If she had the proper words to say,

We didn't have a whole lot on our plate yesterday except for it being Philip's first day back to work. Man, these past 28 days together have been fabulous. We tried to make each day special somehow, and we all had a wonderful time. It's weird to not have him around all the time now, and I know it's an unwelcome adjustment for him to head back to work.

I'd spoken with Annie earlier in the week and asked her if she'd like to go swimming with us on Friday night. She was up for it, and I knew it would be great for her (she's 31 weeks pregnant today). Heather had an early shift at work, so she was getting off at 3:30pm. I asked her if she would like to go along as well. Everyone was able to make it, and we met at the pool at 5:30pm or so.

Pools are soooo relaxing. The boys and I headed straight for the waterslides, while Annie and Heather enjoyed some time in the regular pool area. Eventually we convinced them to come down the slides with us (having Jack beg them almost always works! *wink*). Annie is so cute now - her little belly is getting bigger, and she's adapted that precious waddle. She's a trooper though, and she and little Douglas inside enjoyed going down the slides. :-)

I took pictures, of course!

When the pool closed, we all came back to my house. Heather and I took quick showers, and while I was in the bathroom, she and Annie peeled up potatoes for the homemade fried chicken dinner they'd requested me to make. We had chicken, mashed taters and fresh corn from the garden. A.J. had INSISTED on serving everyone "an appetizer" earlier, so we'd had fresh carrots and green pepper strips with ranch dip and some crackers while the chicken was cooking.

We never got around to dessert (fruit and ice cream) because we were too busy chatting and catching up. The boys both fell asleep on the couch while we were still talking, and I was surprised at that. Heather left just before midnight, but Annie didn't leave until almost 2am. I spent a good while cleaning up dishes and the kitchen, and then I put away three loads of laundry before finally crashing into bed just before 4am myself. It had been such a good evening.

We really must do this more often. Especially while Annie's still got some "free" time. ;-)

( Pool pictures. )

We were up early again today, and I weeded and weeded and weeded some more in the garden. Seriously, I often think that I don't weed that much on a daily basis, but I must do more than I think. It's taking me three days to weed after being gone for ten days!

Philip was mowing while I was working, and I had to carefully lift the pumpkin vines so he could mow underneath. Four of the Jack O'Lantern pumpkins turned orange while we were gone (which means they'll be ready much too early for Halloween), but we have several new babies that are growing as well. The Jack Be Little pumpkins have several babies too, and one of them is already turning yellow. The Big Max pumpkin was a HUGE surprise when we returned, though. He was only about 5-6" in diameter when we left, but he's over 18" now - almost a perfect sphere, too! Crazy!

The first batch of corn was harvested while we were gone (thank you, Annie!), and between the five zucchini we picked yesterday and all those left in my fridge, there were 22 zucchini harvested! The cherry tomatoes are ripening now, and we've had about 2.5 dozen. I pulled nine big green peppers yesterday morning, and we'd had ten smaller ones before we left. The green beans have slowed down, but the lima beans are just now getting ready for their first harvest, and the carrots only have another week or so. Also, the second batch of corn should be ready in the next two weeks. Garden LOVE!

I took pictures of the pumpkins today. I'll get them up eventually...

We attended another Fire Hydrant Party today. This one was only one block down the street from us, right in front of our friends' house. I'd been telling Heather* and Andy about these parties, and when I'd learned where they lived, I told them they absolutely couldn't miss the one that was scheduled for their house! Little Joseaphine loved playing in the water, too - she was so cute! (She turned one year old in May.) I'd invited my friend Ann and her two kids to come and play with us, so they met us right at 1pm at our house, and we walked to the fire hydrant together. Her kiddos had an excellent time as well. I really think this was the BEST hydrant party we've been to all summer. :-)

I took a nap this afternoon, and Philip took the boys to Wal*Mart to pick up the few items that we forgot yesterday while grocery shopping. He woke me up, I took a quick shower, and then we were back down to Heather and Andy's house for dinner tonight. We had them over for dinner in the week before we left for vacation, and they'd invited us over and set this dinner "date" even before we left for our trip. We were looking to a relaxing night of good fun and fun all day, and this evening didn't disappoint. Josie is just too cute, and the boys loved playing with Andy's video games. Heather and went through scrapbooks, listened to music, had dessert and had some "girly" talk. They'll be moving into their new house soon, and then she's deploying by September for a few months. :-(

I've got to get working on Jack's party invitations. We bought all the stuff for his pirate party while we were on vacation. His party will be Saturday, the 5th, but I can't expect people to respond if I don't get these invites out soon! I can't wait - how cute is it that we have our own real Captain Jack?!

