A Big Ant and a Mystery in the Pool

I took the kids to the pool tonight, which was not particularly noteworthy, except Joshua found an ant on the ground, and it might have been the biggest ant I've seen in Kansas.  Joshua loves bugs, so he wanted to put it on his arm, so he did.  Look at the size of that thing!

Before we got in the pool, we saw this in the pool.  The kids were split on if it was a big piece of poop or a hot dog.  We were the only ones at the pool, so I thought it was feasible that someone pooped in the pool and then left, but I really hoped that wasn't the case, for multiple reasons.  But it didn't look quite like that, but I also didn't think it was all that likely that there would be a hot dog in the pool.  We wanted to swim, so I was going to have to investigate the object before I could clear the kids to get in the pool.  So I jumped in and looked closely.  I was relieved to find out it was just a cattail.  I explained what it was to the kids, and I'm not sure if they were relieved or disappointed that it wasn't a piece of poop, but either way, we got in the pool and enjoyed a nice evening of swimming.

My 20th Reunion

I'm not sure it's right, but the math somehow seems to back it up: I graduated from high school 20 years ago.  As such, my graduating class held our 20th reunion this summer, and it was tonight in Leavenworth.  I went to my 10-year reunion, and I don't think we had a 15-year one.  I had been thinking about what reunions would be like in the Facebook age.  Would people be less likely to go?  One of the reasons people go to reunions is to see how people have changed and what's the latest in their life.  But with Facebook, since most people our age have it, you know that stuff about most other people in your class, though certainly not for everyone.  For me though, it actually made me want to go more.  I feel like I have more or a relationship with my classmates because of Facebook.  So I was looking forward to going.  In the afternoon there was a tour of the new high school, as one of our classmates is an administrator there.  It was fascinating to see how high schools have changed.  They don't even have any lockers!  After that, we had some time before the reunion, so I stopped by my old houses, and also drove around town a bit.  Here's our second house in Lansing.  When I lived there, I never really thought about how oddly-shaped it was with that huge sloping roof.  I met up with Jeff and Josie when they arrived, and we drove by their old house too, which was the house Jeff lived in when we met in 1992.  We then went to the reunion, and it was really quite fun.  It was great to talk to so many of my old friends, some of whom I hadn't seen since the 10-year one, and many not since we graduated in 1996.  It was a fun day, and I'll likely prioritize going to the next one, whether it's 25 or 30.

Summer Trip to the Zoo

I took the kids to the zoo today, as the weather was nice and we had some free time.  The food is not cheap there, so we try to bring a picnic lunch when we can.

Our first stop was the ape and monkey section.  The mama orangutan had recently had a baby.  The kids were very interested to see, and you can see why, as look how adorable that little thing is.

Joshua's recent increased interest in snakes made him much more interested in this albino python than the last time we were here.

Clara was excited to get a map, and she wanted to be the navigator.  But that mostly consisted of her staring at the map with a confused look on her face before finally declaring, "We need to go there!" and then she'd point somewhere on the map that may or may not have been a random spot she chose.  Either way, it wasn't helpful, but that's okay.  Hannah agreed to push her in the stroller, which was surprising to me.  She couldn't see over the stroller, so she drove Clara around like a blind person might drive a car.  So we ended up with Hannah blindly steering the stroller while Clara confidently told her where they should go to get to the next place, even though she didn't even know where we were supposed to go. 

The zoo stole our favorite polar bear from us and sent him to a zoo in North Carolina (thankfully for Nikita, it wasn't the Cincinnati Zoo, so he doesn't have to worry about getting Harambe'd).  In exchange, we now have a couple of koalas.  Most people say they are always sleeping and never available to see, so I suppose we got lucky today, as both were awake and visible.  Here is a cute-ish koala looking at us.  I'd still rather have Nikita.

                                              We successfully found both Nemo and Dory in this tank.  

And we went to the penguin house, because penguins are awesome (and not just the hockey team).  All three kids liked watching them, though Hannah did so from the comfort of the stroller.  They asked to ride on the carousel before we left, but we didn't have time.  When I got home, Meghan told me that they were really looking forward to that based on a conversation she'd had with them earlier in the day.  But it didn't seem to be too big of a deal when we were there.  Still, I'll prioritize it for next time.

