St. Joseph KOA

One of the fun things we did this summer was to go camping. We did it last year as well but this year we decided to rent a cabin at the KOA in St. Joseph, Michigan. It was a great choice. Setting up a tent and setting up the cots and mattresses can be a pain. The cabin had beds and electricity and even an air conditioner.

We spent two days there and it was very relaxing. We went during the week so many of the weekend campers were not there so the campground was quiet. The pool wasn’t crowded and there weren’t loud kids running around (except for ours of course). We even did a little fishing where we caught loads of little sunfish. I liked this because I usually end up catching nothing.

Speaking of fishing Aura and I had some spirited debates about a fishing hat I wanted to buy. She says it looked goofy and made me look like a doof (her word). I liked the hat and didn’t care if I looked like a doof. In the end I left the hat on the shelf. Maybe next year…

I really enjoyed making breakfast using our little camping stove and roasting marshmallows over a fire during the evenings was also great fun. Walking all the way across the campground in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom was slightly inconvenient, but it was still very enjoyable. I can’t wait to go again.

The Burpee Museum of Natural History

We went to visit the Burpee Museum of Natural History in Rockford, Illinois during our summer vacation. This is a great little museum and is highly recommended. It is a good size to see in only a couple of hours but it still has quality displays in spite of being small. The kids really enjoyed it.

There are some notable features of the museum. First is Jane, the juvenile T-Rex skeleton. ”She” is smaller than the specimen that is in the Field Museum, but it is still the size of a mini-van. I’m glad these creatures are no longer roaming the Earth.

Second are the paleontologists that work in the basement that are happy to speak with the kids and explain how they are extracting the fossils from the rocks they are embedded in. The kids really enjoyed asking them questions.

Ian really liked the replica forest with the giant dragonflies and Cami enjoyed the tunnel you walk through before getting to the museum. Along the walls someone had painted the silhouettes of various animals so you can compare their sizes. By the way, the adult T-Rex dwarfed the whale silhouette. Here is Cami comparing “Mr. Husky” to a wolf.

I was happy that the kids enjoyed the nature displays of current animals and I was especially pleased that they enjoyed the bird section and even knew the names of some of them. I enjoy birding and often the kids go with me. Both of the kids were pointing out birds we’ve seen while bird watching.

Another display the kids enjoyed were the Native American displays with the replica teepees and bison.

If you get a chance go to the Burpee Museum. It’s a great little museum and the entrance fee is reasonable. All of it can be seen in only a few hours and it is clean and well-lit. One of Aura’s complaints about the Field Museum is how big it is and how you can go so deep into the galleries and it gets dark and creepy. The Burpee Museum is definitely not dark and creepy.

Cami’s New Dragonfly Earrings

Cami’s Aunt Ginny gave her some new dragonfly earrings. She was so excited that she put them on right away. And where is the best place to wear your earrings for the first time? The pool, of course!!

Here she is in action.

Another Amazing Magic Trick From Cami

Another Amazing Trick

Ok, here it is. After a lot of practice Cami will once again attempt to make her brother disappear, and hopefully reappear. In the process she makes most of our family come and go, but in the end she comes through for us.

After looking at myself in the video I think I’ll ask her to make my face disappear and reappear as Brad Pitt.

Cami the Magician

Well, as you can see Cami has really been practicing her magic tricks. She can now make people disappear. Ok, you guessed it. It's actually a camera trick that Daddy did, but you can tell that he needs to really figure out how a tripod works. Maybe our next video will be better. I'll post it and you can decide.

They’re growing Up…

A Fun Day at the Water Park

The other day we went to the water park and the kids flopped around in the pool and went down the “lazy river” and had a great time. But, for some reason both of them got it into their heads that they were going to jump off the high dive into the diving pool. “Huh?…”, I said!

The diving pool is something like 12 feet deep, and I was unsure of our kids’ swimming abilities, but there were two lifeguards there, so I figured it would be ok. Here is a video of the kids working up their courage to jump. It’s a collage of the many attempts.

By the way, I was surprised at how well the kids did in the deep pool. They had no problems at all swimming themselves over to the ladders, etc. and didn’t seem freaked at all that the bottom of the pool was way below them.

The Giant Mushroom

There has been a lot of rain this spring and this has led to some mysterious things growing around our house. The other day a mushroom popped up that was truly huge. It was a toadstool type of shroom, and sort of pretty in its own little way. It was so big that it looked like a came out of a fairy tale. I expected a little fairy to yell at us to get away from her house.

