Shark week

Sophia was making her own videos today and one of them began with her saying that her family was pretty active and they didn't watch much TV. I took this as a positive sign and a realistic representation of our day to day lives. That being said this week is Shark week and it has reached almost holiday status complete with the yearly shark week hats. This year I was a little closer to having greeting cards sent out to the family with the kids in their toothed hats and smiles. In the spirit of Shark week we have been spending plenty of time in and on the water. The kids are making great use of their snorkgoogles (Merrick's phrase) in the round rubber beach and each of them is getting quite good at holding their breath under water as they continue to challenge each other. We are also trying to spend some time on top of the water and in the canoe. We drove a little ways to Krohn's lake which had enough panfish to keep us entertained as we paddled around the 20 some acre spring feed glacial pond. Sophia out fished both of us boys hauling in 3 and letting twice that many get away. Merrick and several bobbers gasping for air but was unable to cordinate the hook setting with the reeling in order to land any lunch. We also made it back to the library for story time, the first return in almost two years, since Merrick punched the hungry caterpillar thrice on our last visit. We met Merrick's friend there and he came back to our house for a few hours. Today was a big day for Mitch as his cage was cleaned and redecorated but the real highlight was the new stilts. Instead of tossing or burning an old head board footboard combination I turned it into a pair of stilts for Merrick. Soon to be followed by a set for Sophia. If you look close you may notice that Merrick's are actually solid walnut stilts, painted but still walnut. Trust me the helmets were not my idea but the Sophia's.

Rockin in LaX

Early in the week we sneaked out for some excellent kite flying but the highlight was a trip to LaX to hang out with the Bryan boys and it was a great time had by all. There were evening concerts given by each age group and plenty of laughs. The kids even managed to fit about 73 neighborhood kids into the tree fort, some dressed in garbage bags, and repainted the inside of the fort. This of course required a massive hose down effort upon completion and the youngest of the group were just washed down outside. We did a great morning hike, with a spectacular view of the bluffs, in Myrick park and were able to watch schools of bullheads slurping the surface of the water. Becky also played guide and lead us to a massive cottonwood tree for the kids to 'hug on." The sprinkler park was a literal hit, with Becky in command, the two youngest collided head-on after only about 5 minutes in the sprinklers resulting a massive nose bleed and much swelling for Ole. While his face was swollen most of the weekend and the two blackened eyes made the crash hard to forget, we did our best by spending the day at Lake Wazee. Wazee is an old iron mine with depths in excess of 300 feet and clarity that screams for a scuba tank. It was a bit of a drive and an equal wait time in the parking lot as we huddled between the two vehicles under a massive umbrella to wait out a passing rain/wind storm. It was well worth the wait. We spent about 5 or 6 hours at the fine sand beach with the kids snorkeling the majority of the time. Sophia only came out of the water to scrounge our picnic staples as a source of bait for the schools of small sunfish in the shallows. The kids found fish, frogs and even a small turtle. They also found the sandman on the way home.

beatin' the heat

It has been a very hot week, and we are doing are best to not find ourselves trapped inside, but also recognizing the beauty and necessity of a siesta culture. There have been plenty of freeze-pops, ice cream cones and wrestling in the round rubber beach. Even turned a cavity filling trip to the dentist into a positive by attaching our address to the helium balloons in hopes of a return to sender notice after sending them into a scorching sky. We had a couple of play dates with kids coming and going, but most cool was a surprise multi-night stay from Munkly-Arky. He even brought his bike and as such was able to keep the kids cool by putting some wind in there hair on several bike rides. To that end we knocked the training wheels off of Merrick's bike and he easily got up and going on two-wheels. This is of course now an obsession increasing our daily bike rides an entire order of magnitude. Needless to say Merrick is pretty proud of his new riding skills and was ear to ear smiles at getting to take a ride with Munkle Arky. As mentioned we can't be outside all of the time, as there are only so many freeze-pops, so the indoor time is mostly spent playing cards. Poker has become the game of choice and Merrick seems to follow his Sister's luck at cards. My pair of twos and ace high always subcumbs to there three of kinds or the occasional full house. Merrick even drew a nice ten-ace straight missing the royal flush by having an ace of diamonds rather than the ace of hearts--I have no intentions of playing either of them for real money any time soon. We have found some time to fly the kites and hit the neighborhood park as well. As always it is nice and cool in the library as well.

