Lego Creativity

Avritt decided that he wanted to build WALL-E out of Legos. His model is really cool, complete with cockroach. Isaac made the block of trash that gets squeezed inside WALL-E's stomach. They are going to send it in to Lego Magazine.

At the Beach with Friends

We spent Friday with Jason and Shelly up in Pentwater. Their daughter, Myla, is beautiful! She was seven months old that day. Jason took the kids on the dune rides, and then we went to the beach for the afternoon. We had fresh salmon for dinner - the best I've ever eaten. At the fish place, I bought some fried smelt, which I had at my grandparent's as a child. Great food and friends is all a summer day needs.

Bambi Lives!

Mike took these shots early one morning when he glanced out the window and saw these deer along the edge of the pond across the street. The kids weren't awake yet (we had to remind Emily about the concept of "morning" :) They saw these pictures and said, "Bambi!"

Swimming

Avritt is on the summer swim team at school. He's got a good friend, Max, who is on the team, and they enjoy hanging out. The bottom picture shows what we see from the stands. Avritt is conferring with one of his coaches about a race.

Video of A Relay Race

Avritt was asked to be a part of a 200 meter freestyle relay with the high school swimmers because one of their teammates was not at the meet. Each swimmer did 50 meters. He did a great job swimming with the "big boys" and kept his cool. It was fun to see them encouraging him, and although they didn't come in first, they beat a women's team will all high schoolers!

The Trebuchet Lives Again

We cleaned out the garage over the weekend, which involved emptying its contents onto the driveway in sorted piles, rebuilding the loft that was in the old garage, loading things in the loft that we won't need anytime soon, and putting the rest of the stuff in aisles so Mike can access his tools. In the midst of all the work, the boys reclaimed the trebuchet that Mike built for something at work several years ago. They played with it all weekend when they weren't helping. Here is a link about trebuchets: http://www.trebuchet.com/ if you are interested in their history or how they work.

This video is sideways, because I took it with the camera held sideways to get the best angle, but I didn't know that you can't rotate videos sideways after taking them.

Happy Fourth of July!

Even though it was 11:00 p.m. when we got home from the fireworks, we let the kids light some sparklers. To get these images, you have to turn off your flash, which makes the person blurry, but the light from the sparklers is cool.

Avritt, Isaac, and Eliot

The boys have donned their cool shades at the air show.

Air Show Video

Mike took the boys to the airshow today. They enjoyed seeing the Thunderbirds in action.

Emily is Now On the Road

It's official. Emily passed driver's ed and got her permit today. The Secretary of State office near our house was closed because the power went out around there from a storm yesterday. So we had to drive down to 28th street to get it. After waiting a really long time, Emily and Mike emerged triumphantly from the overcrowded, stinky waiting area (I had taken the boys to a toy store in the mall). Emily drove us to a restaurant near the mall, and then all the way home. She navigated well, and even had to deal with two major intersections where the power was out. She has a tendency to drift to the right side of the road, but she did really well overall. We now have to log at least 30 hours before she takes Step 2 of the drivers ed program, and then another 20 hours before she gets her license when she turns 16.

Cat Lounging