Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to Glenn! I wrote him a mushy card today so I won't repeat everything I told him, but suffice it to say that he's more than a piece of furniture for kids and dog, he's the backbone of our family and we all love him very much.

Let's do a quick update on everyone listed in that picture -

Trigger: Calming down ever so slightly. Glenn's been working with almost daily and Trigger shows a lot of potential as a bird dog. When I take him on walks, he points at robins, doves, ceramic rabbits in the neighbor's yard, a lump of oddly shaped grass clippings and one time, a cat. Even though he can be a furniture chewing, diaper-destroying terror when he's a wild mood, he's still a sweet dog and a nice companion around the house.

Reina: This girl is talking a mile a minute. She's very curious about everything and we have many conversations that involve the following:

R: Mommy, what's that?
Me: That's a flower pot.
R: Flower pot?
Me: Yes, flower pot.
R: Mommy, what's that thing?
Me: That's a wheelbarrow.
R: Wheelbarrow?
etc. etc. etc.

It's like introducing the English language to a non-native speaker. Or an alien. A very inquisitive alien who wants to know what everything is and repeats it in the sweetest little voice you've ever heard. Unless that voice is shrieking "I do it MYSELF!" for the 90th time that day.

So yes, she's curious, independent and very sweet. Last weekend we took the kids camping for a quick overnight in our new camper. We were all having a great time and then after dinner, Reina started to get clingy and droopy at the same time. She went to bed very early and that was a slight warning bell. She woke up a few hours later and when Glenn picked her up, he remarked that she was burning up. Since I hadn't though to pack the thermometer in our camping stuff (rookie mistake), I watched her sleep for a little while and then we decided that I would drive her back to town and the boys would camp out until morning. Reina and I drove home in the middle of the night. While her fever wasn't dangerously high, it hit 102.5 the next morning and I was glad we were home. After we brought Will and Glenn back to town, Will started acting droopy that afternoon and the same weird summer virus hit him. Long story short, we all had an abbreviated work/school week and everyone is feeling fine today.

Will: He's still in the sword-toting, gun-carrying, weapon-obsessed phase that's lasted a little while now. He doesn't necessarily seem to want to harm anyone, he just wants to be prepared. While he's not studying to be a mercenary, he's finally interested in learning how to write his name. He's thisclose to writing it by himself. If I help hold his hand steady (not Ouija-board style mind you), he can write his first name. I was feeling sorry for him having to learn the "W" with it's peaks and valleys and ups and downs but then I realized that the next three letters are just straight lines with a dot thrown in there so I no longer feel sympathetic to his plight. It's very gratifying to see him interested in learning something that might actually come in useful one of these days. Not that the weaponry won't....

Glenn: Besides being the best dad on the block, Glenn's been working very hard with Trigger and teaching him all sorts of hunting commands. We've enjoyed getting the family out on camping trips and Glenn has an amazing ability to back the truck up to the camper and get it hooked up in one attempt. This has done wonders for reducing conflict in our marriage because I'm usually the one giving the backing-up directions.

So despite the time were spending fighting off summer germs and keeping Will from running away to join a roving gang of ninjas, we are enjoying our summer. We hope you are too!