Water Park, Computers, and Snow!

Wow it's been a long time since I wrote here. Guess I've been too busy enjoying life to write about it. We just got back from the UWWG.That was big fun.

Ryan loved the sword fight and the endless games of chase.
He enjoyed reconnecting with friends (Jared is on the right) and making new ones (Jet is on the left).
Ethan had a blast selling and trading Pokémon cards with Aryn and Evan.
Ethan really wants to learn to surf. We thought this would be a perfect place to try it out, but he absolutely hated the flow-rider. He said it was too fast and too scary.
After he tried it out, cried, and calmed down he said, "I'm really proud of myself for trying that." Way to go Ethan.

We left the Water park on Friday and arrived home Saturday to a visit from two wonderful friends. Doran and Amory are here for the week. They arrived just in time for Ethan to get his long awaited holiday present. He wanted a laptop and used all his Christmas/Hanukkah/Solstice money to get it. He waited until we could find one in his budget that met his needs. That finally happened yesterday. He was so excited. He and Doran opened the box together.
Mimi helped get it all set up.
Ethan hasn't been off it for long since.
Today we have lots of snow. Doran wanted to go play in it, but was having trouble convincing the other guys to go out. I suggested we could cover him in snow without leaving the house. Ethan leaned out the back window and shoveled the snow from the overhang. All Doran had to do was wait. It was Ethan's idea of perfect snow fun. He got to cover someone in snow without going outside.

Now we're setting up all the computers in the house so that all four guys can play Wizard101 together.

Spy Tracks

We had scheduled things for today, but decided to have a rain day instead. Ethan and Ryan wanted to earn some money by shoveling sleet this morning, so we let Ethan do the front walk and Ryan do the back steps. Ethan did a great job. Ryan did an interesting one. I'm not sure that he was ever actually on the back steps except to use them as an entrance and egress, but I know he was all over the rest of the yard.

I discovered today that post-it notes are also integral to being a spy. I came into the kitchen this morning to find a trail of post-its across the floor. When I asked why they were there, I was told they were "spy tracks". Apparently spies leave post-it tracks when footprints are unavailable. Luckily Ryan left actual footprints in the yard as they are self-cleaning unlike post-its.