Melnarik Week

We had a great week having my sister, Christina, hubby Chet and girls Catie & Becky out. There wasn't that much trampoline time - but lots of water/dock sitting. It was great to fine-tune the art of doing as little as possible.

Here is our lovely pet eagle. It is always such a joy to watch the eagle up at the lake. I've never seen more than one at a time, but we have seen a couple nests. This afternoon we got a great show of this one flying around. It kept sweeping up and down the shoreline going down for fish. It was awesome.



With Slade taking off all the previous week for his family to come out he went back to Minneapolis for three days of work before getting back for a a four day weekend. Here is Seby loving up his Uncle Chet. He was really missing his daddy and loved having another daddy around to cuddle with.



Here we are calling Slade to see when he might arrive. Everyone just had to say hello to him on speakerphone.



Sadly in Minneapolis this evening was when the bridge collapse happened. Luckily it wasn't a route that Slade, Cody & friend Ryan had to take to get to the lake. They actually were all on 94 crossing the river south of this collapse. Slade called me right away when he heard to radio news coverage. I was able to use the handy-dandy internet on my treo to google what had happened.

Here is Zane sitting in a "new" club house off the deck. Seby overheard us talking about this place and chirps in "that is where Liam and I pee." Yikes. A new club house no more!



Here are Catie & Zane playing a "dinosaur" game in the water. We have a bag of plastic dinosaurs and they played a game of hiding them in the water and then finding them. They kept a count of how many they had and did an amazing job of finding all of the them.





I bought two mermaid toys at our church's holiday fair last year. I intended to mail them to the girls for christmas, but never did. Luckily I brought them to the lake and gave them now. The girls had a great time playing with them. Ironically they weren't a water toy, but they visited the water with Becky here on the dock.



Seby & Graham had a great time playing an underwater game at the lake this afternoon. They would go underwater and speak, trying to figure out what the other person was saying.




We gave Seby some Astrix books for his birthday and everyone got into reading them. Here is Zane reading one. He hadn't been interested in reading them before - but this trip he really got into reading them. Slade grew up reading these books and loves reading them to the boys - thank goodness because I can't stand reading them.



Seby is playing with his new helicopter he got from his b-day. GrandAnn had given him a fancy "shooter" fishing pole that broke quickly. We returned it to Target and he picked this helicopter instead. Luckily this hasn't broken at all.


Here is Slade pulling Catie, Becky & Chet on the tube. Catie was in command of how fast the boat went, needless to say it was a slow tubing ride.



Zane was able to get Auntie Chris to tell him lots of made up stories during our week.



Minnow catching was a big hit with the kids. Here is Seby holding one of his finds.





More Astrix reading.



Seby enjoying Astix while warming in the sun after a swim.



A favorite of Slade "rock fishing" - here he and Chet clear more rocks from our swimming area. It sure is nice to go out in the water and not trip on rocks. Just the soft sand. Thank you rock fishers!



I just had to document my new usage of having the internet on my treo. I was reading a book review from the New York Times and just had to order it. I think Alex is right that it goes against my rules of no electronics up at the lake. We will have to figure out if we really need to have the availability to it while up there. It sure came in handy when we were trying to learn about the Minneapolis bridge collapse.



Here Catie, Seby & Zane are comparing favorite rocks that they have found.


Christina cleaning up the bathroom they used while up at the lake. She did a more detailed job that it has seen. Thank you!!



More Astrix reading



This is really the best picuture I have of our group pic. Maybe Chrissy has a better one?



Chet started to grow some long sideburns while here and Slade was joking about he is getting ready to buy a big motorcycle - here they are all "riding" their big hogs!



Mei Mei and Puppy Puppy (Catie was calling me Mei Mei - which is chinese for little sister and I was calling her my puppy puppy)



Chet, someone was looking for you and Chrissy after you left.



These are the only pics I have of Ryan being up at the lake.





Zane on the boat while we tube Cody & Ryan.

Happy Birthday Mommie!!!!

Here she is with the boys during our visit at spring break.

We love you Mom/Clip Clop/Kathleen!!!!!!

Winchester Week

We have been up at the lake house for the last two weeks. Week one was spent with the Winchester clan. Of course the biggest news at the begining of our trip was the HARRY POTTER book. We had all our basis covered with ordering some books to come to the P.O. Box up there, but we didn't realize that they closed at 9:30AM!! So, luckily Ann took the boys off to town and bought them all books.

