Cooling Off

It's been really hot around here. J & W brought us a pool ages ago, which we've never used. I was flying solo with E so I thought I'd have him play in the water...he's a total water baby. I began with the tub. I thought it was the same one I used with J, but I quickly figured out it was much smaller. I then remembered that we did replace it with a smaller size. Too bad for E.

I set him up in the shade since I didn't have children's sunscreen...and I didn't want to be in the sun either. He wasn't too wild about the very cold water, he can say "Brrrrrr".

See how small the tub is? He can't even sit down.

We quickly moved to the pool. I tried to use the compressor, but I didn't know how to use it, and couldn't find an adapter. E did not like the noise. So that means I got to blow it up. You can see that I didn't bother with the third ring.

He is just so cute....and he keeps getting cuter...how does he do that?

His Mom Dresses Him Funny

In Jessica's defense, Ezra does insist on wearing a hat and glasses (usually swim goggles)......and you can't tell in the photo, but there are tiny motorcycles on that bright green outfit....and what is that called? A jumpsuit? He has a hairbrush in his hand and proceeded to take off the hat and glasses so he could comb his hair. Then he played with all those balls...and dinosaurs. He is such a boy....and his own person...and his G.Ma and G.Pa love him more than anything :)

Ezra's Play Date with Scott

Why is it so difficult to take the time to visit with friends? My dear friend Cindy is a school teacher and every summer we have great plans to visit....but then we're squeezing time in to our schedules as August is ending. Since she had her grandson, Scott, for the weekend we decided to have a play date. Scott is about 5 weeks older than Ezra. We're calling this the "Cot & Es-Ra Day" because that's how they say each other's name.

Cindy kept many of the toys her boys played with, including the blocks. This was a huge set of the good solid wood kind that we all remember. Scott was building towers, Ezra mostly walked on them and stuck this one in his mouth.
Riley, the uber-friendly Spaniel was a big hit with Ezra. Me I mostly kept him from giving me a bath. Tough to do when I was down on the floor with the blocks, kids, and dog.
Scott & Ezra both LOVE books. Scott had some old favorites. Neither one of them is in to sharing....yet.

Here we are off to the park!

Scott looks so much like his dad, a mini-Seth. He is so sweet and happy.

Scott LOVES to swing high, Ezra not so much...although with the peer pressure he did put his hands in the air and say "Weeeee", just like Scott.

These are the most ridiculous teeter-totters. I'm sure it's a safety thing.

Scott is learning to like the slide. This is the big slide.

Cindy & Scott on the big cement slide

Ezra & me on the cement slide. Ezra was going down alone until he figured out the friction was very hot....then he wanted to be semi-on my lap

Scott & Ezra making the car do laps

At the end of our visit, Ezra decided he REALLY liked Scott. So being Ezra, he grabs Scott in to a tight bear hug. There's just one thing Ezra didn't figure on.....

Scott isn't in to being squeezed. So Scott, being the solid built guy, pushed back :( But they're still buddies. They just need to figure out the physical stuff :)

Favorite Books

I have always LOVED books. I passed this along to Jessica and she has passed this along to Ezra. He's been really good about grabbing a book and asking to have it read to him. He'll even grab a book before grabbing toy....not as much now that he's discovered balls, but he will still pick a book. Dave was always the fun reader...he makes funny noises, etc. I'm happy to say that I'm much better at this now.

This is "Baa". Ezra calls it that because there's a lamb in the book and we point and say "baa". The book is pretty much the drummer boy song. We sing the words and when it gets to the "parum pum" part we all stomp our feet. It's very interactive. He LOVES it. I bought it because the author is Ezra!

Ezra loves this one too. To summarize the book, there's a letter to the zoo for a pet, the zoo sends many pets that are unacceptable. The "pet" arrives in a box, you lift up the flap to see what it is. When Ezra lifts the flap to the lion, we roar loudly. There's a snake, and we hiss. It's funny because he lifts the flap and looks at the reader, waiting for the special sound effects.

But Ezra's absolute FAVORITE book to read is the "MoMo magazines". The Lad is obsessed with motorcycles....gee, I wonder why. He goes through the magazine, turning each page, pointing to each "momo" and "helm". We have at least a dozen and he goes through each one, each page. He likes to read them with G-Pa or G-Ma and we have to say "motorcycle" when he says "momo" and "helmet" when he says helmet. Dave is teaching him the names for the various parts of the bikes.

Goofy Ezra

LOVE this kid. He has so much joy and it's contagious! I was pretty sure that he would enjoy the Cozy Coupe, and not just because it was such a production to put the thing together, but I wanted him to have a toy that he would play with more than once. He is getting really good with it too. He can make it go where he wants to go. He knows how to honk the horn. He even knows where the gas goes. He's such an over achiever (I put that in here just to make Jessica crazy).

