Jill recently completed a small house project: chalkboard paint wall! The east wall of our bedroom is now yellowish-green with lots of chalk marks. Guess who has enjoyed the wall the most so far?
We're continuing to tour local parks and forest preserves. Last weekend we visited Riverbend Forest preserve (home of the largest lake in Champaign county). There are some nice trails, and the lake has a very fun pier with some covered benches and tables.
We have been to Kickapoo state park on a number of occasions, especially back in our mountain biking days. Never before had we checked out the other parks nearby, so today we went to Kennekuk forest preserve. As a bonus, my parents are in town this week, so we left the kids at home with them. No one complained about being tired or hungry the whole time!
There are a zillion trails through the park, but we didn't have much time before we got hungry (okay, so maybe what I said before wasn't true). We hiked only a couple trails.
It's very Kickapoo-esque, but no one was out on the trails.
Usually on the way home from the Kickapoo area, lunch is at either of the pizza places in St Joseph. Since we were on the east side of the North fork, we decided to try our luck in Danville, former home of a GM foundry, currently avoided like the plague by most Urbana residents.
We found a restaurant downtown (there are 2?). Pretty decent food that was reasonably priced. The downtown area is about 6 square blocks with some pretty nice looking old buildings, most currently occupied by second-hand stores. It's a little depressing, but maybe there is potential (Chambana never bothered to build a downtown.).
Finally, it's 10:15pm and Janny is walking around with her magnet doll. Time to lay down the law. Good night.
Clara turned 4 on Saturday! We celebrated in traditional Knutson fashion by inviting neighbors, small group people, adopt-a-students, and church friends. Janny was the youngest, and I don't think it's polite to say who the oldest was. Clara picked several friends to be invited and helped Jill with the menu planning. Instead of a cake or cupcakes, Jill and Clara worked together to make frosted banana muffins with pear and chocolate chips. Pretty yummy.
The week before, Jill's' mom and dad stayed with us and gave Clara her first birthday present, a scooter! This has been a huge hit. Grandpa was quite useful around the house as well, resurfacing our dining room table, cleaning our car inside and out (gross!), and fixing the screen in our front door.
Clara also received a bunch of books plus Gruffalo stuffed animals from Grandpa and Grandma K. From us, she got a batting tee (I'm loving this! So far, no broken windows.) and a jump rope. Some neighbors gave her a baby doll and some oreos (not shared with daddy).
During the Smiths' visit, Jill and I took an overnight trip to Charleston (fact: Tony Romo lived there) in order to take a break from the kids. We ate at the popular downtown restaurant, watched movies, and did some hiking at the surprisingly hilly Fox Ridge state park. Probably the most memorable moment was coming across a steep one lane wood bridge that climbed over a railroad track on our way to the hotel. It was dark, we driving through a residential neighborhood, and bang there it was.
Finally, do you see the pink roses in the first photo? I'm very proud of them. Twice this year I have saved them from sawfly larvae, and I have even watered them and given them compost. In return, they make flowers.
My readers have been sitting on pins and needles awaiting news of the Men's church league division A (that's the top, you know) championship of Champaign-Urbana. We got off to a small early lead and kept it through the end, winning 9-5. Another pull-over championship windbreaker is on the way (but not the B league version this time. A all the way)! Our defense was superb throughout the playoffs, and we used banjo hitting throughout the lineup to score runs. Case in point was me: I got either 3 or 4 hits in each of the playoff games, with nearly all of them being singles.
Janny has crushed another milestone. She can ride that there tricycle all by herself. She also figured out that by whining about being hungry at bed time, she can stay up later. We're actively working against this trend. Initially, we only offered leftovers from the healthy parts of dinner. Now we are pushing much harder on eating bigger dinners and having snacks an hour before bedtime. Honestly, we're losing. But we keep trying!
Clara starts another year of preschool tomorrow. She'll again be in the Tues / Thurs class at our neighborhood Lutheran church. She is super excited about going again, but already this morning expressed concern about waking up before 8am to get ready for school. Kids these days have it rough!
