4 people, 4 pictures

today, sunday....

for greg: making breakfast for everybody, making a recipe-less banana bread with henry, going for a run, making lunch for henry and i, taking henry out to the creek to catch (and then throw back) little fish in a net, potentially risking life and limb to finally, finally, vacuum cobwebs and clean windows way out of our normal reach (and later, those within reach), making a chicken dinner, cleaning up a chicken dinner, reading william to sleep.

for william: morning cartoons, building legos, going over to his friend's house for a long play date and finding a bird's skull and daddy long legs legs that were "alive" without a body, riding home by himself, more lego building, listening to a couple chapters of "the wind boy", dinner, shower, pjs, reading "alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day" with just a little help, getting read to sleep.

for henry: morning cartoons, making that banana bread with greg, building legos, making drawings with a taped on ribbon strap for greg (so he can carry the drawings around), going out to the creek to catch fish in a net and bring flowers back for an empty pot, coloring with me and making an early christmas present for someone, listening to "the wind boy", dinner, shower, pjs, getting read to sleep.  

for me: folding laundry, breakfast, searching through millions of legos to find the right pieces and helping to build a lego gas station, biking william over to his playdate, grocery shopping, carrying a chicken, two jars of peanut butter, a bag of flour, a bag of oats, two liters of milk, bok choy, avocados, butter, and my sweatshirt (it got decently warm out) home in my bike basket, enjoying a quiet house while henry and greg went down to the creek, potentially risking greg falling on me as he risked life and limb to vacuum the cobwebs as i stood on a chair and held the base of the vacuum cleaner up for him, reading "the wind boy" aloud as greg made dinner and the boys played with legos, folding the dry laundry and hanging up wet laundry, reading henry to sleep.  

this was outside the grocery store... probably one of the sleekest 'christiania bikes' i've ever seen...

i took the photo before i went into the store.  when i came out there was a guy talking to the owner about how cool it was, so i wasn't alone in my thinking.

the bread.  it was a hit.

the daring ascent...

and the flowers... 

sunrise (6:08) and sunset (20:12)

today was a day of little projects mostly having to do with the bikes, and so greg took the lead, though i pushed to get it started-- i wanted to be sure each bike had the necessary lights for the wintertime darkness the northern hemisphere is heading toward.  we've already found ourselves out on the roads past dusk-- william out in front with his front light working, me at the end with a working back light, and greg and the burley in the middle with no working lights-- a caravan we obviously hadn't planned for and don't really want to repeat.  but it's always some situation like this which prompts us, toward late summer or early fall to replenish batteries or replace non-functioning lights.  tonight i can say we're nearly ready for late sunrises and early sunsets-- just two back lights needing replacement and we'll, if not exactly welcome them, be a bit more prepared for seven hour days. 

also ticked off the list: patching a flat tire and cleaning the gears of one bike and sewing a patch on the burley rain flap.  i take no credit for this last one-- greg is much more competent with a needle and thread than i am.  (though william and i did sew a loop back onto a towel today.  it wasn't pretty and greg had to help tie off the thread, but it just might hold.) 

in the late afternoon william and i rode to the grocery store to pick up a few food items and extra batteries.  we stopped at the lake at the university... 

and william tested out his skills on the slackline...

the way home...

the clouds are always so dynamic here.  like someone came and painted them onto a blue sky...

two more months from now before we start turning on our bike lights at this time of day...

standard

friday.  

we all got up early to take henry to preschool and say 'farvel' to the school leader who's heading into retirement.  

i got caught in a rainstorm sometime earlier this week... and then again this afternoon.  caught = no rain gear, out on my bike somewhere between one of the schools and home.  i was out in a rainstorm more than once this week.  out = the same, except i'm smart enough to have my rain gear on.  anyway, it all equals a lot of rain this week.  

here's henry on one of those days... just in case the sun dare shine... 

and finally, today, it did. a beautiful blue sky behind all those clouds, and the rain held off and i even put the laundry out on a dry porch until eventually it rained as henry and i were readying ourselves to leave his school playground to go pick up william.  no warning except that you are in denmark and that is considered fair warning enough.  i should have known better.

