Jared & Jessie are here visiting...they arrived last Saturday (the 20th). Jared came over Saturday evening to have dinner and visit with us (Jessie was spending some time with her dad) and we all went on a walk together too.
On Sunday, the Hatch family invited us to have lunch with them at Jessie's grandparents' house so that we could all celebrate Father's Day together. They grilled chicken & hot dogs and made a bean salad and we brought buns, chips, and dessert. All the kids went swimming for a little while (not something any of us would normally do on a Sunday, but this was a special occasion) and then the kids plus some of the adults played some volleyball.
Unfortunately, shortly after I took that last photo, Frank dived for the ball, fell, and broke the ring finger on his right hand. I actually missed the whole thing and didn't even realize he had fallen until he came over and sat down next to me and said "I think I broke my finger." (The entire Hatch family told me later that they were really surprised he had broken a bone because he didn't even yelp or react in any way when he fell.) We put some ice on it and I drove home so he wouldn't have to. At home, he called our doctor and they said he had to do a televisit first so he did that. The doctor who talked to him said his hand / finger definitely looked swollen. She told him to see how it looked Monday morning and if it looked worse (or didn't look any better) that he should go in to get it x-rayed, and she sent in an order so that he could get that done if needed.
I forgot to mention that before going to the Hatch's, Frank did open some cards and a gift from the boys, I made him breakfast, and our ward had an online EQ meeting that he attended. (His gift from me will be a bike, but I didn't want to pick that out without input from him.) After we got back from the Hatch's, he got to talk to both Scott and Tanner on the phone.
The gift from the boys is a breakfast sandwich maker, which is one of the things he asked for.
Monday morning his finger / hand looked worse--still swollen, and now he had a dark bruised area on his palm, just under the ring finger. He had work to do some work that morning so he didn't make it in to get his hand x-rayed until mid afternoon and we didn't get the results until Tuesday. Meanwhile, he had an overnight install Monday night although thankfully this one didn't take as long as usual so he got home by 3:00 am. Jessie was spending some time with her sisters and some friends on Monday afternoon so Jared came over for the afternoon and ended up staying for dinner. He visited with us and played games with Seth.
On Tuesday Frank called the doctor back and got the results of the x-ray, which confirmed that he had a bad break over the bottom knuckle of his finger. He had to get in to see an orthopedic doctor that afternoon. They put a special splint on it and told him he must keep the finger bent (he can't straighten it) for at least 6 - 8 weeks. (If he does, he might have permanent tendon damage). He has to get it checked in 2 weeks to make sure it is healing properly. The doctor says it is going to take at least 2 months to heal and will be quite painful and a long rehabilitation process. How fun!!
(He's holding that soft ball because his hand gets tired being in that position. The ball gives his hand something to rest on.)
Meanwhile, on Monday and Tuesday I was busy with all the regular chores plus I was trying to get ready / pack for our trip. I also had book chat on Tuesday evening...we did it online, but next time we are going to meet in person again. :) Our stake was having an online Women's Conference from Saturday through Thursday also. Every day there was one or two pre-recorded classes that I could watch and most evenings they had a live Q & A session with one of the class presenters. I didn't end up being able to attend any of the live sessions, but I did watch a number of the classes and really enjoyed them.
On Wednesday we headed to the beach! The Hatch family wanted to take Jared & Jessie to the beach with them and invited us to come too. Frank has too many projects going on at work right now so he couldn't go but Seth and I went. I felt bad leaving him home alone with a broken finger (it's amazing how many things you can't do when you only have the use of one hand!) but we had already planned this trip weeks ago and paid for the place to stay and everything. Frank said he'd be okay, and he did manage all right while we were gone. (And honestly, he probably appreciated the peace & quiet!) Jared & Jessie came in our car with us (as a matter of fact, Jared drove the whole time which was awesome) so we got to visit with them a lot. We went to Ocean City, Maryland which is about 4 hours from Frederick. We had rented a 2 bedroom condo that was only a few blocks from the beach. Actually, we were on a strip of land with the ocean on one side and an inlet on the other, so we had water on both sides of us. We arrived about 40 minutes before we could check into our place, so we parked and walked down to the beach to see the ocean. The sand was quite hot and the beach was fairly crowded, but the ocean view was beautiful. After we checked into the condo and got all of our stuff situated, we decided to go get an early dinner (about 4:30) since none of us had eaten lunch (we just ate snacks on the car ride). That turned out to be a really good idea because the restaurant was nearly empty. We went to a place that had pizza and sandwiches. I got a Reuben sandwich and it was decent, but not great. After we had dinner, we headed back to the beach (in swimsuits this time) and that was also perfect timing because the sand had cooled down and a ton of people were just leaving the beach to go get dinner so the beach was a lot less crowded. The older kids all got into the water up to their necks, but Seth and I contented ourselves with wading on the edge of the shore and only got wet up to our thighs. (The water was really cold!!) We enjoyed watching birds and picking up rocks and shells that washed up and watching the waves. It's actually really incredible to me how vast the ocean is and what an amazing eco-system it is. I just stood there marveling at the wonder of God's creations. It was a nice evening, and we didn't leave until the sun was starting to go down.