Oh by the way, the storm last night knocked out our power and it hasn’t come back on yet. It was quite a storm…

The End of an Era

I was excited the other day when I cleaned out the garage, but at the same time I was sad that my kids are growing up. Seen here are some of the “little kid” items that I threw out. Their baby chairs, their car seats, various toys, and their picnic table.

In truth they never used the picnic table, mostly because of the spiders that spun their webs on it, and the little furniture never got a lot of use. They preferred to sit on the sofa snuggled up against mommy and daddy (makes sense, right?).

But I was especially sad to throw out their battery-operated motorcycle (it stopped working and they outgrew it) and their little horse. The horse was a gift from my parents and they loved it. But, like the other things, they outgrew it and it broke. I might fix it and keep it hidden away somewhere, but don’t tell mommy.

My kids are a lot of fun now that they are growing up but there are times when I see other people at church with their little kids and I long for those days when my kids were small.

Ian Almost Becomes a Girl

The other day we had a picnic in the park. At one point Ian got into one of the baby swings and I swung him for a while. It was great fun.

And then he tried to get out. Oh boy, he got himself so wedged in that he almost became a girl. It took both me and Mommy to get him out. At one point I turned him over and tried to dump him out of the seat. It was all very funny.

Later that same day Daddy fell off his swing and landed on his butt in the dirt. About 10 seconds later Ian fell off his swing and wound up hurting himself, though not badly. He mostly scared himself, but he did cry a lot. It was actually a little embarrassing that he was so loud as he cried. The other parents were looking at us like we were bad parents. Oh well, we had a good laugh about it later that day.

At the Illinois Railway Museum - 2011

Once again this year we went to the Illinois Railway Museum for a reunion of my dad and his coworkers who used to work on the Railway Post Office trains. Ian and Cami are pictured here inside the car that the IRM had running that day. Ian isn’t excited that the girl who is draped over him is his sister.

The kids have really grown up. I looked at older pictures and it is shocking to me how grown up they look in these pictures. I guess time is really getting on these days.

The weather was fabulous. It wasn’t hot (it can be really uncomfortable in the trains when it is hot) but it wasn’t cold either. And it didn’t rain! The mud there can be miserable when it rains.

The IRM also had the old sleeper cars open, but not running. They were really cool. The little rooms looked really comfortable. Each one had a toilet and at least one bed. There were sinks and controls for heat and AC. It made me long for the days gone by.

Balloon Animals

A few weeks ago we went to a restaurant for Auntie’s birthday. At the restaurant there was a man there making balloon animals. The kids enjoyed it so much that I got them a bag of balloon animal balloons so they could make their own animals.

The example above is my first attempt at making one. This design came out of my head. In other words there was no book that I was looking at and I hadn’t yet watched any videos on YouTube or anything. I think it’s a pretty good effort.

Below is my second attempt at making a balloon animal. It’s sort of an homage to Anthony Weiner. It didn’t start out that way. It just sort of evolved as I went along. I’d like to say I was trying to make something non-perverted and that it just sort of turned out to be rude looking, but in reality I was trying to make a pair of boobs.

I have to admit that sometimes I have the mind of a child.

Cub Scout Fishing - 2011

It’s that time of year again when we take the Cub Scouts fishing. Thankfully there is a pond close by that we take the boys to. It’s only about 5 minutes from our church building, and it has a lot of hungry fish in it.

Thankfully every boy (and girl) that went along caught a fish, except I think for one boy that did not, but he caught a bunch last year so he wasn’t too bummed.

Ian caught two fish (a crappie and a bass) and Cami caught one fish (a bass I think). It was a lot of fun!

Does This Dress Make Me Look Fat?

A year ago, just after last year's seminary graduation, our Bishop's wife asked if I could play "Praise to the Man" on my bagpipes for this year's seminary graduation. Well, that graduation ceremony was last night, and I did play.

Originally I was supposed to play along with a slide show featuring the life of Joseph Smith, but for whatever reason that slide show never happened. So, I just played up in front by myself. I was very nervous, but Aura went along and was a great support for me. She took care of my pipe case and other bags as well as reassured me that all was well.

She recorded me with her camera (just audio) and I think I sounded pretty good. I've been practising a lot over the last few months so I could get up to speed and not sound like a fool up there.

By the way, if I sound like I'm playing too fast through Praise to the Man it's because I'm used to playing this tune as a march and not a hymn. I suppose I could have slowed down a bit.

Here is the audio clip of me playing:

Cami Loves the Rain

Cami loves it when it rains, or at least when she can play in the puddles. I got her on video making a mess of herself and her clothes. I wouldn’t doubt it if some of these clothes made their way in to the trash. Just looking at her you can tell that this is just a short portion of the total play time she had in the water.