Almost a Junk week

Enough time outdoors and it will put you under for a while, as was the case this week. It slowed us down but we still managed to sneak in a little edutainment. Spent some time on the bike trail and hit the library, although Sophia forgot to bring her books and if I recall was just doing cartwheels in the backyard and telling me that she was ready. We also had plenty of play-dates, with Merrick getting his first out of the house experience. I dropped him off at his friends house for four hours of four-year-old frenzy and told the not-overly-excited babysitter I would see her at noon. He had a blast. Sophia had her normal twenty some engagements including some friends over here, during which Merrick cut her hair and then chased her with the scissors (oh, he is busy sometimes). She then spent the rest of the afternoon at the friends house and pool. Tuesday we went mini-golfing and being the first ones on the course there was nobody in front of us to slow us down. Merrick took this as a challenge to run through the course. I think we finished 18 holes in about 16 minutes (excellent expenditure of twenty bucks). I could barely keep him in frame for a picture. No rain, which is a first for us although no hole in ones either. Wednesday morning found us at the Botanical garden, which has added a lot of new features. We chased/hid from each other in the maze and the world's fastest slide is still holding rank. I try to catch the kids when the came out, but was told Merrick was coming and then the kids switched. It is a blind catch at best and Sophia's additional mass came shooting out and through my hands. She only bit her lip a little. The kids spent plenty of time in the children's garden area watering the topiaries. We did stop for a picture opportunity in which the kids put their faces cut-out flowers. Merrick kept looking over the top, and I eventually just took the picture. He walked up to me all smiles, "hey dad, did you get a picture of my junk?" Yep, he is busy. We hit the bikes again this morning in search of grasshoppers--Mitch is getting hungry. We didn't find any grass hoppers big enough to catch for him but had a nice ride and lit off the last of our three fireworks. These were the parachute flares that shoot about twenty feet in the air and then parachute down with magnesium flares. The same ones I accidentally shot into my own trees on the fourth.

Berrily a Bear

Great weather, great morning. We set out pretty early to get a jump on the berry picking season. Barefoot in the straw and dust we hit the field with empty buckets and high expectations. The kids pick berries at the speed we have come to expect from young Americans, but nevertheless, we eventually filled the three ice cream pails that we took with us. Sophia even found a large heart shaped berry and fortunately I found a similar one later to stave off the eventual fight. Cleaned and froze up about 9 bags worth, that taste even better on a snowy February afternoon. From the berry patch we headed straight to the Zoo. We were among the first dozen people into the zoo and the petting area of the zoo was alive with the bleats of hungry kids screaming for our food bags. Sophia and Merrick rustling the paper bag of food made the sheep and goats come running with Pavlovian expectations. We wandered around the zoo for a couple of hours even stopping at the new concession stand for a drink. Merrick was getting tired and wanted me to carry him. When I told him no he just smiled really large and asked me for a hug. Once he latched on it was tough to put him down. Plenty of otters, peacocks and even a baby red panda, but the bears were holed up somewhere awaiting their new exhibit. No bears but we did see an impressive display of a defecating tortoise--evolution should have given them a better solution. We headed home for lunch and some backyard pool and slip-n-slide action. Found some time to pick the rhubarb and make a rhubarb crisp. Not wanting to heat up the house, we baked the crisp on the outdoor grill and it turned out pretty good.

Gypsy Village

Part of Americana to not only elect but also look forward towards living in refugee compounds. We of course call them campgrounds and encourage food to be eaten with dirty hands and give up on the notion of a clean cheek to kiss on. By the second day the idea of bare feet and pit toilets doesn't even slow a person down. We headed out to Council Grounds last weekend for the inaugural camping trip of the season. We meet the Clan Bryan in the granite woods and they brought the gorgeous weather. We had three beautiful days with dappled sunlight filtering through tall maples. We did have to make a trip back into town for some forgotten supplies, namely chairs and bug spray (rookie mistake) but otherwise we just wandered around the woods for the weekend. The Pine River runs through the grounds and with the seemingly 3 straight weeks of rain, it was a torrent. The oldest boys tried their hands at fishing, but the added volume made the fish even harder to find. The rest of us spent a lot of time hanging out at the beach. There were plenty of sandcastles, rock collections and general holes that needed digging to occupy much of an afternoon. The youngest Bryan, a reptile sort of child, would run into the cold water only to run back out and lay in the hot sand and cover himself up to regain body temperature. We did find some time to continue to celebrate Sophia's birthday week (no almost a 9 day season) with birthday watermelon, complete with 8 candles. Great hiking trails and we spent the mornings with coffee and barefooted hikes through the woods. Even started a new game of 'Statue' as some of the trails used existing campground roads. The kids would strike statue poses along the shoulder whenever a car came by. This kept them safe and us adults entertained. All the kids were so well behaved that I even opted for an extra day and took the campsite until Monday. They stayed busy building entire "cities" in the woods and riding their bikes. Merrick was very pleased to be able to just ride around the loop all by himself. He also made great progress in his balance, to the point that I pulled his training wells off and we worked on riding without them for one of mornings. Sophia's new frisbee golf set up The evenings were filled with smores and even some mando and guitar work from the uncle. In the end we didn't stay the extra day, it was a major downer when the cousins packed up, and over lunch time tears we decided to pack up as well. It was the right decision, too much of a good thing had left the kids pretty fried. Maybe that is the allure of a gypsy village, you can leave whenever you want.

Just blessed

A short post for a long week. The week ended with Fathers' day and the kids got me a new chess board. Merrick has been learning checkers and Sophia is quickly approaching a legitimate win in chess. Sophia is quickly approaching her last week of Soccer and potentially your last soccer, she enjoys it but I am sensing that by next year gymnastics may hold priority for her. We spent some time this morning on a serious treasure hunt and a wonderful park and chalked up three more finds to our 'career' totals pushing over the 20 find category. Plenty of park swings and mulch chips after the treasure hunting. The upcoming week has a busy forecast but even that needs to be viewed as a blessing.