I don’t have pictures ready for posting, so this will be just a word update. This has been a very strange week around here! Kayla left Monday morning for her week long church retreat (The Great Escape) in Green Lake, WI. It feels so weird not having her around! She also has terrible phone reception up there, so we really have not had any contact. We got a couple of texts on Tuesday, and her youth leader texted me a photo of Kayla and a few other girls fresh out of the mud pit. Yes, a mud pit. Good thing I am doing the other laundry today! She also sent a one word text today – “sore”. I am guessing she has been doing a lot of hiking, climbing, and swimming.

Ashley and I have kept busy this whole week while Kayla has been gone. On Monday, her best friend Cami spent the night. We took the two little girls to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner. Cami had never been there, so Ashley got to be the tour guide for her. Cami stayed past lunch on Tuesday. While the girls were occupied, I painted Kayla’s room. She used to have walls that were white on top, light purple on the bottom, and separate by a flowery border. Now, it is a super pretty turquoise shade that Kayla picked out.

Wednesday was all about Ashley! She had her usual piano lesson at 9:30AM. Then she took Kayla’s 11AM band lesson to get some one-on-one help learning the flute. The teacher helped her blow better, taught her 5 notes (fingerings) and wrote out a “Hot Cross Buns” for her to play. In the evening, we took Ashley to her karate class, where  she was showing how well she knows the first kata. We capped off that night with a swing through the McDonald’s drive through for a 49 cent vanilla cone.

Yesterday, Ashley and I picked up her three cousins (Alec is 14, Cade and Seaonna are 12) and took them to Great America with our “bring a friend free” passes that expired today. We were there from opening at 10:30AM until 5:30PM! Ashley rode the Viper (a big wooden coaster), which is running backwards. She rode the other wooden coaster, the Eagle, twice. Then we went into the water park. Wave pool time, tube rides, slides, and swimming. We were all tired and hungry. When we got home, a furry ball flew at Ashley. Gizmo is in the house! He was so excited to see her (but not me……as usual)! He is still trying to adjust to being here. Last night, he begged for me to get his car carrier down off the dining room table. Then he climbed in it and looked out as if to say “OK people. I’m in the carrier. Take me home!”. Today has been better. He did get accidently closed into our front hall closet for a few minutes, but we found him pretty quick. He didn’t even bark or whine!

Finally today, Ashley helped me shop at Aldi this morning. It’s a small store, so I gave her half of my list and sent her off. She finds the items and brings them back. She is good at choosing the bananas with the right amount of green, picking watermelons, and finding cheese blocks. We did our week’s food shopping in 20 minutes! Now, she has another friend over to play, and then we have yard work to do.

I will pick up Kayla tomorrow at noon. Once she recovers enough, I will have her write a blog post about her trip! Once we get her disposable camera developed, I can also post pictures.