Thursday: normal day

We went to downtown Zeeland today to bring some games to the game store.  There was a gigantic penguin, so of course we took a picture and sent it to Ben.  The game store was really the only thing on the docket today, so I managed to get a few chores done too.  They were boring.  I briefly thought that maybe next year I should always make sure to have one mostly empty day every week, but then decided that was a bad plan - I'd rather have fun and periodically apologize about the messy house.

Two days ago we watched assorted Olympic sailing events.  One of them ended up being, accidently, the wind surfing from Tokyo.  There was no wind, so all of the athletes had to pump their boats to get anywhere and it was hilarious.  We watched it again last night because it was so funny. 

the week: an experiment

Cheryl mentioned that there was a way to keep rocks looking shiny.  (Bake them in mineral oil at 200F for 3 hours.)  So we tried it.

It turned out pretty well, but we didn't remember what they looked like before.

Then we tried a bigger rock.

It is more obvious in this picture!  Oddly enough, the mineral oil wicked up a little bit.  I wasn't expecting that.

The mineral oil leaves a bit of a residue, so Isaac washed it in water.  It still looks good!

Tuesday: The best day ever for the lovies

We went on a walk with Cheryl this morning.  Last night Giraffe's bad part was that he didn't get to go outside, so Isaac said he could come on this morning's walk.  Grey Bear is always up for leaving the house and Snowfoot jumped in on the action too.

Really, the only reason I brought the backpack was for the lovies.

We also saw 35 turtles!  They were all lined up on a few logs, and I don't think I've ever seen that many before.

This afternoon Joshua said that he trapped Tornado, but I think Tornado actually trapped Joshua.

vacation Wednesday: fun, and leaving

The day once again started with FlowRider lessons as Isaac really wanted to do them again and was willing to pay for his portion.  He didn't have to twist Ben's arm too hard and Joshua joined too.  The teachers weren't as good, but they still had some good rides.  Joshua had a fun time, but a few extra pounds would have helped him out.

The park opened and we all did a few last rides.  We probably spent 1-1.5 hours finishing up.  We weren't in a hurry, but we didn't want to drag our feet too much either.

After changing, we went back to Tom Foolery's.  The rock climbing line wasn't too long, so I did that with Isaac.  Oh boy!  I could tell I didn't have the right type of shoes!  We raced to the top the first time and pretty much tied, but he was on a harder route.  I did my route one more time and then I was good.  It was fun but not as much fun as I had been expecting.  We did a few other games, finished up the money on the arcade card, and went to the store.  Overall, we ended up with a lot more tickets than I had been expecting.  Ben carefully chose a luck game on Tuesday and some of the games gave us quite a few because they were skill based instead of luck based.  We walked around a bit, but ended up with a pyramid rubrix cube and a stuffed cat in a coffee cup.  Honestly, Ben and I weren't thrilled with the cat but Joshua had his heart set on it and it was the right number of tickets.  (Spoiler: Catcachinno has become a beloved member of the family.  Every night he tells me that his bad part was not being able to drink some drink.  His good part varies a bit, but defaults to a drink that he did get to drink.)

And then we started home.  We had a small (10min?) detour when my phone decided that we wanted to take the ferry, but Ben caught it quickly.  Also around this time Ben noticed one of his toes starting to turn black and blue.  On the Flow Rider, at some unknown point, he stubbed his toe hard.  By the time we left the water park he couldn't wiggle his toes.  On the way home we decided to call the phone nurse, who of course told us to go to the ER.  (I'm not sure why we call the phone nurse anymore.  They always tell me to come in.  Also, we were going to get into town about 30 minutes after all the urgent care places closed.)  Long story short, I dropped him off at the Holland ER on the way into town.  They confirmed the break but were otherwise rather unhelpful.  Ben went to a specialist the next day who mostly said just walk on your heel for a while.  Ben doesn't have any boots or tape or anything like that, he just needs to walk carefully.

Even with the toe, it was an excellent vacation and we all really enjoyed it.

Monday: scooters

Since the kids didn't get to use their scooters on Friday, we tried again today.  We picked up Aunt C and headed to the Holland Energy Park.  They have a 3/4 mi paved loop.  Once again, it was a beautiful day.

Between the three of them, they were having a rough time letting me get a good picture.  However, this picture also feels rather accurate.

I found a snake!  I thought it was a stick and was stepping over it, only to see it move.  I jumped a little bit...not because it was a snake, but because it was a stick that moved!

Sunday: trimming

I trimmed a quilt tonight.  It isn't my favorite activity, but usually doesn't take too long.  However, when cats realize what I'm doing it doesn't go so well.  They like to pounce as the cutting mat when it moves.  Or they like to mess up the quilt when I use the laser level.  

Ben took Tornado down to the office to keep him out of my hair.

Saturday: rock climbing

There was another rock climbing competition today, this time in Holland.  Like last time, he flashed 8/9 routes.  The hardest part of those eight was one was in a crowded corner and he had a hard time getting to the wall.  In the future I think we need to remember that the crowd thins out a bit and to maybe come back to some of those.  Anyway, some routes were easy and some were harder.

The last one that he tried was the hardest...I think he knew that going into it.  It's the red one shown above: in the cave with some hard foot holds and a tiny jump at the end.  He was really close even after his first try, but it took five tries to actually get it.  (The video is better with sound.)

It was a relief to get that one.  Then he knew he could just play around a little.  He did a few of the intermediate ones, but some of the areas were still really busy.  So he started playing around on an advanced course.  Only one other person was working in the area and so they could easily take turns.  He got zone (a lesser point value than top, but still worth points), and he was really excited about that.

I'll also be honest, I saw the coolest move I've ever seen today...and we watched the Olympic Bouldering quite a bit this week.  Someone did a bat hang (only hanging on by their feet) to get a top hold and it was so cool.

