Boating and Family

Yesterday, I got up early so that I would have a chance to go out skiing before it got windy on the lake but it was cold outside and no one wanted to do anything. Dad and I took the canoes from the night before down to the pond. Mom came down and we canoed around on the pond. It was all grown up with weeds really pretty gross. It isn't any good for swimming any more.

After lunch I finally convinced dad that it was time to go out skiing. Melissa, Taylor, Adam, Dad, and I went out. Adam skied first and then I tried to slalom but it was too wavy so I couldn't get up. So I ended up going on two skis. After being out on the water for a while it was really just too much and as they were hanging out at La Follette park near Nana and Grampa's I just walked back to the farm.

I convinced Grampa that the kids were going to cook dinner. So I had to run to the grocery store and get the supplies. What should have been a really fast grocery trip took a long time because Nana wanted to come. Also as it isn't the store that I'm familiar with, Ingles which is only in the mountains of North Carolina, it took longer for me to find what I wanted. Alle` cooked a broccoli casserole which everyone loved. I cooked pasta and marinara sauce, one meat and one vegetarian. As a result of us cooking dinner Grampa was not nearly as confrontational and it was a pleasant night.

After dinner, Mom and I took Iris, a long time family friend from Germany, home. She little has gnomes in her trees outside which is neat.

Today, I went with my mom and dad to my dad's aunt Ouise's house. Her gardens are really beautiful. I collected some seeds from her tiger lilies. I think I'm going to try and start some of them at my mom's house so that when I get back from China I can collect the seeds from them and have some at my place. Ouise said I could have as many seeds as I wanted because they were an annoyance. It was a pleasant visit.

When we got back I cooked pizza. We ended up going over to Pete and Lori's today to see Savannah and Fritz. I thought they were going to come over here but they didn't. We hung out at their pool and we played water volleyball. It was fun but Fritz was really loud and competitive. Although that is just who he is.

When we got back to the farm I came up to my room and the door was open. I keep asking everyone to close the door because I didn't want Leddy, the old dog in there sniffing around in my stuff. Well it turns out I should have been worried about other things. She came in here and pooped on the bed. I was just a little bit pissed. If you took all of the times all of us kids, me, Erik, and Jonpaul have been ready to kick that dog in the head for what she has done she might have some common scene by now. However, I know that she is so old at this point that it is my cousins, Ryan's, fault because he was in here when I was getting ready to leave and he was being a smart ass and probably thought it's the dogs room and so she is going to be in here anyway so he didn't close the door. My grandparents told me they were trying to keep her out of here though because she was having accidents. So much for that though.

We still haven't decided exactly when we are leaving. I personally would like to get past Chicago tonight so that we don't get stuck in traffic in the morning but I think that we will probably be leaving in the morning anyway. I'm going to be all packed and ready to go tonight in hopes that we will leave really early in the morning or that we will leave tonight.