---

* In real life, we call her "Heather2," to avoid confusion.

That's what I am, apparently. I just pulled the first two loaves of fresh chocolate chip zucchini bread out of the oven, and these were made with the first zucchini from our garden. (The second zucchini is still waiting in the fridge to be used in tonight's dinner.) It smells so heavenly in here!

I made the cupcakes yesterday, and I'll probably make some banana bread tomorrow. On Monday, I'll make some more cupcakes to take to the Independence Day shindig. My oven will have been used every day in July (so far, that is), whereas it only saw the light of day a few times in June.

As for the garden, I realized last night that I never posted progress pictures after that first week in June. I dutifully took the pictures each week, but I never posted them. It has changed so much since then! I might just post new pictures that I took this morning to kick off July. ;-)

We're heading out to the pool in a bit. July is shaping up to be just as awesome as June!

I'm heading out to the 10pm showing of Click. By myself, unless anyone else wants to/can go (rafferty, what say you?). Philip's staying home with the boys (who'll be sleeping soon), and then he'll see it later. He's really saving up his "movie money" to see Superman Returns next week sometime.

We another afternoon and evening at the pool today, but we tried a new location. This one allowed Jack to go down the waterslides with us, and I swear we all spent most of the time sliding. It was so much fun, but my arms and legs were starting to feel a bit weak towards the end from holding Jack and climbing all those stairs (over and over again). I took videos of the boys on the diving boards as well, and of course, more regular pictures. It was fun!

Thunder sounded about five minutes before the pool would have closed anyway, and we were already scrambling to get out. The storm - and it was a BIG one - hit as we were in the changing areas. I'd just taken off my suit when the rain started coming in on me in the covered-yet-still-open area (rain blowing sideways). I could hear the boys yelling about the storm over in the mens' side as well. Philip and the boys got out to the car more quickly than I did, and I had to sacrifice my towel to keep the camera and cell phone nice and dry, and I got ping!ed with several little hailstones in the process. Then we drove home in the massive storm.

One of the more beautiful rainbows I've seen was up in the sky once the storm passed, and we pulled over a few times for me to take some pictures of it. I thought it looked like it was out by Heather's house, and I was right. When we got home, there was a message from her on the machine, gushing over the beautiful rainbow.

I've got forty minutes until showtime, so I'd better go get in the shower quick!

Yesterday (Tuesday) was a glorious day. It was the kind of day that fills my heart with peace and love - a perfect, relaxing day with my family.

I had showered the evening before, and I tumbled out of bed earlier than usual to make it to a 9am dentist appointment for myself. The dental technician and I had lovely conversation, and a typical 30-minute check-up turned into over and hour and a half, but it was so nice.

When I arrived home at almost 11am, I woke up Philip for the day. The boys had been happily playing in the living room, and I got them dressed and had them clean up their toys. We all headed out for a yummy and slow-paced lunch at La Mesa, our favorite Mexican restaurant. Afterwards, we went to Wal*Mart to find Philip some shorts for the summer (we'd donated his old ones to the church a few months ago for their garage sale). He picked out some jean shorts (without trying them on!), and then we meandered around in the toy aisles for a good while. We ended up snagging a few more DVDs for our collection, and then we came on home.

We quickly got the boys changed into their swim trunks, and then we all walked down the block to the Fire Hydrant Party. The boys played until the hydrant was turned off, and then we all walked back home. Philip had a flight chiefs' meeting to attend later in the afternoon, but he called in and asked if he could skip it this week and was told, "No problem." When we learned that we'd all get to spend the afternoon together uninterrupted, we tried to decide what we'd like to do.

We talked for a good while about setting up the waterslide, but in the end, we decided to head back out to the pool for more fun. We waited until a little later in the day to leave, and Philip and the boys played X-Box while I played online. Once we were all in our swimsuits and ready to leave, we loaded up into the car.