Mother’s Day - 2011

This year the kids were so excited about Mother’s Day. For weeks they’ve been talking about it and couldn’t wait to make their little treats and crafts for Mommy.

Ian made a Noah’s Ark out of popsicle sticks and Cami decorated the kitchen with all sorts of happy faces, etc. She also made a picture frame out of popsicle sticks and she rolled apples in peanut butter and covered them in sprinkles.

Also, a neighbor of ours gathered up a lot of the kids in the neighborhood and helped them all make little terrariums for their moms.

Mommy really enjoyed all of the attention and the treats, though Cami ate most of the peanut butter apples.

Cami at the Art Show

Back in April one of Cami’s drawings was selected to be displayed at an art show in our town. She was very excited as only about 5 kids had been selected from her school. We were excited for, and proud of, her as well. She loves to draw and I think she is very creative.

Here she is posing in front of her drawing.

Easter - 2011

It’s hard to believe but it’s Easter again. Time is really flying these days.

This year the Easter bunny brought treats and a couple of stuffed puppies. And of course…chocolate! Woohoo! Daddy helped himself to some of the kids' candies.

The kids had a great time coloring their eggs. Most of the eggs were just dyed but then the kids realized that they could get more creative with crayons and the clear wax pencil thingy that came in the dye kit.

This is Cami’s favorite egg. She drew a picture of Remy, her Nanna’s dog.

This is Ian’s egg. He used the wax pencil to make a nice message to his mom.

We also had a great time doing our Easter egg hunt. Below is a short snippet of some of the hunt.

Cami at the School Science Fair - 2011

This year our school held a science fair. Cami participated but Ian didn’t. We thought, based on the flyer we received, that Ian was not eligible to participate based on his grade level, but when we arrived there were kids in his class that had displays. We were bugged by this. Oh well, maybe next year.

Anyway, Cami did a write-up about the life cycle of the Red-eared Slider Turtle. Here she is in front of her display.

I helped out a little with typing stuff into the computer for the text, etc., but she chose the pictures and helped write the words.

She did a great job…

Pinewood Derby - 2011

This year's Cub Scout Pinewood Derby was last night. It went well and all of the boys (and girls who raced after the main race) had a great time, though once again Ian was bummed that his car didn't win the speed race. Next year will be his last derby so we're going to have to go all out to see if we can make a super fast car. But, his car looked sweet! It was a rocket (or missle or bullet) that was painted gold and had decals down the side. Cami's car was a wedge of cheese with a mouse on top. The reason his car didn't win was it was too light. Even with the weights we added it was only 3 ounces, so that by the time it got to the end of the track it was starting to slow down while the heavier cars kept going. We weren't willing to screw washers and glue quarters to it to make it heavier. The pictures below are the steps to making Ian's and Cami's cars. Sorry for the slightly fuzzy photos. I'm getting used to my new camera thingy. Step 1: Mark the blocks so we know where to cut them. For Ian's car cut the block in half top-to-bottom. Ian's car had a more detailed shape, so cut that shape to save ourselves some time. Cami's was an easy shape to cut, but we were a little spazzy while doing it so we power sanded it to remove the wavy cut. This picture is before the wavy cut was sanded off. Ian's required major sanding to make it round. Daddy hand carved it using a carving knife and then the sanding wasn't so bad.

Once it was sanded we spray painted it gold.

Cami painted her block as a piece of cheese, and prepared it for the mouse.

Ian's car was so light that we had to hollow it out and add as much weight as we could.

Here are the final cars. They both looked really cool and the kids were happy with them, but as I said earlier Ian wasn't happy that his did not win. He was also sort of upset that his design award was lame. He won the "Rocket Car" award. I have to agree that the Bishopric could have been a little more creative.

School Talent Show - 2011

In the video above Cami is the girl to the farthest right.

Last night was the annual Terrace School Talent Show. Once again this year Cami participated with her Girl Scout troop. They did some little dance about peeling bananas. The video above is a short snippet of it.

There are a lot of talented kids at the school and it makes me feel like a bad parent that I haven't gotten our kids more involved with something where they can develop their talents, but we're working on it. We're hoping that next year Ian will be able to play his bagpipes or maybe they can do a skit together. We'll need to get Cami involved in something she can do. She has expressed an interest in bagpiping. Woohoo!

One of the worrying things about the show is the number of young girls who dance to some of the latest pop music. Some of the music has some unhealthy messages for young girls, and some of the dances and lyrics are sexually suggestive. I remember one dance where three girls turned their butts toward the audience and started to sort of grind them around and there was a loud whoop of approval from the parents that were in attendance.

