A few new things

Last Saturday turned out to be a big day for us. I started the morning nice and early with a CrossFit workout. They have a free workout open to the public once a month, and a friend of mine from church who is a regular member there encouraged me to go. As much of a fanatic about exercise as I am and with the curiosity I've had about this place I was very excited to go. It's a group exercise atmosphere, and their techniques seemed to be focused mostly on muscle fatigue. For one segment we rotated through 3 different exercises (overhead lifts, pull-ups, and a shuttle run) for 10 min. The goal was do as many rotations as you could in the 10 min. You see that's me in the cap. The wood blocks they put underneath enable most average sized people to jump up through most of their pull up. Not me. I was doing full on pull ups and felt the results for 4 days after that. I loved it. I may be looking into that place.

After that we met up with the Reners and had us a fun time at the lake. There was plenty of play time in the camper...

There was swimming. Unfortunately, Matt's confidence in the pool did not translate to the lake, but he still had a good time.

There was fishing, too. The kids had fun watching the fish flop around in the buckets. Hopefully they weren't tortured too badly.

We had some delightful hot-dogs for lunch. The kids rummaged through the cooler and all kinds of silliness ensued.

And this is a first for me...I fired a gun. I know! The best part is that it was with my very own shotgun. Probably didn't know I had one of those, did you? My father-in-law gifted me with one a couple years ago, and somehow this was the first occasion to test it out for me. Steven was very patient in instructing me. He yelled at me a lot for being aware of where my gun was pointing. Whoops. But really, I had it on safety like the whole time! It's going to take me some time to get used to all that. It was loud, a little jolting, but an overall fun experience.

We wrapped up the day by watching the Horns game back at our house. It was a wonderful Saturday.

Matthew Thomas is making some progress on his writing skills. His teacher has sent home homework for him to practice, and it's like pulling teeth to get that boy to do it. He kept telling me his hands were sweaty so he needed to stop. Just this week he's improved a lot, and his teacher has been so encouraging and patient with him and it has really helped him. In this picture he was embellishing my rendering of the US map. He added Hawaii and some other states and who knows what else.

Here's his latest sign and letter creation. He's fixated on dead ends and no outlets lately, and there just so happens to be one on a street near to us (Daugherty). And guess who has been on a walk for 4 days in a row to that very location? Yep, the things a mother will do.