Birthdays, Barbecues, Maps and Mud

My birthday was on Thursday. It was pretty relaxed; I wasn't adamant about partying or anything. The Solmens came to came for a couple of hours before they headed to Ohio. (I kept teasing Shawna that her leaving was the best birthday present ever!) I shared a bottle of Inca Kola with the kids so that they could be all hyped up and restless while in the car all day. For the rest of the day, I continued to paint, wrote the summer's verse in seven different languages, and opened up the 21 presents my family sent me.


Saturday was pretty exciting. It was Family Work Day, so I spent the morning prepping things and helping Belinda and a bunch of kids do some gardening. We had a nice barbecue lunch. Belinda left after lunch, so I was left with the rest of the kids, who all wanted to do nothing more than ride around in the golf cart. Fortunately, Jeff had quite a few projects that could be done with the golf car, including delivering water to workers, watering the flower boxes, and dragging tree branches to the burn pile. Eventually, the golf cart went low on battery, and the kids were outraged. They insisted that I drive all of them on the four wheeler instead. Now, five employed adults on the four wheeler is one thing, but four kids plus me? Nuh-uh! Since I wouldn't drive them, they decided they would drive themselves, so I took away the key. The two boys started chasing me, but I had secretly handed off the key to the girls. When Dominick finally caught me, he searched me and, since he couldn't find the key, stole my phone as ransom. After giving up after many attempts to catch him, I was assigned to take the four wheeler with the trailer full of sticks out to the burn pile. Dominick wanted a ride, so he got one in exchange for my returned cell phone. He kept asking to drive, so I let him be in control of the gas (he was pretty slow anyway), but despite all his asking, I was not going to let him control the steering or the brakes! After watching me turn it on and off several times, he finally figured out how to start the four wheeler himself, and at that point I knew it meant trouble!

During the morning, Jeff asked me to take a few photos, emphasizing working together and multigenerations. Here they are:

After the work day, I invited Jon's kids over so that I had an excuse to dig into my birthday cake. It was fun to have them over, and the cake was delicious to boot!

Today, among other things, I made this wall:

After work, I went swimming in the Platte. The pool is finally filled and everything, but the river sounded so much more fun! It was fun; I was down there for almost an hour. I had forgotten to wear my water shoes, and instead had brought my really old, beat-up flip flops. Well, the mud was too much for these sandals that were already falling apart, so I ended up walking the quarter mile back home barefoot over the partially-maintained gravel trail. Fun!