Poutine, Haircuts and Kittens

Yes, it has been an eventful week in the Hochstedler household.


We made our obligatory visit to the Spud 'n Dog chipwagon for lunch one day. We split two large poutines. (I know this will make Duane and Ben jealous. I think Duane has a special place in his heart for this delectable specialty.) Homemade french fries smothered in brown gravy and cheese. Need I say more? It is true that our entire lunch consisted of greasy french fries, pop (from a pop machine which caused real excitement!), and one shared ice cream cone. (The cone came about because the driver of our vehicle was inspired by the healthy lunch and had a hankerin' for ice cream. So he counted the change between us and came up with one cone to share.)

Let this be the before photo on the haircuts. I should add that while I have buzzed Eli's hair before, I have been too scared to do it on Evan's head. Evan has very fine, very straight hair and he normally waits for his haircuts until he sees Grandma. (Kendall wanted me to tell Grandma that if she wants the boys to have decent haircuts, she needs to come up and do it. Hint. Hint.)

Evan was very happy with his haircut. He told me that he doesn't like when people say he's cute. He wants to be "cool." So I gave him a "cool" buzz.
Here are Eli and Evan with cool haircuts and their new kittens:

The kittens are so cute. I'm not sure what is happening to us. We're not so much animal people, but now we have a dog and two cats! Well, we do for now...Our dog really seems to want to eat the kittens. Not quite sure how to handle that.

I have to smile because Eli's kitten is so mellow. Evan's, on the other hand, is quite active and curious. She's...independent. Hmm... Sounds a bit like her owner. (They're even both cute, but don't tell the owner I said that.)

Goodbye

And just like that... It's gone.

The heat, that is. Today we hit a high of 59 fahrenheit.

Goodbye beach. Goodbye fast-drying laundry. Goodbye sleeping in the cool, dark basement. Goodbye 3 showers per day.

Kendall said last night that he wasn't ready to be done with the heatwave. Neither was I. It was actually fun to go out in the lake. The water games at VBS felt good. Somehow the heat, while it sapped my strength, also invigorated me. I don't expect to see another hot spell like that again this summer. Maybe not for a few more summers. Goodbye.

In other news, we also got rain. That helps with the forest fires, though they're still a problem.

Style

Evan shows off his fancy homemade shirt. (If you can't see, that's tape holding some awesome fringes to his shirt.)





We couldn't quite find the right pose, so I included all of them for your viewing pleasure.

I was one of those cool moms who let him wear his shirt out of the house. (Okay, it was just to swimming lessons and I don't know if I would have been okay letting him wear it somewhere more public. But at least I tried to be one of those cool moms.)

Weather Update

I'm just giggling through the heat.

You would not believe the heat wave we are having. At 9:20 pm it's 88 degrees outside and 85 degrees inside. This is a very rare occurrence in Red Lake, Ontario. So rare, that no one puts central air in their houses. I mean, why buy an air conditioner for the 6% of the year you need it? So we set up a makeshift bedroom for the entire family in the basement.

People are complaining about the heat, but I'm soaking it in. I'm really trying not to complain because it will be gone before I know it, never to return again. It definitely makes going to the beach more fun! The heat index for tomorrow is 106! Hee hee hee!

The other weather-related thing happening around here are lots and lots of forest fires. Click here to see a glimpse of what surrounds us.

This was the view from our deck yesterday morning.

No, that is not fog. It's smoke. Smelly smoke. Today wasn't as smoky as yesterday. We hear that the smoke from Northwest Ontario is moving across Canada, into other provinces. Even the weather conditions on the weather forecast have been saying "smoke."

We have fire restrictions right now. There is a chance of thunderstorms tomorrow. Rain is good. Lightning is bad.

We live really close to the fire base where firefighters stay and get ferried out to the fires. So we hear and see lots of activity. All day long there are white MNR (Ministry of Natural Resources) trucks driving past our place and helicopters coming and going. From the lake, we've seen a group of firefighters coming back from a fire.

Several remote communities north of us are evacuating people. From what I understand, it has a lot to do with the smoke. Click here for an interesting article from CBC.

As far as I know, we are not currently in any danger. It does make you think, though...

P.S. Kendall just got back from a quick bedtime dunk to cool down at the beach near us. He ran into one of the firefighters there. He told Kendall that Red Lake district is currently the busiest district in Canada and that columns of smoke are visible from here. Interesting.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Here you can see our lovely home for a week. We had a tent and usually camped at night, but really, this van is what we lived out of. Throughout the week in this little silver bullet, our stuff seemed to grow and take over. By the time we finally made it home to Red Lake, our van was so full of stuff that there was only room for two little fists to fly back and forth toward each other, occasionally making contact. (It is also true that after we finally made it all the way home, the owners of those two little fists ended up sitting in the van playing nicely while Mom and Dad unpacked. Hard to explain. My guess is that all the space of a yard and their very own house was just too overwhelming to take in all at once.)

