These times are tight ...

It seems that these years of economic downfall have finally trickled down to me!!!

Don't get me wrong ... I love to play with the box that new toys usually arrive in, but this time, there was no new toy, only an empty box?!??

Avery playing with her new "toy" ...

... with Mommy providing the "battery power" ...

... and Avery loving every minute of it

"Go Mommy, GO!!!"

Strict Pool Educational Exercises ...

Daddy helping Avery with her
warm-up exercises

Since Mommy and Daddy are such worrisome parents, they have been forcing me to perform strict pool safety exercises all summer long. Not only is it physically enduring, but also mentally challenging as well ...

This video is of me wall walking the perimeter of the pool. I typically do 5-10 full perimeter revolutions a day.




This video is of me counting to 10. I typically practice counting up to 1000 (so I can keep track of all my wall walks that I do).

Poor Sick Scrappy ...

Avery's painting to Scrappy

It seems that Scrappy was feeling rather sick today, so I tried to cheer her up by painting her a picture that portrayed the downward sequence of earlier events as they suddenly unraveled. Below is a video of me explaining my artistic ideas behind this masterpiece ...



I think I cheered her up, since she seems much much better tonight!!!

Scrappy finally feeling better

Adopted ...

Avery and her newly adopted baby

Now I typically do not like to follow those latest Hollywood fads or anything of that nature, but I just couldn't help myself and talked myself right into adopting a baby!!! I named her Cutie because she is just so cute!!!.

Below is a video of me singing to sleep my little Scandinavian bug-a-boo. Being a parent is sooo easy.

Professional Training ...

Mommy wanted to learn how to professionally swim, so I thought I would help her out and started taking lessons as well. It's a lot of hard work, but also lots and lots of fun. In fact, it's been so much fun that my friend Shannon and her Mommy have now joined us as well.

Avery, Shannon, and the Mommies listening to their instructor

Avery enjoying the free-play chaos

Avery and Shannon taking a well deserved break

Double Trouble in the Hills ...

Avery and Mathew beginning to investigate
all the possibilities

The first day the temperature reached 100 degrees this summer, I loaded up the car and escaped up North deep into the mountains with my friend Mathew to his cabin with some other friends (alright, some of our parents came along as well). And wouldn't you know it, right off the bat I knew Mathew and I were going to have a ton more fun than usual! Here are a number of pics and videos of all the fun we had along the way!

Avery and Mathew taking a relaxing breather on the
hammock after a long drive to the cabin ...

... up next was searching for fun new stuff to explore ...

... then of course there is always many play breaks
that include really good snacks to munch on ...

... and then getting it into really high gear at the park ...

We were having so much fun in the park it felt like we were breaking the law!!! See for yourself in the video below ...

And after a good night's rest, we started the next day out early at the beach ...

Playing knee-high in the water at the lake
(water was too wild to go in any deeper) ...

... plus all the neat indoor toys there to play with as well

We had so much fun building stuff inside, we had to capture it in a video ...



... and the fun just kept going and going and going ...

Avery and Mathew taking turns at "King of the Mountain" ...

... and then racing higher and faster into the thin air ...

... and then jumping through black doughnuts ...

... to finally spinning totally "out of control"!!!

We had such a good time getting totally crazy that sometimes "messiness happens" ... like in this video of us playing "fetch", we end up getting really really dirty ...



... in fact, so dirty that we immediately had to get cleaned up. I even had to help clean up Mathew since, well he's a boy and we all know how much dirtier they usually can get (and yes, Mathew's Mommy at the end of the video was referring to "a floater", if you know what I mean).

Happy Independance Day, USA!!!.

Avery enjoying an American birthright freedom of
having a nice safe leisurely walk around a crisp cool mountain-top lake

Hope you can get out and enjoy all of your freedoms your American town has waiting for you as well ...