The room that Seth and I shared.
Some of the wall decor in the condo
Seth enjoyed being buried in the sand...
...twice!!
Playing ball
The bird had just pulled that shellfish out of the sand.
When it started to get dark, we went back to the condo, took showers, and played some games and ate snacks before going to bed.
I woke up pretty early on Thursday (about 5:30 am) and never went back to sleep...oh well! We had reservations that morning to do some paddle boarding / kayaking. Jared & Jessie and Jessie's sisters all did paddle boarding. Brother & Sister Hatch rented a 2 seater kayak and Seth & I rented another one. After a brief paddling lesson, we were off! We enjoyed paddling around the inlet and seeing wildlife. It was definitely a workout, and I thought I would have very sore muscles the next day but I only felt very mild discomfort in my shoulders.
After all that exercise, we got some lunch 'cause we were starving! Then we went back to the beach for a few hours. We stayed until it started to rain.
(That's Jared, Jessie, and Jessie's two sisters in the water.)
Seth built a sand castle
We saw some dolphins out in the water!
Seth got buried in sand again.
Storm coming in
Thankfully, the rain didn't last long. We all took showers and then went to dinner. We went to a restaurant that mostly had seafood, but they also had chicken fingers for Seth. :) The restaurant wasn't very busy at all, but for some reason it took about 45 minutes to get our food after we ordered it. The food was good though (I had a yummy crabcake sandwich) and the view from our table was nice too. (It's actually the same inlet where we went paddle boarding / kayaking earlier).
After dinner we went to the boardwalk to see the sights and do some shopping. Seth acquired a hammerhead shark stuffed animal, I got a t-shirt, and we also got some fudge.
Seth with is shark and some fudge
Sand sculptures:
We also got ice cream cones before heading back to the condo:
The boardwalk was the most crowded place we went while on our trip. We only had to wear masks when we went to restaurants and into stores. The rest of the time, it was pretty easy to stay 6 feet (or more) away from other people. Most of the trip, it felt like we were mostly back to normal life, which was really nice for a change!
I woke up in the middle of the night and was awake for a few hours but I did finally go back to sleep, thankfully. (The only complaint I have about where we stayed was that it was pretty noisy. Lots of car horns honking, sirens, dogs barking and loud people in the middle of the night).
Seth asleep with his hammerhead shark on Friday morning.
We had to check out by 10:00 am Friday morning, so we just ate and packed and cleaned everything up. We were planning to go on a speed boat ride on our way out of Ocean City but when we got there the next several trips were already booked up and we would have had to wait 2 or 3 hours to get onto the next trip so we didn't do that after all. Jessie and her mom and sisters wanted to go to a thrift store they had heard about but when we got there we found out it was open by appointment only. We stopped at a souvenir shop on our way back to the car and I don't think any of us bought anything but I did take a few pictures.
I thought these salt & pepper shakers were cute but I didn't buy them since I have so many sets already.
They had all 4 of my kids' names on these keychains, so I had to take a picture of that. I also found Frank's name, but of course they didn't have mine (no one ever does). However, they did have this one, which really surprised us so I had to take a photo of this one to share with my brother:
After that stop, we drove all the way home with only 2 brief stops to get some lunch and to fill up the gas tank. The GPS took us a different route than the way we got there, and we went through Delaware on our way home. We got to the Hatch's house by about 3:00 pm to drop off Jared and Jessie and then headed home. We spent the rest of the evening unpacking and doing laundry.
Today I've been very busy all day catching up on all the things I didn't get done the last few days. I folded laundry, mowed the lawn (Seth helped), vacuumed & swept, updated the budget, cleaned the kitchen floor, practiced ukulele, and did a couple of things (not much!) for my music and activities callings. And now I'm almost done with the weekly blog post too! (It's just like the old days, when I had a long list of things to do most days.) Jared & Jessie are coming over soon and will have dinner with us too. They return to Utah on Monday, so their visit is almost over.
Last night I went out on our deck and discovered that there are a lot more fireflies out now than there were a week ago. That made me happy! :) In other news...Scott decided recently that he needs to be in a different atmosphere as he is trying to become more active and involved with church again (nothing wrong with his roommates and they are very supportive of his desire to change...but they are inactive too) so he decided to move in with my mom for a while. It is really kind of her to take him in (and his dog!), and I hope he will be a big help to her while he's there (yardwork, fix things, etc). He ended up moving sooner than he anticipated, and just got all of his stuff moved over last night. We are proud of him for having the determination and courage to make changes in his life, and trust that this will be a good thing for him.
