The lake

We spent the weekend at Lake Tshida. It was a beautiful weekend. I'm glad today's rain held off until today. As usual we had a fun time at the lake. We went swimming and kayaking and Rion caught a frog. Rion had a lot of fun in the water. Torii didn't like being underwater, but Rion took every opportunity to go under. I was throwing him in the water and he was also jumping off the dock. We spent the night on Saturday. While sitting around the campfire, Rion decided he had had enough, went back to the cabin and went to bed. He's always been like that. When he's tired, he goes to bed. Torii wasn't that far behind, which is unusual, because he never voluntarily goes to bed. I think they were worn out. On Sunday when we got up they were ready for more swimming. First, we had a very good breakfast, complete with pancakes in the shape of the first letter of the kids' names. Then the boys got right into their swim trunks. We went for a kayak ride and then the boys played in the water with Dave and Peggy's friend Jerry. They had so much fun. About 3:00 Rion was ready to go home because he was tired again. He dozed off on the couch while I got the car loaded.

That's gotta hurt

On Saturday as we waited for dark so we could do the rest of our fireworks, we took a break inside. I was flipping through channels when I saw "Wipeout" was on. I had never watched it before, but I knew it would be something the boys would like. It sounds bad, but they really liked seeing people falling and getting hurt. Rion laughed the loudest when one of the guys got hit right between the legs. Torii liked the show too and said he wants to be on it. Grandma told him only grownups could be on the show so Torii said he is going to be on TV some day. Later in the show he asked Grandma if she will watch him when he's on TV. I have no doubt that Torii could be a reality TV star.

An open letter to the ice cream truck

Dear ice cream truck owner(s),

At least twice a week we hear your truck's jingle travel through the hot summer air. The sound goes on for 30, 40 minutes. We wait in anticipation when the truck will make the turn down our street. Yet it never happens. Tonight as we played in the backyard, we heard the jingle get louder and louder until there it was! Through our backyard neighbor's yard we saw the ice cream truck traveling north. We implored the truck to take the next right, but the jingle turned quieter until we could no longer hear it. Each night we hear you there is no doubt you are in the trailer court south of us. While I can't argue with your marketing plan, (there's lots of kids in the trailer court), I beg you to visit the kids just north of there. Even though I grew up 10 miles out of town I remember on occasion an ice cream truck stopping at the corner by our house. Now I have a family and we live in town, but my kids have never experienced the ice cream truck. They have never stood next to the truck looking at the picture menu debating between a rocket pop or a fudgecicle. Or maybe an ice cream sandwich. Then again, maybe a push-up. They have never waited patiently for the man to disappear inside his truck and reappear in the window to hand them whatever they ordered. We have a book about an ice cream truck, which is a favorite at bedtime. Yet, it's only a story to them. They still have not experienced the delight of hearing that jingle as the ice cream truck turns down their street, the mad dash for some money and finally some cool ice cream on a hot summer day. So once again I beg you. We would love to see the ice cream truck in our neighborhood.
Sincerely,
Stacy, Rion, Torii and Cordelia

4th of July

We had a very good Fourth of July. In the morning we took in the parade. I thought Cordelia would go after the candy more, but she was more content sitting on the sidelines and eating the candy. She didn't like the loud noises in the parade and would cling to someone until the noise was gone. Torii got a surprise from Santa who made an appearance in the parade. One of Santa's elves gave him a present, which nobody was expecting. Torii looked at all of us like "well, what am I suppose to do with this?" He opened his present and there was a juice inside.

After the parade the boys went with Grandpa and Grandma and the rest of us went home. Cordelia crashed as soon as I put her in the crib. I took a catnap as well. Being well rested, we then headed over to Grandpa and Grandma's. After eating too much, the boys wanted to shoot off fireworks. We had one bag full of fireworks, which was plenty, although next year I will have to get more since the boys are enjoying blowing stuff up more. They even lit some fireworks on their own. There was only one minor injury when Rion wasn't watching what he was doing and hit Torii in the cheek with the punk. Today Torii has a small burn mark on his cheek. The boys bought lots of parachutes and they had fun chasing those. We got a few night time fireworks and those were a big hit too. When we left we took the long way home and took our time. Torii and Cordelia crashed in the car, but Rion stayed up the whole way home. We went through Lincoln which was one massive smoke cloud. It was a good show though.

When we got home Torii wanted to be carried inside. I told him I had to carry Cordelia in, so he walked in by himself. When I got inside with Cordelia, Torii was fast asleep on the chair. Torii, Cordelia and I all slept in until 9:30 this morning.

Father's Day

On Father's Day Fred took the boys fishing. Torii caught his very first fish! Rion got his second. Fred came home empty handed. Of course Torii had to let everyone know that his fish was the biggest. Everything is a competition to him. I can't believe Fred got Torii to hold the fish for a picture, but it doesn't look like Torii is really enjoying it.

Rainy day fun

When Grandma Norma was here we had some yucky weather, but we found some things to do anyway. One of those days we went to the Capitol and Heritage Center. We went to the top floor of the Capitol and saw a turkey vulture flying at the same level that we were at. The boys were really impressed by it. Then we went to the Heritage Center. When I wasn't stopping Cordelia from climbing onto displays, we were in the kids area. That is always a hit with them.Torii and Cordelia riding horses.
Torii and Rion in jail where I should have left them.

On another rainy/cloudy day we went out looking for new shoes before summer school started.
Both boys were in dire need of new shoes. While out we stopped by the Convention and Visitor's Bureau to see Auntie Vicki and the boys got to blow the steam whistle.

A birthday redo

While Fred's mom was here we decided to have a redo birthday party for Cordelia. Grandma Norma had come up for Cordelia's first birthday last October, but only got to see her very shortly as we passed through Fargo on our way to Minneapolis for Cordelia's surgery. I guess I hadn't thought about it until just before Grandma Norma arrived, but I realized that both grandmas would be here and it would be the perfect opportunity to get birthday pictures with the grandmas. Both boys have pictures with their grandmas on their first birthdays so I wanted Cordelia to have some too.I did not want to be in the picture. I just wanted the grandmas to be in the picture with Cordelia. But that's the difference between a 12 month old and a 19 month old. The only way I could get Cordelia to be half way decent is if I was in the picture too. And I had to be the one holding her.

A very nice family picture. I should have taken some pictures of the cake too. Cordelia got her fingers in there a few times so there were finger marks. After everyone had a piece of cake we let her dig around in it. She did get a cake to herself on her actual birthday to dig into so I didn't make an extra cake this time around. GG, Auntie Vicki, Nathan and AJ also came for the redo party and we all had a good time. Torii kept us entertained. He had a fairy wand and was putting spells on everyone, but of course the spells did not work on him.