leavin' on a jet plane

Skye, Jon, Kaelyn, and Kylie lived with us for 5 days this past week while their belongings were in transit to Cleveland. It basically doubled the size of our normal household. We have had even more of a crowd around over the weekend with Aaron's Grandpa Averett's 90th birthday party on Saturday and Kylie's blessing on Sunday. Zeke didn't seem to mind the extra people around, although he had to compete with Kaelyn for Grandma's toys and he lost completely to Kylie for rights to Grandma's lap.

Kaelyn and Zeke hang around at the birthday party

4 generation photo with Grandpa Averett

Sweet baby Kylie in her blessing dress

Zeke having a toga party in Skye's poncho

Skye and Jon left yesterday for Cleveland. We're sad to see them go. We miss family home evenings, playing board games, and Skye being available to rescue us from one emergency or another (everything from broken-down cars to moderate injuries). But we're excited for them too. And we like to dream that next summer we'll be able to go to Ohio to visit.

quiet equals messy

While Aaron and I were busy yesterday afternoon, Zeke settled in with his books in his room. After 20 minutes with no sign of Zeke, I went to go find him. There are times when it's just too quiet. When I saw the open bathroom door, I knew. I just knew. And sure enough, there he was, surrounded by shredded toilet paper and a scattered box of pantiliners.

Happy Anniversary

Today is our fourth anniversary. And, according to the etiquitte experts who know what we need this year, the chosen gifts are fruit, flowers, linen, and silk. If you're interested.
We're not doing anything great and special today, but it's still a special day. It's a wonderful thing to celebrate a companion to be with forever. Having a friend right there makes the trials easier and the happy times even more fun.

Calling All Readers!

I've noticed a little interactive memory post popping up in a lot of friends' blogs. You've seen it: the one where readers leave a comment about a great memory they have with that particular blogger. Although we are interested in hearing about how great we are, we're more interested in who is reading our blog. As far as we know, Dynna and Skye are our only readers. So, leave us a comment or drop us an email and tell us what you think about our blog and what you'd like to see more of (or less of, if that's the case). And feel free to leave your memories too if you would like.

Little Monkey Man

In the past couple of days Zeke has started climbing everything...

No Planes Left to Fly

My first attempts at flying my Mitsubishi Zero didn't go so well last Wednesday. As the picture on the left shows the firewall broke out on the flips that it did because it hit the weeds at the end of the field and because it was so heavy it wouldn't take off without getting up to 30 mph and the engine I have in it won't pull it that fast anyway.

My T-28 trojan flew just fine except for the wind was a little high for it to fly well. Comming in for a landing it got really hairy and it belly landed in the grass; throwing pieces right, left and center. I need to repair the wing mount again.

The Hobbico NexStar that has done so well for me thus far (the go to airplane when all the others break or just won't handle the wind) landed hard and broke out the landing gear mount area. I had great flights with it today but that landing just did the poor thing in. So now I get to have fun doing the repair part of the hobby. :)

Zeke's Pool Party

We got Zeke a wading pool, and Aunt Dynna gave him swim shorts for his birthday, so we are set to have pool fun all summer long. Friday was the first time we tried it out. Zeke was a little unsure about the whole pool thing at first (see the leg up out of the water?),

but it didn't take him long to get into the pool party mode. He loves to splash in the bathtub and he quickly discovered that he can splash in the wading pool too. We had a great time, and when he was ready to get out, he got out, and that was that. We played in the pool on Saturday too. I put him in the pool on his feet and he sat right down and started to play.

Luckily Zeke isn't much of a diver, because the packaging for this pool specifically said 'no diving'.

Milestones

Two exciting things at work in the past week:

1. Our research project just reached our 100,000th participant mark!
That's right, 100,000 DNA samples. When the project started in 2000, 100,000 was the ultimate goal. However, because time and experience have shown that 100,000 is not the end, we're still collecting. Who is lucky number 100,000? One of my co-workers.

2. I have over 100 controlled documents!
One of my many jobs (the one I was hired for) is to create and maintain all of the written, official company documents. When I started, there was nothing formal. Now, 2 years later, I have 105 documents. Most of them are work procedures, but I also have policies, operations stuff (like timesheets and purchasing), and a full safety program. I wrote most of the 105. I hope that my others see this as a big accomplishment in organization and efficiency and not as an amazing achievement in red tape!

Happy Fourth of July!

We had a Loertscher (extended) family reunion this weekend. There are 300+ descendants of Aaron's Grandma and Grandpa Loertscher, although only 80-100 came this year. It's been here at Mom and Dad's, which has been great because we can sleep in our own beds, but not so great because there are a few people that don't understand that the 'do not enter' sign on the baby gate that signals our territory truly means 'do not enter.' I have been with Aaron now for 6 summers, but this is the first time I have come to the whole reunion start to finish. I have had so much fun. And the fireworks from Memorial Hill last night were the best I've seen. It was an all-around fantastic Fourth!

Zeke speaks

Zeke said his first words about a month ago: yeah (and yes), kitty cat, and cheese. He now has said several more words on occasion but nothing consistent. This video is Zeke talking about the cat. If you need a translation, he says something like 'cat...cat...cat...kitty cat!' It was a lucky moment. I meant to video Zeke playing with the kitty. But he decided to talk about her instead. :D

The Tablecloth Incident

I left Zeke at the table, finishing his bedtime snack, while I got him some milk. As I poured the milk, I heard him laughing to himself. When I returned to the table, this is what I found...

Luckily I managed to save the pitcher of water, the salt and pepper shakers, and the napkins from hitting the floor. I did have to pick up the Cheerios though.

PS Happy Canada Day!