Lisa n Tom (n James n Joseph)

Lisa writes: Tom's family goes to a lake in the Adirondacks every summer. This tradition goes back about 100 years. Until the 50s, the family had their own camp: a collection of split-log one-room buildings, lean-tos, an ice house, and a privy. During WWII, when all the men were overseas or too young or too old, the camp fell into disrepair and was finally sold. During our trip last week, we rented a boat and went to go find it. It's still there. The ice house, privy, and one of the lean-tos are gone, but the rest of the place is still there and looks like it is well-used by a family with a lot of kids. (No one was home when we arrived. I collected a bunch of pine cones from the property and found a big frog.) Tom has come up to these lakes nearly every summer of his life, and every rock and tree and chipmunk holds special meaning and memories for him. I am a Western girl, and the allure of the Adirondacks is only slowly growing on me. Loons and otters and canoeing? Thumbs up. ...

It was 103 degrees in Washington State today. Most houses in the Northwest are not built with A/C because it is usually so cool. Lisa writes: Heard it's a little warm up there. Lori writes: 102 yesterday. Even hotter inside the house. We are camping in the backyard. Why are we paying a mortgage? Lisa writes: Don't think of it as a house. Think of it as a big storage unit.

Dad writes: Heard Harry Potter is just a love story and little action. Have you seen it? Waste of time? Dad writes: Mom and I are Twilight fans. Lots of action. Lisa writes: Then Potter has lots of smoochin' action. Dad writes: What's smoochin'? Lisa writes: Ask Mom. (Later) Dad writes: Mom has a better memory than I do. She remembered. Lisa writes: Mom always says you're a lover, not a fighter. Dad writes: Mom believes in self-fulling prophecy. Anyway, back to the original question: How was the movie? Lisa writes: Haven't seen it.

Lisa writes: Awwww. Who wants to pet the sweet little rat? Anybody? Anybody?

Lisa writes: Evelyn and Grandpa playing a game they made up called "Cards in the Toes." But the real point of posting his picture is to show Dave and Lori crashed out dead on the couch. This is the side-effect of having four kids.

Lisa writes: Pictures from Ava's baptism last month. Ava and dad, Dave. Evelyn, Lori, and Ava. (15 minutes later, Benjamin got a hold of these roses and used them as drum sticks. There were rose petals everywhere. It was a romantic-looking mess.) Yeah, this guy.

Lisa writes: My dad likes birds. By my count, we've had 17 parakeets (never more than two at a time) and two cockatiels. He always wanted to teach one to talk. We repeated "Pretty bird! Pretty bird!" over and over, and he even put a recording on continuous loop and played it to the birds all night. Never worked. One of the cockatiels learned to wolf-whistle. Dad thought it would be fun if it would wolf-whistle when Mom entered the room. Instead, the bird used the sound to indicate distress when left alone. (Cockatiels are very social and want to be with you 24/7.) Instead of meaning, "Hey, sexy!" it was more like a desperate, "Help! Wait! Don't leave me!" Not really the effect he was going for. Dad's theory as to why none of these birds ever learned to talk was that we weren't getting smart enough birds. He always wanted to "upgrade" to a smarter bird, like a cockatoo or a parrot. Something that costs thousands of dollars and live...

Lori writes: Kid funnies. #1. We were at the park the other day with some friends; Sherida, her 3 yr old Claire, and 5 month old baby Adam. When it is was time to go Cameron offered to carry the baby (in the 20 lb carseat) to the car. As they were walking, Sherida made the comment, "Thanks Cameron. Maybe Claire will be able to do that when she gets older. That’ll be a big help." Cameron laughed, "But Adam will be too big by then." Sherida, "Well maybe we’ll just have to have four kids too." Cameron pauses ... "You might want to ask my Mom about that." Funny kid. #2. Benjamin is keeping us in the running for the Tupperware. He was around the corner when I heard him calling, "It’s grandma! It’s grandma, yeah! Mama, it’s grandma!" He had somehow called her on my cell phone (I don’t even have her on speed dial (no offense Mom, just haven’t set it up). He then proceeded to have a conversation w/ grandma telling her about seeing a racco...

Lisa's sister, Lori, writes: "Ava the artist and her latest hair creations. Evelyn was a very patient subject."

Lisa writes: Proof that it's not all fun and games and triathlons for Christi and company... Christi writes: We had an eventful day yesterday. Taylor and Christian competed in the local Triathlon. Taylor took first for the girls and 3rd overall. Christian took 3rd overall for his group. They both did really well. That apparently wasn't quit enough excitement for Christian. He decided to get his finger smashed in the girls' door and break his pinky (he's wearing a "cool little pinky cast" now). While I'm in the middle of icing his finger, Tim comes in and says something big is going on down the hill. We go down and find the neighborhood flooded out. One house was completely buried and the one next door is half way buried. We spent the rest of the afternoon shoveling mud. At first, they thought the crushed house was empty. But, today's report confirmed that there was a mother and two kids inside. They didn't make it out. That was very sad to hear and...

Lisa writes: We spent Wednesday and Thursday cruising around Vancouver, BC, and took the ferry to Victoria to see Butchart Gardens. Driving onto a boat is always cool. "Look! We're driving! On a BOAT!" Here we are striking a typically Lisa's-family-like pose at the gardens. You could caption every single Lisa's-family photo with: "Meet the Bug Family." We all wear sunglasses, all the time. This is because we are (a) photosensitive, (b) in the Witness Protection Agency, (c) rock stars. Speaking of family, Hi Mom! We took another, smaller (but no less cool) ferry from Victoria back to Port Angeles, Washington. This guy was with us on the boat. The view from the boat leaving Victoria. Click to enlarge.

Lisa writes: Just in case anybody missed the Molson reference, please watch this. Over and over again.

Lisa writes: We went to Washington State last week and took a two-day side trip up to Canada. Canada is like a parallel universe. A very polite, well-ordered, clean parallel universe.