On Patrol

I picked up the local paper the other day, and was thoroughly amused by the police report. I have a fondness for that particular section of the paper (and no, I was never in it). My first two years of teaching were in the small, East Texas town of Crockett. I had some great kids (like my friend and loyal blog reader, JD, the opera singer) which were in my health class. And then I also taught English/language arts to another group of kids who could barely read. Those kids could have cared less about the stories in their textbook, so I started photocopying the local newspaper and bringing it in for us to read together as a class. Of course they loved the sports section, but their real favorite was "On Patrol". Now Crockett is a small town, but 'On Patrol' gives you plenty of reading material. And wouldn't you know it, the kids always seemed to have even more details about the crimes since somebody's cousin, uncle, auntie, or sister's baby daddy was always involved. But here in Durango, I don't think the newspaper police report would be much of a teaching tool for me. Check out Thursday's edition:

As you can see, it's still pretty wild and woolly here in the Old West!

Row Your Boat

Jason and JR were supposed to go rafting on the Animas River a few weekends back. The morning they were supposed to go we got a phone call that they were upping the minimum age to 8 due to the river being so high (which we were fine with since our neighbor had just told us how a kid had broken his arm the day before when the raft flipped). So with the river running a bit lower, Jason and JR were able to take their trip today. The guide service offers trips from 4 days to 2 hours. (Guess which one we picked?) The 2 hour trip was just perfect, and so convenient since it is all right here in town. JR was even able to ride out all the rapids (sometimes they have little ones get out and walk around). And of course, he loved it. They went ahead and rented wetsuits, which I think were pretty much a necessity. It's still not warm here (I think it was about 50 this morning) and Jason said the water was freezing. I guess that's what water feels like when it's melted snow from the mountains. Jason said, "And I always thought the Guadalupe was cold." No, the Guadalupe this is not. So here are my big adventures...Oh, and the little adventurers were beyond furious that they didn't get to go.

Taking it easy

Here come the rapids

And they're under! If you look close you can see the top of Jason's hat.

Coming out. There's my baby!

Goal #1 Update

So I still haven't reached Goal #1. In fact, I'm still huffing and puffing just walking up and down the stairs in our house. So to add insult to injury, JR's new Wii is really putting me to shame. Now I fully expected Jason to be able to beat me at everything (and I was so close to beating him at bowling last night), but JR beats me at everything too! I really don't mind loosing, it's the having to sit down on the couch to catch my breath that's got me bothered. But have you ever tried to Wii box a 6 year old boy? Oh my goodness!

Pretty Platy-Purfect

JR has started to draw more lately (markers only...I'm guessing crayons are too girly for him). And left to his own devices, you pretty much have to guess (and ask) what he's drawn. But if you sit with him and help, he's not bad. And when I say "help" it's really more about talking him through it. Tell him to go draw a picture of himself and he winds up looking like a scary alien. But if I sit with him and say, "Now draw a circle for your head, give yourself two eyes..." it's amazing the difference. Today as I was fixing lunch he said, "I'm going to draw Perry The Platypus." (For those of you who don't have kids: Disney Channel has a cartoon called Phineas and Ferb. It's actually really funny, and Perry The Platypus is their pet who also doubles a secret agent.) Since I was getting lunch ready, I fully expected Perry The Platypus to look more like an octopus. So you can imagine my shock when JR drew him pretty spot on (for a 6 year old anyway). He kept saying, "Now Mommy, This is Perry The Platypus in pet form." As apposed to Perry the Platypus when he wears a hat and becomes a secret agent. So here's JR's Perry (in pet form) along with the real Perry (in pet form)...Sure JR's version is sporting an octopus's 8 legs, but he remembered those platypus 3 tufts of hair!

Traveling Ingys Get Soaked

Now that it's summer the Traveling Ingys are ready to get out and about again! And to kick off the Traveling Ingys Summer Season, Shelley and her mom, Connie, took us with them on their adventure to Niagara Falls. None of us Ingys had ever been to "The Falls" so we dove at the chance to go! And as you can see, thanks to Shelley, we Ingys made quite a splash! What a great vacay...water for JR, thrills for Jason, and costuming (in the form of a rain poncho) for me. What more could we want? And BTW, Isn't the look on Shelley's face hilarious?!

So don't forget to take your Traveling Ingys wherever you might roam this summer. I've posted a "new" one in the next post in case you need a copy. (I'm saying "new" since I'm recycling the one from last year. I live in Recycle Land now, so I thought it only fitting.) As always, you don't have to be going on a big vacay to take us along. We've been to get a mani/pedi, to the gym, and to Lupe Tortillas for dinner. But we also love big trips...like when we went to Canada, Greece, and The Olympics in Beijing. And don't worry, if you forget to pack us, you can always photoshop us in when you get home! But remember, it's still really cold here in CO for us native Texans, so lots of trips to warm places would be awesome!

Get Your Traveling Ingys Here

Hi, I'm Mrs. Tony Hawk

Jason never ceases to surprise me. Seems like no matter what (or where) you might be talking about, Jason has probably done it (or been there). Jason still laughs at how shocked I was when I learned he could make balloon animals. And I had another one of those moments yesterday when he told me he could skateboard. I thought he meant he could "skateboard" about like I can (get on and ride it across the driveway). But nope, he's actually got a couple of moves. Of course I don't think he'll be hanging at the skate park anytime soon, but being that he probably hasn't been on a skateboard since he was about 13, I'm still pretty impressed.