The Accidental Boilermaker

I got Evelyn and Jameson to go on a bike ride with me this morning by saying we could ride along the greenway. They did a good job. Jameson didn’t bike too far ahead of me and Evelyn (he likes to be first) and everyone kept to the right when I told them to get over. We biked just under 5 miles.  It’s still members only at the zoo, so we met Nate there after work. The weather was perfect.  The orangutans were active and swinging around.  Lots of the birds were active too. Usually these guys in the rain forest hide when they see you.  The peacocks were out in full force too. 

Our Father’s Day weekend was good. Nate and the kids camped in the backyard Friday night. They set up the tent and then got to watch some extra tv. Before getting into the tent and reading books they did some sparklers.  We didn’t have much to do Saturday or Sunday and I definitely think Evelyn and Jameson got bored. Sunday we gave Nate his presents, watched church online and went for a family run/walk. We also picked up our virtual VBS supplies. I have a friend who works at a Lutheran school and church and she told me to sign up Evelyn and Jameson and we would get all the materials and resources to do VBS at home.  After breakfast, Evelyn and Jameson couldn’t wait any longer to start on the activities. 

We picked strawberries today. Evelyn and Jameson did a good job, but they didn’t like to stay in one place. They jumped around a lot.   We came home with lots of strawberries and right away made a batch of strawberry raspberry jam. We had pancakes with strawberries and blueberries for dinner. Tomorrow we are going to make strawberry ice cream and maybe more jam. 

Fort4fitness kids marathon training started today. Masks were required at the event, so I wasn’t sure how long we would stay or what activities we would do. Wearing a mask in a store is one thing, wearing one while running around is another. Well it didn’t seem to stop Evelyn or Jameson. Evelyn grabbed a jump rope while Jameson took off running laps.  They played red light green light. Evelyn did some yoga while Jameson ran more laps. Jameson ran over a mile around the track and Evelyn did 1 mile. They only took their masks off to drink water. 

The zoo is open!  It’s only open to members for the next two weeks and you need a timed ticket to enter. We chose to go a little later in the afternoon thinking it would be less crowded and for the most part it wasn’t too bad. Some popular spots got bunched up, but overall people seemed to do a good job at social distancing. We really encouraged Evelyn and Jameson to try and not touch anything which was hard because they often forgot but there was hand sanitizer and washing stations throughout the zoo.  The sitatungas were nice and close. They are always fun to see.  The zoo has two new cape porcupines And a new otter!  There’s three in the picture, it’s hard to tell.  The bronze animal sculptures and other popular picture spots have been removed around the zoo. A few remain, like the surfboard because you don’t really touch it with your hands.  There was a new red tailed hawk too.  We ended our visit with the goats. We decided against brushing the goa...

Yesterday was a hot day. We picked up some materials from the library, got lunch from school, ate lunch and then went outside. Evelyn and Jameson played in the kiddie pool all afternoon. I read my book, drank some coffee, did some crochet outside while I watched them and they just kept playing. Today we were supposed to get storms, some of which could be severe so I put the pool away, brought in some stuff we didn’t want to blow away, and moved the potted plants to the porch. One neat thing we did today was one of our to-go activities from the library - magical mystery object. Evelyn got a feather and Jameson got a shell. A mysterious donor had given the library these objects and the librarians needed help cataloguing them.  Around 4:00 the storms blew through. It was very windy. At one point I was actually kind of concerned, but the storm did not last too long. When Nate got home he said there’s a tree down in the middle of the road and sure enough a big limp had fa...

Nate took today off too so it was a day to get stuff done. We took the Toyota in for an oil change. Evelyn and Jameson set up a monster truck wash to clean the dirt off his trucks. Nate mowed the grass and then we washed the Mazda. Evelyn and Jameson loved it. After the car was clean we filled up the kiddie pool.  It was hot today and it’s going to be even hotter tomorrow.  We decided it was finally time for some haircuts. Nate took Evelyn and Jameson while I stayed home. I think Jameson looks just like Nate. 

First camping trip of the summer is in the books.   We wondered how busy the campground would be and it was full, even the primitive, tent side that we stayed on.  Evelyn and Jameson enjoyed riding their bikes around the campsite and also playing with Jameson's monster trucks in the mud. Friday afternoon was hot with lots of mosquitoes. We all got bit up.  Thankfully we planned a non-campfire meal for dinner, walking tacos. We did have a bonfire later so we could make s'mores. Only Evelyn seemed to sleep well Friday night.  Over the weekend we tried several different hairstyles to keep Jameson's hair out of his eyes. On Saturday we went on a guided nature hike and learned about beavers.  It was the same hike we did the first time we came to Chain o' lakes but with a different guide, so he pointed out different things.   After the hike we had hot dogs for lunch and headed to the beach.  The water was nice and Evelyn and Jameson had lots of fun...

Remember when we did all that chalk art?  Well when we came inside Jameson rubbed at his eyes before washing his hands and must have got chalk in his eyes because he was crying and so unhappy and we kept saying stop rubbing, you’re making it worse. On and off for the rest of the week, he’d complain his eye hurt and finally today I decided to call the doctor’s office. The nurse thought I could bring him in or wait a day and see what happens, but tomorrow isn’t a good day so went in. Evelyn was very excited to wear her mask, Jameson not so much but he did without too much fuss. Thankful Jameson’s eye looked fine. He probably did scratch it the doctor said. Apparently chalk in the eye is very common in children. He prescribed eye drops we can fill if Jameson continues to complain. Because everything checked out we were able to meet up with Bella and Millie at Fox Island to swim and play in the sand.