It hasn't rained much this month and the hot weather is returning, so we're playing in the sprinkler. Last night, I started watering our garden and got distracted with bicycle assembly (maybe more on that next time). I did remember first thing when I woke up this morning. The plants seem to have enjoyed the long bath.
Last weekend was our ride around Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin trip. We stayed at Jessie's family's cabin on the east side of the lake and enjoyed a fabulous sunset on Saturday night with Jarrod, Jessie, Jim, and Beth, and the kids.
The night itself was short-lived as we woke up at 4am to get ready for the 90 mile ride. Jill and I rode mostly alone, but occasionally we would pick up someone that enjoyed our draft for a while. The ride itself was quite nice, as there was a nice mix of very rural roads, small towns (Oshkosh!), and lake views. The trouble was that often I just wanted to be done so that we could start the 5.5 hour drive home (plus N rest stops for the girls) and get some sleep before work on Monday morning. Note to self: if there is a next time, take Monday off.
We finished the ride in a clock time of 5:50. Not too bad! Jill hasn't ridden any long rides this year, but she is in solid 'boot-camp' shape. We arrived home at 10:45 pm. Not bad. By the following Saturday, I was feeling quite refreshed.
Jill's mom and dad are visiting this week. Good times.
Our long-term plan of becoming successful gardeners continues apace. My pride and joy on the land are these black raspberry bushes. Last year, we had about 5 berries due to some incorrect pruning and water shortages. This year we probably had more than 100 from the south bush. The north bush is producing a single berry this year, but is growing great. I'm hoping for bushels next year.
We have also enjoyed carrots and lots of greens (chard, spinach, lettuce, and such). Tomatoes are growing well, and we harvested our first squash. I planted some pole beans outside of the protected area, but the bunnies ate them. Boo on them.
Rain has fallen from the sky this year. We took a trip to Kickapoo recently to splash around in the river. The kids didn't get much further from shore than shown below. There is way more water flowing than last year
I've decided to be less stingy with watering the grounds this year. Also, water is super fun for the girls! My water bill was a whopping $9 more last month as a result.
We didn't plant too many flowers this year. Thankfully some remain from the previous owners. I've also started to care for our rose bush this year. I noted that numerous holes were appearing in its leaves and found the tiny green worms that were responsible. They were then squished.
Speaking of squishing, both girls are quite successful lightning bug catchers. Janny is quite rough on them (and all bugs in general).
Janny is getting big, but not quite clothesline big. Clara wears the above dress every day (in the last photo below, it is underneath the dress you can see). Both girls are extremely picky about their clothes. Jill used to picked stuff out and put it on them. Now every single item is negotiated. Somehow, we eventually do get out of the house.
After planning to do so for more than a year, we finally got out to former co-worker David's bison farm near Villa Grove. He has 20 something bison, 8 of which were born this spring. Did you know that bison are pretty smart and independent? Birthing is handled without human help. David feeds them some grain pellets every few days, but mostly they wander the pastures eating the grass. What a beautiful place to spend the weekend! Smartly, we stayed only for an hour, so we didn't have to put in any work.
Finally, there was nothing to worry about regarding the softball team's hitting. We won our first two playoff games rather handily against two of Vineyard's finest, included the dreaded Black. The championship game is Monday night where we face mighty Savoy United Methodist. Television rights are being negotiated.
We spent our long 4th of July weekend with Jill's family in Nashville, or a good chunk of it anyway. If you ask the machine for trip duration, it says something like 6 hours from Urbana to Nashville. For us, it was more like 10, which is why I say only a chunk of our time was actually in Nashville. The girls passed the time watching movies, napping (just a tiny bit), and eating Skittles. Clara shared a few of her sour skittles (yellow only), which cousin Josh has been talking up for 2 years. He's right, they are super good.
One reason the trip took so long is a huge positive. Janny is now pretty well potty trained! We had no accidents during the drive. She has spent a couple of nights in undies without problem. Hooray!