here are the skies on my way to pick up henry...

two more pictures and then bed... 

who says wine has to come in a standard wine bottle?

not the makers of anna-lena.  

and speaking of wine bottles... i've found a use for them... 

william whittled down the end of the candle so that it would fit.  our first since we've been back.

road trip

another rainy day here, but back in time we're on our great cruise around the midwest till we park ourselves in wisconsin for the last half of our trip.  but that doesn't all happen in this post.  this post is just a little bit about ice cream and sidewalk chalk and lakes and cousins and school gyms and fun fairs and anniversaries and family and race cars and popsicles.  in other words, all-american (oh sure, some of that stuff is universal) summer, which is what i was going for... 

starting the post in michigan, ending it in indianapolis... 

when you're four and eating ice cream... 

vs. when you are seven and eating ice cream...

just visiting some chickens...

and pigs...

(surely all those animals are growing up to have a nice, long, healthy life...that's what i'm telling myself.)

through the fields...

at the lake...

sidewalk chalk face mask...

excuse me while i indulge in having both boys in the same frame as i post these next few photos...

it was a grown-up cousins reunion for greg at the lake.  hopefully someone else got a better picture of them (and photoshopped in the one (grown-up cousin) missing (as there are two in that generation who are still kids)...

next generation... minus a few...

 celebrating an anniversary and deciphering the equation on the cake...

to indianapolis now... and more cousins...

and two of the best uncles there are...

and two of the best aunts...

indianapolis is not complete without some nod to the 500...

i notice this car that looks very much like it had a danish sponsor, or danish-turned-american sponsor, since the o would normally be an ø...

this gym.  i loved it.  it could have been mine as a kid...

and look... more of denmark in indianapolis... (top row, fourth flag to the left)

and here too-- fred = peace in danish; vrede = anger in danish (though i think it means 'peace' in dutch-- more likely what they were going for)

william tossing the ball into the hula hoop at the school fair...

an uncle hard at work at the office...

popsicles and tricycles...

that's it for today.  the next set of photos is taken on a different camera phone.  the phone i used for the remainder of the u.s. trip.  we'll see if they look any better than these.  i think my danish phone and its camera are starting to peter out (see cousins photo for example).

imitation

art imitates life: 

when i got to henry's school i learned he'd climbed out a window and gone and sat in the burley parked beside the building.  when we read 'calvin and hobbes' tonight, calvin's teacher stops him as he's halfway out the classroom window.  

but that was today.  this is summer vacation... back in illinois here for a few park pictures... 

father imitates son:

i like this one because they're nearly wearing the same faces as one another... 

this park also boasted a nice forest preserve...

just looking for some bones...

and if william's with you, there's nearly a guarantee he'll find some...

signs imitate safety: 

this was still quite early into our (almost) three month trip, so i was still having a little reverse culture shock.  like upon seeing this sign for playing at the playground... 

(a couple of my favorites: running may cause injury and icy equipment may be slippery, also metal pieces may be hot if exposed to the sun.)

and it didn't stop there!

but that wasn't the only park to lay down the ground rules for how to properly enjoy oneself (ages 2-12 that is) at a park already devoid of 'dangerous' equipment that had its last big hurrah in the 1980s.

this was at our next stop, in michigan.



the kids (oblivious to the rules) had fun, and i think the culture shock must have worn off soon after this, as this may have been the last warning sign i took note of.

(next cousin now)

playing around with their uncle before bed... 

william imitates small business owners:

he made a decent profit having taken advantage of the fact that there was a garage sale and a plant sale going on nearby at the same time.  

cousins imitate one another's hot and grumpy looks while at an art fair on a hot day:

and dads oblige their children whatever accoutrements they put on their heads...



henry gets down for a bit to paint... looking so much younger in this picture than he looks now...

william cools off with some lemonade...

henry's back up now...

and that's all i've been through for now.  more will have to come tomorrow.