Two More Birthdays!

Monday was Pierce's birthday!

Legos!

Tuesday was Cash's birthday!

More Legos!

I feel like I should have ownership interest in Lego considering all I've done to keep them afloat.

I'm pretty sure Pierce may not get his new roller scooter back...

No Cutting Corners

We've finally finished installing and painting the outside of the house! There were several times throughout this project that I had to seriously question my mental health. About halfway through I was convinced we would hire out the remainder of it - but we stuck with it.

Typically when installing cement-board siding, you run a vertical trim board up on the corner and all the lap siding is a straight cut into it. We did the back that way, but for the front we decided to do something a little fancier (and more old school). Each of these ends had to be cut pretty precisely and at a 4 degree angle for this to work. If you look closely you can see that every other row overlaps. Then we'd give them a little putty and some sanding and they were ready for paint. It was a bit of an exercise in patience, but Marta became an absolute pro at these cuts. We had a guy come out to bid out our gutters and he was blown away at how good we had done these corners. It was some extra work, but we're pretty happy that we put in the extra effort.

Underwear on I-80

I'm not a big fan of Wyoming. At least, not where I-80 cuts through the windy, barren wasteland that is our 44th state.

Kids and stuff both don't fit in our Highlander, so we got a Skybox carrier for the roof. It has served us well on every summer trip, but Wyoming was just waiting for the opportune moment to exact her revenge.

Driving home from Denver I heard a strange sound on the roof as we passed Laramie. I looked up into the review mirror just in time to see our suitcase rolling down the Interstate in an explosion of clothes. I quickly pulled to the side and, fortunately, the box/our things hadn't hit any other cars. Marta and I were able to track down almost all of our belongings - even the kids dirty underwear flying across the road. The clips holding the Skybox to the roof rack had broken, and the box proved to be no match for Wyoming.