Sunday Hike

Happenings

These pictures are all mixed up, I can never get them loaded the right way.

This was Erik's genius idea of sleeping in his train box. This is a big rubbermaid thing that he uses to keep all his tracks in. When I pulled him out he was covered in sweat.

We went to Coulon beach for our homeschool group's summer kick off carnival. The kids got their faces painted, played games, won prizes, and got to swim in the lake.

This is Erik chasing after the ducks.

Nothing

We've been spending a lot of days doing nothing. It's bloody hot here. So hot I can't even stick my head out of the window. I'm so grateful for my air conditioner. Best purchase ever. The kids have been in the pool for countless hours, and both have gotten sunburned. We go for walks at night once it cools down some. I have been reading, and watched both seasons of dead like me. It's not too bad a show. It's not that great either. I finally cleaned my house today because I have company coming over. We've been eating dinner out in the back yard, which is something I love, and I don't have to clean the kitchen table too.

Above is Vic's garden. He moved it to the side of the yard so he could have more space and we can extend our patio. Since it's so late, we didn't have much to choose from as far as plants. We planted watermelon, pumpkin, tomato, tomatillo, zuchinni, and jalapeno. He also has some herbs he's been sprouting in the house.

It's supposed to cool down and even rain this weekend, yay!

New penguin exhibit

Taryn has been waiting for this new penguin exhibit at the zoo, and it did not dissappoint.

Sweet boys

Erik has been working all week on a present for me, so I've been interested to see what it is. He warned me that I probably wouldn't like it.
This morning he woke me up at 7:20 to take my room service order. Then he carefully carried a full bowl of cereal up the stairs. He sat with me while I ate and entertained me with talk about how he likes to eat his cereal and other topics related to him. Then when I was finished he gave me my present. It was 4 small stuffed animals that he "kind of didn't want anymore" and a handful of rocks that Taryn was going to throw away, so he snatched them for me. It also came with a cute card that said on the back, "this kard is don".

Natalie

My friend Natalie committed suicide last week. I am getting little bits of information at a time, so I don't know much about what happened or why. I just wanted to say that I'm sorry she suffered so much. I'm sorry that she couldn't see another way out. I have been that depressed and know that it is an overwhelming darkness. I hope that she is happy now. I hope she is free and full of joy. Natalie, you will be missed here on earth.

Misc information

Erik lost his first tooth! I know it seems like he's lost some already, but we don't count those because they were taken by force. This is his first, gotten loose, wiggled it out tooth. He was pretty happy and has been trying to decide all day whether he should take his dollar now or wait for the tooth fairy.

For our anniversary Vic and I tried out this new restaurant by our house that is similar to Bennihanas. It's called Mizu. The atmosphere was pretty cool, made us feel like we were downtown. Our chef was less than entertaining, and the food was average. But we enjoyed our time out none-the-less.

On another note, I'll share a funny story. Some of you have heard of Taryn and Erik's plan to live together when they grow up. At first they felt like they had to pretend they were not brother and sister so they could raise a family together. Taryn is going to adopt the babies and Erik will be their dad figure. I explained that they can be brother and sister and not get married but still live together. They liked this idea and have run with it since. Taryn was in the car with her friend Delaney explaining this to her. Delaney says, "you know you don't have to live with him." And Taryn says, "I'm hoping that he'll be nicer when we grow up."