Spring 2021 - Part II

On the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend mom and dad flew up to visit and stay for Tyler's baptism. They stayed at a hotel near our walking trail. Since Oscar was off work for the holiday, I drove over to their hotel and mom and I went for a walk on the trail then over the freeway via a pedestrian bridge. Here she is on our way back over the freeway with their hotel in the background.

Later in the morning mom, Allison, and I went over for Allison's first ever mani-pedi. She was a bit ticklish when they scrubbed her heels and toes, but otherwise she loved it and has been asking when she can have another one.  

It was quite sunny and warm that day, so later in the afternoon we took the kids over to Silver Lake. We brought camp chairs for mom and dad to sit on while the kids played in the lake. Dad forgot a hat, so he dozed off in the chair using Allison's swim cover to shade his head.

After the kids were out of school on Tuesday we took them up to the spray pad in Marysville. The rest of our local splash areas didn't open until July, but fortunately a friend told me the Marysville spray pad had opened at the beginning of June. It was over 80 degrees that day, so we definitely needed some fun water playtime away from our hot house. 

Our other next door neighbor put a fence in that week, so Oscar extended our yard to match up with his.

On Wednesday mom, the kids, and I drove out to Slidewaters in Chelan. It was a fun water park we'd never been to before, and I believe the only outdoor water park in Washington that was open (Wild Waves and Birch Bay did not open until June 18th). There are amazing views of Lake Chelan everywhere while you wait in line. I'm not sure it was quite worth the 3 hour drive each way, but we had fun, and on a nearly 100 degree day, it was a great way to cool down.

I'd assumed we could just purchase food while we were out there so I didn't need to worry about making lunch, but I hadn't realized what a tremendously long line there would be at the only on site food area. Lines for water slides really weren't too bad, but I waited in line for food for about an hour. Allison fell asleep on mom's lap while we waited for our food to be prepared.

The little kids' area was for kids under 48 inches, so technically Tyler was too big for it, but they let him play anyway. That spinning, water spouting teeter totter was super fun, but they had to tell us to spin it back a different direction because the water Tyler was shooting out kept going right into a trash can.

On Friday evening Oscar's parents arrived so they could be present for Tyler's baptism the next day. We met them at 92nd Street park where Tyler took a fun little hike with grandpa.

And we all caravaned over to Applebee's for dinner.

The next morning the kids helped Oscar crush some Oreo's for Tyler's baptism/belated birthday party cake that evening. 

Marcus and Martha's hotel had a pool where the kids had lots of fun with Grandpa Hunt.

Oscar and the kids went back up to the room with Marcus and Martha while dad, mom, and I went back to the house to shower and get the house ready for the evening. 

Later that afternoon we drove to the church to fill up the font for Tyler's baptism. Though we got there with plenty of time to fill it, we didn't realize the font was stuck in partial draining-mode while being filled. I had played the piano at a baptism only two days before, and there hadn't been any issues with the font then, so we had no reason to suspect anything would go wrong. After nearly 90 minutes there was less than 18 inches of water and the baptism was scheduled to begin in 15 minutes. It wasn't until the Primary President showed up that she realized what was happening. Bishop Seguine came shortly afterward, and he found a heavy concrete block and a salad dish to block the drain. After that the font began to fill much quicker, but with cold water. In the end, we started about 10 minutes late and the water was a bit colder than most swimming pools, but Tyler handled it like a champ.

This picture of Allison is pretty well representative of how she acted the entire service.

Grandma Martha gave a talk on baptism and covenant making using the sticks Tyler and grandpa had picked out during their walk the previous day. 

In Oscar's own words "great love was felt for Tyler and I struggled to keep my voice steady during his baptism. After exiting the font, Tyler took a shower while I got changed, then I helped him change. Stacy was singing at the time and we were dry and dressed about a minute after she finished."

Meledie played a long interlude while Oscar and Tyler got changed, then they came out just as I was about to sing. I then gave a talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost and talked about how I was inspired to teach Tyler songs at Christmas time. Tyler started picked up on both music and the gospel while we sang Christmas songs, which in turn allowed me to start teaching him how to recognize when he and I were feeling the Holy Ghost.

After my talk, Oscar confirmed Tyler as a member of the church. Grandpa Hunt, Grandpa Jinks, and Bishop Seguine participated too. In Oscar's words "during the confirmation, I told Tyler that Heavenly Father had more blessings for him than would fit in a book and that he could have all of them if he was obedient. Then I told him that one of his special talents was identifying patterns, like noticing the song mommy was singing could be done as a round; that his talent for finding patterns would help him as he studied the gospel and as he learned about other people - making it possible to help others. I also told him that the most important talent Heavenly Father had given him is the ability to help others feel included and loved. And that as he did so, he would feel included and loved by Heavenly father. I ended saying that these were just a few of the blessings Heavenly Father wanted him to know about."

Tyler gave his own testimony at the end, then gave me a wonderful hug after we'd cleaned up and put the chairs away.

They evening we had pizza and mint Oreo cake back at the house and Tyler opened up a few gifts, like this little Christus statue from Grandma Hatch. 

We had our last virtual testimony meeting the next day. Marcus and Martha came over to tune in with us before they left on their drive back. On Monday morning I dropped mom and dad off at the airport then stopped at Gasworks park on the way home. It's a tourist destination I'd heard about but never been to so I figured I should check it out. I'd only ever seen the industrial stuff in pictures. I had no idea it had this amazing view too. 

One evening the kids decided to prank daddy by putting dinosaurs all over his workspace.

It was fun to get to go back to the Children's Museum after they'd been closed for over a year.

In June Allison and Tyler finished up their last weeks of school.

We had really nice weather and got in a lot of good park time.

After Tyler's last day of school I took him to a park and then out to play minigolf before picking up Allison from camp. We were thrilled to be done with remote learning. 

On June 18th Wild Waves opened, so we went down for the first time in 19 months.

It was fun to play again, but we were disappointed that so many rides had been completely removed, including popular ones like the Paratrooper. Even among the ones that were still there, many were closed, most likely due to staff shortages.

Soprano strawberries are just for sopranos, right?