Parentheticals

Last week we forgot to post a blog post, so this will cover both weeks. Last Tuesday Mike ran a 5k. It was the first time in a long time that he has run at all. His feet hurt afterward, but he got a big mug as a reward. It seems like a beer mug. We are not sure what this is supposed to teach us. The kids and Alison are going to the pool all the time now, and because of this they are getting tanned. They still apply sunblock liberally (our sun block makes you look sort of vampireish, and it keeps you from getting burned, but still you get tanned). All the kids are really brave. Rea has started to dive from the diving boards head first, Sara is putting her head under as she swims, Timmy is coming off the steps, and Gideon is crawling on the steps. On Saturday we went strawberry hunting, and got a lot of berries. There were also gooseberries too. The girls picked the box on the right by themselves, and Alison picked the box on the left. Gideon is holding Mike's box. Timmy

Alison came down with Gideon's cold on Tuesday. This was a big problem because we were leaving for our nature group camping trip on Thursday. Alison spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday sleeping in hopes of getting better enough to survive the campout; the kids watched lots of movies. Thursday morning the kids helped Alison pack up and we drove down to Payson and way, way up the canyon to the campground. It was one of the most beautiful parts of Utah we've ever seen. If we could deal with a 30 minute drive out of the canyon in order to get anywhere, we would love to move there, since it seems we're not supposed to leave Utah. There were around a dozen families at the campout; we knew about half of them from our regular nature groups. Our kids made some new friends, and they spent lots of time running around and playing with the other kids while the adults sat in the shade and talked. It was much hotter than normal up in that mountain this weekend. We made costumes out of

Monday was Memorial Day, so we had our traditional Memorial Day BBQ. The Strombergs came this year; we had lots of fun. The kids love playing together, and the adults enjoyed sitting and talking while the kids were all occupied. Alison also drove out early Monday to buy a Vitamix blender. She has been wanting one for years, and she is very excited. She isn't quite accustomed to making smoothies in it yet, but it makes wonderful peanut butter out of raw peanuts, which is very cool. The kids have been playing with Duplos a lot this week. Mike discovered that he doesn't mind as much when the kids have Duplos all over the floor as he minds other toys, probably because he likes LEGO so much. The kids have really enjoyed it. This week, Rea lost another tooth. Sara has her first loose tooth. Timmy's excited for his birthday (15 days and counting... constantly!). Mike is doing more work on his management book - he's thinking about Kickstartering ia second edition to pay for