The 13 Cent Guilt Trip

Mom says to Dad, "wouldn't it be cute if we bought Bridger a fish?". One hour later, we find ourselves at Petsmart. Enter fish lady, sporting fur balls in her tangled, unkempt mane, wearing a visibly dirty shirt and a perma-scowl. She is most certainly an employee of Petsmart. Her one function...oversee the fish department, which for the life of me, still doesn't explain the fur balls in her hair. Our convo went something like this:
Me: can we get one of those goldfish?
FL: mmm are you putting it in THAT? (referring to the gallon sized fishbowl in my hands)
Me: uhh yeah.
FL: *raising eyebrow* *audible sigh* "oooookkkkkaaaayyyy.".
Me: why? What would you recommend I put in this bowl?
FL: In THAT bowl?....nothing. Maybe a beta, or a fish that doesn't do anything.
Me: *wondering what she knows about fish activities that I don't*
Kelly: how long will it live in that bowl?
FL: *casting a disapproving glance at my child who is anxiously pointing and shouting "Pish! Pish!"* Ohhh maybe a year...
Me: we'll take it. Just one of the $.13 multi-colored ones, please.
FL: *sigh* just so you KNOW, if you don't move him into another bowl soon, his body will grow, but his intestines and stomach will not and the pressure will cause his guts to squish up into his head and he will explode and die. Just so you know.
She shoves the little bag containing my 13 cent fish into my hands and walks away.
I left Petsmart feeling as though I had just stolen food from a starving third world child. Then realized, it's a 13 cent fish FHS!! So. Here he is. His name is Spock. And so far, he has managed NOT to explode.

Burfday!

A couple weekends ago, we helped to ring in batgirl's birthday. It was Eleanor's big 03. B had a ball with his buddies and new found friends. Took some tumbles down the big bouncy castle and was virtually inseparable from the swing set. I've truly never seen a more exhausted boy. I'm bad with pix, so I didn't get any pix of the birthday girl and her loot, but she was adorable and I hope this is the best third year of her life. Thanks for the invite Ellie!

Bear Lake

This year's h20 adventure was spent at Bear Lake. A few highlights:

1. Sandcastles galore.
2. Food galore.
3. Sun galore.
4. Kathy bought a pyramid that was a huge hit with the grand kiddies. Bridger kept calling it the gagangle (triangle). Kelly and Dennis challenged each other to a duel of sorts to see who could make a running start and jump through the tiny hole without touching the sides or falling into the pyramid. Kelly won of course. Something about having 20 some odd years less under your belt...age and infirmity and all that.
5. Water skiing.
6. Wave running. Bridger took many rides and went pretty fast. Fast enough to get a little air. I could hear him from the shore screaming "weeee! Wow! Yah!"
7. Tubing. Bridger took a ride with aunt Sheryl and dad. He did great and loooved it!
8. Sunsets. With all the wildfires burning, there was no shortage of gorgeous sunsets.
9. Caving. We went to Minnetonka Cave. Bridger became car sick and vomited all over the back seat on the way up. Consequently, he acquired a new shirt from the gift shop prior to expedition. He hadn't napped all day and was just silly and loopy. He kept repeating every last word the tour guide would say and every time we changed caverns, he yelled "WOW!". He loved the cave and promptly fell asleep when we got in the car.
Such a relaxing vacay. I was almost sick about having to return to the real world.

Cheers to the Old Guy

Several weeks ago we celebrated Dennis' birthday by surprising him with a day at the Canyons, zip lining, paddle boating, fishing, mini golfing, hiking and noshing on celebratory ice cream. It was a busy day, no doubt, and a great way to enjoy the remaining days of summer. Happy birthday Baca!

Fab Five

Five more weeks of summer, are you kidding me?! We have been busy for sure, but I feel we've only accomplished about 1/100 of all the things we had planned. Hoping to make the best of the remaining warm, sunny days, we went to the Zoo last weekend and took an inordinate number of photos of monkeys. We took the wave runner out too and spent the day on the beach. Some wires shorted out and we couldn't get it started. Then after my last [wild] ride, we couldn't get the dang thing to shut off and had to choke it out. Kelly, papa and Bridger spent some time fixing the problem. Hopefully she'll be operational for our trip to Bear Lake next week.

National Golf Month

I would be surprised if you didn't know that August 2012 is deemed National Golf Month. Ahh the things I learn from daycare calendars...I double checked though and it's true. Good thing we bought B his first set of clubs recently. He runs around the house whacking at his plastic balls screaming, "balk! balk!". Translation: "golf! golf!". The other day he turned the gentleman's game into the sport of kings when he added his singing horse and played polo instead. Whatever suits your fancy, eh?

Not MLK Day

While most of the universe considers Martin Luther King Day a federal holiday worthy of a day off, I surrendered a perfectly uneventful February holiday for the much famed pioneer day. Kelly doesn't usually get PD off, but I made him take off this year. We kicked off the day by getting up super early and going to our favorite greasy spoon for scones as big as dinner plates with creamy, melty honey butter. Mmm. Then we spent the afternoon with gma and papa at the pond cat fishin'. After coming away empty handed, we came back to our house and made and ate enough sushi to sink a small battleship. In all, July holidays are way better than February ones.