When you have more than one sibling, it’s hard not to show favoritism every now and then. Jeremy’s cracker distribution before lunch today betrayed his partiality.
He claimed that the crackers ran out by the time he got to Peter’s seat.
You would be correct to deduce that Peter and Jeremy have been bickering lately.
Derek completed a rugged four days of football camp last week. When I say rugged, I’m not kidding. The boy came home every day with the worst bloodshot eyes I’ve ever seen. But accompanying the bloodshot eyes was a smile that went from ear to ear. He absolutely loved it. And just like his daddy, he remembered each play down to the most minute detail…and we heard about every one of them.
The camp was for kids ages 6 to 14. This is quite an age span, particularly when you fall in the younger half of the group. Every day began with warmups…check out the size of the kid behind Derek!
In order to make it easier to find Derek on the field, he wore a black jersey with black pants…nothing crazy, but uncommon enough to stand out (yes, I know, there is no “I” in “team”, but a mother needs to be able to track her boy at all times).
Look at him use those legs…
Time for a water break. The coaches were diligent in stopping practice throughout the day so the kids would keep well-hydrated.
The final day was devoted to scrimmaging. Now, every day Derek came home, he would announce that it had been his favorite day of camp; each day just kept getting better. But Thursday’s scrimmage took the cake; he was practically on cloud nine after a full day of real football plays.
Showing off his stance here.
There he is in the background blocking his guy. (Meanwhile, the kid in the foreground is trying frantically to recover the ball.)
Getting play directions from the coach.
Soon after Derek received the ball…
he was brought down hard by his opponent. He said his leg hurt for the rest of the day.
I’ll leave off with a video of Derek making a block on the offensive line (which, as a matter of trivia, was Jim’s position in college).
Northern Wisconsin. It’s where Jim and I fell in love during the summer of 1994. Thanks to our friends, the Jachimiecs, we returned last weekend for the first time in 15 years. They have a great cabin on the lake that has been in the family since 1971. Our entourage–4 adults and 8.5 kids–arrived Friday night and were greeted with some chilly weather. Okay, chilly is an understatement…the temperature never broke 60 degrees on Saturday. But that didn’t slow us down too much.
These cold-hardened kids were still up for a dip in the lake, boating, tubing, and swings in the hammock.
The weather warmed up on Sunday, and Jim took the boys out on their first canoe ride. It took Derek a while to believe that the boat wouldn’t tip over. Of course, the way Jeremy rocked it back and forth didn’t help matters.
Then Jake and Derek swam out to the raft,
and were later joined by Robyn and Peter. (Jake swam back to fetch Peter and escort him to the raft)
Jake then escorted Peter back to shore.
Peter didn’t know when to stop swimming and stand up; he ended up scraping his knee on the bottom of the lake.
And during this time, there was our daredevil, risk-taking, no-adventure-is-too-great Bubbie…
…hugging the shoreline in ankle-deep water.
It was then time for the kids to go out tubing. Jake and Derek started out.
Jake and Grace were next. Grace got a little wet at one point…
but it didn’t deter the ol’ pro.
Back in the boat:
After a day of fun, everyone gathered around Jim to watch video clips of themselves on his phone. The fun goes on and on.
And what’s a post without mentioning the dog? It was a sweet reunion upon returning home.
We enjoyed a lovely night of roasting marshmallows and eating s’mores.
Mmmm..so good.
Then the boys–as all boys do–developed a curiosity. They wondered what would happen if they threw foreign objects into the fire. We suggested weeds. This turned out to be quite a win-win situation…the boys got the satisfaction of burning things up, and we parents enjoyed a nicely weeded backyard.
A ride not quite the magnitude of the Tour de France, though by the time the dog was hooked up in the trailer, I think our family qualified as an official peloton.
We chose to ride a short route, not knowing how Molly would do. Despite her nonstop movement and occasional guttural “woof”s, she seemed to enjoy the ride. She acted as Jim’s emergency brake, as every time her paw rested toward the front of the trailer, she would scrape the road and make a loud screeching sound.
With a break at the park halfway through–along with the promise of PB & J sandwiches at the end–everyone was able to finish strong.
**UPDATE**
Thankfully, it’s wash-out color.
Not content with her natural blonde hair color, Molly decided to change her look this afternoon. She didn’t go the salon route, no not this frugal dog of ours. She didn’t even get it from a box…not when there is a nice big mud puddle conveniently located in the backyard.
