The worst day....

Today was one of the worst days I've had in a long time. It all started early this morning when I started off to work and got a mile or so from home and realized I forgot my sunglasses and eye drops at home, so I went back to get them. I then got to work and broke one of the kids toys I was giving to my boss as a hand me down, literally as I was handing it to them. A canceled testing session that ended up in me calling into an executive meeting via video conference. My golf cart ran out of batteries in the middle of the street on my way back to the shop. And Jenni called me about Lily's accident (read the post above). I got home and started cooking dinner on the grill, Jenni walked into the room and said, "ummm....the grill is on fire." I through the lid open and it was seriously on fire, some of the built up grease from the hamburgers the other day lit on fire. So, I turned off the gas and taught Jenni how to use baking soda to put out a fire.

All in all, it was a pretty crappy day.

Jon's bike ride

I don't know if you remember the blog posting about the dog awhile back where I explained that parents should not open their fat mouths until they know all the facts. Well....I didn't listen to my own advice. Earlier this summer I told Jon that I'd buy him a brand new bike as soon as he learned how to ride his without training wheels. I figured that would buy me some time, because no kid learns how to ride a bike the first time. Recently, Jon has been asking me to take the wheels off his bike because he thought he was ready to try it out. I, like a good dad, kept saying, "remind me and I'll take them off tomorrow." And tonight was the night, I no sooner climbed out of the car than he was attacking me with the request to remove them, so I obliged and told him to get his helmet because I was sure he was going to crash and burn. And here's the video of his first try.



I guess I owe the kid a bike.

Rock Stars

So the kids finished up bible school this week and remembered that we own a karaoke machine...that meant it was time for a rock concert in the living room.
Jon spent the week being a Red Raccoon and Kayla belonged to the Purple "smelly" skunks. They had a great time and Jon's group was the proud recipient of the prized "Golden Boot" four times. He will proudly tell anyone who will listen to him!! Kayla's favorite day was crazy hair day....it fit in well with our rock concert.

Slip and Slide

Alright, it's been years since you've even thought of a slip and slide...and I'll tell you why. BECAUSE IT ISN'T MEANT FOR ADULTS. Our friend Laura gave Jon a slip and slide for an early b-day present and we broke it out almost immediately. The kids really didn't get the idea of how it worked so ole dad had to demonstrate the proper slip and slide technique, but there were two things wrong with this idea:

1. Dad never had a slip and slide growing up and was winging it.
2. Slip and slides aren't meant for adults!

The new versions of this classic toy come with an inflatable sled, and my first pass at this toy was a success and kind of fun. Then I got cocky and tried it again, but on this pass I started running, entered into perfect face-first diving technique, hit the ground and started my slide...and all heck broke loose. The stupid sled skidded to a halt as soon as I hit the plastic, my momentum carried me over the sled at a good rate and the impact left me breathless and i proceeded down the track in such an elegant form that the kids, my in-laws, and Jenni (imagine that) were wiping tears off their faces from the laughter. I finally got the wind back into my lungs and rubbed the emerging red spot on my entire chest and officially proclaimed the slip and slide a kids toy. We all had a lot of fun with it.

Jon is a pretty good slider,

Kayla doesn't know how to slide (can you blame her for not wanting to learn after watching my debacle),

and Lily just likes to play in the water spouts. Being summer you can imagine all of the water fun we're having.

T-ball

One of the fun things about summer this year has been t-ball. We play in this little league that is called "Just 4 Fun" and that is how they run the league. The t-ball games don't keep score, every kid gets to bat, and coaches are on the field to help the kids with the rules of the game and for tips. Last year both kids played, but Kayla was the typical little girl player who was more interested in the flowers than the game. But this year Kayla was just as into the game as Jon and they had a blast playing both in the field and batting. Jon is getting to be a pretty good batter and will be in coach pitch for sure next year. I don't know how much longer old dad can help coach, my baseball knowledge only goes so far, but I'm having a good time. Maybe next year we can get that old softball spirit out of Jenni and she can take on the coaching duties?

Talking to Tyler

Okay, so the other day I noticed on Facebook that Tyler had finally gotten internet over in Afghanistan and that he had used Skype to call mom and dad. Well, that clued me in that maybe I should finally get around to downloading the software and getting in touch with my soldier brother. I was in the middle of trying to figure out how to use the thing and setting up my headphones and mics when Tyler popped up on my screen and was ready to chat. Now, in my job I'm really used to video conferencing (I design systems for that after all) but I had not really ever used it for a purpose outside of testing and training. It was a pretty cool deal to be talking to my brother, who is half way across the world....for FREE.

So, last night I was telling my kids that I spoke with their uncle on the computer and that I'd try and set up a time for them to do it too. I told them that we'd half to get up a little early one morning and catch him before he went to bed. The kids were pretty excited about that idea but I didn't realize how excited until this morning. I rolled out of bed and took my shower and when I got out I noticed Jon was already up. It was a little early for him ~6 am and he came walking down the hallway rubbing his eyes and he said, "dad...can we call uncle Tyler now? I got up early." I chuckled and paniced, i didn't know if Ty would be available and if I had time (I was running a little late). But I couldn't help but try, so we went downstairs and turned on Skype and found out that he wasn't available to chat. I know...a little anti-climatic...but I thought it was a good story.

Mini-Vacation

Well, Jenni and the kids got out of school and we had a week to kill before Jon went to summer school, as a kindergartner, so Jenni and I decided to take a short vacation back to Mahoney State Park. This time we drug Jenni's parents with us for our four day trip. We had a good time, for the most part, the only exception would be that Lily was a complete pain in the rear. She didn't want to eat, sleep, or be happy. That was completely weird because usually she's a good traveler.

We spent a rainy day at the Omaha zoo. the rain really didn't kill any of the fun because most of the stuff at Omaha is indoors. We really only got wet when we decided to ride the chair lift over the Africa section of the zoo, it was drizzling when we boarded and almost immediately after leaving the platform it really started raining.

One of the funniest moments came at the ape house. Jon was standing in the window looking at this gorilla face to face when all of a sudden the animal leaped straight at the window and pounded on the glass. It scared the living crap out of Jon. It turns out this particular gorilla is a performer and one of the trainers was sitting in the window next to Jon and gave the sign for the gorilla to hit the window. She thought is was funny and...you know...it was.

We also spent a rainy morning at the Strategic Air Command Museum, I really enjoyed it but that's probably because it was a bunch of war airplanes and I'm a boy so the two kind of fit.

The rest of the time we just spent playing in the park, some of Jenni's family came down from Schuyler to visit, and trying to keep Lily happy.