Friday: errands, rock climbing, video chat

 We did some errands this morning.  We had to delay a little bit because it was raining hard and they involved a bit of walking outside.  One errand involved getting 15 foam noodles.

We met some friends for rock climbing.  I also got a new route!  Isaac told me I needed to trust my feet on a teeny tiny foot hold and so I did and it worked!

We (are currently) having our bi-weekly video chat with friends.  We haven't talked about butter (YET!) but we have hit cheese.

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.