The first day of summer vacation was tough. No formal schedule, and some confused 'bored' kids. Anya was even ready to go back to school in the first couple of days of summer-- but it's better now. We seem to have fallen quite comfortably into the mode of rising and shining when it feels right and playing outside from dawn to dusk.

    

Summer also marks the time that we can rally Kelly for Zeke to get a summer cut, and he got it! Streamlined and happy to be free, Zeke is a little thing under all that hair. He moves a lot faster and looks much less intimidating. Also, the local sheep shearers have stopped calling.



Simon has had some spare time on his hands, and thus has figured out how to: wiggle his ears without anything else moving- not even a wiggling lip when his ears shake... and the secret to crossing his eyes (setting his finger against his nose and his eyeballs converge). Of course we told him that they could stick that way of he does it too much, so he just gets that trick out when there's a new audience.





Yesterday we had the pleasure of riding along with the Union Pacific Railway on their Safety Train from Greeley to Brighton and back (about 1.5 hr ride). Thanks to a friend for the lead on these tickets, it was free, and there was a brief safety talk from the folks at Operation Lifesaver (railway crossing safety). We don't get to ride a full sized train much- and this beauty was a restored 1930's dome car. Wow! We had a great time.


Ethan, Mark, Henry, Simon, Papa (neighbor) Tre & Meila took the train