vacation and belt test

i didn't get around to posting last week - playing catch up at work, so i have a bit to cover. this past week was our back to school and work week. and it was a busy one. alex had to prep for her belt test - which included going to as many classes as she could fit in as well as practicing her paper and most difficult was studying her korean terms. she also had a field trip this week to see the minions movie - i guess it was good - when asked if she had a good time she replied with "bananas" - i think that's supposed to be good, haha. then that same day she had a birthday party at skyzone for her girlfriend, addie. skyzone is an indoor trampoline place that alex has been to once before (where she twisted her ankle and i got to hear about it for the next six months to a year.) this time she did not hurt herself and she had a great time! she even got to jump in the foam pit which she seemed to like very much. then on saturday, alex took her belt test. there were a lot of kids there and it took its usual 3 hours, but she did excellent and now she has earned her purple belt. we followed up her belt test with lunch out and school supply shopping (haha, what a reward, right.) the rest of the weekend was spent working on projects, cleaning, grilling, cleaning out the pool (it got pretty gross while we were in canada) and then swimming in the pool on sunday. and wow, canada seems so long ago already - i had a busy first week back at work so vacation seems like a blur now. in canada we discovered that rodents either love me or they are all trying to attack me! first i tore my calf muscle jumping from a mouse that was running directly at me. then a chipmunk passed up four people to run directly at me and finally a squirrel ran at me! so because of jumping from the mouse or landing funny or something in my flip flops i tore my calf muscle, sending john into town to buy crutches from the pharmacy. good thing i didn't have to move around much. so after the first few days of rain - during which we used the kitchen table as a proper ping pong arena - we had beautiful sunny days almost every day the rest of the trip. alex got to do some fishing; john got to fish a lot. alex helped catch a big fish and she caught lots of small fish - she lost a really big fish she was pulling in (i got a great shot of her with the reel and john with the net and the fish breaking the water.) we made it into town for canada day where there happened to be a little carnival party and alex got to do some inflatable slide and obstacle course things. aaron and mildred came up for a few days and we celebrated fourth of july with the grill and fireworks and sparklers. alex and i went to the bakery pretty much every day they were open and ate more than our share of ice cream and cheesecake and delicious sandwiches. alex and normy got to have their post-dinner dance parties and blueberry picking time. sarah and matthew and connor and carter came up for the last couple days that we were there (they stayed for more time after we left.) so we got to enjoy some cousin time with ice cream and lake swimming. so we got lots of sun and lots of relaxing, but it was nice to see Blizzard the trouble maker cat and Lonnie again once we got home :)