Parentheticals

The Fourth of July went well. The Plastows came to our house for a barbecue, and Amy brought an awesome collection of fireworks from Costco (Rea really hopes we can find the ones called "goddess fountains" next year). It didn't have Pop-Its or sparklers or tanks, so we bought those. We didn't find any Bestest Crackering Ballz this year, though. It rained a tiny bit and then was very windy, which is not great for fireworks in a drought, but we survived and didn't even light anything on fire. We had a lot of fun. No-one got hurt, and we got to bed at a reasonable hour. Timmy and Gideon both ordered more Bakugan on the internet. Both packages arrived on Saturday, and they have been enjoying them a lot. For those that don't know, Bakugan are ball shaped toys that transform using magnets and springs to become monsters and robots. They are pretty cool. Mike is getting closer and closer to the end of this semester of grad school. He only has one assignment left from ...

Surprise! This week was supposed to be our campout - except it wasn't. It's next week. Alison is not 100% sure how this misunderstanding happened, but there you go. Camping next week. There will be a trade blanket at the campout, and Alison found a really cool craft for growing crystals on rocks and painting them. It was gorgeous in the person's blog, and she got really excited about doing it and taking it for trade fodder. Unfortunately, she forgot that she and crafts have an inimical relationship. They did not turn out so great. Mike is trying to do it better, so that hopefully the kids will have something to trade. We'll see how it goes. (Mike is now making monkey paws as a backup. Alison is very grateful.) Mike has been doing research into how to insure other people's stocks, otherwise known as options. He is pretty excited to try it out, since obviously the insurance company always wins. (Alison was a bit worried about our lack of actuarial tables, but it turns...

On the way to our vacation last week we listened to some books on tape. The highlight of the books we listened to was "Diary of a Mad Brownie." It was a fun book about a faerie that was supposed to clean up a bedroom of a slob. It was highly funny. We arrived in southern Utah and eventually found the cabin that Mike's parents rented for the Yoder reunion. It was a bit of a difficult job finding it. The cabin was beautiful, and we had a great time there. The cabin had a lot of mosquitoes (the kids think that this is the most pertinent bit of information about the cabin.) We spent an awesome day at the mouth of the Narrows in Zion's. The kids slept on bunk beds with Max, and the trip was very fun. Apparently Mike and Alison are bad at taking pictures, because we have no pictures of the entire trip. Next, we went to California to visit the Poulsons. The trip was long, but the kids were pretty good. The thing that the kids think is the most important to tell about t...