Lovely

My Mind is going a Mile a Minute and yet when I make it stop so I can organize my thoughts and write things down it becomes BLANK. What in the world! I have a million ideas for each room in my house, Christmas presents, yes Chistmas presents, Birthday gifts, clothes to make for my fam, I can't even count the knitting projects, a million accessories to try my hand at, even down to yummy treats I can bake and eat while I am doing all these things. I just wonder... when am I going to get these out of my head and actually Get going?

Do you ever feel like you are back in English class (nice analogy) and you have been sitting down to write your paper that is due tomorrow for about the hundredth time, and still you have no idea how to start your amazing paper. If you could only get what is out of your head on paper it would be Brilliant. Well, that is how I feel today. Hopefully tomorrow I will obtain brilliancy. Ciao!

Appleton, Wisconsin

This is Jon (even though it says Kanien made this post). I've got an aunt who lives in Wisconsin. We went up to visit her this past week (10 Aug). They live in Appleton, a nice community built around Lawrence University. It's about five and a half hours from Lafayette, depending on traffic. That seems like a pretty long drive, but after multiple 24+ hour drives this summer, it felt pretty short. We spent our time up there playing games, watching SpongeBob, swimming, and playing with their large dog. It was a great little vacation, and we'll probably go back up there for Thanksgiving.


We went to the Special Memories Zoo, a small, one-family operation that was pretty impressive. You can read about the zoo on that web page. Here are some pictures:

They provided strollers for kids. Clarie didn't really like it. In her perfect world, she'd be able to wander around aimlessly for the entire day, dumping out buckets of stuff at random along her path. The stroller also kept her from eating the dirt--another reason to hate it.

Zack pushed her around a lot of the zoo. Wisconsin has had a lot of rain this summer. The zoo was feeling the hurt as much as the farmers. We braved this wet section. I told Zack that his boots would keep the water out, and I was partially right. His feet got wet after a few minutes of this. He loved having Claire and Marcella around. The first day we were there, I couldn't figure out why Claire wasn't falling asleep. A bit later I was informed that Zack couldn't help but go check on her every 10 minutes or so. It was fun to watch him interact and entertain Claire.

Marcella and Claire love petting zoos. Claire is getting braver than she used to be, and Marcella just likes touching dirty animals. This picture has one of Jacqui's only appearances--you can see her crutch off to the left.

For some reason, Marcella, Kanien and I have decided that pigs are Claire's favorite animal. It's probably because she thinks all animals make a pig noise, but she's now got a fair stash of pig books, pig pajamas, and other piggy toys. Perhaps our insistence that she adore pigs is rubbing off, as she chased these guys around for ages.

Marcella with Greg

Zack wanted to pick up all the animals. I saw him holding a rabbit and trying to lift a pig, and he carried this goat around for 10 minutes. This is also our second shot of Jacqui.

Marcella posing

This is the big pig. It reminded me of Porco Rosso, everyone's favorite fighter pig.

I went to scout camp at Lefeber Northwoods Camp with David Ogden when I was 12. There was a toad, snake, or frog under every single leaf in the forest. I caught this toad on the Wright's driveway on our second night. Marcella held him. Then she dropped him. She said, "he got me wet with his liquid," which is pretty much what it did. Toads secrete a predator deterrent from glands on their shoulders.

Jake said he catches these guys all over. I love amphibians.

Claire loved playing with Kenai. Kenai took up permanent residence under her high chair, and Claire secretly ruined the diet Jacqui has him on. (Her foot is broken and she can't walk him, so he only gets 4 dog biscuits a day.<--This is a joke. He really gets 4 cups of food a day.)

Marcella wore her boots everywhere. She and Zack were boot twins. She even wore them swimming.

Another shot of Claire and Kenai. This is a huge dog. He's a Bernese Mountain Dog. He's a small specimen--110 pounds. He scared the crap out of me the first morning we were there. I imagined I'd have to spend the three days there sitting on the couch, but later learned he just doesn't trust men very much. Once he got used to me, though, he stopped biting and started sitting on my feet. He knew that I was a wuss, which effectively placed me on the bottom rung of the dog command hierarchy. Even Marcella could get him to sit, but not me.

