Tandem Bike

Gideon had a friend with a tandem bike. He enjoyed it so much, Megan bought one.

In what has to be the coolest thing ever, Gideon rides over to Milcreek Jr High everyday to pick up Reece, And then they both ride home.

The Jeep Life

Well, she finally got a Jeep! Harper wanted a more exciting car for her senior year and after a bit of looking, she found one.

SIDENOTE: Amazingly enough, the Volvo is still running, but Harper had sworn never to drive it again.

The first thing she did when she got it was take the top off, of course. She drove to work...and then it proceeded to rain.

I believe Harper bought her jeep right on the cusp of the rainiest 2 weeks of the summer. She put the hard top back on, it got sunny. She took the top off again, it rained.

Later in the week, she washed the car, then it rained like 20 minutes later.

Jeep ownership is tough.

Mega-Sloucher

I'm still not sure if this is actually more comfortable than sitting regularly in the car or not.

 

One is Dead and Another is Back from the Dead

Old Red is gone. Hudson's truck finally bit the dust. It was actually an amazing buy for $1,000 back in 2020. We got lots of life out of it. It had 266,000 miles and it was a miracle that we got so many miles on it considering Hudson's reluctance to do any maintenance on it.

I will say this is one way to take care of unpaid parking tickets.

Now, within the same week, we finally found the key to the Volvo wedged deep, deep in the passenger car seat. The XC90 had been sitting in the driveway the whole summer after Harper lost it.

In her defense, the key had separate into two parts so that only the nub was left.

To better keep track of it, I drilled a whole in it and attached it to some keychain stuff.

While I was cleaning out the car, I collect an enormous amount of pen/markers. I was a little shocked.

Harper has vowed to get another car so this one might just be sitting the driveway waiting for Gideon. As she puts it, The Volvo is so bad, it's good; meaning, it's such a crazy iconic car, it gains a lot of notoriety. Harper used this well but she ready for new things now.

 

All My Teeth

I was cleaning out my closet and found this old medicine bottle that contains all my childhood teeth. Yes, you heard that right, all the teeth I lost as a child. My parents collected each tooth when I lost it and put it in this bottle. Then, when I was a man, they gave it to me. 

The question is...why?

I get there is some kind of sentimental aspect to it, but, to me, this is one of the strangest things; right up there with keeping the umbilical cord stumps. 

I guess if you didn't have a camera, it was one of the few ways to remember that time.

The funny thing is they gave it to me at some point. And I feel this responsbility that I need to store it for some reason.

It's an odd thing. I threw it away today.

Aurora Chasers

Ever since watching the eclipse in Idaho in 2017, our family has been a fan of celestial events. We try to catch meteor showers and we even caught the recent eclipse last March in Southern Utah.

Last winter, Tate invited me to drive to Montana to possibly see an aurora. Yes, Montana. And we left around 5 pm, expecting to get them sometime in the middle of the night. And it was unclear if the clouds would cooperate.

Well, the weather did not cooperate. It began snowing after we left and halfway into Idaho, the storm became bad. We had to turn back. Sad.

Then last month, Tate invited me again to another opportunity. We grabbed Reece too and trekked up to Idaho, just outside of Yellowstone.

This time did not disappoint.

It was interesting, we could see slight colors but it was pretty faded. Not the stuff you see in the pictures. But then, right before midnight, the sky came alive. The colors were vibrant. But what was even crazier was a pulsing solar vortex above our heads that was moving wildly.

It was an amazing experience. Many people went out to see it the next night, but from what I heard, it was not as extreme.

Geocache Maniac

Gideon likes to get into things. From 3D printing to airsoft, when he finds something he likes, he gets very enthusiastic about it.

A few months ago, he was introduced to geocaching; finding hidden boxes/containers stashed all over the place by other geocaching enthusiasts. Like a fencepost cap that comes off to reveal a small box inside with a ledger to sign your name.

Anytime we go anyplace, he will pull out his app and find if there are a any caches around him. To date, he's found 153 caches.

But he's also created, placed, and published several of his own caches. and his caches have been pretty well received. Some of his creations are a fake sprinkler head, a plastic dog bone, and a puzzle box.

I love his enthusiasm for things.

The Trouble with Clover

So, three years ago, the year we had significant lawn watering restrictions, our lawn totally died. It was  newly installed from the year before, so I'm not sure if it was because the sod had not fully rooted itself or I had made some mistakes with the watering, but it totally died and didn't come back.

The next year, I thought this might be an great opportunity and try something new. Therefore, I decided to plant white dutch clover in the front lawn. It took a while to take. I had to weed it many times before the clover grew in enough. In it's second year and it's pretty much saturated the lawn.

A few observations.

1. It's very revealing. It's grows to be fairly bushy, which makes it fun for Tucker to frolic in. however, when it gets trafficed on, it flattens out more than grass. Therefore, it's easy to spot when someone recently walked across the lawn (or when someone missed the driveway backing out as shown below). 

2. It's insanely hard to mow. What I mean is it is so bulky at the top, it fills the mower bag almost immediately with heavy clover. I have to empty the bag about 30 times to fully mow it.

Full disclosure, we only mow it about once it month. Theoretically, clover is a part the "wild"scaping movement that allows for pollinating and a more natural look. If I mowed more often, it would probably be easier to manage.

 

Musician at heart

One thing I've learned about Tate is he LOVES music. He doesn't just love a good song, he loves the mechanics of music. Tate will talk at length about music theory; like, how songs are reused throughout a show to evoke certain feelings or associations.

Tate grew up playing the violin. He was pretty good at it, but a few years ago, it became very uncomfortable for him and he ended up not playing anymore.

On his mission, he acquired a guitar and taught himself to play it.

Now he plays piano regularly and even pays for private lessons. Not only is he really good, he plays the most beautiful songs. I could listen to him play all day long.

I love his passion for music. I hope he never stops.

Finally got his own room

Hudson leaving for Scotland triggers a number of changes, like a big room shuffle.

Tate took Hudson's room, which means he now shares a bathroom with Harper, but definitely an upgrade for him. And, Reece finally gets his own room.

This was a big deal for him. The biggest challenge was finding what to put up on the walls. He brought his turtle picture, of course, but then we rummaged through the attic to find some of his past paintings.

Yay for Reece!

I got out-LEGO'd

When you spend a couple days building a lego tree house, from scratch, with your son.

Then, a couple weeks later, his mom gets him a super dooper lego tree house.