VBS and CVS

Meghan will post more about VBS later, but I wanted to cover things from my perspective.  Joshua and Clara are both old enough to go this year, but Hannah isn't.  Meghan has to go early to get things set up, since she's volunteering, so I then bring all three kids when it's time for the kids to arrive.  Hannah and I walk Joshua and Clara up to their group, and then we are free to go home, as Meghan will bring the older two kids home with her.  But Hannah is interested in what's going go, so every night we've hung out in the back of the sanctuary for the beginning of the program, which consists of three or so songs that everyone sings, followed by a short skit that Chris does.  So while the large group is doing their thing, I'll hold Hannah and we'll sing and dance to the music.  She really likes it, and I do too.  After that, we decide if we have any errands to run.  Each night up until now, we've gone somewhere, like Walmart, CVS, Home Depot, the gas station, the recycling center, etc.  I tell Hannah the plan before we leave the church parking lot, and she tries to remember it and then let me know each destination as we leave the previous one.  It's been a really fun time for just the two of us to hang out and have fun, first in the back of the room in VBS, and then running errands.  Although tonight was the last night of VBS, and we had no errands to run, and she was a little disappointed.  But we spent some time at home, and it was all okay.  One funny consequence of her learning about VBS and then learning about CVS at the same time, is she can't quite keep them straight.  Like when planning our evening before we even go, she says, "After we drop Joshua and Clara off at CVS..."  She then realizes her mistake and laughs at herself.  Next year she'll be old enough to go, so we tried to enjoy this time while we had it.  I didn't have a picture of our adventures, but I did snap this one of the two attendees in their matching shirts.

Eve 6

At some point, most of my favorite bands from the '90s will be defunct and no longer touring.  But that time is not yet, as I still get some of my favorites to roll through town every now and then.  One of my favorites is Eve 6.  Their self-titled album from 1998 is one of my favorite albums, and I probably know every word on it.  So when I saw Eve 6 was coming to town this summer, I made plans to go.  The concert was in the Voodoo Lounge in the Ameristar Casino, because Eve 6 isn't exactly going to sell out Arrowhead at this point.  And unfortunately for them, there was a Third Eye Blind concert happening tonight in a different part of the city, so that split their already small demographic.  So the crowd was small, but it was an awesome show.  I was able to get pretty close, as you can see here.  But I loved it, and I'm really glad I was able to go and rock out, '90s style.

A Big Fourth of July Day

We has a really big day today celebrating the Fourth of July.  As usual, I tried to get some pictures of the kids in the outfits.

The first event of the day was the neighborhood bike parade.  We all meet at the pool, and then ride around the neighborhood on a route back to the pool, where the kids (and adults if they want to, which I did) get red, white, and blue bomb pops.  I took Hannah and Clara, because Joshua lost his privilege to go because of some decisions he made earlier in the morning.  Later while playing in the back yard, Joshua found a grass spider.  He always asks me if a spider is okay to hold and this one was, so I let him, which made him very happy.

We then had our traditional lunch of hot dogs (it's American!) and also some blueberries, and then we headed over to Mom and Ron's house, where we met up with the rest of the family.  Benjamin and Daniel were there, and Benjamin was excited to play with his cousins.

Here are two really cute pictures of the five cousins from the Leach side.  When we were ready to take pictures, Clara instantly declared that she should be the one to hold Baby Daniel, and we all agreed that she was the right girl for the job.

Clara made the rounds socially, as she tends to do.  Here she has fun with Grandpa Ron and then appears to be having some sort of dramatic conversation with Uncle Brent.

I took a few pictures of the Fouts family, and then we had our celebration of Ron's birthday (today) and Mom's birthday (a week and a half ago).

In the evening our family left to go to fireworks.  The Olathe fireworks show moved this year, as there is new construction where it used to be.  This year we parked at the K-State Olathe campus and walked a short distance to a place we thought would be close to the fireworks.  We weren't exactly sure where they would be shooting them off from, but we ended up with a pretty decent spot.  Next year we'll be able to position ourselves even better now that we know more.  In the picture of us, I'm not sure what's above Hannah's head.  It looks like one of the glow necklaces that's flying through the air.  Maybe someone flung it until the air right before I took this picture?  Yet it doesn't look like anyone did that.  I don't know.

This was an tiring day.  We did so many things and went so many places.  The kids were exhausted and all fell asleep on the way home.  But it was another great Fourth of July celebrating birthdays and our freedom.

Riding With Two Wheels

Recently Meghan asked me why I hadn't taught Joshua how to ride a bike without training wheels.  As best I can recall, when I learned I just had the training wheels at a point where I just started balancing on my own.  But she brought up a good point.  Why couldn't I teach him.  So today, among all the other things going on, I took some time to take Joshua over to the school parking lot, which I knew would be empty.  I had researched ahead of time the best way to teach a kid how to ride a bike, so I did that, and it worked beautifully!  Almost immediately he figured it out, and was quickly riding on his own without any training wheels or assistance from me.  Here he is shortly on his first ride and then with a proud smile.  Since then, he's told several people about it, including neighbors we saw on the way back to the house.  He was quick to tell them, "Hey, look what I can do!  I can ride with two wheels!"  They were initially confused, because of course it has two wheels, though he viewed the training wheels as extra wheels, so I quickly chimed in to clarify, at which point they of course congratulated him. It was a pretty monumental accomplishment for him, and he's super pumped to ride his bike now without training wheels.