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...

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...

This was the last week that the pool was open, so we went to the pool on Wednesday so that the kids could show Mike how much they improved their swimming this year. Rea can swim all over without any problem, and was jumping from the high dive board as well. Sara is now swimming very well, and Timmy is bravely walking away from the stairs and playing around in the area where he can touch. On Thursday we all went to the dentist, and only one person had a cavity. On Thursday we also got another quarter cow from a local farm. Our last one lasted 2 years, so we apparently eat about an 1/8 cow worth of beef each year. On Friday after work, we drove out to Grandma Sheila's and Grandpa Mike's house so that we could see the solar eclipse. We spent the weekend with them, going to the pool, their local waterfall, and also talking with family members. It was a fun trip. Some of Grandma Sheila's brothers came to see the eclipse as well, so we had a full house. The eclipse was re...

Monday was a holiday! Mike had Memorial Day off work, and we had our first barbecue of the season, and the barbecue didn't even blow up or light on fire or anything! Mike made hamburger patties with blue cheese in them, which were great; we also had vegetable skewers with bell pepper, zucchini, and mushrooms in a soy sauce and pineapple juice marinade, which Alison (and everyone) loved, and watermelon, and hot dogs for the kids. Then we went to the play "Pirates of the Caribeener" at the Off Broadway Theater. The kids were ecstatic; they love the OBT plays. They enjoyed this one; Rea might have understood some of the jokes, but probably not because she's never seen Pirates of the Caribbean or Sponge Bob, which was the other reference they pulled in. But they all enjoyed the story and the singing and dancing anyway. Gideon didn't even scream, even though he was obviously very tired but unable to sleep in the noise. Best baby ever! On Tuesday, we went to Forest ...

Monday through Wednesday we packed for our trip. We also had FHE, and Rea's date night. Our electric grain mill (which was a wedding present) finally broke, so we started making flour in our hand crank wheat grinder. It was a long process, but the bread turned out pretty good (if a bit coarse). On Wednesday night, Mike mailed out Polynesia to the Cardboard Edison. Of the games that he submitted to it, that was the one which they chose as a finalist. Now it is just a waiting game to see what happens. On Thursday we went to SaltCon. Mike had a game that was a finalist in the Ion Award, so he had to present it to the judges. The presentation went ok, however it seemed fairly obvious that Mike had not won, as the judges really seemed to like a different game - Palooka Precinct - quite a bit. The kids checked out a lot of games from the game library. Rea loved Coconuts, Sara liked the huge Jenga tower (made from 2 by 4s), and Timmy liked Dont Rock the Boat, but hated all the game...

Last Saturday the pool closed, so we went to the pool and spent some time there on its last day. We found some left over choke cherries and wandered around. It is a good park. Alison plans on setting up a outdoor preschool, and inviting other home-school kids over to the park to talk and learn about nature. We'll see how it goes this next week. This week Mike worked a lot on his new dragon board game - playtesting it at least 8 times. It has to be done by Wednesday if he is going to enter it into the competition. It is no-where near ready, but it was a fun thing to work on. Alison has been working on making lots of movies for the kids curriculum for this year's home schooling. She has become very skilled at putting words to animations, and has a whole bunch of songs done. I found this on my phone. No idea how it got there. On Monday, Rea gave us a lesson for family night - we can't remember anything else about FHE. On Tuesday we went to Wheeler farm again for Ti...

On Monday, Alison got a new bike. It is a Madsen bucket bike, and can hold all of the kids as well as groceries. We hope that Alison will be up to taking trips in it to the library soon, so that they can go to the library every day and Alison will keep in excellent physical condition. If it is too hard, we are going to get her an electric assist to help her on the hilly parts. The bike rides pretty well, and is obviously very well built. On Tuesday they rode the bike to Macey's, which went pretty well, and it was also Sara's date night. For her date we watched Joseph and the amazing technicolor dream coat. Wednesday Alison's parent's moved to California. Now that we have no more parents in Utah, it is much more likely that we are going to move. We do not, however, have any immediate plans to move. On Thursday Alison and the kids went to the pool. The girls all loved the water and swam for a while. Sara got too cold and got out after a while (I used to do that a ...

This week we spent some time working on the front yard. We have dug paths in a wagon wheel configuration around the yard, covered them with sand and pavers (that were being thrown away by a ward member), and also built a sandbox in the middle. Alison is ordering a patio umbrella to cover the sandbox (to keep the neighbor cat out of it), and we plan on planting various gardens in between the spokes of the wheel. Alison and the kids went on two hikes this week.  On Tuesday they joined a Meetup group hiking in Little Cottonwood Canyon.  The other big kids ended up not meeting us, so there were two 2 year olds and Rea and Sara and Timmy.  The girls still had fun, and we climbed on boulders and threw rocks in the creek and had a great time.  On Friday, we hiked Cecret Lake with Grandpa Craig and Grandma Julie.  Even Sara hiked the full 3.2 miles with steep switchbacks!  We ate currants, saw a moose up close, and watched waterdogs in the lake.  It was an ...

Alison and the kids have spent a lot of time going to the pool this last week. They are all enjoying it a lot. Andrea is swimming like a fish, and Sara is enjoying walking around in the water. Timmy will blow bubbles and crawl around on the steps. They are very glad that they got pool passes. On Thursday the 3D printer power supply blew up. It was very bad timing because my kickstarter campaign depends on the printer working. We scrambled and got a new supply, so we are OK, but it would have been preferable to not have it blow up at all. On Friday we went to The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) at the Off Broadway Theater. It was very funny. I think that it is still playing, so go see it. It is cheap and good. On Saturday I rebuilt the power supply for the printer, made granola, and we went swimming as a family at the pool. The girls loved showing off their swimming skills, and Timmy was certain that he could swim too. It was fun. On Sunday we played board games...