4th of July Weekend

It's strange to be home for the 4th of July. For the past two years we've been in Colorado but after last years "unfortunate event" we decided to stick around home. On a side note I'm happy to report Wesley's had no other seizures, which is great. This year we decided to see what my home town had to offer in the way of fireworks. They did not disappoint! It was really well done. Living out in the country like we do, I don't realize how many fireworks are set off by individuals in town. It was nearly as much fun to watch the firework displays coming out of each driveway as it was to watch the show the city put on. The kids loved it too.

Sean has been home all week on vacation. I say "vacation" lightly because he's been working on the cars all week. It seems nearly all the vehicles have decided to have some sort of issue that makes them undrivable. The major project is the Dodge Van. It has been making a "clunk" when you turn the steering wheel so Sean has been replacing the front suspension. It's been a bigger project than I think he thought it would be but he's making his way through it. It's too big to fit in the shop so it's getting done on the driveway. Lucky for him it's been beautiful weather (not your typical early July weather).

He's been out there making his own tools on the lathe which is pretty cool. He needed a tool that would fit on his press to push the ball joints out so he made this out of a block of aluminum and steel. He's a pretty talented guy.

The kids have found a new hobby. Fishing creatures out of the koi pond. This year there is a bumper crop of tadpoles in there. I'm talking hundreds if not thousands of them. They line the bottom of the pond like a black dotted layer. We released goldfish earlier this year but even they can't make a dent in the tadpole population. Which is fine, I love frogs around here.....they keep the bugs down. The kids use the old pool skimmer to scoop stuff out of the pond and then they were dumping it in a bucket of water. They brought the bucket  over to show me and amongst the tadpoles were baby goldfish. They caught them and didn't even realize it. The pond will be full of big fish in no time.