Saturday, July 28, 2012

A Camping Not To Go

     This past week my wife hit the big 4-0 and one of the things she wanted to fo was go camping around her birthday.  In light of that, I took two days off from work to go camping - we never went.

     Two days before my wife's birthday her brother and his wife brought their fourth little girl into the world.  Why go camping in the heat when you can stay in an air conditioned car and go see a new baby niece.  And that is what we did doing lots of visiting along the way and leaving a child behind at Grandma's for a week.  15 hours of driving later we are home.

     Next week end we will try again to get some camping in at the Family Music Festival down by Itasca State Park where we'll get three days of Christian Bluegrass Music.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

It's A Small World?

     Let's just say it has continued to be hot here but than it has been hot everywhere.  Even though it has been hot, it hasn't been hot enough yet for our added breaks at work. Anyway this past Thursday I got my glasses and am wearing them on and off to get used to them.  While they haven't said anything yet, I think some of my kids think I look funny wearing them. But heat and glasses don't fit the post's title.

     On Saturday we had a busy day but it was not at home.  We got up early (early for our family) and got on the road for a Baby Birthday Party which is hosted by the midwife who we had for our last three children.  She does this once a year for all the babies she has helped with.  the drive was between 2 1/2 and 3 hours.  It was there I was visiting with another family that our midwife had helped that I discovered (again) how small the world is.  The fellow I was visiting with as it turned out was not only from my hometown but he was a classmate that graduated from Brainerd the same year I did.  While there the kids got to tour the fire hall and our youngest (David) when he saw the lights turn on put his hands over his ears expecting the siren to go.  Later on someone did turn the siren on and even though it was loud, David told my he like that sound.  Before we left each of the kids got to pick a present out of one of two bins and our kids picked a flash light, a mini magna doodle, a screw driver set and two jump ropes.

     Once we left we didn't go home, instead we went to another birthday party. where there was plenty of food grilled of course and time for my wife and several of the kids to jump in a pool. 14 hours later we made it home.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Hot

     Yeah, I know it's been hot around the country and while we have not had the 100+ temps, here in Northern Mn. it's been extremely hot as we are built for the cold, and we could drop the temperature 100 degrees and still be comfortable.

     Since last time I posted We've had the two middle girls spend a week at camp.  For Melissa it was her first time and she loved.  Of course the girls did have to miss out on the 4th of July celebrations - where we went to town before noon because the oldest was scheduled to work at the outdoor pool as a lifeguard, however due to rain and thunderstorms the pool never opened and we sat in the van for over 2 hours waiting for the weather to dry up.  Once it did we were able to get out and enjoy the day with the inflatable "rides" the play ground, some races, a parade, a chili cook off, Dairy Queen and eventually fireworks without mosquitoes.

     This past week I broke down and finally went and had my eyes checked.  It's hard to admit that your eyes aren't what they used to be.  Anyways, the optometrists said my eyes were 20/40 up close and 20/24 at a distance.  So I'll be getting some glasses - mainly for reading and they'll be bifocals on top of it.

     In the mean time we are celebrating my middle boys golden birthday today.  Jason is 14 now and to celebrate he started with a sleepover with 3 extra boys - 2 good friends and their foreign exchange student.  Latter some more friends are suppose to b coming over to help celebrate as well.