Isabel is getting good at riding her trike. She still has trouble with turning but she has peddling down. I am sure she will be on a ten speed by the end of the week.

The whole fam damily went up to Grants Farm and fed the goats. It was fun but exhausting. We took the RV and the kids sleep the whole way back, along with some of the adults. Pa Pa drove and that made it relaxing for the rest of us.

There is a video of Isabel running around with the goats and some photos too.

I have to hand it to our younger generation. The drinking games of my twenties pale in comparison to the games of today. We had your standard card games like "Circle of Death" or "Presidents and A------s". These are no match for Beer pong and Louisville Chugger. You can see Matt at the plate in the video below.

The object: of game: Get drunk.

The rules: 1. Chug your beer out of the bat. 2. The number of seconds it takes determines the number of spins around the bat you must complete. 3. After completing your spins you are pitched the empty beer can. 4. Swing batter.

How to win: See "object of game"

I took my turn and must say I did not do as well as Matt.

If you wish to see Malcolm, Brady and Nick's at bat click there names.

The video is at the Flat Branch park sprayground. Isabel, Gwen and Sophia all had a blast playing in the water and getting soaked.

We all spent a lot of the day downtown Saturday and the girls had a blast. Check out the photos section to see more of what went down at the Roots N Blues Festival.

HOLY ____ can you believe this photo! Korte sent it to me. Can you pick out my scrawny ass.

The title says it all.

Isabel got some balloon butterfly wings at the Heritage Festival this weekend. Michelle, Max, Isabel and I went and had some fun. We rode the hayride and did lots of fun cheap crafts.

She wanted a "peent bow" very bad, I only had money for a bow or face paint. So she had quite a tough choice to make. She obviously choose what was right in front of her the "Peent Bow". Michelle said that it was a smart choice because the Pink bow will last a lot longer than getting her face painted.

Later on while Max was getting his face painted, she changed her mind and tried to give me back the pink bow. It was quite sad, but she got over it. I don't think her skin would have done so well covered in face paint anyway. Not to mention that her nap was an hour away and her sheets would have been covered in paint and glitter. We did however scrounge up two bucks for these butterfly wings and she thought that they were awesome, she is still wearing both the bow and wings.

Well if you have seen a certain movie you will probably get this joke. If you have not seen it, you are most likely sitting there saying "huh" or "that's odd", possibly even "what a jerk face", you might be saying these things even if you have seen the movie. In any case, if you want to be in on the joke and you have a couple hours to kill, rent "Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind", then it will make more sense. If you want more information on this procedure Click Here

Its a good film, but if you don't like dark comedies you won't like this one.

On another note, I have been without a camera for a little while and will hopefully remedy that problem soon. When I do I will start posting some more photos of my little muse again.

A couple of weeks ago I went golfing with about 20 other people for Matt Colgins birthday. It was a good time, I got teamed up with Brian, Matt and Rev for the scramble. We came in dead last, "whooo hooo" We got trophies for being so bad. Mostly we bullshitted the whole time, might be why we didn't do so well, that or the fact that none of us had played in forever or more than 10 times total. Except Brian, he was our anchor. All in all, Matt turned 30 and didn't end up in the hospital. Thanks Andrea! There are some great pictures in the photo section or you can go Here

Grandma Jane, Pa Pa, Isabel and I took a day trip to the St. Louis Zoo.

It was a lot of fun and Isabel kept here eyes on the bears. I think she was a little bit worried, I know Pa Pa was. He tried to figure out what caliber of gun it would take, to stop one, if you met it in the woods. Lets hope that never happens.

We saw tons of animals, rode the carousel and the train. Her favorite was the monkeys. But she counted lots of fish too. She was wiped out and slept on the ride home.

Isabel and I went over to Korte's house for a BBQ. Brian Meyer was there and the girls played lots of fun games, not to mention dress up. We played some Guitar Hero and they danced. It was a blast and Isabel wanted to stay the night.

We spent the evening at Michelle and Dan's for Grandma's Birthday dinner. It was delicious and the kids were wild.

Now that we have that out of the way. I will get back to posting things about the family.

Oh yeah, you can see more photos by this artist at: http://www.banksy.co.uk

Well Korte and Leslie ("Sassy") came over today and they brought Sophia and Gweneth. Isabel loved playing with them. Older girls are the coolest, she followed them around and tried to keep up. They were great and included her in all of there games. I think they had fun directing her around. We all swam a little and played in the yard. We had a pretty good lunch too.

Below is a video of them taking a dip in the baby pool. There is another one of them riding in the wagon, you can see it in the videos section. I will post the photos I took of them tomorrow.

See ya around

Well this weekend we had some more people over to swim and BBQ. The summer has been packed full of weekends like this but we still seem to be enjoying them. I uploaded the good photos in the photos section. Take a look and send me any you would like to contribute. I will post them in there too.

On Sunday, Jennie, Isabel and I went to eat with Pat and Ev. We went to Hu Hot, which Isabel always seems to enjoy, mainly because she can watch the cooks and roll through the line. Afterwards we went and got her an ice cream cone, we had some too. Below is the picture from Jennies phone.

Michelle has her own blog set up now and you can see her posts here. I look forward to reading them and seeing some videos.

After the 4th we spent the past week just relaxing and recovering. We plan to do the same this weekend, lots of swimming and enjoying the warm weather.

Isabel put on a concert in our living room. The video below is just a small glimpse at the rock star to come. There are a couple more new videos up in the videos section, both of them are her swimming around the pool a bit.

Hope your summer is going well.

Well the weekend was jam packed with celebration. We had a bunch of people over on the Fourth for a barbecue and some wiffle ball. Everyone seemed to have a good time and no one blew their fingers off, so we will label it a success.

Isabel got her first glimpse at what wiffle ball was. We got her to hit the ball, (with a little help) and then got her to run to first base with the bat in hand. In the photo you can see her and I playing 2nd base. She got a little bored with fielding, there wasn't enough action to hold her interest. She also got to swim and stomp some snap pops on the patio.

Saturday we lounged around the pool, did some clean up and recovered from the day before. That night I hung out over at Korte's and Jennie and a few friends continued the celebration with libations and firecrackers. She is addicted to the smell of gunpowder.

Sunday, Tim and Rebekka came over for round three. There were a few pool games, model T rides, hand cranked homemade ice cream, and more fireworks. Isabel even got to stay up past dark to see some of the big firecrackers. She was not upset with them but glad when they were over.

I hope your Independence Day was a good one, too.

The past week has been very busy. I haven't had a chance to write about anything in a while so I will try and catch everyone up.

Fathers Day was a lot of fun and the food was delicious. We spent the afternoon at the farm with the parents, the Niles and the Rays. It was raining a little so Max and I played wii for a while. Pa Pa Lyle even rocked out on Guitar Hero a little, If they make a bluegrass version I will have some stiff competition. After dinner we set off a few fireworks and then everyone went on there way.

Later on that week I got a phone call to meet Jennie at the hospital. This was odd since I had just left her that morning and she was fine. She dropped off Isabel for her first day of Preschool and continued to get violently ill. The doctor sent her to the hospital for fluids and antibiotics. She spent a couple days there and then seemed to be fine so she went home. The doctors still don't know what got her. They said to keep an eye out for any more symptoms, and I have been trying to keep her from doing any activities. This is not easy to do.

Isabel loved the first day of preschool, she was pushing Jennie out the door faster than she liked, "I play now, Mommy." Grandaddy Walt had to pick her up and she told him all about her new friends. She spent the rest of the day with us in the hospital bed and taking trips to the cafeteria. She even got to see a newborn, she reminded me that she was an "itty baby too", I told her I knew that. She loves school and looks forward to it more and more.

Saturday we took it kind of easy. I worked on some leaks in the pool heater. Then in the afternoon Mark joined us at the 51st Annual Olivet Barbecue, the food was outstanding. The pie was the best part. Jane was nice enough to give us tickets, "Thank You!" Then after we ate, Ethan, Pat and Ev came out to swim. It was a great time for Isabel. She loves swimming with her cousins.

Sunday we went by Aunt Nancys for some ice cream and to see Fionn and Nori. They are in town while Sam and Brie move into their new house. Isabel got to play with the two girls but called them both Nori, I guess she can't say Fionn, yet. It was a good time for all and we ate plenty of ice cream.

There are lots of pictures in the photos section of the past week, check them out.

The video is of Isabel jumping into the pool with only a tube and wings on. Mark was helping her speed up the process. She is really starting to swim well. She can paddle around all by herself now.

I had to work this weekend, but only on Saturday. This ment that Isabel got to spend the whole day with Grandaddy Walt. She got an "itty Boo-boo" at the park but, they fixed it with some colorful band aids. I just happened to find them at the grocery store when I came into town. Jennie was in St. Louis playing a show for some hippies, so on Sunday we lounged around. Since Isabel was still sick and I had been outside for three days straight we basked in the air conditioning. We started off the morning by making biscuits, she loves helping in the kitchen. Here is the aftermath of rolling out the dough.

Later on we got out the painting set, here is a video of the painting she made while we entertained each other.

Sunday was relaxing. Michelle, Max, Joey and Ben came over and we floated around the pool. Here are a couple of photos that turned out well.

In this picture you can see my latest project, a solar powered pool water heater. It is working ok, but I think I am going to overhaul the insides. The cold water gets pumped in and heated by the sun, then empties back into the pool. It could work better though.

Isabel has had a fever now for a few days. We think it might be her 2 year old molars. She has been a little grumpy.