Permagrin

To torture skiing fans we went to a ski swap last night.. Yes, in SEPTEMBER! The goal was to find a pair of small fry skis and boots. The rental fees were killing us last year. We had looked on CL and Ebay, not finding much in a reasonable price range.
Ski swap was the ticket. I can say I am giddy. We found a pair of 90cm Atomics for the little guy with bindings, brand new for $99, sweet!
I even got some new skis. I think John was wanting to level the field (although to truly level the field we would have to do this for the next few years) because I left with two brand new pairs of skis w/ bindings FOR SUPER CHEAP(!).
I just googled one of the pairs and the cheapest I could find it for online was more than we paid for Odin's skis, boots, and both of my pairs of skis. John is almost beside himself happy.
So now, we just have to wait a few MONTHS to use them...

Rain

It rained today for the first time in weeks. I we decided to go raspberry picking. It eventually worked out... Jenny and I picking and Odin and Laura RUNNING and JUMPING into mud puddles. Not sure who had more fun, us or them. Jenny was at least smart enough to bring a change of clothes for Laura. I had Odin's raincoat . . .

update

Morning.
He has energy,
and a nose faucet.
Fever has subsided.

so, yeah . . . just a cold?

H1NOOOO!

Odin didn't go to school today.
We watched lots of videos,
his nose ran like a faucet.
played legos,
lots of sneezing.
more videos.

He sat on the stepstool during dinner.
not eating.

Fell asleep on the sofa while we finished dinner.
John carried him upstairs.
He's asleep in his BED.

at last check 101.5

. . .

Mr. Tomato

We started a little forest this summer on the deck. We planted wildflowers, tomatoes, and some arborvitae. It has been really nice. Our tomatoes are just now winding down. Last week we noticed this one... a perfect face. very curious indeed.

Long week

There was a ton of stuff happening last week. Odin started school, John was teaching at his office and home later than usual, we also each had meetings in the evenings.For the weekend we decided it would be prudent to go and ride some roller coasters at the big mall.

Preschool

Last week Odin started preschool. He is attending three days a week in the afternoons. So far so good. ON Wednesday he went for a hour, then for the full 2.5 hours on Thursday.
He was not very excited for a first day of school commemorative portrait. . . this is what we got.

1st attempt


2nd try - a little better


The best we got!

Way back machine

Labor day. Seems so long ago now. We went to the BWCA for a kids weekend with T & A. We took Samo with us this time. I think the dog or the boy on their own is just dandy, but when both are along it is traveling with Captain haywire and his co-pilot.
At one portage Samo was sick of waiting for us to load all of our gear and swam out to T & A's boat. He swam for a LONG way. It took us about 10 minutes of paddling to catch up. He slept for a few days when we got home.
The weather was perfect. Almost HOT. I couldn't believe it. We did some fishing. Odin had a new spider man fishing rod and loved using it. He nearly caught a bunch of northerns on the casting plug.


John met us in Duluth (our usual messy logistics) and so we had two cars to drive home, on Labor day. We decided to go the rural Wisconsin route, and loved it. No traffic, nice scenery and a great restaurant with a fantastic buffet for cheap!
It was a great weekend, but next time I think the dog will get a separate "vacation".

Still here

Yes, I am still interested in doing this blog thing. Loads going on. More details to follow, but recently we have:
Been back to the Boundary waters (with Odin and dog)
Gone to preschool orientation (Odin no dog)
Moved a ton of stuff around in the house , well just the living room and basement.
And once I look at pictures I am sure I remember more.
Details and pictures of most to follow.