We arrived at the pool quickly (we'd gotten lost trying to find the place the day before, having never been there and not been given directions), but we found it was closing for an hour for swim lessons and dinner breaks. We didn't feel like grabbing any fast food, so we drove to a local grocery store and picked up some things. We chose 1/2 a large deli hoagie for us to all share, a bag of chips, chocolate milk for me and the boys and a soda for Philip. We drove back to a large playground we'd seen, and we spread our towels on the grass under a tree and had a picnic dinner together in the shade. We played music from the car while we ate, and it was a really nice time. We even fed the purple onions to the ants. ;-)

Finally it was time to head back to the pool, and we swam there until it was closed for the evening. The waterslides were shut down yesterday, but we'd taken life jackets for the boys, and they were each able to go off the diving board in the deep, deep end. I've got to say, the boys have no fear - especially Jack. Rather than being cautious and scared walking out onto the board for the very first time, he RAN down the board and jumped right off. They did a few cannonballs off the board as well. A.J. tired of the board more quickly than Jack, wanting to go swim in the regular sections of the pool, but Jack just kept going. After watching several of the older guys do fancy flips and dives off the board, Jack started imitating them by jumping/bouncing on the end of the board a few times before launching into the water. I *so* wished I'd brought my camera last night!

Philip and I both went off the diving board a few times as well, and then we finally made Jack stop so we could all swim together. Since the slides were shut down, we played together as a whole family in the shallower sections, chasing one another and having lots of water-tickle fights. It was a good time, and we'd even gotten in for less - only $6.25 last night for all of us (though we don't know why, since it had been $12.50 the night before).

We came home and stayed outside until we'd dried off a bit more. Philip dipped ice cream cones for everyone - vanilla ice cream on Oreo® chocolate cones - and they were so yummy! (I dripped some on my shirt in my last couple of bites.) I weeded the garden, and Philip and the boys used the hose to drown out the ground squirrels from their hole-y homes. They were excited to get three drowned squirrels out of one hole, and they played with the poor, waterlogged creatures for the next fifteen minutes or so (I took pictures!). Though I'd like to kill the critters for eating my tomatoes, we just set them free several yards away from our own.

The boys hopped in the tub, and then it was bedtime. Philip used the movie gift certificates we'd given him for Father's Day to see the late showing of Cars at the theater, and he got out after midnight. He picked up some bananas and strawberries for me on the way home, as I needed to make a fruit salad to take the lake today. We went to bed shortly after he came home, and I slept SO HARD.

It was a really great day, and everything was pretty much spur-of-the-moment (well, except for the dentist appointment, of course). I think we all need more days like that. :-)

When I say that we went to the pool yesterday, I mean that we went to THE POOL. The coolest pool around. Not just your typical pool with shallow and deep ends.

THE. POOL.

This pool is a few minutes away, but it was so awesome! People had been telling us to go there all these years that we lived here, but we just never got around to it. Wow! It was cheap, too - we all got in for only $12.50 (which I thought wasn't bad), and we had a blast.

The pool is set up like a beach: the water starts at nothing (the signs actually do say "0 FT. 0 IN."), and gradually increases out to 3 ft. in some sections. There is a huge waterslide with over 8 twists in it, and it lets out into the 3 ft. water (though you do have to be 4 ft. tall to go down it, kinda like a roller coaster). A deeper section on one side of the pool goes up to 6 ft., and that's where you found lots of kids jumping into their parents' arms and doing cannonballs and such. The diving board and another waterslide are located in the really deep end - the section which goes up to 12 ft. There are huge umbrellas over the water in one corner of the pool so that parents and children can get a break from the sun for a little while but still be in the water. There are several fountains spread out in the shallower areas of the pool, along with a great big waterfall and sprinkler that can be controlled by the kids.

A.J. was a few inches over the requirement for the waterslide, so he got a bracelet to let him go down (it was free). Philip went down the waterslide first so that we'd have an idea of how fast it was, and I got a few pictures of him as he hit the bottom. I went down the waterslide several times too - it's been YEARS since I did anything like that, but it was so much fun! Philip impressed the boys with a graceful swan dive off the diving boards, but they were really excited when he made a huge cannonball off the board later. Little kids were allowed to go off the board if they had life jackets on, so we'll keep that in mind. A.J. really spent most of the time on the big waterslide, so Philip and I played more with Jack in the shallower water. We played lots of games of "Shark" and splashed around.

Again, it was SO MUCH FUN! And of course, I took lots of ( pictures! )

We're headed back this afternoon, leaving in just a few minutes! :-)

Philip and I took the boys to a sprayground yesterday here in the Omaha area. It was the first time we'd been to such a place, and we were mightily impressed. It was bright and colorful, had tons to do and was FREE!

This particular sprayground was done in an ocean theme, complete with a matching pirate ship playground in the sand next to it (though the boys didn't even head over there once - the waterpark was too fun!). We were so pleased with the experience, and we'll definitely be going back... though we've got three other spraygrounds to try out as well!


Boys sit near the sprinklers and try to block them.

( More brightly-colored fun! )

Philip and I talked while the boys played (neither of us had worn our swimsuits, and we should have), and we discussed "being cool." We've decided that it really doesn't matter whether we're "cool" to other people, so long as we're still "cool" to our kids.

