Monday, July 31, 2006
The Aquarium and our Junior Rangers
They now have earned them from three National Parks: The Great Smoky Mountains, Hot Springs and Big Bend.
River Rat - Year Two
The Track
Sheela, Seema and Nitha were all big enough to drive the rookie go-karts (10 mph max speed). All around a big hit with the drivers. In this shot Seema is preventing Nitha from passing her and receiving an illegal bump in return.
Here Sheela is attempting to sneak past Nitha. She didn't make it on this corner but managed before the end of the lap to get on by.
Charrit Creek Lodge Trip
Here Sid and Sheela are enjoying the view from the top of the South arch.
As was the opportunity to wade in the river at the end of our flatlander efforts.
In honor of Tracey's Year of the Snake.....If you look closely you can see the head of the watersnake coming out from under the rock in the river. He was in with us while we were wading but we didn't find him until we were getting out.
There were two cabins and a main lodge house in the valley. This was our cabin. It had bunk beds for 12, but we were the only guests in the valley that night. We had a camp fire, watched the stars, caught fireflies and just enjoyed being out of the city.
This is my little hiking buddy all set for the climb back out. He was an excellent sport about the whole trip and carried his own pack, water and food with minimal complaint. He even shared his hiking stick with me.
Friday, July 21, 2006
Vacation Countdown....
10 - Arrange for home renovations in our absence- Check
9 - Pack the obvious stuff -Check
8 - Pay all bills - Check
7 - take the cat to the vet - Check
6 - Buy car snacks (or not) -
5 - Tour Amy's Million Dollar Homes - not part of my normal vacation routine but this is the only day I can get down to Dallas
4 - Get directions (or not) - it's not like we haven't been there before
3 - Pack last minute stuff (from the list we've been making all day) - also known as fill up all remaining space in the car with anything that is not nailed down
2 - Load it in to the car (don't forget Sunil) - the real key to a good trip
1 - In the words of Bart Simpson, "So long, Stinktown!"
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Hawaiian Falls
Sunil and I took a day to play yesterday and it was nearly perfect. We went to a local waterpark called Hawaiian Falls. Sunil is just over 40" tall and he would have needed an extra 1-2" to be able to ride the moderately thrilling rides, but he wasn't really interested in those anyway. He was a little concerned that I might make him ride on the Hawaiian Half-pipe (a shear drop on an inner tube that eventually shoots you back up the other side of the canyon) -- no thanks. We spent our gorgeous 105 degree day speed walking between Keiki Kove (the kids area), Splashwater Harbor (a swimming pool with waterfalls) and the Kona Kooler (a lazy river with inner tubes). It was wonderful and we both came home in desperate need of naps (which we actually got).
I aquired a minor suburn on the backs of both of my arms and one bonus streak down the front of my left arm..... apparently, I didn't do a very good job applying the spray sun screen. At least Sunil didn't burn.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Handy people to know....
that's us. On Saturday Sid, Sunil and I went to Farhana's house to paint Jazmine's bedroom. The wallpaper had already been stripped but the walls needed some repair. That took Sid (and Robert) most of the morning. Then they put up a coat of bright blue primer. In the afternoon Jaz, Sunil and I put up the bright green primer (on the lower third of the walls) while Farhana painted the chair rails battleship grey. They were supposed to be silver but it didn't come out quite right. Sid has suggested that they use polyurethane and silver glitter to spruce them up. On Sunday Jaz and Farhana finished up with bright blue paint and bright green paint. I can't wait to see it all done. They've been in the house almost six years and this is the first decorating chore that they've tackled. I expect that all of the other cabbage rose wallpaper will disappear in relatively short order.
Sunday Sid and Sunil went to the zoo, but at 105 degrees they didn't stay as long as usual. When they got back Sid and I went to Alma's house to help them put up their built-in microwave. Its been sitting on their counter top since February. They mis-read something in the instructions about the mounting bracket and their attempts at installation didn't work out to well. I'm sure that was completely unrelated to using whipped cream to mark the screw holes. While Mark and Sid tackled that, Alma and I changed out the bathroom light switch. The one that we installed has turns on with a motion sensor and then turns off automatically. Their girls are apparently notorious for leaving the bathroom light on all night.
