This & That

Tyler has been attending video game design camp this week. It's through the same company he took the stop motion animation camp from last year. He is really enjoying the camp and says it's even better than last year's. He brought home his flash drive today and showed us a couple of the simple games he's working on. It is hard to find something that grabs Tyler's attention, challenges him enough, and keeps him engaged. I feel like this camp has that combination correct, and I'm so glad he's enjoying it!

 

 

While Tyler was at camp yesterday Danielle and I took Clara to the dog park before giving her a bath and trim. Although Clara is a retriever, she is a bit lazy and she won't swim! Hunter loved the water and wouldn't hesitate to jump in and retrieve her toy. Clara isn't convinced her toy is worth the effort, especially if her feet have to leave the ground. We were trying to coax her into going out a little further by tossing her ball out a little further each time. She was doing well until another dog came and stole her ball, pushing it out toward the middle of the pond. This is the same dog that jumped on Danielle 2x with his muddy, wet paws. I understand things like that happen, but I found it very annoying that the dog owner didn't apologize or make any attempt to control her dog. When her dog stole Clara's ball, she thought it was funny and eventually got her dog to swim to the middle of the pond to retrieve it. Once we got the ball back, we moved away from those people and tried again. The darn dog ran across the bank and did the same thing again. At that point, the three of us left...without our ball. I fear this is the type of parent who would look the other way while her kid bullied other kids on the playground. So frustrating!!

Since we have been doing something every day since school ended, I had to stay home and clean the house today (house = the main floor that people looking in the windows can see). Danielle didn't like that plan so she played in the sprinkler with her friends for a couple hours. Water & popsicles on a hot day make a kid happy. She took a couple minutes and decorated the butterfly house that Ron made me a few weeks ago. I ordered some oil based paint pens and only had 5 colors, so she was limited in her color choices. I think it looks awesome, though! Butterflies really don't use butterfly houses, but I think it is a nice addition to our butterfly garden!

Tyler picked up his scuba diver certification card yesterday, so he is official! He leaves for his dive trip in just a few days. I think he is very nervous about the whole thing at this point. Once again I am impressed with his courage, though. Although he might be nervous about trying something new, he doesn't let his fear hold him back. He will bite his lip and push through the nervousness. Not being afraid to try something new will open so many doors for him throughout his life. I'm proud of him.

We are having some severe weather move through tonight. Some storms moved through earlier but were to our north. We have several hours of bad weather yet to come. (It will be a sleepless night!) The clouds tonight were interesting. We could see the rain in this cloud, so I'm pretty sure this is the top of a storm that was to our northeast. My regular lens is in the shop, so all I got were a couple cell phone pictures.