We all decided to go to the award ceremony.  Isaac decided that he should show some support even if he didn't place.  I hadn't received a text to let us know to come by the time we were pulling into the parking lot, so I thought there must have been some other people that knocked it out of the park!  It was a little surprising, but it did take him several tries for the last one.  Anyway, I'm sitting in the back, minding my own business because we didn't actually need to be there.  Names are getting called and, as expected, Isaac wasn't one of them.  Then I hear a "First place - Isaac Hilldore."  What what??!?!  It was a good thing we came. :D  Ben and I were not ready with our phones, so the pictures aren't the best.

Joshua took the time afterwards to climb a few of the routes too.  We had offered him the option to actually enter the competition, and he went back and forth on it for a while.  In the end he decided not to, which I think he regretted a little bit.  It's ok.  There are more years if he's interested again.

This whole thing is part of a three gym series, with the finals being in Traverse City.  We weren't planning on going, as we didn't really expect Isaac to do this well.  I think we've convinced him to go, as long as we do something else while we're up there.

Friday: hike

This morning we went for a hike with Aunt C.  It was a lovely morning for it.  The kids brought us to the big hill and then ran down it several times.  They climbed some trees.

vacation Tuesday: busy and not busy

The morning started out with some private lessons at the FlowRider.  There were only four people and some really good instructors, so it was worth it and everyone was having fun.  However, then Isaac's swimsuit got caught in the thing.  While he was in the spray and able to breathe, the top lifeguard had to go and pick him up.  Isaac shook it off and continued.  The next time it was Isaac's turn the same thing happened!  This time the lifeguard wasn't able to pick him up and they had to e-stop the FlowRider.  His swimsuit had gotten more caught, to the point of a small bruise later on in the day, and they had to wait for it to be fixed.  No one was quite in the mood after that and so they canceled the rest of the lesson.

The good instructors continued on the FlowRider once the park opened, so Ben and Isaac continued waiting in line and trying standing up.  Isaac had a really good stand-up ride, about 15-20 seconds.  Joshua and I went around on some of the other rides, but it was really busy in the park.  It was a bit unexpected because it was a Tuesday.  Ben said he felt a little bad standing in the long line for the FlowRider, but honestly, it was about the same wait time as several of the other rides.  Joshua and I would see Ben ride, go to our ride, ride it, come back (possibly via the Lazy River), and see Ben ride again.  It was a bit odd how well it worked out.

We had lunch with Zach and Jenny.  The kids interacted really well over Minecraft, even though there was a large age gap.  

We went to Tom Foolery's after lunch.  Again, it was a bit busy but we did the high ropes course.  I wanted to do the rock wall but decided I didn't want to wait in line.  We all did a piano arcade game and I got a high (daily) score!  It was pretty exciting for me.  We also did the button pushing game together as a family - we were all on the same color and got another high score! 

Joshua and I finished up our scavenger hunt.  It took us several trips to finally find the last item as we kept running out of time.  It was in the farthest away building's lobby...we were originally going to be there but then they changed our room to be much closer.  Thank goodness...it was probably about a ten minute walk to the water park from that area.

At this point I needed a break so we went to the room for rest time.  We had a special treat.  I slept a bit, as did Joshua.  We decided to go to the outdoor waterpark and see if the big ride didn't have too long of a line - maybe we would ride it once or twice.

It ended up being the best part of the vacation for me!  The weather was warm, but there were clouds.  The water was much warmer than Sunday.  It was about dinner time, so there were few people around.  We rode the big one twice and had a great time on it.  We moved over to the other water slide area and did some of the double tubes a few times.  Then I said I was going to go on the body slide and the boys did the single tube funnel.  I probably did the body slide seven times while they were doing the tubes.  I would steadily walk up the stairs, there would be no one at the top and so I'd go right down!  By the third-ish time of this I was a bit winded as I was motioned down, but I went anyway!  After a bit we did a round of the mat slide and then suddenly the park was closing.  It was a lovely hour and a half, and I think we figured out that I did about fourteen rides.  (The boys probably did about ten...tubes are slower to deal with and they all waited for each other on the top and bottom.)

We headed back to Tom Foolery's after a dinner of leftovers in the room.  There was a 3D shooting game that I somehow got first place in!  I usually do very poorly on those things.  We did a few arcade games too, but then called it a night.

Thursday: playground

This morning we went to a playground with some friends.

Then we went to a natural playground nearby, only to find out that it was gone!  I was so surprised.  Anyway, we decided to talk to the birds of prey area.  The kids seemed only partially excited, but they figured out ways to enjoy it.

Wednesday: mountain biking

Today some friends brought us mountain biking!  Well, it was probably more like trail riding, but it was still bumpy with hills.  It was a bit tricky and both boys had a fall, but everyone also listed it as the good part of their day.  I had a great time.

Tuesday: play-doh

This week I gave the kids a chore: clean out the play-doh bucket.  It's rather large and the kids don't use it much anymore, so it needs to be decluttered.

The kids found the play-doh that was bad and played with the good play-doh for about four hours.  So, I feel like my plan worked.  I was able to actually get things done today.  It felt good, although a lot of items I got crossed off were just normal things like laundry that will show up again soon.  I also got (most) of the kitchen cleaned for the first time in about two weeks.

Monday: ups and downs

Joshua had a rough morning. I wasn't planning on doing any errands today, but Joshua and I went and did some errands because he needed a changes of scenery.  It worked.  We had a nice time in Lowes and got a new toy for the cats in the pet store.

Then Joshua worked quite a bit on making a cat tree at home.  (There's a reason I keep so many boxes!!  You never know when you'll need just that size.)  The rest of the day was better.