Three's Company!: Summer Heat!

1 year 16 weeks

Man, is it hot. Deathly hot. So hot you melt just stepping outside the house. Which is why it wasn't a good time for our upstairs air conditioner to stop working last Thursday evening, just before the kids went to bed. Uh oh...trouble. Looked like it was going to be a long, sweaty, sticky night. We located some fans to keep the air flowing into the rooms, opened all the doors and turned on the ceiling fans on full blast. Instead of cotton pajamas we let the kids sleep in shorts and wife-beater type shirts. I felt like I was living in the boonies.

I was driving the Pathfinder on Sunday and looked up to see this on my temperature gauge, so I had to take a picture of it as I had never seen a reading this high before!

We had the air conditioning company come out the following day to service the broken unit. We were hoping it wasn't anything too severe, and costly. Luckily it turned out to be just a plugged drain. Once the unit can't drain the condensation the entire thing is programmed to shut off, including the display panel. They said that pouring a half cup of vinegar down the drainage pipe each month will prevent it from clogging again. Um, I only have rice vinegar in the pantry, does that count?

While the service guys were working on the air conditioner, our friends the Ericksons from Tennessee dropped by to see us. They had lived in Florida before when Tangie and I were dating and had flown out to our wedding in Colorado. We also attended their wedding several years later and were part of the young adult group that we hung around with, until everyone either moved away or had kids. Anyway, we hadn't seen them in a few years and it was nice to catch up with them. Jonathan has been building their home up in a rural part of Chattanooga where they had bought a nice chunk of forested land. He is building it himself, from the foundation up, and is learning as he goes. Amazing stuff! We had a nice time talking about the different projects as I also enjoy creating and building things, although not to the size and extent as his.

On their way out of the house I noticed a black snake slither from our stone area near the fountain to the bushes by the front door. Great. Another snake. Not that I have any issues with snakes, but there was no way I wanted it to stay where the kids or Zoe could accidentally get bitten so I got my trusty sand wedge and dispatched it. Turns out it was about 3 feet long and very fiesty. Ironically, Sabbath afternoon during lunch Tangie noticed a lizard popping it's head out of the grass in the backyard, and commented on it moving, then popping it's head up, then moving again. I told her that didn't sound like anything a lizard did. I went out to see and sure enough, snake #3. Another 3 foot black snake. Back to get the sand wedge. The following day Karis Z. told me that the black snakes keep the poisonous ones out. So I guess we have to choose the lesser of the two evils. No matter. What's done is done.

I guess they like the stone to get warm, although it's been awfully hot lately.

I took it by surprise; It died with it's mouth agape.

Talk about nature calling, here a big locust lands on my sand wedge as I was about to hit the golf ball!

This past weekend we attended the Family Festival sponsored by Target. This was our third year attending and is always lots of fun for the kids. Located at the Loch Haven Park near the Museum district in Orlando, they have tents with different creative and learning activities for children. Braelyn always enjoys the crafts and the twins got a chance to bang on some bongo drums. It was neat to see all the different families, including several sets of twins and a set of infant triplets on a three seater stroller. And we thought we had our hands full! Crazy!

A steamy day, we were grateful for any shade available.

Brae enjoys the hand painting.

The twins just enjoyed watching all the people.

All the kids got this neat reversible hat that they can color.

Watching a puppet act along with thousands of shade seekers.

"C'mon lil' brudder, follow me..."

Coloring and constructing a mask and crown.

It's bongo time!

Our little percussionist. Uncle Mike would be so proud!

And what do you suppose she's looking up at?

Why, the tallest man in the world, of course!

Maddy gets the hang of drumming with sticks.

Such a hot day, Kohl sports sunglasses just to be "cool".

After naps we decided to beat the heat and take advantage of an inflatable pool with slide that Tangie had purchased at Target during their annual summer sale blowout. After what seemed like forever trying to fill that thing up with air, with an electric air tank mind you, the children got in and had a blast! Even the twins decided they were daredevil enough to get on the inflatable raft and ride it down the slide! Oh what fun! We topped the evening with a picnic outside of pizza and fresh fruit, enjoyed by some very hungry, and very tired, thrill seekers.

Our backyard fun center. Even Mommy had to get in on the action!

Braelyn holds her popsicle up for her replica of the Statue of Liberty, sans book.

Just lounging on the hammock.

They really enjoyed swinging. It almost looks as if we are falling off, but we were fine :)

Maddy decided she wanted to swing on the hammock chair, and Kohl insisted on joining her.

Brae had an evening Skype session with Nana to share about her day!

Our friends Kent and Kelli Johnson had their baby boy, Erik Anton, late Saturday evening, on the same weekend they had planned to move to their brand new behemouth of a house in Altamonte Springs. We decided to join the fun and I showed up with the rest of our friends with the U-Haul hot and early Sunday morning to assist in moving the furniture over. It was a very streamlined process, as Kent had emailed precise instructions on how it was to be packed and with Amy Zbarschuk overseeing the progress, the men made sure everything was safe and secure during the move. Tangie and the kids joined us at the new house with pizzas for lunch. It was so funny, when Tangie told Braelyn that I was helping move houses, Braelyn replied, "Mommy, I can help move houses too. I'm strong!" and proceeded to put both her hands up against the wall and started pushing! Nice try kiddo! Congrats to the Johnsons on both their new additions!

The Johnson's beautiful new kitchen, complete with 6 gas burners and 4 ovens, not to mention an awesome grill on the pool patio!

The moving company: (from left) Byron Chalker (Kelli's dad), Rob Deininger, David Huffman, William Cochran, Karis Zbarschuk, Daddy w/ Kohl & Brae, Amy Zbarschuk, Lisa Deininger, Mommy w/ Madelyn, and taking the picture, Barbara Chalker (Kelli's mom)

He might want a motorcycle one day!

Rub a dub dub, three kids in a tub.

What's for dinner? 4 day dry aged filet mignon topped with boursin cheese and broccoli. Drool...

This weekend we are bracing for Tropical Storm Emily who is supposed to skim by the coast of Florida on Saturday. This is the first threatening storm of the 2011 hurricane season and all the local meteorologists are having a field day. They're like, "Check your batteries, make sure your flashlights and radios are working, buy some bread" and we're still not sure if it's going to make landfall or not. We'll see what the path does, but regardless, it'll add for some excitement this weekend for sure.