Problem is, mud puddle application is not ideal. It’s hard to get the color evenly distributed, you know, natural-looking.
I think someone has regrets.
An attempt to break free and show off the new hairdo…
…but she’ll just have to wait until the color sets in.
Just in case you wondered whether it really works, it does. Dropping a pack of Mentos into a bottle of pop causes an explosion. Pretty cool.
Last Friday, we celebrated Jim’s return from a week of traveling by launching model rockets into the big sky. Can you think of a better way to spend the morning as a family?
Each boy had his own rocket to launch.
After assembling the rockets, we all headed to the park.
Bubbie launched his first. Here he is watching it come down.
The rest of his time was spent reenacting the blast-off…
…plugging his ears to keep out the rocket noise…
…and receiving kisses from Molly.
There were a couple of wayward launches throughout the morning which required knocking on neighbors’ doors and asking for permission to retrieve the rockets.
I think Peter had more fun pretending his rocket was a gun than watching it blast off.
But even he had to admit, there is something thrilling about pushing that launch button.
Peter’s rocket (a.k.a. “The Rascal”…fitting, no?) was the smallest of the four. But when paired with a large engine, there’s no telling how far and fast it will go. Unfortunately, it went so far that we lost it. Alas, the Rascal is probably in some kid’s backyard in northwest Indiana right now.
Derek was up next with his red and gold beauty. His was a textbook launch and landing.
Then it was Jake’s turn. Let’s just say Jake’s rocket left this earth with a real kaboom. It was the same rocket he used four years ago, and he wanted to spruce it up by adding some color to it. He chose a shiny metallic gold spray paint…of the flammable sort. Within seconds of launching, the thing exploded into many pieces, never to be seen again. He was a good sport about it, and we all got a good gasp and chuckle.
Even Molly (sporting her beloved Gentle Leader collar) enjoyed the fun.
The Johanik family would like to wish you a happy Independence Day. We are thankful to be living in a country which offers us many freedoms, mainly the freedom to worship the one, true living God. As Jim read from the Declaration of Independence during dinner tonight, the Schoolhouse Rock song, “No More Kings” came to mind. Learn and enjoy!
Why a post with three completely unrelated topics in the title? Because we have some doggone cute (albeit random) pictures we’d like to share. Not to mention that life has felt a bit random lately.
GRADUATION
Peter graduated from Safety Town a week ago. His favorite parts? Escaping from the smokehouse and riding the go-cart-looking bikes.
It was a sweltering 90-plus degree day, but Jeremy, with his own sense of fashion and preparedness (he said he didn’t want to get cold), chose to wear his winter hat.
LAUNDRY
Molly made her debut on the chore scene earlier this week by helping out with laundry (affectionately referred to in this house as “bombs away”).
Anticipating the drop:
Now she just needs to be trained to sort the clothes.
FOOTBALL
Derek put on his pads with a jersey to get a feel for what it’s like to play real football.
Meanwhile, his fan club was looking on, admiring their big brother.
We celebrated my grandma’s 80th birthday last night with pizza and chocolate cake. The entertainment was provided by some local ducklings.
After Mom (ever the knowledgeable nurse with an applicable anecdote**) shared a true story about the dangers of blowing out birthday candles while hooked up to oxygen, she graciously blew out the flames for Grandma.
**As an aside, it’s because of all those horror stories nursing anecdotes that I opted to become a teacher when I grew up.
Every spring, I can count on getting a phone call from Grandma announcing the newest batch of ducklings after they hatch. There is something so exciting about new life…even when it’s a duck. And I find it interesting that every year there is at least one family of ducklings born in the courtyard of this nursing home.
Aging and death are daily themes at a nursing home. You can’t escape it. My grandma has been through the death of at least one of her roommates. It can be a dark environment with little hope for many people.
But then spring comes. And the place buzzes with excitement when the first duck egg hatches. The residents gather in the courtyard to just watch and enjoy the new life. God is good to give them that gift each year.
And I think for my grandma, she enjoys watching her great-grandchildren observe the ducks almost as much as she enjoys watching the ducks themselves.
Jake took over the camera to snap some close-ups of the waterfowl.
Luckily, there was no one waiting in line to ride the handicap-accessible swing, so the boys could swing to their hearts’ content.
Who knew the ride could be so thrilling?
We finished with a little photo shoot. Here is Grandma with two of her three sons:
Grandma with my parents:
Grandma with my bro and me:
And Grandma with the boys:
