Dinner Time with Zeni

We don't always get the food into our mouth, but we're happy to be eating.

Video--Zen and Zion at the Beach

Here are Zen and Zion on the beach at Covenant Harbor.

Camp Information

In this day and age of "helicopter parents", Covenant Harbor has developed many ways for us to keep our paws on our children, even from far away...if you would like to spy on Zion from afar during his week at camp, you can go to www.covenantharbor.org for camper news that will be updated daily by 10 a.m.

Go to the homepage, select the orange "blogs" icon, and chose Zion's camp: Kishwauketoe. you can also go to the photo gallery for Kishwauketoe daily and see pictures. the password for the photo gallery is comeondown08 (this is case sensitive) and select the dates: June 15-21. Then scroll through and enjoy the pictures!

Zion's At Camp!

Happy Father's Day! Today was also the day that we had to drive Zion up to Lake Geneva to start his first week of sleep-away-without-mom camp. Zion has been nervously anticipating this experience for weeks. Sam kept joking that it was his father's day present, but when the big "night before camp" came, guess which one of them couldn't sleep? Yes, Sam was having sympathy anxiety for his eldest son, who was peacefully snoring away in the next room.

We decided to take advantage of Covenant Harbor's open waterfront on Sundays by going up early and spending the day at camp. We did a nice little hike to town, browsed some souvenir shops, ate some ice cream, and gawked at the mansions and the boats crowding the lake shore. Then we walked back to camp and did some swimming--well, Zion and Mom did some swimming. Zen sat on the beach eating sand, and then took a nice little snooze with Dad on one of the Adirondack chairs in front of the boat house.

4:30 came--on the way to registration, Zion asked me how much I was going to miss him. "more than you could imagine," was my answer. "How much is Dad going to miss me?" "Just the same." During the registration procedure, the expression on his face would have been more appropriate for a funeral than for what will probably be one of the best weeks of his life to date...he stuck by us like glue while we filled out the necessary paperwork and unloaded his luggage (thanks for the Land's End bags, Auntie Beccar!). Then he met his counselor, Josiah, and saw the awesome accommodations--a tree house on stilts that will house 8 little boys this week. By the time we had completed the parent orientation and helped him make his bed, we were the furthest thing from his mind--lucky even to get a quick hug and kiss. We miss him already!

Puerto Rican Fest

We joined Cathy at the old neighborhood to continue the Puerto Rican Fest tradition. Lots of great people watching; Beautiful weather.

Snake Shirt

Anybody with the name Grandma might want to avoid looking at these pictures (Grandma Olson, Pam or Betty) :-)

Iowa

We spent the weekend with Vince, Tracy, Alex and Tori in Iowa. We had a great time playing their new Wii game system with the Wii fit. Zion kicked butt in ski jumping, and Kristin holds the record for meditation (yes, there is a game for meditation!).

We got to see Alex dressed up for her dance rehearsal, and also release about 200 baby praying mantis from a cocoon into the back yard (so cool). We had a blast at the local Mexican restaurant, (although I think the rest of the patrons were happy to see us go, as the noise level went down drastically upon our departure). It was great to see the Welsh family as usual. :-)

Watch Me Crawl! (video)

Zion was triumphant that Zen didn't learn to crawl on June 1, as Zion's baby book indicated, but he wasn't far behind...here's a video from June 7. Time to put the baby gates up!

The Picture of Innocence

You'd never guess that as soon as they put me down, I'm crawling towards everything I can reach, but shouldn't...remote controls, paper products, Zion's tiny toys...it's like having a puppy all over again. I especially like sucking and drooling on things like the dog's nose and paws. Boy, am I ever going to have a well-developed immune system! If they put me down in the middle of the blanket where I belong, I simply cruise right back to the things they don't want me to touch. Good thing there are 3 big people around to watch me most of the time. My favorite and most vigilant is brother Zion :-)

Hoppy Frog Spray Pool

The water was a little cold when we tried the Hoppy Frog Spray Pond, so the verdict is still out. Zen seemed to enjoy himself despite the goosebumps, but we didn't stay in there for very long. Hope to get some REALLY hot weather here soon so we can try it again.

Mini Me

No doubt as to the genetics of this child! :-)

Zion Field Trip

Zion went on a field trip to Volkening Heritage Farm with his class here in Schaumburg. I went a long as a chaperone (apparently I was either the BEST chaperone, or the WORST one, depending on if you talk to the kids or to the rather uptight, joyless teacher who helped accompany my group (not Zion's teacher, thank goodness). Anyway, my group had fun making butter, milking a cow, doing laundry the old-fashioned way, ploughing the garden, and picking the dandelions. Here are some pictures!