It rained most of the time down there, but we managed to find a few breaks between the torrents to play outside. Matt and Lupita have a trampoline. Fun for the whole family. They also now have 3 chickens in their backyard, and are enjoying them so far. We also can have a few chickens in our backyard, but I'll wait for the 1 year review from them before even considering it.
Lots of rain meant that there was lots of time for stories with Grandpa. But running around the house and playing dress up were more common. All the kids got fun toys called hex bugs to play with. They chew through batteries like you wouldn't believe (or is that just because our kids leave them running all the time?), but are quite cool. They run around just like the roaches on the U of I campus.
The local reservoir had a whole lot more water than the last time we were there. A couple places along the path were flooded out, much to the delight of the kids. We also learned that wet plastic slides are super fast through the bottom (literally).
Oh yeah, and the main reason we took the trip was to meet baby Linda! She and Lupita are in good health. She does what all strong one month-olds do-- not much.
Clara and Janny were both intrigued by their new cousin. Janny's first comment about Linda was that she didn't like her, but she warmed up to the new tiny person.
And now for the quick recap of other recent events.
Andy Cline and family stayed with us for a day during the cross country tour. I might have some pictures to post next time (not sure we took any photos, boo us).
The softball regular season ended with our record at 5-5. Our hitting is hugely erratic. In recent games we scored 24,13, and 4 runs. I'm sure that trend doesn't mean anything. Playoffs start on Monday.
I had my 6 month review at work. They are keeping me around (and increasing my pay a skosh). And I am staying.
We got reimbursed for our dentist appointments of 9 months ago this week. In an effort to discourage such late payouts, our state passed a law requiring it to pay something like 5% interest on late payments (where does that extra money come from?). IL-- we know money.
Jill is watching somewhere around a bazzillion kids this week. Our two, neighbors' two, church friends' one spend a lot of time here. Tomorrow, 3 additional kids come. And she is still going to 5:30 am workout. I can't say that I'm surprised she is sleeping while I'm writing this up.
Another milestone in the family life. We cleaned their room this weekend! Oh, and we removed the front jail bars from Janny's crib. Now she can escape as needed-- not always a good thing, but it is working so far.
Jill is also on sort of day 2 of trying to potty train Janny. Today was quite unsuccessful. At least before daddy's help just before bedtime. Beginner's luck? The impetus for the potty training push was a rather disgusting incident that Jill would rather not talk about. Let's just say that a diaper and the pre-freedom crib were involved.
Maybe in our next post, I'll show some pictures of our garden. It's not Midwest Living quality (thanks for the subscription, great grandpa!), but we're getting better at it. We've been eating various salad greens for a month now, but these are probably coming to an end. Cherries were much reduced this year compared to last but they were delicious. Black rasberries are ripening. We had about 3 last year, and now we have maybe 100! The girls ate some carrots last night.
Both girls are having fun with rhymes lately. Sometimes proper english words are used, sometimes they are made up. My favorite is window-pindow (p is a good default when trying to find a rhyme).
We had our company picnic on Sunday at Allerton Park. The whole family enjoyed some corndogs, shaved ice, popcorn, and funnel cakes (I ate about 1/3 of one before wisely calling it quits). A fancier dinner was served later, but we needed to get home for our summer Bible study. Other highlights included live music, bouncy houses, and mini-golf. I'm a big fan of private industry! I didn't get a chance to meet Stephen. Maybe next time.
I joined the Wildcard Wed night ride for the first time in ages last week. It was pretty close to a no-drop ride, but still fast enough for me to feel some pain. One thing I had forgotten was to never take a hard pull just before Dave Stone takes his. I barely hung on a for a few of the surges. Since I missed our local crits this year, I'm hoping to do the local cx race. Must train harder!
The softball regular season is winding down. If tonight's game counted (we were up 22-6 in the bottom of the 4th when a lightning storm hit), our record is a comfortable 4-4. My hitting is coming around after a bad stretch before vacation. I have yet to rip one down the right field line, but that's partly due to pitchers trying to work the outside corner on me (or just happen to toss them there).
