Friday: Terra Firma

We went to a rock climbing place in Grand Rapids today, just to do something different.  (Also, it was air conditioned and our normal gym isn't and it's hot out.)

We also met up with one of Joshua's friends.  Both kids had a great time.  They climbed for about two hours, then they left and we went to have lunch.  We went back after lunch.  Joshua didn't climb for long as he said his shoes were hurting, but he was content to read while Isaac finished up.  Isaac continued to climb for 1-1.5hours, getting in a ton of new routes.

On this route, which looked like a big rainbow, the top was at the end of the rainbow.  I suggested that he just use his toe to get it but Isaac refused.  The elation on his face when he figured out how to get it with his hands was cool.

The cave.  It wasn't tall, which was both nice and not nice at the same time.

Thursday: sink

After the new water heater, our kitchen faucet, which was already on the fritz, really needed to be replaced.  It gave us water, but in a weird way.  The instahot had also died about a month ago, so I decided to try and replace both at once.

It was a day of ups and downs.  I got a lot of things unplugged, only to have a really hard time getting a water filter out.  Joshua and I picked up some strap wrenches after swimming lessons and were able to loosen it up.  Hooray!  Everything was out!  We had lunch and I took a nap.

Things were going well and I got to installing the instahot.  I ordered the exact same unit so it could just be switched out.  Of course, that didn't quite work.  The fittings looked different.  Turns out, I needed some compression fittings.  Ok.  Off to Lowes!  I found what I needed, with some help, but the 1/4 nut didn't seem like it was going to fit.  (I carried the old instahot all around Lowes like a baby.)  It was the best option, so I bought it anyway in case the new one was a little smaller.  It wasn't.  I was on my third call of the day to Dad while Joshua filed down the hole and ended up making it big enough.  Like I said, it should have fit it just didn't quite fit.  So I was able to tell Dad that I didn't need his help...this time.

After that, I was almost home free.  It took ten minutes to get one of the screws in the garbage disposal back in, but after messing with it the screw finally caught.  A few more steps and we were done!  No leaks!

Now, keeping it real, this project did take most of the day (with the exception of swimming lessons, nap time, dinner, and karate).  The rest of the kitchen looks like there was an explosion.  I'm not all that optimistic that it'll get all cleaned up tomorrow, but hopefully at least the floor.  Obviously, I didn't put anything away because I want to watch for leaks.  Yeah.  That's it.

Weekend: brick world Chicago

 This past weekend we went to a Lego show.  It was the same one we went to five years ago.  It was busy at times, but super fun again. 

It's hard to choose favorites, but this dress was one of them

There was a study in color, only some shown here, that made Ben's to 5.

This was made of spider webs

This table had a lot of flowers, and many of them used fabrics (capes mostly) for the pedals

Isaac's favorite part was the great ball machine.  I only have one shown here but marbles move around in a big square over lots of machines.

This was in the top five for Ben and me.  It layered trans-blue pieces on other colors to make the painting effect.

This was in everyone's to five.  There was a black light to make the reef glow.

We got to build some city buildings.

And saw a landmark from home.

This was by far Joshua's favorite, a big and deep Minecraft scene.  Before finding it he was flagging and almost done, but then we spent 15 min here.

We thought that was the end, and it was about 45 minutes from closing.  Then we found the activity room!  The kids had asked about the green bricks because they remembered them from last time, but we didn't see them in the main room so thought they weren't around.

Joshua and I both built creepers

The back of my creeper had his mouth closed because he was underwater, so I also made some kelp.

There were several other tables, but they were all a bit busy. The lawn games were clear, so we spent some time there.  That rounded out our time nicely.

We did stop at the Lego store for some pick-a-brick boxes and then went home.

Wednesday: groceries

 I know, it's another installment of grocery adventures with Amanda.  I'm listening to a book right now about WW2 England and how some people were observing and writing everything down for posterity.  This blog doesn't come close to that, but at least if anyone ever finds it they'll know some about the grocery stores.

Anyway, it's been on my mind lately that I should switch to Aldi.  I've shopped there a little in the past, but I enjoy the variety and the large selection of items that Meijer has.  But...groceries are expensive.  And some items are getting 'really' expensive.  I buy the off-brand items most of the time anyway, so why not buy Aldi brand?

So Joshua and I tried it out today.  Of course, my grocery list was crazy small; only about ten items.  I can't remember the last time I've only had ten items on my list - it's usually about 33.  At the same time, it's a good time to start since we don't have to hunt for as many items.  We found eight of the ten items and the total came out to $29 dollars.  If we pretend that I had my normal 33 items, it would be about $120.  My grocery bill at Meijer is usually $150 +/- $50, so I probably saved a decent amount.

I think we'll try shopping there over the summer.  I like the idea of saving money, but it was annoying to be in a new place and not be able to get all my items.  I'm hoping to save up enough items that I can do a Meijer pickup just once in a while.

A, after dinner: The grocery total was less than $30 so I gave myself a triple gold medal*!
B: Well, that negates the savings offset.

*Yeah, I give myself pretend medals based on my grocery bill.  $75-$125 = gold, $125-$175 = silver, $175-$200 = bronze, >$200 = sadness - hopefully there's a weird and expensive non-grocery item

Tuesday: rock climbing

The Huismans joined us for rock climbing today.  We were afraid it was going to be really hot, but it ended up only being warm.  It wasn't sunny and there was a nice breeze, so it was good.  Everyone had a wonderful time, with one of the them even rating it 200/10!  Score.

Monday: normal

It was a pretty normal day, other than that Ben took a day of vacation.  So it felt like a hybrid Saturday/Monday: we did some of our normal Saturday things, but also normal Monday work.

The kids were occupied well this morning, so I was able to actually get a few things checked off on my to-do list.  I also gave several of my items to Isaac as chores, so the list isn't increasing as rapidly as normal.

There's a heat wave going on, so we stayed inside most of the day.  I brought Joshua to swimming lessons and went to karate in the evening, but that's was it.  (It was disappointing to come out of karate.  Usually I'm all hot and sweaty and the cooler air is a welcome relief.  Today it was hotter, because thankfully the school has A/C, and it made me even sweatier.)

Sunday: Happy Father's Day!

The kids did a great job celebrating Ben today.  I helped facilitate some things, but for the most part they did things or figured things out on their own.

Joshua spent all week making a sword from a video game for Ben, along with a stone to pull it from, a scabbard, and a stand.  He also got Ben some chocolates.  Isaac got Ben an expansion for Space Base, and we played that after church.  It was a really good expansion; it added interesting mechanics while not making the game longer or harder.

We went to Larry and Cheryl's for dinner and it was nice to see family again for a bit.