Tennis courts

We played so hard that when we got home he promptly fell asleep on the concrete.

Meet Optimus

Plaza holiday lights

Thanksgiving night.

Fox Hollow trail

At Lakeside Nature Center

Sunday paper

Charlie and Betsy en route to the cabin

They delivered our wreaths, picked up a supply of old New Yorker magazines, played a little soccer, and went on to winterize the cabin in the woods. It was so great to see them.

Puppy play date

Ernie came over to play. Levi and I played soccer in the back yard while they wrestled.

Levi gives such good hugs

Buzz wins another fan

Breakfast with newspaper and toy catalog

Welcome, Murphy ❤️

Sylvia quote

Syliva: "Maybe I'll be a veterinarian."

Me: "Well, that's a fine career."

Sylvia: "Or, maybe something working with animals, I love animals."

Pause.

"Or, maybe I'll be a renaissance woman." Long sigh, then laconically "oh.. what to do..?"

Three kinds of happiness

Sylvia told me this morning that there are three kinds of happiness:

1. Real happiness

2. Evil happiness, like when a bad guy is happy because his bad guys have done the evil thing he wants them to do.

3. Pretend happiness, like when you feel one way and you pretend to feel happy, like when you've broken a glass and you go talk cheerfully to your mom and act like nothing happened. 

I checked, and she had not broken any glasses. 

Turquoise Lake

They loooove this couch

Levi is not asleep in this pic. He is snuggling the soft couch.

Friends

These two cannot stop playing together - even though they spend quite a bit of that time driving each other crazy.

First hike - the fish hatchery

My hiking app said we walked 1.7 miles in two hours, but as Karl pointed out, the kids did way more with all their climbing and running in and out of the woods.

Arriving in Leadville

The kids did so great on our two-day drive. And the morning view from the street of our rental house was gorgeous.

Sunday flowers

House is a wreck, but we had a fun weekend, and I bought flowers for the table. That makes Monday better, too.

Sundays with Daddy

Paul took the kids out for lunch and hiking. Usually when they return from a big outing like that, Levi is ready for cuddles with me. But today, he said hello to me and told me a bit about their day, then asked Daddy to sit and read a nature magazine with him on the couch.

Culprit

Tonight we discovered a lot of water on the basement floor, dripping down from a radiator pipe. This was very mysterious, since it's August and we haven't turned on a radiator since March.

Paul traced the leak to the living room radiator itself, not a leaky pipe at all. The knob at the bottom of the radiator can be turned to let more or less water into the radiator, and it can be opened so far that water drips out. But who would do such a thing?

After eliminating me as a suspect through questioning, Paul asked the kids, very kindly: "You're not in trouble, I just need to know if one of you turned this knob."

Sylvia: "No, I never did."

Paul: "Levi, did you turn this knob?"

Levi: "Uh ... yeah! All the time! All the days!"

Mystery solved.

Dressed up for daddy’s birthday morning

Cats

Watching Lion King 2

In size order.

HBD, Isaiah!

The turtle game

They pretend to be turtles who hide in their shells (the blankets) whenever humans walk by. Gideon thinks this is an invitation to run and jump on them.