Vacation- Happy Part

Now for the happier parts of our “vacation”…

We took our bikes along and went biking on a beautiful trail Sunday afternoon. Eli rode his own bike. We were proud of him. He doesn’t have a great place to ride in Red Lake, so he hasn’t gotten comfortable on his bike. He did great.

We took advantage of hotel swimming pools and spent plenty of time in the water. The boys both did really well with that and, of course, loved it.

I love this photo.

And I don’t know what it is, but there is something about hotel rooms that is so freaking exciting. After four nights we were able to hone our skills in getting the boys settled down and in bed. The culmination of these newly-acquired skills took place on night #4. Everyone was settled into bed and the lights were off. From our bed, Kendall and I heard the following.

Whack.

Whack.

Smack. Whack.

Smack! Whack!

Smack! Whack! Smack! Smack! Whack! Smack! Whack! Smack! Whack! Smack! Whack! (A frenzied flurry of smacking and whacking.)

Snort! (From Evan.)

Waaaaaaa! (A wail from Eli.)

Yes, Evan bit Eli’s hand. And yes, I am sure that he snorted as he opened his mouth in preparation for the big chomp.

So, using our great skills, we gave up and separated the boys and ourselves, each sleeping in a bed with one.

Monday, July 13- First Day of Summer

Well, in reality, it was more like the 6th or 7th day of summer. (Summer-like weather, that is.) We thoroughly enjoyed the sun and the water.

Remembory

Eli has developed a surefire method of avoiding confession. When something is amiss and I ask him about it, his usual answer is something like this: "Umm...I don't really remember."

I'm tired of it.

Tonight I confronted him with his wiley ways. He confidently explained it to me: "I don't have that good of a naughty remembory. I more remember good things. I don't have much of a bad remembory."

Well, that surely does explain things.

A Random Conversation

Tonight as we were watching a movie, Evan turned to me and said, "Why does everyone in the town have lips?"

"I don't know," I answered. "That's just how we're made."

Evan thought about it a bit, then said, "Maybe for sucking."

Happy 30th!

Yesterday was Kendall's birthday. (It was also our one-year anniversary of living in Canada.) Kirsten helped us with baking and we made a birthday cake to take in to Kendall at the nursing home. We made it big enough that he could share it with the residents there. We also made whoopie pies for him to enjoy after work.

As a surprise, I took contributions from lots of other people and came up with:

The Top 30 Reasons the World Loves Kendall Hochstedler

Following are some of my favorite entries:

People love being with you.

Your sense of humor.

Your strength in peacefulness.

Your Shitawi story.

Your honesty.

Your cooking skills over an open fire. (especially those chicken, jalpeno, and bacon things)

Your passion for the outdoors and your eagerness to share that with your family.

Your willingness to try anything.

You swap hunting stories with other hunters and talk about better ways to make explosives.

You are accepting of differences.

You have a calm, easygoing side, but with spiritual strength and passion for life that helps to balance it out.

You are involved and present in fathering your children. You listen to them and see them.

You explore your world. You are not content to just look at creation, you want to be in it.

You know how to be strong without making it obvious or obnoxious.

You wrestle.

You play family soccer.

You can guess who the last 2 are from.

Today is Canada Day. After Kendall gets off work this evening, we'll take the boat out with some friends to celebrate his birthday again and to watch fireworks. (If we don't freeze!!!)

Buddies

Eli and Evan are having great fun with their live-in buddies. Lyndakers are here for a few days again. I think the times when they stay at the guest house are some of the highlights of the boys' little lives. And these two are only 2/5 of the fun combination!

The bugs are back

Yes, they're back. And they're after me. I took this photo after I was working in the garden. My forehead was itchy, so I rubbed it with my sleeve and noticed a blood smear on my sleeve. We know how much head wounds bleed, so you can imagine the troubles I had with this one. :) What you can't see from the picture, is that it was all swollen too. Okay, I don't think I'm getting as much sympathy as I was hoping for. Let me just remind you that black flies take a bite out of you and that's why you bleed!

Anyway, I decided to try the new, cool Facebook-style photo where you only see a small portion of my face. It didn't quite have the effect I was looking for, probably due to several factors: I just came in from the garden, my hair is all botchy, I have no make-up on, and I'm just a bit too old to do a Facebook photo like that. Oh yeah, and I have a bloody mosquito bite on my forehead.