The Coombs Family

This summer was looking bleak to say the least. Homeschool was announced in March and every day that went by, it seemed more things were being cancelled. First school, then Caleb's office was closed down, the community pool we were members of for years, all sports and socializing. I was going nuts wondering what we would do all summer stuck at home without anywhere to go. I started a secret treehouse club with my two friends Stacia and Britni and we all decided we needed to buy cheap above ground pools this summer. As it turns out, we were not the first ones to decide this and most all the pools were sold out. We called every Costco in town, looked online, tried to find used ones, nothing was going to happen for us. So I went to a local pool store and found a nicer pool that you can put in ground, but it's still a liner pool so it cost a lot less. I came home and told Caleb what I was up to and asked him if he wanted a pool. He said he did like the idea of a pool but he didn...

Calvin had the big double digits birthday this year. He wanted to have a bike party with all his friends. Since we are in a Covid state of mind, we weren't sure if anyone would want to send their kids over to play on our bike track at our house. We also wanted to take the kids to the bike park near our house for an extra fun time.  Calvin is getting pretty good at using computers and figuring out all technology. He is constantly helping me with my computer work and his siblings. He wants to be on electronics all hours of the day, so we definitely have to watch him to get him to get up and move and limit his time. He is very social and wants to have friends over all the time. He is great at meeting new kids and making connections with kids around him. He also is very willing to invite himself over to other peoples house without me knowing. He hates sharing a room with his brother Ronin and they have a love hate relationship for sure. He gets along with him most of the time but every...

Caleb and I got home from an anniversary trip to find out the world was out of groceries and cleaning supplies and school was cancelled. It ended up cancelling all entertainment, traveling and shut down Caleb's dental office. What do we do when Caleb cannot work?  We play. We build bike jumps. We work on our property. We go hiking. We sulk that the world stinks right now. We ask Alexa how bad Covid is spreading. We pray for others a lot more. We do home church. We think of ways to uplift others more earnestly. We watch videos on how to wash our hands. We wear masks everywhere or we do go anywhere. We eat at home a lot more often. We learn to get by with one-ply toilet paper (or at least the kids have to....shhhhh.....don't tell them we have more Charmin). We do a lot more puzzles. We read more books.  Even though the world is depressing and frustrating at times, we have honestly enjoyed a lot of what we have been able to create. Feeling very grateful for our big yard while oth...

We unveiled the treehouse to the kids at Christmas and it was a shell of the house. They were excited of course, but had no idea how we would finish it out. It's now super cozy, has tons of detail, and is nicer than the house we live in. If it had a toilet and a refrigerator, our kids would never come back inside. It's not completely done but it's pretty close. Here's some of the details of what we did. Door we found at an antique shop, side windows are from friends, and the top window we bought. Corbels everywhere. Lantern lights, cedar shake up top and siding. The awning we added above the door to help with rain. Bookshelves added in the loft upstairs for storage. The ceiling is rusted out corrugated metal that we washed and sealed. Added some wainscoting by the front door to stop muddy shoes and boots from hitting the walls. Caleb made the railing and ladder himself. We stained the inside, added fairy lights to the ceiling.  Carpet is upstairs...

Caleb and I decided to get out of town and head to the mountain, just the two of us. We had no idea when we booked the weekend away that the entire world would be shutting down at the same time. We have the coronavirus right now spreading across America and when we booked it, it was only in Asia and not a huge concern. But as the weekend approached, people in the US were starting to get it in California. We decided to still get out of town. We stayed up at the mountain, went snowboarding two days in a row at Mt Hood Meadows. The first day was fresh powder, about 7", sunshine, no wind. We went along the boarder and could see Timberline Lodge, and the most beautiful scenery. We had so much fun and went all day. We came back to the hotel and barely convinced ourselves to go out to dinner. We drove around Government Camp area and came back and ate right next to our hotel. The food was good and we loved it. We stayed in our room making out, and woke up the next morning to super hig...