Fun family picture (with the monster)

Marcella in boots

McKenzie with Claire

This is where we stopped on the way home (Marcella in boots): The Albanese Candy Factory. On their web page they claim to be the best gummi makers in the world. Haribo might have something to say about that, but I agree with them. You can get some of their bears at the Sunflower Farmer's Market in Orem (They're called "12-Flavor Gummi Bears"). Like their web page states, they figured out how to place "the sour inside the gelatin piece," which should earn them the Nobel Prize in chemistry. They're 90 minutes from our house, but we'll probably go back and get more candy soon.

Birthday Girl

"Happy Birthday to You! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday Dear Claire Bear, Happy Birthday to you!" Is how Claire got up yesterday morning. She was the happiest little thing on the planet. We started our morning with the Wallin Family tradition of decorating the door. It was even equipped with suckers, which she wouldn't touch on our drive to Indiana, but now LOVES them. Silly goose! My little two year old:

We stuck up balloons in the doorway and she had a ton of fun running through them. She couldn't go through without making some kind of woo who noise.

Her are some favorites from our trip to the zoo to celebrate.

(Yes she did kiss a couple goats...)

When we got home we opened presents and had lunch. Claire loved this little baby Marcella got her.

After dinner we had Ice cream. For some reason Claire doesn't like cake. So she had a heaping bowl of ice cream, whip cream and chocolate syrup. Happy Birthday little Claire. We sure Love you!

What have we been up to?

Today I received a dreaded task. I really hate it when someone in our household (um.....Jon) does something incredibly well, but asks me to do it for him. It makes me so nervous that I am going to screw up even though in my little head I KNOW I can do it. It seriously shouldn't be so hard. So while Jon got to take Marcella to see a movie, I received the task of making bread. I figure that while I am awaiting the next step in the recipe, I will indulge you with some things that have been going on lately. And hopefully, when it's been cooked, I will be able to show you a picture of bread that looks just like this one:

(I really shouldn't set myself up for failure like this. I don't think I will ever be able to make it look like that. I guess we'll find out in 25 more minutes.)

It has been fun to watch the storms here. You can look to one side of our house and see this:

Then you look to the other side and see this:

I am loving all the thunder and lightning.

Silly Girls

Did I mention it rains a lot? Since we have been here it has rained at least 5 days a week. This little down pour happened right after we all got back from exercising.

In about 3 minutes the gutters were full of water. Marcella was so happy.

Then the afternoon looked something like this:

I love Watermelon. We had a great time eating watermelon and trying to teach Marcella how to spit the seeds without getting slobber all over us. It was fantastic. I still don't think she has mastered the technique, but we will keep trying.

Not sure who started it (JON!), but we ended up having a water fight and sticking the girls in the swimsuits. I can't even remember the last time I had a water fight. We had so much fun.

Gotta love summer wedgies.

This is what Jon found when he came around the corner on Monday:

I guess she was a little hungry...

She would take a scoop in her hand and try to put it back in the box. With every handful she would say, "Thank You."

YUMMY!

"I'm a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world, life in plastic it's fantastic."
(I bet you just said "c'mon Barbie let's go party. ah ah ah ah." just admit it. ha ha)

We went to the Children's Museum in Indiana-apolis as Marcella calls it. it was super fun. They had a huge Barbie play place. They were celebrating Barbie through the years. The girls had fun dressing up and going down the runway, doing hair and make-up, and looking at all the dolls.

Look familar Mom? That Barbie in the black looks exactly like your Barbie, We should make it some clothes like that.

The girls had the most fun in the section for kids 5 and under. They would have stayed and played in the sand part the whole time we were there. It makes me want to get a sand box, but I am afraid with the rain it will always be wet... any suggestions? Do you think they would still like it if it is wet sand?

When we pulled them away form the sand box Claire had fun feeding the birds. it is the perfect thing ever. You just stick the bug in its mouth and then it falls out and you just keep doing it over and over. She LOVED it.

Little gardener in the making:

Look out Caroline, you might have some competition.

This might not look like much to most people, but this seriously made me extremely excited:

I definitely wasn't this excited when Marcella started walking up the stairs. In my memory, she just did it one day and I thought cool. For Claire, this is huge. I must have looked like an idiot because I kept clapping and shouting, "Yay Claire Bear!"

Another milestone for little Claire was painting fingernails. She finally held still long enough for me to paint her fingers and toes. She looks so adorable. I LOVE it.

Our little Monster

Moment of truth. Definitely not as pretty, but I am willing to work on that. I am just glad I didn't burn myself or the bread, so I will chalk that up to a success. I hope you all have a fabulous day and I am going to go and enjoy this delicious bread. Ciao!