Monday: painting

Today was painting day!  Isaac was willing to help, so he was on roller duty and I was on edges.

While we weren't overly fast, we took about as long as I was expecting.  The primer took us a bit over three hours and the first paint layer a bit under three hours.  We both missed a few spots with the new paint, but we still have another layer.  It was a bit hard going from primer to paint, but it seemed to dry darker than when it was put on.  So hopefully the last layer tomorrow will be a bit easier to see where we missed (or not).

Sunday: lake

This afternoon we went with friends on Lake Mac.  Larry and Cheryl let us use their house as home base.  One family rented a boat and had tubing gear, so all the kids and I went tubing.  I love tubing.  I goal was to be thrown off the tube.

Well, I had one foot on the tube as I was getting on and fell in the water.  Goal achieved!  I fell off twice more and it was amazing.  The last time I fell off during a turn that wasn't all that hard, but it was on the end of a series of ones that really caused me to hold on tightly and my hands were tired.

I also tried the eFoil.  I didn't do great, but for my first time on it it wasn't too bad.  I tried riding on my knees, but then my legs got really sore.  Sitting on the board was much better.  I made several small circles and had a hard time staying at the same height throughout the ride.

Vacation Monday, part 1 (June 8): LEGO tour

Today was tour day!

We started out with a great breakfast again.  I saw something called student bread and grabbed a piece.  The pieces were small  (1" cubes) and so sweet.  It was a pastry crust, what tasted like the jelly part of a Danish, and topped with small layer of frosting and sprinkles.  Apparently it's supposed to be a way to use up extra ingredients, but I had it two days and it was the same both times so I'm not sure that's the case anymore.

We walked to the LEGO house this time - it's about a twenty minute walk.  We got there a few minutes early so climbed the blue stairs.  Last time we were here I went half way up the yellow stairs for a picture and I regretted not climbing all over the outside of the house.  (To be fair, there just wasn't time.)

We started by building ourselves out of minifigures.  I choose a bag (because I'm the person that carries the bag when we travel) and a donut. Ben had wanted a surfboard and got one passed to him too.  There were two people named Ben and they both had Benny shirts on.  Isaac was wearing the LEGO shirt he made in art and got several compliments on it.

Our first tour stop was the museum.  It's interesting to hear the stories behind LEGO company - the founding, the ups, and the downs.

LEGO comes from LEg Godt, which translated is 'Play Well'.

The original ducks LEGO made:

Transitioning from wooden toys to plastic building bricks.

The patent (and our guide, a LEGO historian)

A cat!

I really liked this vase, although I expect that the lighting and case color helped a ton.  Also, I noticed that nothing was dusty and then one person on the tour asked about that...it is the responsibility of the history department to keep it clean.)

Then we went to the vault.  It had moved since the last time we were here and it was so much nicer.  Before it was in crank shelves and everyone had to be in the same few rows as everyone else and it was in the basement.  Now it was up higher so there were windows and natural light and there were stationary shelves with wide rows.  We found several different interesting sets.

With set 1!

Browsing

Joshua looked at most of the Minecraft sets

This set, the Minecraft mountain, was one that Isaac really wanted for years.  Unfortunately, by the time he realized it was a set it was retired and way too expensive.

Joshua with his first big set.

Cheryl with a favorite set.

Browsing.

While we never got this set, I made Isaac take a picture with it because for a period of time his favorite color was black and he was into all black everything.  We got a bulk LEGO of black pieces that he played with on the counter while I made dinner.

On the way back I had Ben take a picture of me by the window trees because I was wearing my tree shirt.

Friday: blueberries

We went blueberry picking this morning.  The kids weren't thrilled about it, but I was.  We ended up with two buckets and I bribed them with ice cream afterwards.  (To be clear, I bribed them with a dessert.  I said they could have ice cream if there was no grumbling about blueberry picking next time we go.  If they wanted to grumble but then be happy next time, they would get donuts instead.)

There was a polar bear, so I had my picture taken.

Our garage door broke last night.  They were able to come out and fix it right after lunch.  It was a little funny because I sent Ben a text saying it was fixed and literally a half second later I got a call from him.  He had just received a text saying that they were on their way to fix the garage door.  We laughed about the timing and sighed about how so many companies text Ben after clearly stating I should be the point of contact.

Thursday: not exciting

Today was, thankfully, much less exciting than yesterday.  We originally had plans to go to a playground with a friend, but that got canceled.  We moved a few plans around to make the schedule work better, but nothing exciting.  

We went rock climbing today (instead of tomorrow).  I also went to my karate class tonight, and will probably do so for the rest of the summer, so that we can have a free night on Wednesdays.

Wednesday: unexpected

I had a plan in mind for the day.  For the most part, it went to plan, but the little things in between were completely unexpected.

I dropped a Coke can nine inches and it opened, spraying Coke all over the kitchen.  Isaac was there and Joshua was willing to help clean it up too.  We got it done, but I felt so sticky afterwards.   The picture isn't very good but I'm walking to the bathroom on a little rag so my sticky feet don't touch the floor.

We had our ducts cleaned today.  They haven't been cleaned since the house was built and a few things I've read have said that they don't really need to be cleaned.  However, we're still dealing with some drugstore beetles and I don't know where they're coming from so we had the vents cleaned.  We'll see if it helps at all.  It was significantly louder than I was expecting.

As the duct guy left the pest control guy showed up.  I mentioned we had the ducts cleaned because we couldn't figure out the bug situation and he scoffed at that.  ("Well, the pest spray isn't really helping either," I thought to myself.)  At the end he seemed so surprised that they were all on one side of the house (away from the food) and that they were drugstore beetles.  He even took a few pictures because ...he didn't believe me?  I offered him a specimen to take as I have plenty, but he elected not to do that.  They told me the spray doesn't eradicate them, but it does kill on contact at least.

After dropping Joshua off to science camp Isaac and I sewed a little cover for his nightlight to make it less bright.  The cover fit surprisingly well for something we just threw together and it made the nightlight look like a little pillow (as you can see in the bottom of the picture).  So we also made Giraffe a little pillow.

Joshua and I got home after camp and I was talking to Isaac about life when we hear Joshua call out, "can you come help?"  "I'm stuck."  "You're going to be surprised."  He had sat in a 5 gallon bucket and couldn't get out.  Long story and about ten minutes later I had cut the top of the bucket and he was free.  Yay for tin snips. And now our bucket has a pouring spot.

Tuesday: climbing

 Isaac and I went rock climbing while Joshua was at a science camp.  I was hoping for a bunch of new routes, but we were there two weeks ago so there wasn't much new.  I noted at one point that I wasn't sure what to work on because there were a bunch of kids on the auto-belays.

Isaac encouraged me to do a V1.  I got it!  Then I tried a V2 again.  I had tried it last time we climbed and it did not go well.  This time I got it!  It is helpful to have Isaac nearby both for encouragement and ideas.