No more homework, no more books…

School’s out – hooray! Beth quit her job and is looking forward to August – hooray! We’ll be out in NH in a few weeks – hooray!

I don’t think I posted this yet…but maybe I did…oh well, shut up and watch it again 🙂 It’s going viral! All you really need to watch are the first 10 seconds!

EPFD Video

I hit 10 years with the department in August – crazy it’s been that long. Lots of great experiences. Last week I did a presentation at school for both Christopher’s and Colleen’s classes – it was a ton of fun. I always really enjoy that and the kids are great & have many good & interesting questions.

Ok – here’s some more Katherine stuff for a bit…ready? Is it too much that I built a reflecting pool in our backyard in her memory? Is that normal? Did you all build one too? It looks nice, huh?

Christopher seems to be getting the most use out of it – he spends hours at a time reflecting. Anybody buying that? So I spent a day leveling the spot for our pool – and I got it all ready…and then it rained for like 3 days straight, and then it took a week for the mud to dry up, so finally 2 weeks later we got the pool set up. But it’s up now, and no support beams have bent this year so I’m somehow getting better 🙂

So I wrote this phrase down probably in February and was going to see if Katherine could use this to communicate better with Erik’s family. I never got around to sending it to her – probably an old one everybody has heard before anyway and it just took this long for it to get to the midwest. Mom, maybe you can still use this when talking to Erik or his family: WHALE OIL BEEF HOOKED. You’re welcome – always happy to help.

So…I thought maybe I could bank up some brownie points and I brought Beth to the Princess Diana exhibit at the Mall of America. Wow – I still can’t quite find the words to describe how I felt about all the dresses on display. And I’m still wondering why they let me into that place but somehow managed to pull every other guy out of line (it didn’t help that Hooters was right across the hallway from the entrance to this exhibit). Oh well – I made the most of it. One room focused on her funeral and had a speech on the wall that was written by her brother – maybe eulogies are just like reading a horoscope in that somehow it applies to most anyone but I still found comfort in many parts of Charles Spencer’s tribute to his sister Diana and that I could relate portions of a speech about a greatly admired princess to Katherine.

Ok…moving on to other topics. Can anybody guess what this is?

Bizarre food crime scene? Bizarre fantasy food scene? Give up? This is what happens when you let boy scouts create devices to try to protect an egg as it is dropped off a 90′ fire truck ladder. Some boys tried to protect their eggs, while others decided to put their eggs in jello, or peanut butter, or bags of flour for the splat effect! And my boy was the former 🙂

Speaking of my good boy. Here’s the day he was initiated into his new “Grease” gang.

That was crazy hair day, and that’s as crazy as he was going to get this year. No colors and no hair out of place. Absolutely crazy!

And here’s Colleen stopped on the bridge as she contemplates whether or not to advance to the next level in girl scouts. Not sure what she decided – guess you’ll have to ask her.

Schooner days was here again for mommy’s birthday. This is the little fair that is staged about a mile from our house. They bring in all sorts of rides and deep fried foods and of course a gigantic bingo tent. It’s always a fun time and holds us over until the state fair arrives.

And then for Beth’s birthday we went and ate outside on a dock by a huge lake and got our kids all liquored up. Nothing says party like a 6 year old drinking beer.

The flowers are starting to wake up in our yard. The poppies only bloom for a day before a light breeze blows their petals everywhere. Crazy how fast they bloom and are gone. But if you catch them on that day they are beautiful. I call this one “Here doggie, here doggie”:

And of course I call this one “Poppy and killer whale”

So maybe it’s my fault for not bringing in the flag before it got dark. But I went to get the flag the other night and about crapped my pants when something fairly big moved at my hand in the darkness. Turns out it was a friendly neighborhood tree frog way up high on the drainspout. He almost got smooshed just like I did to his buddy accidentally last year 🙁

And finally, here’s Megan’s new trick…

3 Responses to “No more homework, no more books…”

  1. Dad and Grandpa T says:

    Enjoyed all the pics and the update. The Whale Oil Beef Hooked must have missed us as it went around New England. Finally Googled it and found out we were saying it too slow. It might have actaully started with Erik’s family. We’ll have to ask.
    I liked the pond better thinking it was actaully a reflecting pool, but glad things dried out so so you could get the pool set up. Does Orca like the water as much as Raja did? Probably not.
    My first guess for the parking lot mess was what happens when you drive off with a bag of groceries on top of your trunk instead of inside. I suppose you also bring a pumper in addition to the 90 ft. ladder to clean up afterwards. What did Christopher use? It looks like styrafoam. Looks like his egg made it. We never did anything like that in Scouts. Come to think of it I don’t think Rochester has a 90 ft. ladder truck. I know they didn’t back in the good ‘ol days when I was a Scout. My guess is that Colleen did cross the bridge. Still can’t believe how grown up she is looking all of a sudden and becoming such a pretty young lady.
    Glad to see Christopher and Megan still taking after me. Remember the picture you took of us at the Bud plant a year ago? This weekend is the Rib Fest at the Bud plant. Looking back, I’m sure glad that you came out a year ago. That was the last time all of our family was together. I look at those pictures and everyone is so happy. We have to always remember those good times. I also enjoyed following the doctor’s orders to “bulk up.” No one has told me that this year, but maybe we can hit a few fish and ice cream places for old times sake.
    I was surprised that Christopher didn’t have green hair again. Maybe Uncle Dan can give some tips on growing dreds, but he’ll have to start now to be ready for next year.
    Also checked out the links you prvided. I don’t remember seeing the EPFD one. As you say some of the tribute to Diana could apply to others. I liked your tribute to your sister better.
    Hope all is well. We are looking forward to seeing you all in a few weeks. Hope Beth is enjoying some time off and catching up on a few things. August will be here before we know it. Don’t look now, but the days start getting shorter in less that a week. Happy Father’s Day.

  2. Jacqueline says:

    Congrats on 10years! The video was neat- great pictures! I am a little disappointed you weren’t interviewed- I kept watching hoping to hear what you had to say. We can interview you when you arrive in NH after you autograph your US Weekly picture. I love reading about you all and the adventures. I always hesitate to respond because I am not as crafty as you are with words. You always have a way with words whether it’s reflecting on the everyday fun of life and the kids or speaking of Katherine- Always so touching!

    Congrats on the pool- looks like next summer we will have to make a road trip to MN to go swimming.

    Hope Beth had a wonderful Birthday. Happy Father’s Day to you and we are all so excited to see you all.

  3. Purdue Pete says:

    Alright Jackie!!! Thanks for the post!!! You guys are welcome out here anytime. Can’t believe we hit the road so soon – definitely looking forward to seeing everyone!

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