Visitors We Did Not Torture, Much and Puzzle

We had a very fun visit from our Idahoan relatives this week-end filled with lots of laughs, some karaoke, plenty of wine and good food, and even some sand diving and rope swinging. The girls- Trudy and Dee- were off to a Tea Convetnion so it was Shane, Ron, Dave, and myself on one team, with Hannah, Audrey, Jonah, Cyril, Kateri, Pippin, and Elijah on the other. The numbers were definitely stacked against us- as was deck and the diapers.

Actually, things went swimmingly. The kids got along with minimal adult interference - a hot dog or two here and there-and we spent most of the days visiting, relaxing, wine tasting, and we even fit in an episode of the new Dr. Who. It was great to have an excuse to let the laundry pile up and take a break from school. I think the kids had a more educational time anyway, learning about rocks and how to throw them. War tactics. We had many an ambush and I know several snipers were somewhere amongst the couch cushions. I was really impressed by the run-roll-aim-shoot sequence they could do. Makes me think all that Call of Duty time was not wasted.

A little down time. I can't remember the last time I actually sat on the coush during the day and read. Un-molested. This time all four adults were able to get some reading in. We even chose a word for the week-end: erudite. Like in Sesame Street they pick a letter or number for the day.

"Hey kids, todays word is erudite. Can you say erudite? Very good. "

It just came up so then we worked it in when we could. That and "deus ex machina". Which some movie we were discussing employed ad nauseam. For the record Dr. Who doesn't do that. He is so erudite he doesn't need that. Well, that and he has a sonic screwdriver. But anyway back to our week-end.

We took several trips into the sand pits, where I'd actually never been, and where all the kids got filthy. All the kids including Shane and Ron who had jumping contests which inspired the kdis to start their own and were successful in getting sand deposited into every crevice of their clothes bodies. Then Shane decided to "take it to eleven' and did flips off the sand cliff so we quit and came home to de-sand. After which we had barbecued ribs, corn on the cob, lots of homemade avacado and cilantro dip and a few different wines. Then Grandpa decided to entertian us with some karaoke so Shane put on "Magic Carpet Ride" and Ron jumped, slid, twirled, and I can't remember what else because I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes. No one wanted to go up against him so we declared him the winner and opened another bottle of wine. I think they stayed until almost midnight. And of course after Liturgy they came over for Dutch Babies and bacon and we started another day.

None of my pictures turned out but I am thinking it is the camera. Not, as Shane says, "user error". I mean look at the picture below. You don't pictures like these with synthetic cameras. I think the streaks on the side are actually kind of interesting.
But really, look at this one. Is Kateri there or not? Its not just blurry. Its kid of Dr. Who-ish.
Fortuantely, my brother in law, Dave, is a good photographer with a nice camera so our times were documented well. I just can't find where Shane put the pictures right now so these have to do for now. I'll put up others later when I find them.

We were also occupied this week-end with puzzles. Shane found a puzzle book which was supposed to be for the kids but we were more entertained by it. So here is one of the puzzles:

What is the basis for the order in which these ten digits have been arranged?

8-5-4-9-1-7-6-3-2-0

Have fun.