Sid also got another handrail up in his folks shower. Now his mom can get herself in and out of the shower without assistance. I know that she feels much better about not being so dependent.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Oohnorak...a Bionicle
When Sunil traded in his scooter for his new skates he also picked up a lego set to build the Bionicle Oohnorak. We haven't read any of the Bionicle stories yet, but Oohnorak appears to be a mechanical "bug" with (only four) articulating legs, a pair of pincers and the ability to launch flying disks off of his back. This is the second set that Sunil has, but select pieces of the first one disappeared before we managed to get it built. This one did pretty well but the set was missing one of his "thighs". Sunil managed to find the appropriate replacement piece from the old set.
A life outside
Saturday Mommy finally got a chance to break out of the house for a little while. She practiced getting into (and out of) the Taurus. I feel a lot better knowing that it really isn't hard for her to do. While she was out they went for a spin around the block in her wheelchair.
Since then she has actually been out to the store a few times. We tried to get her in to the new van, but it is still a little bit too high. She doesn't have the upper body strength to pull herself up into the chair from the floor and she can't stand up well enough on either foot to push herself up and in. The Expedition is going to be even less likely, but we still have a few weeks to work on that before we leave for Tennessee.
The only bad news is that someone ran a red light yesterday and smashed up the Taurus. It's still drivable (if you don't count the missing headlight) but the passenger door doesn't open. Luckily Mommy wasn't in the car at the time and daddy wasn't hurt. She can still get in the backseat and the repairs are set to occur while we are out of town.
Monday, July 10, 2006
Telling Time
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Let the vacation begin...
To fill our lonely days we are intending to overwhelm poor Sunil with way more attention than he is used to as a second child. His new scooter is not working out. The ride board is warped (I thought that his balance just wasn't that good) and it isn't ride-able. So we will return that today. He may choose another scooter if the next delivery has come in, but if they don't have another one he has his eye on a pair of in-line skates with training wheels. Too cute!
We may even get to the roller rink to break them in, and then we plan to go swimming at the natatorium. His swim classes start again tomorrow night and will take up most of his evenings while Sheela is gone.
Friday, July 07, 2006
Playtime
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
You call that a storm?
Our traditional fireworks show is put on by the city of Plano. When we lived there we just walked across the street to the park to watch the show and then walked back home. Last year we drove back over, so we had to deal with traffic on the return trip, but the viewing was clear, easy and free. This year when we got to the park, it was empty (except for one group of four teenagers). I was afraid that the show had been cancelled due to weather. So we drove South to the launch site to make sure. Normally the high school is all roped off to restrict access (unless you walk-in and pay to enter the grounds). This year there were no gates, banners or signs (there was one sign -- we'll get back to it in a minute). We waited in line for a few minutes and joined the throng to enter the grounds, once we got in to the parking lot we realized that it was less than 1/3 full but everyone was set up to watch the show. I thought I'd seen a sign on our way in, it was the size of a "FOR SALE" sign in someone's front yard. I wasn't sure but it looked like it said "Oak Point Park", which is about five miles away. We went back to see the sign and sure enough "Fireworks moved to Oak Point Park", so we left everyone else sitting there and tried to get across town. Because of weather they started the show 20 minutes early, we didn't make it all the way over. We stopped to watch from the Wal-mart parking lot. Sitting under the parking lot flood lights cost the night a lot of charm and magic. At least it didn't rain on us, and we had chairs.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Independence Day
Monday, July 03, 2006
OT and PT
She is only getting up to go to the bathroom and to take meals. The rest of the time she is staying in bed. I expected her to want to be up in the wheelchair at least.
We installed remote controls for her ceiling fans (since she can't reach the pull chains). Unfortunately, we managed to lose one of the remote controls before we even installed the receiver. I'm sure we will find it just as soon as we quit looking.
Adequate Protection
Lemon Battery
Parched Earth
This is what the ground looks like where the city has stopped watering the parks. Some of these cracks in the ground are over a foot deep already and some are three inches across. There is a lot of concern over how safe it is for the kids to run and play in these parks. This is right across the street from us, but our kids don't play on the grass. They either go all the way to the playground or stay in our own yard.