Family Game Night

Tonight was a fun family game night. It was interesting the different strategies people did and didn't use. We should have games nights more often. Although one more round of Phase 10, and I would have missed posting today before midnight.

Bye Bro

Today my brother went back to college. I stayed home and watched my little sister. My sister and I had fun, but we are all sad my brother is gone. We miss you Harrison. I hope you have a good time at college.

Last Hoorah

Today my cousins headed back home to California. This time, I didn't go with them. It would have been fun though. It was fun having them here, and I miss them already.

Today was also my brother's last day here. Tomorrow he heads back to college. It won't seem the same here without him. Yes, it was a bit of sad day.

Battle of the Paddle

Today it finally happened, I beat the man at pickleball. After battling him for nearly a year, I finally won. The first game we played today, I was down 1:8. I rallied back to take the lead 10:8 in a game that goes to 11. I eventually ended up losing. I was crushed. I had been one point away from finally beating this guy.

He asked to play again later. A fellow pickleballer said I had no chance. The second game, I ended up winning 11:8. It was unprecedented. Nobody had ever beaten this guy. Fellow players were congratulating me. Hopefully, this is the first of many more great battles. Well, at least until I head to college.

Movie Mania

Today I continued to work on some of the things I need to do. I am practically finished. We also had a movie night with the cousins. It was fun, even though I had already seen the end of the movie.

Going to Games

Today I went to pickleball. It had been a while since I last played. After a few games, I played better. The only problem, I didn't get to pickleball until it was half over. I guess there is always next time.

Close Completion

Today I worked on some stuff I've been needing to do for quite some time. I wish I could say I finished everything, but I haven't. I am getting closer though.

Delicious Dinner

Today our family was treated to an amazing dinner cooked by my uncle. It was delicious. After having thirds, I had to call it quits. Although I wanted to eat more because it was so good, my stomach was telling me it was time to quit. He also cooked up some onion pancakes which are always a hit. Thanks Uncle Ed.

Big Bad Branch

Today I cut down some branches from a tree. This wasn't something completely out of the ordinary for me, but being 15 feet up in a ladder while doing so was. I am not afraid of heights, but I don't like feeling unsecured up high.

The two branches took for ever to cut down. Ants were crawling all over my arms, which I couldn't even feel after sawing for 20 minutes with a dull blade at an awkward angle. When the second and final branch was finally cut, I was relieved. That is until it started to lean against the ladder and push it sideways. I was able to get down the ladder safely and be on land again. It was nice to have those branches cut down, but being off the ladder was even nicer.

Took Trip

Today I went with my cousins and grandparents on a trip to Ikea. It was a fun trip, but it was a long trip. We were gone all day. I hoped to find something for my dorm room, but I only ended up buying a pillow. A very soft, squishy, amazing pillow.

Rad Reunion

Today one set of cousins left for home. The past few days have been really fun. It has been nice to be around family. The food has been incredible, but being with each other has been even better.

Wonton of Fun

Happy Birthday Sarah!

Lake Bake

Today I was at the lake with family. It has been fun to be with everyone. We had a great dinner made by my sister and mom. Dessert was provided by my aunt. Good times were had by all.

Family Reunion Begins

Light Slumber

The past three nights in a row, I slept outside on our trampoline. The first night, I didn't get much sleep, but the second night I slept quite nicely. Surprisingly, on the third night it wasn't rain, snow, or hail that made me head inside the house at 3:30am, but lightning. I think I will sleep inside tonight.

Swimming Lesson

Today my brother, cousin, and I went swimming. My cousins are visiting from L.A. We were playing a game where someone would throw an object, and another person would swim to retrieve it.

We were using a part of a boat paddle. I will remember next time to test whether the object floats, because the part of the paddle we were using eventually sank. This meant our game turned in to more of a mad search for the paddle. After over 30 minutes of searching for it, completely exhausted, we found it.

Stain No Pain

Today I helped my dad paint. Actually, he painted while I stained someones shed. It wasn't too bad of a job. Thankfully, it was in the shade because it was around 90 degrees outside. It is supposed to be hot again tomorrow.

Bouncing Bed

Tonight I am going to try sleeping on our trampoline for the first time this summer. It was hot all day, and it is still hot inside our house. Hopefully it doesn't start raining, hailing, or snowing tonight.

