What happens if you take your kids...

...to the pet store?

I really should have known the answer to this. But we were bored and it's too hot to play outside, even at 9:30am, so we packed up and went to the pet store. Give me a break; we don't have a zoo for about 150 miles so this is as good as it gets! Anyway, the girls fell in love with all of the pets and Claire decided that she wanted a hermit crab. Here's her argument for hermit crabs:

Claire: Mommy can I have a hermit crab, please? (she pulls out the manners when it matters)
Me: No.
Claire: But WHY?
Me: Because I don't care for hermit crabs.
Claire: (muttering) Well I care for hermit crabs.

I stood my ground on hermit crabs. They look a bit too creepy to me and Maddie didn't like them either (she kept trying to hide behind me while pointing at them and calling them "bugs"). Claire did, however, discover my soft spot for feeder goldfish. I mean, the poor things are are sitting on death row - they're DOOMED! - and they don't even know it. So we now have a classic fishbowl with two feeder goldfish, whom we saved from their terrible fate. Though living with two young girls who like to tap the glass may be a fate worse than death for a goldfish. I dunno.



Claire picked out names for the fishies from their Limu, The Hawaiian Turtle book. The white one is Maddie's and its name is 'Ele 'ele ; the orange one is Claire's and it's Kakanaka.

Boy, is Phil going to be surprised if he reads this at work!

Garden update

Here's a little update on the garden. The peppers and cucumbers are doing really well; the onions have been yummy and I haven't pulled a carrot yet (should probably go look at 'em); the beans are trying to take over the tomatoes, who are in turn trying to take over the house next door. And every time the soybeans try to grow a leaf it gets eaten by our bunnies. No edamame for us!




And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my big brother today!

Spiders

Ugh! I am so sick of the wolf spiders here! I swear there's some sort of strange spider porthole that just allows the little buggers to waltz on in here to escape the heat (note the "How Hot is It?" feature to the left). The bug guy came and sprayed while we were in Illinois and the day we came home I squashed a great big huge one. I think we kill one about every day and a half. Gross. At least they're harmless.

Yes, this is our own photo!

On a totally unrelated note, everyone should come and visit us because it's wonderful here!

Playin' with the boys

So, there was a big volleyball tournament today for Phil's work. All of the "ops group" squadrons (lots of pilots and other aircrew types, and those that support them) sent a team. Now, I think Top Gun is pretty cheesy, but that volleyball scene was etched into my memory at an impressionable age (and what gal DOESN'T remember that scene???). I had visions of shirtless guys wearing dog tags. I'm pretty sure that just about every woman reading this would have thought of that scene and you would have come with me to check it out.

Of course, Tom Cruise wasn't actually there and it was hotter than Hades (around 101F). But hey, it was fun, Phil's team won the tournament, and they had beer, so all-in-all it was a good time. Oh, and I forgot my camera. Sorry, no hottie pics!

Highlights

I know, I know, but I'm feeling a bit lazy! Here's a little slide show of some other highlights from our trip.

We've got a wagon full!

I think each of the cousins took a turn riding in the backseat of our family truckster (except Keira and Connor, who aren't quite old enough to ask yet). It was cramped, but the cousins sure did enjoy being together. We didn't get photos of the girls, but each of the boys cooperated for a picture!

Here's Max (being a good sport and handing out Goldfish crackers to the hungry girls surrounding him)

Here's Andrew (also being a good sport and making do with the only extra pair of sunglasses we had)

Praire walk and THE LAKE!

While at home, the girls and I went for a walk with the local garden club to study some native flowers (we happen to know the co-presidents - Grammy Sandi and Gramma Beth!). Nikki and the kids were there as well as Megan and Max. The kiddos all seemed to have a good time running around in the heat and then checking out Lake Michigan at the end of the walk. Poor Claire fell over in the water, but the wet clothes kept her nice and cool for the walk back to the car. Maddie spent most of the walk on her aunt Nikki's back. She slept right through the whole lake experience!

Fortunately, we went back to the lake a few days later with the Shea's when she was awake. We took a nice little walk at the marina and the kids got to see some ducks and fish, lots of boats, and we even found time to stop and play on the playground there.

The big city and then Uncle Bill's House

On our way from the farm in Indiana to Zion, Claire noticed a couple of banks side-by-side near the interstate in Merrillville. The tall kind that are maybe 6 or 7 stories high and made with lots of glass. "Ooooo!" she said to us excitedly, "I see Chicago!"

Uh oh. Looks like our poor kiddo doesn't know what a big city looks like! So we decided that we HAD to take her downtown. We talked it over with everyone and eventually decided that Milwaukee would work just fine for a "big city experience" and we thought the children's museum there sounded interesting. On museum day we had all 8 grandchildren with both sets of grandparents and me and Phil. Six adults to eight children is a piece of cake, right? Wrong! But hey, it was loads of fun and even the most mature (?) of the grandchildren, Megan and Emmalee, had a great time. A photo, of course (click it for more!):

The next day we took the girls over to Uncle Bill's house to play and have dinner. Not only do they have a cool swingset/fort thing over there, but it's a veritable zoo: dogs, cats, fish, a bunny, and even a pet rat (aka "Princess"). Needless to say, the girls are ready to move into Uncle Bill and Aunt Heidi's place.

Swimming

The Bruno's pool was definitely a highlight of our trip. They were so nice to let us come on over with all of the kids and wear them out -er, I mean- let them play!

The beginning of our trip home...

We decided to take a big summer trip to get up north and see the family (well, except for Sam & Cindy, who are hopefully enjoying the beautiful month of July in Alaska and Jim, whom we just narrowly missed!). We stopped on the way up to see a few friends and then pushed on through to the farm for the annual daylily sale. The flowers were very pretty and it was lots of fun to see everyone. The girls ran wild like they never have before, playing hide-and-seek with their cousins with several acres in which to hide.

Visiting the fam'

OK, so I'm too lazy to blog while we're on vacation, but here's a link to Nikki's blog if you'd like to see what we've been up to.

Independence Day Celebrations

(We really weren't there...Click for pics from our get together!)

The squadron had a "Patch Party" to celebrate the holiday. They have these events about once a month to help folks get together. It was especially big for the fourth and we kept the girls out late for the firework excitement (sunset here is about 9pm this time of year and dark around 9:45!). They had a great time at the party seeing some of their young friends, their babysitters (the commander's daughters), riding a horse and enjoying the bouncy castle (a standard sight at these get togethers).

We saw the end of the downtown Altus show as we drove home, too. Claire lasted as long as she could see them out her car window, but as we turned and they went out of sight, she was asleep in about 10 seconds.



Click the slide show above to see the videos of the fireworks at our party!