Here is a pic of O'd & Wes reading their books:



I can't seem to stop taking pictures of pretty sunsets.





I was trying to get shots of Livia without her knowing it - but she always found me out. I love this pic of her!



Zane must of had a bunch of jumping this day on the trampoline to fall asleep while Auntie Liz was reading to him and Rose. At one point Zane's head fell onto Rose!



Cousins chowing on some grub. We had lots of great meals this week. This year we were able to have less "junk" - less soda, less sweets. Of course the kids still made plenty of yummy cookies and other treats. O'd made some of the yummiest berry syrup with some leftover raspberries. Yummy!



Slade has been planning a river trip from the ATVing put-in to the resevoir - this year saw it happen! We drove the kids (Urris, Alex, Wes, Cody & Graham) to the river where we ATV. The JEEP made it in with the canoe on top and pulling the kayaks in the trailer. Here we are heading down to the put-in.



Putting-in and heading off down river! Slade, O'd & I couldn't help but hum along to the tune from Deliverance!





When we weren't out in the water, there was lots of game playing going on. This afternoon I woke up to a game of Clue being played. Cody decided to leave the game and I took over for him. Livia was the first to figure it all out.



I can't remember if I took this picture early in the day, or late in the day. The colors looked so amazing to me. Someday I'll have to start taking different shots of the lake - instead of this constant view.



Our poker playing this year took the form mostly of Texas Hold 'Em tournaments. This last night found Seby being the constant winner. He really played like a seasoned poker player. He kind of amazed us all.



In the end this other seasoned poker player took all the winnings.



Maud brought a really fun craft for us to learn this year. Last year she brought the fixings for us all to make a knitted throw blanket for Alex to take for her first year of college.

This year we learned how to wet felt and needle felt. Maybe I have these names wrong? In the begining of the week I laughed at Maud saying that needle felting was addicting. Of course by the end of the week I saw what she means. It was really fun to do and we greatly appreciate being left with all the goodies to continue it!



Livia did a wet felting of the new Harry Potter book cover - here it is in the dry stage. It was really awesome. Livia, do you have it hanging on your wall like you planned?



The last day Slade took a bunch of boaters to the resevoir to do some faster and longer runs of water skiing and wake boarding. I'm still trying to figure out how I can turn some of these pics, but for now:

Wes


Cody


Lucas


Slade


Urris


Our last night we celebrated Seby's upcoming b-day. Here he is opening his present from Clip Clop and Papa - oh no, know they know that we didn't wait until his actual birthday like the box said!!!



Here is our annual group shot. It was taken early Sunday morning before Slade, Cody, Ann, Maud, Lucas, Livia & Rose, and Liz & Urris took off. It looked like it wasn't going to happen this year and then at the last minute I said we HAD to do it. We woke up Seby & Zane who were sleeping and took some fast photos. This spot seems to always work the best for our group pics.

The Garden

The boys are doing much better. We are all learning again about all the safety tips one should remember. There are quite a few actually. I'm still very comfortable with living where we do. I called and left a message for the "Inpector of the Precinct" -- she called me back the same day and was a WOMAN - in charge of my local police station! Coming from Chicago "land of pissy male cops" (except for steve) - it was refreshing to have a female police connection. Also there is a person who's title is "Crime Prevention" - another female. They both emailed me and called me and gave me a lot of information about crime in your hood and how to be safer about it. The one male that I've dealt with had the advise of checking with my local precinct and to ''stay inside."

Knowing that was really lame advise I have spent time every day watering in the front yard. But no walking in the neighborhood at night. I am going to go on the next hood walk that a local group puts together. I think it might be this Tuesday night. They meet at a restaurant and then walk the streets for a while.

We have a lot in bloom right now. I do love the garden (it is WAY better than the gravel and dirt of the past two years) - but I can't wait for a more "lived in" garden. Everything looks so planned to me, and too controlled looking. I like it when the flowers and plants go different directions in the garden.


The bee, the bee, see the bee???


Erika and I went to a nursery and bought flowers for all the front yard containers.





this is the water in the fountain. we bought an awesome fountain from costco.


we bought vegies from the lcs plant sale (the kid's school) and love picking salad before dinner. tonight we had a great one with romaine, bib, dill, chives - then we added tomatoes and black olives from the store. the kids eat more when they know it was something that was grown at the land school (lcs's farm school). zane is thrilled that the banana pepper plant he picked out is starting to have peppers grow he is also amazed at seeing all the different buds that will become peppers.