Here is Cami with her participation award. She was very excited about the show and she was very pleased that she and her group did a great job and had fun doing it.

The Leprechaun Traps

Last night the kids put out some Leprechaun traps. Cami's had a ball of aluminum foil that was supposed to entice her Leprechaun up the ladder and then he would fall into the hole at the top of the box. Ian's trap was a hole in the ground that was surrounded by sticks. In the hole was a couple of screws and some peanut butter crackers.

Ian was very excited to find a piece of green cloth stuck to one of the sticks this morning, but Cami was disappointed that her Leprechaun was not in the box. The box however was torn like he struggled to get out, and the ladder steps were broken as well. Cami is going to try again tonight, even though she knows that Leprechauns only come out once a year (on St. Patrick's Day), but I told her that maybe he'll come back tonight now that he knows there are treats in our yard.

St. Patrick's Day, 2011

Well, St. Patrick's Day is on a Thursday this year, so it is mostly business as usual. The kids had to go to school and Daddy had to go to work. Bah, humbug. But, a small treat is the ability to wear goofy green attire and knick knacks. The kids had green feather "ears" and blinking clover necklace thingies.

You know, I have to be honest. I don't really like corned beef and cabbage. Yuck! I have bad memories of my dad eating corned beef and then whiffing up the house with corned beef toots for the next three days. Ugh. And cabbage, well...'nough said.

At the kids' school a surprising number of kids had their hair dyed green. I wished I had thought of that with our kids. Also, a lot of kids had clover stickers on their faces, so many in fact that I thought it was an organized thing. Hmm, we must have missed the memo.

Cub Scout Go Carts

Last night the boys finished their go carts that they started a couple of weeks ago. They had a blast pushing each other around in the church parking lot. This little snippet of video shows Ian, in the background under the post light, taking a major dive when the kid he was pushing did a weird zig zag manouver. Ian wasn't hurt, at least not seriously, and it was funny not so much because he fell but because of all the other mishaps that had occurred up to that point. The adult leaders were getting sort of giggly.

Scouts is a lot of fun because of this very thing. By the way, sorry about the quality of video but it was very dark out. I'm surprised that my camera caught as much as it did.

Tie-Dyed Cami

A few weeks ago Cami's Brownie troup (pack, gaggle?) made some tie-dyed shirts and bandanas. She wore them to school today because they had a dress rehearsal for their school's talent show. I haven't seen the skit (or song) they're doing, but I saw it in print and it has something to do with peeling bananas and squeezing oranges. Whatever it is I'm sure it will be cute. I'll post what pictures and/or video I get. I think the show is later this month.

Notice in the picture Ian helping by making faces behind Cami.

Cami's Church Drawing

The other night Cami sat in bed with mommy and set out to draw herself a picture, and a wonderfully detailed picture it is. I love this picture. It is our family (including "Puppy") going to church. And it has all sorts of nice little notes about how she loves Jesus and Heavenly Father, etc. I think I'll frame this one and put it somewhere. I hope she keeps this level of devotion and optimism.

More Fun at the Hardware Store

We had a very serious clog in one of our sinks the other day and I had to make a special trip to the hardware store to get some plumbing parts. While there the kids once again exercised their creative spirits by using various plumbing fixtures as headwear. I'm not sure what they're wearing but they looked like floppy hats. Even Cami's puppy looked good in one.

Cami also decided to try out some electrical pipes, but I'm not sure what look she was going for.

Father and Son (and Daughter) Cake Baking Contest - 2011

Last night was the 2011 Blue and Gold Banquet for our Cub Scout pack. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work to pull together, but our Cubmaster did the lion's share of the work. She deserves a lot of credit. Thankfully my wife reminded me to get her a small gift to thank our Cubmaster at the end of the ceremony. It was just a small gift but at least we were able to publicly thank her for her efforts.

Here are the kids' cakes they baked for the cake baking contest. They did most of the work this year and I think they did a great job. Ian's (above) is obviously our American flag and Cami's (below) is a husky dog. I think Ian was smart for simplifying his flag and not trying to make it have the accurate number of stars and stripes.

Ian won "The Most Patriotic" cake award and Cami won the "Man's Best Friend" award. They were happy with their cakes, but both were a little bummed that their cakes were not devoured by the attendees of the dinner. But, as I told them, there were a lot of cakes and most of them were only about 25% eaten.

The Bishops of our two wards did the judging, which was much appreciated by everyone. It was a great time and I think everyone was happy. Now it's on to the Pinewood Derby next month. The boys received their car kits last night! Hopefully their dads will let them get a chance of at least helping to make their cars.