Snowmobiling!

As part of "Mom's out of town" festivities, Eryn and I took a papa san up to Logan (it took about 15 seconds for the cat to claim it), went to Ollie's hockey scrimmage, and then went to my brother's house north of the cities to have dinner and do some snowmobiling in the back yard. Eryn had never been on a snowmobile before, so it was a treat to a.) ride as a passenger on the bit Cat, b.) ride solo on the Kitty Cat (and secondary kid's machine), and c.) ride the sled pulled behind the snowmobile.

On the Kitty Cat. This is the one she was on the most, going around and around in circles. I know, no helmet. But the speed was pretty limited. When she switched to Ollie's slightly bigger sled, she ran into a tree, but she still wasn't going fast enough in Andrew's back yard to be worried.

On the big snowmobile. She wasn't driving - she was a passenger. I was going to have her rev it, but then I thought that might be a bad idea if she went shooting off into the water.

In case there was any question about whether she was having a good time. When we put away the snowmobiles later, she cried.

A panoramic view of my brother's back yard with Eryn on the Kitty Cat in the distance. It was more like the rides you do at the fair around a track then real snowmobiling, but it was perfect for learning to ride/drive.

A couple of videos of Eryn on the Kitty Cat. I hauled Ollie around while she drove in circles. Apparently he's taught many of his friends to drive the snowmobile that's just larger than the Kitty Cat as it will pull a sled and he loves to ride. I heard a story today that he'd run into my brother-in-law's car the first time he tried to drive a snowmobile. Given my brother's history of running into things when he was younger, that's pretty funny.


Another video on the Kitty Cat:

Duck Slide

Dan'l and Cookie Queen canceled their backyard water park today, so we set up the slip and slide in the back yard for the second day in a row while I mowed. I was in a good mood. The girls made me pancakes for breakfast, including a unicorn pancake. After Kyle referencing Legend yesterday, I got to feel like an evil overlord demon while pouring on my syrup and devouring the unicorn's head. Which reminds me, Eryn got a unicorn from build a bear she really likes, and I told her about how unicorns are actually somewhat mean and use their horns to poke little girls just so they can drink their tears. She wasn't amused until a day last week when it was raining and I pointed out that the unicorns must be poking the angels. Other people getting poked, that's funny.

Slip and slide preparation. Papi and Diego will soon need rescuing from the lake at the bottom.


Here comes the lifeguard. If you squint, you can see the figures from Dora drowning in the pool, in need of rescue. Poor Diego should have sent out a message to his dolphin friends.


For Ellen. The ducks are unperturbed by the whole mess of nonsense.

Weekend Fun

We had my niece over for a big chunk of the weekend. So there was swimming. And the park. And more swimming. She and Eryn got up at 6:00 a.m. on Sunday morning and announced it was time to swim. They didn't get to go out that early. But when my niece noticed I was getting her swim diaper ready, she squealed, screamed, "I'm going swimming! I'm going swimming!" and rushed over and hugged my leg. When they finally did get out, it was for over three hours in the pool. Later I pulled over the red slide, and that was even better. Lots of yelling and giggling, and it kept them out of Claire's for the day.


Here's the two of them hamming it up.


And here's a video of them swimming in the "disgusting little pool", which doesn't have any water. Pooteewheet bought them a new $15 pool for the weekend so they weren't sitting in this equivalent of a large bucket. I should have had the forethought to fill it full of grapes.


Dinner was a nice selection of meats, breads, and other things to dip in a big pot of melted cheese. Mostly the adults ate the melted cheese - the kids didn't seem to like the wine.


And before bed we spent some time reading. Eryn declared herself a doctor and made sure no one was crampy after swimming and eating.