Warm

Uff dah, is it ever warm here! It has cooled off some this evening after a little rain and lightning. I don't actually know how much rain we got, as we were sitting in the hotel pool with some friends while the kids swam, and I only knew it was raining because we could see the lightning through the sky lights in the ceiling, and then there were water puddles outside when we left.

I'm trying my hardest to keep from turning the air conditioner on. So far, we've "beat the heat", but I'm not sure how much longer we can last? Scott came home from work tonight and asked if I was ready to turn it on. If I have gone all day without air, I'm not about to break down at 5pm when it's almost time to start cooling off a bit! We've had the ceiling fans running in all of the bedrooms and they have been reasonably comfortable, especially the kids' rooms downstairs. Last year we had to turn the air conditioner on in May because Branta couldn't tolerate any heat whatsoever, and once we turn it on, it's hard to turn it off, which is why I'm trying to hold out. I don't know if I've ever not ran the air conditioner before the 4th of July before? (Except of course when we lived in Bozeman where most people don't even have air conditioners.)

We had some friends in town from Bozeman last night and today. Scott's advisor and his wife and their 6-year-old daughter, Sophie, were here to check up on the research projects that are going on. We met them at their hotel last night so the kids could swim. We didn't get home until late and the kids were still swimming at 10:15 pm! Needless to say, Gage and Emma were exhausted this morning, and Gage had to get up early for his last day of Camp Edventure. We ended up not spending as much time with them today as we had planned, due to unforseen circumstances, i.e. their rental car needed to go into the shop and then around noon Sophie had an accident in the hotel pool. When she was coming down the water slide, there was a kid walking up from the bottom and she ran into him and he caused her to fall back onto the slide pretty hard and hit her head pretty good. Martha ended up taking her to the emergency room to make sure she was okay and they told her just to watch her. They later went to the zoo and the superslide and she got sick, but Martha was thinking it was more due to the heat and getting dizzy on one of the swing rides. She seemed fine tonight when we got to the pool and the kids had a great time swimming again this evening.

Gage, Emma and Sophie taking a dip in the pool.

Sophie and Emma enjoying being carted around in the pool by Jay, Sophie's Dad.

Jay and Martha had just adopted Sophie from China around the time we left Bozeman, and we first met her when Scott, Gage, Emma and I went back to Bozeman so Scott could defend his dissertation. She is a sweet little girl who is in LOVE with horses! Apparently sometimes she believes she IS a horse and will only whinny and neigh. LOL. Today when we were at the car dealership with them to get their rental car fixed, I sat in the car with Sophie and Emma while Martha went in to talk to the people. She had 4 stuffed horses (2 of them were Webkinz) and she had a stack of coloring sheets that Jay had printed off of the internet that were all of horses. I didn't even know you could find that many different pictures of horses to color!? Later in the afternoon, after Sophie got hurt and we were planning to meet up with them later to swim, the kids and I went to the basement and found 4 stuffed horses, 2 of them were the beanie babies I used to collect, to give to Sophie. She LOVED them and I was thrilled to death to get rid of 4 stuffed animals out of the basement and they went to someone who will LOVE them. I was more excited that Gage and Emma were willing to give them away. Even though they haven't played with them in FOREVER, sometimes they don't always want to give things up. They were willing and I quickly took advantage of their generosity! We got home around 9:30 tonight and I think Emma was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow! Hopefully we can have a quiet weekend and get all rested up for our trip to Iowa for the 4th of July!

P.S. I'm pretty impressed at the speed in which Kara, Katie and Jari Jo solved that math puzzle! You guys rock!