And we were definitely "cool" in the boys' eyes yesterday! :-D

We took the boys out to the Missouri River for Sand in the City 2006 this afternoon. It was a good time, and we were glad we went. Though we lived in Alaska for three years, those aren't the kind of beaches where you really play or build on, and this was the first time the boys sat for a good length of time and played in sand.

There had been a sand sculpture building contest yesterday, and different companies worked from noon-5pm to create masterpieces. We viewed all the sculptures today - WOW! They were amazing! It was crazy to think that they had all been finished in five hours or less! We could purchase sand dollars and use them to vote for our favorite sculptures, and the funds raised went to benefit Nebraska Children's Home.

I took pictures of every single sculpture. This guy below is just a taste of what we saw:


Sea turtle.

To see the rest of the sculptures (and only sculptures), follow this shiny LINK (there are over 30 pictures, but they are worth looking at).

Once the boys tired of looking at the sculptures, they sat down to play in the giant sandbox. Jack set to work filling a bucket with sand to make a castle, but his first effort was a flop. Philip sat down to help him, showing him how to correctly pack the sand in tightly. Meanwhile, A.J. enlisted the help of girl near him to complete his own castle, and they worked away.

Daddy and Jack's castle turned out, but A.J. and his friend's castle was another flop. They laughed over it though, and then A.J. set to work writing things in the sand. Philip and Jack decorated their castle with windows and tunnels, and then they worked for a good while on a nice, smooth moat to surround it.

It was overcast and a bit breezy, but it stayed nice enough. When we walked back to the car, we stopped for a bit so that the boys could stand on the edge of the hill and gaze out at the Missouri river - they counted speedboats and watched a ferry sail past, too. They also ran around a set of sculpted walls set out like a mini-maze. When we reached the car, I pulled out the snacks I'd brought and we headed on home.

It was a neat afternoon. You don't usually get to build sandcastles in Omaha!


Jack helps Daddy to make 'windows' in their castle.

( More pictures. )

I've felt very weird today. I can't really explain it well, but I did make sure to mention to Philip a few of the things I'd noticed, just in case something happens. I've not been able to regulate my body temperature for the last 2+ days or so, and I end up having to go outside for a while just to warm up. I'm freezing when I'm inside, but I'm also on the hot side of clammy-feeling. I put on long pants and such just to keep my skin from touching when I'm sitting here in the computer chair. It's a strange feeling.

I was trying to read a Reader's Digest on the loveseat hours ago, but my eyes just kept sliding out of focus and it seemed like things were turning black. I am concerned, but I'm still to the point where it seems silly to rush off to the doctor. What would I say? "Hi, I can't get comfortable, and I can't read." They'd probably admit me to a nuthouse, but look no further than that.

I feel bad for the boys, though. Neither one of them has asked to go outside today, but we're usually outdoors for four or five hours a day, and I'm just really not feeling like it this evening. I'd feel worse if they were actually asking, but I still feel kinda like a loser parent for not taking them outside when it's beautiful out. I feel like it's so fresh, and it's something that seems to recharge all of us each day.

Speaking of outdoors, I'm trying to decide whether or not to get rid of our old kiddie pool from the last three summers. It would still work, but the boys have now gone swimming in so many 'real' pools that I can hardly see how they would get any excitement out of it. Not only that, but the pool is about 1/3 the size of our new waterslide, so how could there be much fun in it? We still have our regular Slip 'n Slide (I think it's our fifth one over all these years - we wear them out quickly) from last summer, and we might use it a few times. Though the waterslide doesn't really "damage" the yard, it does dampen quite a bit more grass than a regular Slip 'n Slide, and therefore takes an extra few days to "heal."

We're planning on taking the boys to Fun Plex this summer, as well as going to a real pool several times. We'll also probably have a few more outings at the lake. We're trying out some spraygrounds this summer, too - probably going to one this week. I've bought four new, big waterguns for this summer as well (one really big one that doesn't seem to work [I'll have to take it back and exchange it] and three other ones [the really big one is too heavy for Jack]). We have a bunch of sprinklers, of course, and those are good for impromptu water fun. The boys always love it when I set the sprinkler to spray on the swingset - they 'hide' in the tower under the canopy, and they love racing down the wet slide or playing in the mud under the swings.

We've got plenty of water activities, I think, so I just don't really see us needing our baby kiddie pool any longer. Philip thinks we should keep it, and that we should set it up at the end of the waterslide - talk about REALLY flooding the yard! We'll see...