Please note that the goggles are not just for driving. The Lad loves hats and glasses. He can even say goggles, and anyone can understand him.

Ezra likes to turn the wheel back and forth as fast as he can and just laugh, I tell him he's a crazy driver

He looks when he backs up. I think he'll be better at this than his G-Ma.....oh yeah, that's not really saying much :(

Alice's Restaurant

Back from vacation and stacks of mail, loads of wash, and follow up all those e-mails. I'd still go again though:) Now I could tell you that I jumped right in to all the tasks, but then I'd be lying. I did wash three loads of laundry, but that's fun for me. Dave spent his time in the office working on Thursday (while I had my hair done and bought groceries since our cupboards were bare) and Friday (while I went with Teresa to the Santa Clara Scrapbook Expo & our favorite, Super JoAnn's in Fremont).

On Saturday, I was hoping to scrap and play with some of the many new things I purchased. Bret called Friday night to invite us to ride to Alice's Restaurant on the way to the coast. Dave was going for sure. How could I turn it down? Even to scrap and/or work? I hadn't spent anytime with Bret or Donna in ages. We met up at Starbucks at 8:30 am....can I just say how wonderful it is to have a decent cup of coffee? Here are some photos of our ride....

The famous Alice's Restaurant in Woodside, which has delicious food

Bret & Donna, you can see some of the many bikes in the background

Dave is waiting for me to mount up and quit taking his photo

The fog was finally beginning to break, but we're not complaining after the heat and humidity of the last two weeks in the Ozarks

First hang glider we've seen in ages

The guys LOVE to see this sign

curves, pavement, redwood trees...no, it doesn't get much better than this

Beautiful view

Donna, Bret, & Dave at our favorite stop on highway 9 just a little bit south of Skyline

Handsome guy

We made it home safely, I can work or scrap or sit out on my patio....let's see....

Final Day of the Ozark Trip

We were very concerned about the weather for our ride from Eureka Springs, Arkansas to Kansas City, MO....so basically nothing new for this trip. We had heard that a major cell was coming through between 9 and noon, so we decided to leave at 6:15. Off we went, in the dark, without coffee or breakfast...again.

That driveway at the Inn was killer. Dave made the initial sharp turn, when he put down his boot it was total slippage....we were lucky or possibly he is very skilled, anyway we remained upright and went down the hill very slowly and carefully and did not go off the steep cliff that looked very likely at one point. Scott and Margaret were right behind us and things didn't look too good...but it all worked out fine. And did I mention that it was totally dark and raining?

We had on rain gear because I insisted that we take it, even though Dave thought we would not need it. There was plenty of room so why not pack it? Scott & Margaret were wishing they had theirs.

We rode off and tried not to notice the rain, wind, and lightening. The signs for curvy roads usually excite us, but now we were thinking they might not be that great. We drove on until we needed gas. Then we realized we were stopping at the same place as on the way down....the one that we couldn't stand the smoking. So we drove 2 miles to go to McDonald's....for coffee....we can not believe that we're thinking this is great coffee...and a breakfast burrito.

The rain lifted and we had a dry ride to the Worth Harley Davidson dealership. There was that trip to the gas station to fill up before we turned in the bikes. There really weren't many stations, and we almost rear ended a car that didn't make the turn when we thought it would and we were looking the other way for the station, but again the guys have great skills and can stop on a dime....good thing. We dropped off the bikes, changed in to our traveling clothes, and got a ride to the airport....where we went to the first restaurant that served alcohol and got ripped off and paid over $120 for lunch.

Long trip, 3118 miles....

Oh, and here's what we saw at the airport...good thing we didn't need it

It's good to be home.....

Eureka Springs photos

Things that we saw on our walk to dinner that we've never seen before.....

An armadillo

Scott & Margaret at our final vacation dinner

Dave's lamb dinner

My pork chop

Finally, Photos!!!

This is the Harley Davidson dealership in Rogers, Arkansas. We like to go to the dealers to see if they have an interesting logo. Each dealer has a logo, and some have put real energy & creativity in coming up with a logo. For instance, in Seattle they have a very cool image of the Space Needle. We were mostly going here to find a part for Scott's motorcycle to hide the damage from the spill. This dealership did have a very cool logo and shirts were purchased :)

This doesn't even begin to show how intense this was.....lightening, thunder, wind

The fine young man taking Margaret and me to the Hobby Lobby

Our new best friends, the friendly couple that own and operate the BBQ place. Please note all the University of Arkansas stuff...it's every where around here....honestly, I think they tattoo their kids at birth

Local dish, chili pie, which is chili over Fritos

This is the van and trailer of the odd family

Odd family...mom, dad, & little guy up front all holding hands, the rest followed in a single file going in, but got a little out of order on the way out because they were staring at us staring at them. Can you tell the odd haircuts on the boys? It's sort of a butch/buzz with tails...an odd mullet

The black vehicle really got in my way