Guards Back Up

We had an altercation here in the 'hood - luckily nobody was hurt.

Last night Cody, Graham, and my nephew Wes were robbed by two guys, one with a gun!

The boys were really shaken up, but did just what the guys asked and got away without a scratch.
But what a f-ing episode.

The story is as follows:

I asked the three of them to walk or ride bikes to The Wedge (our local co-op) just a few blocks away.
We needed more fruit of course! They wanted to also walk to get a movie from Blockbuster a few
more blocks away. It was between 8 and 8:15 when they left the house - plenty light here still. It gets dark around 9:30pm. They went to the movie place, then The Wedge, then were walking back on the street just north of us,
at some point they noticed some guys walking ahead of them. These two guys kept turning and looking back at them, this made them feel like something was going to happen. The two guys started to slow their pace and quickly they were just a few feet from them - when the two guys turned to them, one of the guys showed them the gun by pulling it amost out of his pants and putting it back - asking them "wanna get shot tonight?" this question was quickly followed by "empty your pockets" - they took cash from Cody, Graham's wallet (but not his cell phone) and Wes's wallet. Unfortunately they made off with almost $75 - Wes had extra cash for being up here for two weeks. At some point the two guys kicked the grocery bags out of their hands as well - I guess when they asked for them to empty their pockets. The two guys took off down the street and my guys started walking the SHORT DISTANCE TO OUR HOUSE - just around the corner. We called 911 and they sent a couple cars which drove around looking for them and two cops came to the house to get the story, etc. We did hear on the radios that they caught one that matched the description, but didn't hear more about it last night. I emailed the contact for our block club and a contact for our neighborhood organization group. This contact sent me an email saying she was forwarding my email to several folks in the police force. Today I got a call from the Sgt for our case. He thinks he has a line on these guys and wants the boys to come look at some photos and give more details for their description. I'm taking them down to City Hall tomorrow morning.

Shockingly it seems that crime has been up in our immediate neighborhood. If I had known that I never would of let them go to the store.

So it is time to become a very pissy mother and demand more from all the city folk I can find - being at City Hall tomorrow will make that easier.

I was up late last night talking with Cody, Graham & Wes. We feel like the biggest lesson learned is 1-no walking in the hood when it gets dark 2-if you sense danger remove yourself from it as calmly and quickly as possible 3-don't carry so much cash and 4-for me to give them safety reminders when they go out on their own - which i failed to do and have almost finished beating myself up about. You know in hind sight you can fix everything! We did get a call from someone who found Wes's wallet - just at the other end of the street from us - the police asked us to bag it and bring it in tomorrow.

A couple other creepy things: The neighbor who's house this happened in front of had a couple large lion statues knocked over from the side yard in the last two days and in that same time we have some new graffiti on our fence. It is strange because the graffiti is a drawng of a tv - and it is right where if you looked up at night from that spot you would see the tv we have on the second floor of the sunporch - and the last two nights i have been up late watching tv. Kinda creeped me out.

I went out this afternoon to walk some of where the boys were and where they said this took place - I was eyeing everyone who walked by me with quite the evil glare - I just couldn't help myself. Luckily nobody looked like the decription they gave.
It is ironic to have the surges of wanting to kill when harm comes close to ones own - so I know that energy spent negatively will do me no good. So we will march down to City Hall and give them the descriptions and look at photos - and then we will make them look at photos of the graffiti and knocked over statues and ask for print outs of ALL crime for our immediate neighborhood -- and then the questions I will have for them. I might have to give out some negative energy and anger to get it out of my system - and maybe light a few asses in the process.

Luckily the boys decided to ride their bikes down to their sailing lessons today - instead of having me drive them. I asked them last night if they would be comfortable doing it, I would drive them, but only for a day or two. I told them that they couldn't let this make them live in fear and be afraid to go anywhere.

We have also been having lots of fun since I last posted and I have tons of pictures of the awesome time we had up at the lake house for the last week and half - but not the energy to post it all yet.

We came back from the lake for their sailing lessons and for Seby & Zane to go to Camp Kicci Yappi - a YMCA day camp they went to last year.

I will try and post some pics soon.