Finally, I am getting frustrated with my run of broken bike parts lately. Granted, nearly of this stuff was used when I bought it. And most of it is around 10-20 years old. That said, I have broken
2 saddles (plastic bases cracked)
seat post (dented carbon fiber at clamp)
crank arm (TA pro vis at left axle)
pedals (bushing worn out... Request to all pedal makers: use real bearings please)
bottom bracket -- clicking that won't go away
left down tube shifter (corroded so as to not really move)
water bottle cage (today at work)
Both of my good bikes are making difficult to diagnose, somewhat random clicks right now. I think the issue with the Look is the really poorly designed seat tube cluster. Maybe the problem on the Boulder are the spd pedals. Nothing big, but I am easily driven nuts by creaking/clicking noises on my bikes. My rides are needed to clear my mind and relax. Random noises make me want to grind my teeth (not quite like Tyler back in the day).
By the way, ever since Lance confessed, I find my interest in pro cycling ever more reduced. Maybe it's because the mystery of doping is _REALLY_ gone now? Maybe because no pro has an interesting back story. Maybe because my commitment to training is waning. Or maybe I'm just getting old and my kids are crushing these parts of my old life into exhaustion.
Just about a week ago, we returned from our summer CA adventure. But it wasn't just our family that took the trip -- the Halls and Aunt Jan took their first trip out to the Bay Area. 9 additional people took residence at my parents' house plus RV parked in the driveway. The girls greatly enjoyed sleeping in the RV (or Bounder, truck, etc.).
We tried to hit all of the big highlights of the Bay Area for our visitors. Our itinerary looked like this:
Fri: get to Fremont at 12:30am local (technically, Saturday).
Sat: rest and play in the pool (brrr... cold spring in CA this year).
Sun: church and play in the pool. I rode Dad's bike up to near the top of Mission Peak.
Mon: Monterey aquarium (Halls do a whale watching cruise (cold and pitch and rolly))
Tues: Big Basin to see ginormous Redwood trees
Wed: SF Giants baseball game (sorry to the A's. They were out of town most of the week. And their stadium is lousy now.).
Thur: Mission Peak hike, with girls. This was a mistake. As expected, we had to carry the girls most of the 6 miles. Unexpectedly, they wanted to play in the dirt or have specific adults carry them. And their attitudes were poor. (Upon reflection, this should have been expected)
Fri: Santa Cruz beach (brrrr. People often ask if I spent a lot of time at the beach as a kid. No, for a few reasons: water is freezing cold, sunburn is ouchy, and the drive to get there is rather sketchy with super curvy roads with much traffic).
Sat: We stay in Fremont, taking the kids to Lake Elizabeth. The Halls take a tour of SF.
Sun: church and big dinner party. High school friend Emily and her family of 5 along with adopt-a-student Shu joined us plus Lisa's family.
Mon: back to IL.
How did we do? It would have been nice to hit Berkeley or some of the north bay sites (Napa or Point Reyes). We did quite a bit of driving as it was, so no regrets.
Neither Jill or I have been wanting to take many photos lately. We did put in some effort on the Big Basin trip. The massive trees make for some fun backgrounds. And for some inspiration of awe.
Plenty of room inside the biggest of the big trees.
Plenty of room on the 2nd bed in the RV for the girls. We're thinking about setting up the queen size bed in the kids' room for both kids when Janny outgrows her crib. We'll put a pool noodle in the middle to maintain sides (and peace). Will they like it?
On both Sundays we visited the church my sister's family attends. I have some reservations about attending churches with names like "Resonate" (in Champaign there is something called "Quest". There is also a "Crusaders" church that still frightens me). At 9 am on a beautiful sunny day, we walked into the "sanctuary" which looked like what I imagine night clubs are like. The music was horribly loud. I was stupified. Then the pastor started to speak, and I was very impressed. Either my ears adjusted, or the music wasn't quite as loud the next week. In conclusion, we were very impressed with the church. We have no plans to change churches here in Urbana.
Finally, apologies for taking so long to write this (and to write the blog in general). I've been spending my free evenings watching the NBA playoffs. The games lately have been amazing.
