ZipLine!

Phew!  What a day!  Dad and I have been working on a zipline for a couple days. Today we finished it!  Obviously needed a maiden voyage... Would death follow?  Dad, gentleman that he is, let me have first go. 

It's only about 20 feet in the air. And you have to climb the tree hanging onto the rope, so the bar doesn't escape. 

I (fortunately) didn't die, and if you want to see the (30 second) video, follow this: http://youtu.be/h1C_xCiL3mE

Dusting Off the Blogg

Right, so last month I dusted off my ScrapBlog... This month I'm dusting off this blog...  Yeah, it's been a while. Between moving and the emotional (not to mention physical!) chaos all that caused, I got out of the habit, and then stayed there. 

But I'll be better!

My sister asked if I'd drive with her to my parents' house. Funny, she didn't feel up to tackling a 10 hour drive with a 2 year old without backup. Can't imagine why... So of course I said yes. 

I know it sounds like weird timing, for her to go off to her dad's on Father's Day, and leave her husband all on his own, but the work schedule for my brother-in-law gives him every-other Friday off.  That means that he worked this past Friday.  So rather than be gone over one of his Off-Work Fridays, we were gone over Father's Day. Was awesome for us to spend Father's Day with our Dad, though!

Now, you've undoubtably realised by now that my family are a little nuts. Well, we just know how to have fun!

Yesterday we did a 2 Mile Family Fun Run (err... Mostly walk).  Papa (my nephew's word for Grandpa) and Auntie (that's me) ran with Munchkin, while Mommy and Grandma walked.  Munchkin RAN most of the way!  At least a mile and a half!!!  And walked another quarter mile!  He only had to be carried the last quarter mile!  Pretty good for a 2 year old!

He had SO much fun!  He does LOVE to run, so he loved running with Papa and Auntie. Afterwards, he's 3/4 asleep in his car seat, BEGGING to go more!

At home we worked on the Treehouse. Munchkin "helping" by bringing Papa "all the woods."  (Never mind that Papa was up the ladder with nuts and bolts, installing the Zipline!)

Then we went up to the Rimrock Park and hiked across all the boulders. Another huge hit with the Munchkin!  We walked more than a mile, and he was still wanting more!

We rounded the day off with Nerf Gun Wars!  

Yeah, he slept well last night!

Today was another spectacular day. After church (and naps... For everyone!) we went back out and played in the yard. We checked on the baby robins in their nest under the eave's, played chase with Papa and Auntie, spotted a deer walking through the yard! Got tossed between Auntie and Papa ("I'm a Rocket Ship!"), played hide-and-seek (with a "Boo!" when found) with Papa, played with shadows, and Grandma hooked up the baby swing to the Zipline!

Oh the squeals!!!  Joy. Rapture. Bliss. Just enough danger to be exciting. Such a hit!

And ice cream and Nerf Wars, then Mario Cart... And bed. I hope he's as tired as I am!

Here are a couple of photos from the past 2 days. 

Sieging the Castle!

Remember that Gingerbread Castle I made at my parent's house over Christmas? Well, I'm sure you're wondering what happened to it.

On Wednesday, 30 December 2009, my parents and I went back to the Hospital to collect the Castle. Then, Dad and I came home and set it up in the yard, and laid siege to it with the 2 foot catapult. So fun. Now, this thing isn't the most accurate engine in the world, so it took a while to get dialled in. Once we did, though, we got pretty good at hitting it. It helped when we switched ammunition, too. We'd been using wooden blocks, but then we found a lovely block of ice, exactly the right shape and size. Flew much better.

So, here are the photos of the projectile demolition.After a while, though, it got so dark, we were having a hard time finding our ammunition. So, we switched to firecrackers. Since I was due to fly out the next day, we decided it wasn't so prudent for me to touch the explosives, so I just stood off to the side and took photos. *sigh* So many restrictions, any more! Never mind. It was still fun to explode :D

Here're the photos from the explosions!

The Mom (And Dad) Song

Many of you have probably seen the first of these videos. Meet Anita Renfroe. She's a . . . actually, I'm not entirely sure what she does other than these two songs! But these songs are definately worth the 4 minutes to listen/watch. They're the essence of what Mothers (and then she later did one for Fathers) say to their kids in a single day. It's quite a scream. Enjoy!




And the Dad Song:

Mississippi Adventures

My folks live in Mississippi. They've been there for about 6 years. Every so often they send me a story about something that happened that wouldn't have happened anywhere else. We call these 'Mississippi Adventures'.

One day I got this photo in my email inbox:Yes, my dad's hilarious. (Actually, that's true.) They often get green little lizards in the house, and they have to catch them and kick them outside. This one got confused, and thought Dad was a threat. I've had the same thing happen, it doesn't hurt. In fact, you can barely feel it at all.

But SOMEONE out there obviously lives in Mississippi, too. And has far too much time on their hands. This is their version of the same sort of thing:


Most worryingly? I thought it was even funnier this way! (For those of you who don't know, Geico is an car insurance company in the states. For years they've used a gecko in their -- very funny -- advertisements.)