skills and absolutely loving it. 

We had Khalif's birthday party on Saturday at the park and we had a good time flying kites and throwing water balloons! It fun to catch up with the parents since we haven't seen them since school got out. There's a few of us going to other schools so we're hoping to meet up at the park a few times after school starts. Khalif has had some behavior issues because of his apprehension about his new school. When things get out of his control we start to see regression and oh how challenging it is! There is some good news though… Court was on Friday and parental rights were terminated so he has been freed for adoption. Now we just have to hope that there is no appeal. The Social worker said given the complexity of this case that it could take up to two years. If there is no appeal it could take less than three months. Please pray!

We went to the kids new school today and Reggie got his schedule. He didn't have very many classes with his friends except for he is in Core with Rachel from his last school, so at least he'll have a familiar face. He's also in accelerated math which was a surprise to us. Way to go Reggie!

Washington!

The Williams made the trip to Washington for the Fourth of July weekend. The weather could not have been better and we did a lot of water activities. Still couldn't get our kids to do anything but tubing, but Kayla showed everybody how to water ski! We didn't do much other than enjoy the lake, the party boat and fireworks. 

 Baby Kingston!

 Not sure if she likes fireworks...

 Look closely....that's me and Liha

I biked around the lake with Maggie, Ainsley, and Reggie for their first time (Maggie had done it before). It was a long trip and we took many stops along the way to eat berries and check out various things. It seems to be important as Reggie gets older to give him some physical activity (much improves his moodiness) so this year we did Boot Camp. I had the kids doing bear crawls, Burpee's, crab walk, jumping jacks, push-ups and various other activities. This was followed by our running in the woods with our "guns" trying not to be spotted by cars. This turned out to be a very popular activity that was asked for almost daily. Ryan joined us on the last one where we went on a bear hunt. I finally saw one at the lake this year crossing the road! We saw many, many tracks of deer and bear, but nothing live. We started our trek when there was a break in the rain but it caught up to us as we were in the forest. It was a complete downpour and we didn't have a dry part on us by the time we reached the house. A very memorable outing :). 

 Bear hunt...

Halfway into the trip Ryan, Ainsley and I headed back to California and the boys stayed with grandma and Aunt Liha. Ryan left a few days before us to have a weekend with Anthony. They golfed and golfed some more and went to Tommy T's comedy club. Sounds like they had a blast. I decided to do Ainsley's birthday party while we were back since the boys were not around. She had five friends that I took to the movies and then they all played for a bit at our house. Having one child is sure easy and since she was at gym almost every night, Ryan and I had a lot of free time together. I could be a really good parent with only one child, no yelling, no frustration :).

We did our usual trip to Lummi to celebrate Ainsley and khalif's birthdays. The kids did a lot of climbing, rock collecting and Seaglass hunting. 

Peggy took the kids for an overnight and stayed at Grandma Gloria's and the kids had a great time. They always get spoiled… Going to the movies and "shopping". They really enjoyed her little dog Muffy too. I ended up having lunch with my friend Jill while they were gone. And the following week I got to meet up with another friend, Ann, for dinner. And then we went to Camano Island to visit Jane and her kiddos. It was a blast to catch up with everyone. 
On Ryan's birthday we had a barbecue with his side of the family. We played a friendly game of softball on the golf course and enjoyed visiting and eating way too much (If anyone has the group picture or softball pictures, I would love them)!  

Ainsley enjoying teriyaki after practice...we don't have good teriyaki where we live :o(.

Ryan, dad and Reggie had a boys night out at the races again this year.  

On our last day at the lake we bribed Reggie to water ski (he will do almost anything for Pokémon cards!). He did great and actually enjoyed it this time (much different from the last time where he was screaming like he was going to die). Maybe next year will get to use the boat a little more. 

The drive back was long. It went by a little quicker thanks to Harry Potter... Eight hours of book on cd! We've been going like crazy since we've been home...