We have been noticing some changes in the kids lately –
Elliot has been acting more and more like a little boy. He is becoming more independent and playing more with Andrew and Mari.
Mari has been having conversations with Andrew and playing well with him and his friends.
Andrew has been a lot more boisterous lately. He has been getting up early and staying up late (for him).
Fun times.
This morning the city picked up what was left of our fallen trees. Here are the numbers:
1 – Fires used to dispose of a lot of wood
4 – Chainsaws used to help clean up
5 – Trees affected
16 – People who helped with clean-up
29 – Bags of yard waste
80 – Total number of person-hours put in to get things cleaned up
Now we just need to plant some grass.
My dad came over last night to start cleaning things up. He was able to get the Mulberry tree totally liberated from the pine, but apparently the Mulberry and the pine were very close, because it looks like the Mulberry can stand on its own.
This evening we had another tree fall on the play set. Since we put the play set up a few months back, this is the second tree that we have had fall on it. I almost have all of the first tree cleaned up and disposed of, and now I have to deal with this one. The one that fell tonight was a nice-sized, but fairly young Oak. I would bet that it was 40 or 50 feet tall, but not very thick. It snapped about half way down (or up, I suppose), so I have not yet figured out the best way to clean it up.
Tonight we also lost the dead pine tree that has been standing watch over our back yard. I knew it was only a matter of time for this one. I want to get it cleaned up soon, so we can try to salvage the Mulberry Tree that it is trying to take with it.
While we were out surveying our damage our neighbor pointed out that about the top 1/3 of one of our white pine trees broke off and landed in his back yard. Our back yard looks a little different than it did a few hours ago.
We only got to look at it for a couple minutes before bedtime tonight, and I can’t wait until the morning to get a better look and start coming up with a clean-up plan. I will get some pictures as well, to share.
Mari and Elliot have really been in each others’ faces lately. Last night for about 10 minutes Elliot was just chasing Mari around pulling on her clothes, pushing her, and hitting her. He also tried to take a nice bite out of her shoulder earlier in the evening. We can tell that they are going to have an interesting relationship.
When I entered a few posts about our trip, I forgot to mention one interesting thing that happened while we were away: Elliot quit the pacifier.
All of our kids have used pacifiers. We are not huge fans, but they liked them, and they helped them all sleep, so we used them. Mari still uses hers, and if Andrew had his druthers, he would still be using one as well (the pacifier fairy came when he was four and switched his pacifiers out for Elizabeth, the stuffed frog, which he thinks is a bear). Elliot won’t have anything to do with his. We haven’t even tried giving him one in the last week, and all has gone well. Yea!
I just added a few new pics to our 2008 Photo Gallery.
I also created a new gallery with a few pictures from our trip.
After a great trip, we loaded up the car yesterday morning for the trek back to Cincinnati. It was nice to come home to a clean house and some cool weather. The kids did great in the car and now we are just trying to get back into the swing of things. When I get the time, I will post some picture from our trip.
The past few days in Des Moines have been a good time. We have been spending a lot of times with Mimi, Papa, and the Reagens. There has been some flooding here of late, and we have seen a lot of the leftovers. We have also come across some rivers that are still exceeding their usual banks.
We left Minneapolis this morning and headed south for about 4 hours. We drove past some ruined corn fields and flooded rivers, and arrived at Mimi & Papa’s in mid-afternoon. A good time is being had by all.
Today started like yesterday, at the lake. We played a little at the playground and walked around and explored a little.
After breakfast we met some friends for brunch and then hung out with more friends in the afternoon.
Last night could have gone better. The lovely barbecue pizza that we had for dinner yesterday kept me up half the night, and now everyone else is having some digestive issues. Digestive issues aside, we were up early this morning and headed out on a walk around Lake Harriet. Even though the lake is close, it took us forever to get there and back because Elliot insisted on walking, and pushing the stroller.
It was great to get down to the lake. This is the same lake that Susan and I used to walk around when I first visited her in Minneapolis. This morning we walked around the lake for just a few minutes because the kids were taking a long time. We settled in at the beach where the kids enjoyed the water, even though it was a little chilly.
After nap time, we headed off to Martin and Courtney’s wedding. It was at the Minnesota Boat Club, on Raspberry Island, in St. Paul. The island was a little island on the Mississippi with a great view of St. Paul. The wedding was outside with the city as the backdrop and was followed by a lovely dinner, good cake, and some dancing. We headed home a little later than we had planned, which I think is a good thing, because that means we were having a good time.