Here's a little guy we found waiting to cross the road:

We had just been missing the snow so much! After all, it's been like at least a whole month since we've gotten to see it gently falling! (I, personally, wasn't too impressed with the icy whitness.)


Elk!


Some other wild creatures...

Bishop Castle- Colorado Highway 165

This castle was a fun stop recommended by friends. When we pulled up I could see a full-grown man slowly crawling across a catwalk above us. It seemed silly. Until I was up toward to top. Suddenly it made sense.


This castle has been being built for 40-some years. The builder was there working- and ranting about something. He seems to be an eccentric anti-government type. There were hand-painted signs railing about the government. It was not an OSHA-approved environment. Seriously, one could have fallen to their death at any time. There was a sign asking visitors to sign a guestbook as a release form. Kendall didn't find the guestbook until we had already cheated death and come back down.

Something some people may not know about our family is that half of it's members do not like heights.
Hint #1: This is the same half that is less prone to emotional outbursts.
Hint #2: The following photos.



Eli wanted me to include this picture and explain that he was still feeling so shaky that he was scared to sit in this chair.


I should say that while I do not consider myself to be afraid of heights, I was very shaky at the top. Safety and random openings in the walls were the big thing. Steps were welded together from metal grate, so you could see well below you. As you got higher, the castle was not built of stone walls anymore, but of metal pieces. With openings Evan could have easily slipped out of. I wanted to walk out on the catwalk far above the world, but little openings under my feet and a missing section of railing would not permit me to do it.

Eli dropped out of the climb first. Kendall shakily made his way up to where Evan and I waited. Evan would have happily scampered up to the very top, but I sent him back with Kendall. The little squirrel just wasn't bothered by the Evan-sized openings all around him! Then I kept climbing. The effect on my brain was hard to explain. Those openings really got to me...and the swaying... Anyway, you have to experience it to understand it.

I found the bathroom at the bottom and I'll just say now that I may be a bit germaphobic. The bathroom was a disgusting pit toilet and, as shaky as I was from climbing to the top, I found myself a bit panicky in that stinky bathroom. I guess one fear exaggerates another.

Thanks to Kendall's dislike of heights, Eli seems almost proud of his acrophobia. That does not seem to be a phobia that Little Brother shares. Do you think there's a name for a fear of young children that aren't afraid of things they should be afraid of?

Alberta Falls- Rocky Mountain National Park

We took a hike up to a water fall on what may have been the best day of our week of family travel. We didn't have to I think that's the only day we weren't in the car for more than an hour or two (or maybe three). We actually stayed in the same campground 2 nights in a row!

We nearly lost this one over the edge- but he stoically held on.


This seems to be a more dramatic near-fall. (Or maybe it's just a more dramatic son.)


This is the first I'm seeing this photo. Kendall must have taken it when he walked further than the rest of the family in his quest for healthy living.

Oh. Never mind what I just said about some quest for healthy living.

Mt. Rushmore- Keystone, South Dakota

Of course, being so close, we couldn't miss Mt. Rushmore! We got to Mt. Rushmore in the evening with thunderstorms threatening. We were tired. But we decided to go to a campground anyway. It didn't storm. We ate pizza from the camp store at 9pm. We slept horribly on a hill. I don't know why any decent campground would put their tent sites on a hill. I can't say that we were all the nicest we've ever been during this time.
However, we do look pretty happy the next morning! (Mt. Rushmore is behind us- not that you can tell.)

The family picture was taken after a beautiful ride up a mountain. Then we flew down the mountain on an alpine slide.


A few of the nation's finest...


Mt. Rushmore is between Eli & Evan's heads (not that you can see it). According to them, their pose is supposed to say, "We're the builders and that was so easy." Piece of cake.

Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead- De Smet, South Dakota

Since living in Red Lake, we have read the Little House on the Prairie series. Everyone got into it, but especially Eli and Kendall. So we decided to take the opportunity to visit the place where lots of the stories took place. It was really neat. Eli and Evan do chores (!), play a pump organ, make rope, drive a team of horses, sit in a one-room schoolhouse, ride a pony, see a dugout home and beg for toys from the gift shop.




Here they practice using their new ropes. It appears to me that Kendall is attempting to lasso his son rather than the calf.


Never fear- While Kendall shows off for the camera, his son sneaks up with a plan of his own!