Remotely Successful

Today I programmed a universal remote for our DVD player, but this was much easier said than done . The original remote quit working , and it was very frustrating trying to watch and navigate through DVD menus without a remote.

I tried to find the correct code for our DVD player, but I couldn't find it. The directions said to turn on the device you were trying to program, and then press a button on the remote up to 300 times while it found the correct code for your device.

I sat there pressing play on the remote countless times. It finally played, and I was overjoyed. The only problem, I didn't know what to do next. Once it played and had found the right code for our DVD player, I didn't know how to set this as the code. It took four times of pressing the play button up to 300 times for me to figure out you pressed the mute to program it when it played. I am glad we finally have a remote for our DVD player, but it was a lot of work getting it to work.

PickleFall

Today I played pickleball for the first time in around a month. My first game back went quite well. My team won, and I was playing almost as if I had never left. Almost every game after this until my last two games I didn't play as well, it really showed I had been gone for so long. The last two games, my grandpa and I played really well. We won a match that went in to overtime after being down big. It was fun to finally play again.

Trim Time

Today I helped my dad paint my grandparents' house. I painted the trim around the windows. In years past, I was too much of a perfectionist for this job. I would spend hours on things that should take minutes. I have gotten better at not compromising on quality, but speeding up my ability.

Green Team

Today I did something I have never done in my life. I put clothes on a line to dry instead of in a dryer. It is a new thing my family is doing, but it was the first time I put the clothes up today.

Preprogrammed

Today I watched some of the Olympics. I was waiting to watch one event "live", and it was really the main thing I wanted to watch today. I went to another channel during commercials just in time to see the results of the event I was waiting to see. It was disappointing, not the event results, but knowing them before I watched it.

Olympics Opening

Today my brother and I went to the theater to watch a movie. We had a good time. Tonight, we have enjoyed watching the Olympics opening ceremonies. The performers and their performances were amazing. The precision, timing, manpower, and money needed to pull of what they did is mind boggling, and was visually stunning. The parade of nations, though long, was fun to watch.

Start Over

Today I got back from my tour of Western. Overall, I was impressed with the campus and things it has to offer. The biggest disappointments of SummerStart were being extremely low on sleep, feeling sick, and not getting registered for the classes I wanted. But in the end, I am glad I went, and am excited to go there in the fall.

SummerStarting

Today I am at Western Washington University for a freshman program called SummerStart. It is a two day program, meaning I spend the night tonight. It has been a long day, starting at 5:40am, on less than 5 hours of sleep, to get here before 10:00am. I have learned some important things, but I am all seminared out.

Unplain Plane Trip

Today I drove my sister to the airport. She is going to spend ten days down south in California. After dropping her off at the airport and helping her check in, we left. Our car was very low on gas. As in the gas light was on so long, it wasn't funny. After driving until the tank was dangerously low trying to find gas, we finally found a gas station.

We also stumbled across and Ikea, so we stopped there. I was probably six the last time I went to Ikea, and only vaguely remember the food and play area. We had fun looking around. What was not as fun, was spending over 30 minutes trying to get what we bought in the car. We finally ended up getting it to fit by opening the box and moving parts around and having nobody in the passenger's seat. I hope my sister has fun in California, but I *know she will.

*know as in I am 97.2% sure she will

Blog Off

Today I came the closest I ever have to not blogging. I have not missed a single day in the over a year this blog has existed. So what caused me to almost not blog? Was it a mad dash to get home before midnight, computer problems, a strange illness, or somethings else?

No, nothing of that sort. I simply nearly forgot to blog. I was on my way to bed, and didn't even think about blogging. This is the first time I can remember this happening. Maybe it is the start of something new, maybe I won't blog everyday. Whatever the cause of my forgetfulness, I am glad I was able to blog and keep my consecutive days without a miss streak alive for at least one more day.

Thanks

After being gone for over three weeks, it will take a while to adjust to being back at home. It is nice to be home, but it was also nice to be in Oregon. I had a great time.

Thanks for having me at the farm cousins and family, and on the fishing trip other cousins and family. It was nice to take a break from TV and the internet while I was gone, and to start reading more. Thanks also goes to my mom for posting a picture a day while I was gone, and to my aunt (and uncle a few times) for taking the pictures.

Home Again

Camping Out in Corvallis