Short List.

Ruby [to Momlissa]: You know, Mom, you should really root for the Packers instead of the Vikings.
Momlissa: What? Never!
Ruby: No, you should, because Wisconsin is really great.
Momlissa: What's so great about it?
Ruby: Six things - I went on an airplane ride there, there's a good view, Grandma and Grandpa live there, there's deer there, it looks pretty, and I like it.
Momlissa [a little astonished]: Oh, really?
Ruby: Yep. Deer, airplane, good view, like it, Grandma and Grandpa, pretty.

In Beautiful You-Know-Where.

Last month the girls visiting their grandparents in Wisconsin. It's always a highlight of the summer for them (and for Grandma and Gramps too). And on a cold, windy, rainy September night like this, I think it's important for us all to look at them, and remember.

Jokes.

Dadam here – I have been derelict of my blogging duties as of late, but now that my marathon training is over I hope to do more posting here. My race was this weekend, and I was so touched at how many people came up to Duluth to support me – not just Momlissa and the girls, but representatives of all branches of our extended family as well. Thanks to all of you for making it so special.

As Momlissa already noted here, the girls were big boosters for me as I got ready for the big day. The Duluth race is known as “Grandma’s Marathon,” which led Ruby to tell Momlissa one day that soon I would be running in “your mom’s long race.” (Get it?)

One of the highlights of the weekend was the drive up, during which the girls were trying their hands at joke-writing. The results were sometimes amusing, sometimes painful, as Cici has almost but not quite wrapped her head around the concept of puns. (Typical example: “What do you call a coffee machine that attacks you? A killer cuppatino!”)

And Ruby’s contributions, as you might expect, were hilariously abstract:

RUBY: Why did the cow sit on the chicken’s eggs?
DADAM: I dunno, why?
RUBY: Because the chicken was on a date!

RUBY: What did the skeleton say when he got his birthday present?
DADAM: What?
RUBY: “Swordfight!”

Home Again Home Again

We've done very little blogging lately because we haven't had much to blog about - the girls just returned from an extended stay with Grandma and Grandpa K in Wisconsin. We spent last weekend there, left the girls on Sunday to come back to MN, and only retrieved them yesterday (Friday). It was a LONG time without our favorite girls.

It worked out well because this week was full of various commitments for me and Dadam, so on one hand the week went by quickly and was pretty uneventful. On the other hand, the house was too quiet, the mornings were too calm, and I didn't laugh nearly as much as I do when my children are here. At times it was downright painful without them.

But now, thankfully, they're home. Our family is complete again and all is right with the world, and now I must sign off so I can go clean up the Cheerios that are spilled all over the coffee table...

Vacation 2009

This year we took our first "official" vacation as a family -- just the four of us, fending for ourselves in the beautiful Black Hills. We managed to see and do A LOT of things in just six short days, and we were all pretty pooped when we got back. The list includes: Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park, Reptile Gardens, Bear Country USA, the 1880 train to Keystone, Rushmore Cave, the Badlands, and sadly, Mitchell, SD and the Corn Palace. Our camera died about halfway through the trip, but we did manage to take a number of pictures before that happened.

I think we can safely call this vacation a success. We had lots of fun, the bickering was minimal (both for the girls and for the grown-ups), our cabin was terrific, and we got to spend some quality time together as a family. I know it won't be long before the girls are teenagers who roll their eyes at us and make trips like this a lot less fun, but for now it still feels pretty darn magical.

The Fifth Wheel

Today the girls were at home with me because our childcare provider took a vacation day. We made the most of it and had a great day at the pool (the high today is 88, so it worked out well). We went to a local pool that was recently renovated and now has a diving pool, an aquatic climbing wall, a sprinkler area, a regular lap pool, and a wading pool with little slides and hoses. The girls were in heaven and the first half hour or so we simply bounced from area to area to take it all in.

A short while later Cici made friends with two other girls who looked to be about her age, and Cici and her new pals were not interested in what me or Ruby were doing -- they wanted to run around together and swim in the big pool. Personally, I love to see that Cici easily makes friends and isn't shy about asserting herself with new kids, and my independent children make me proud. Ruby on the other hand...

Poor Ruby just didn't know what to make of all this. Why was her sister not paying attention to her? Why did the girls have to swim in the big pool where she can't touch? Rubester just couldn't keep up and it broke my heart a little bit to watch her try. She'd run behind the big girls but they weren't paying any attention to her, and they'd be ready to move on to the next thing by the time she finally found them or caught up to them. And I started thinking about how Cici has been the center of Ruby's world for so long and it will again be very hard when Cici goes back to school. I guess we'll just have to make the most of the next two weeks.

Duluth

We recently spent the weekend in Duluth so that I (Momlissa) could participate in a triathlon on Pike Lake. It was a very nice weekend with great weather, lots of family fun, and I completed the tri without incident. On Saturday night we took the girls bowling -- it was Ruby's first time and, I must admit, she's not good. Her score for the first game was 13 (total), so we opted for the bumpers on our second game. It improved everyone's scores and that made bowling much more fun! Here are some shots from the trip...

Deep in Conversation

Ruby and Lindsay, deep in conversation while on a walk a few weeks ago. I can only imagine what these two were talking about...

Happy Birthday Dadam!

To the best daddy in the whole, wide world:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

We Are Family!

We went to Sturgeon Bay to celebrate the March birthdays and took this great picture of the Al & Linda family.

Aren't we cute?

A Random Post

Remember when Cici looked like this? This is July 2005, just a few weeks before her 3rd birthday: