Dylan's "Show & Tell"

How many people can say they have 2 living WWII vets in their family??? Well, we are lucky enough to have that privilege. My great uncle, Tony Sikich, was a member of the US Navy. My grandfather, James Sikich, was a member of the US Air Force. They both have great stories to share from their adventures. How awesome is that?

My grandfather was a waist turret gunner on the B-17 Flying Fortress. He flew 27 missions over Germany (out of the required 25 of each crew). As you can see below, my young nephew, Dylan Mateja, was lucky enough to have the Sikich brothers visit his school class and show off their stuff. Here are some great pictures of both of them talking to the class, as well as a model of the B-17 and one of my grandpa's old jackets. Dylan was very proud to have them in his class... who wouldn't be?

Here's a picture of the B-17 Bomber, a.k.a. Flying Fortress

"Silly Quirels"

So I was driving down the road after dropping Nate off yesterday. A squirrel ran across the road and up a tree. This is the rather amusing conversation that ensued.

E - Monney (that is me), monkey go up tree?
M- (took me a second or two) Oh - that is a squirrel that went up the tree Elin.
E - What quirel do in tree?
M - He is getting nuts to eat.
E - Quirel nuts yummy, yummy, yes?
M - Yep the squirrel likes to eat nuts.
E - Silly, no like to eat, yucky nuts. (I don't like to eat nuts out of a tree)
M- Yep, silly squirrels.
E- What do nuts after tree?
M - He buries them for later.
E - Silly quirel - yummy nuts.

She then proceeded to belly laugh for two or three minutes about how funny it was that a squirrel would get nuts out of a tree and then bury them in the ground. Now she laughs at all the squirrels as we go by - "silly quirels"

Nate and Elin

Well, after 2+ years Nate and Elin are actually becoming friends. They play house in Nate's closet, run around doing races, build things and dress up! They still have their days, here are a few pics.

This is a tower they built together. Nate informed me, "Elin helped, Mom - she handed me all the blocks." I went down the basement expecting a usual house, but this was a cut above our usual fare.

Here is Elin pondering the whole situation. (She wanted her own picture.)

One morning they decided to get into their costumes together to growl and scare mom. By the point I took the pictures, Elin wasn't wanted to be left alone ;).

My H1N1 Rant

Don't worry, this rant will be short and sweet...

So the world is up in a frenzy about the H1N1 flu... why? Media, media, media. Like everything else, the media likes to make the most of everything. Because H1N1 is an influenza strain not previously found in humans, there has been generalized panic and the media feeds on this. And in my opinion, societal panic can be worse than the pandemic itself. The surge in utilization of health care resources by those with a simple cold, in an already over-taxed health care system, can be devastating to those who are truly sick and need help the most. And the surge has begun.

Having said that, I do feel the health care industry and CDC treated this pandemic appropriately... with caution and respect. People are being educated, vaccines are being produced as rapidly as possible, hospitals and clinics are taking precautions, and we move on.

The truth is that the H1N1 virus is no worse, and generally produces a milder illness, than the regular influenza strains we live with each year. H1N1 does seem to spread somewhat faster, and therefore we will probably see a larger number of people contracting the disease, but otherwise it's generally unimpressive. Like regular influenza, the very young and the very old, and those with comprimised immune systems, are most at risk.

Please take a few minutes to become educated on the facts and myths of H1N1... check out the CDC's info page at http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/ Also click on the Flu.gov widget on the side of our blog. The better we educate ourselves about H1N1, the better we serve ourselves, our families, our healthcare system, and our society as a whole. May you all stay healthy and have a wonderful flu season!

Big Machines!

Yesterday we spent the day in a big rock hole... Quarry Quest. This is an annual event in which a local rock quarry opens to the public with all kinds of quarry fun... they get to "drive" the big machines (cranes, excavators, etc), climb on 2-story sand mountains, dig for buried treasures, and all sorts of other activities. It's a really fun day, and all the proceeds go to local charities. Unfortunately, April couldn't join us, so it was just me and my crew.

Here's the crew with hard hats and all.

One of the many huge cranes waving her red, white and blue.

Nate driving the crane... blind. Guess he needs a smaller hat.

Elin didn't know what she was getting into. She did great, but wasn't keen for the next machine.

Digging for gems! Nate wanted to stay here the whole day.... loves rocks!

Their crane collection was impressive (and I couldn't fit them all in the picture)...

...as was their excavator collection-14 in all!

Nate working the excavator... I wouldn't be surprised if this is what he's doing in 20 years. That boy loves to dig holes.

Lunchbreak... we couldn't find a free table, so we made one out of this small earth-digger.

Thumbs up! Nate was great through the whole thing. Since it was just me with the kids, I was a little nervous at this big of an event, but this guy really helped me out.

Elin's balloon, which started out as a puppy, didn't last very long with a gravel ground. It was completely deflated by the time we left.

And the bus-ride to our parking lot. Elin was ecstatic about riding on the bus... "Yellow bus! Yellow bus!" We were singing the "Wheels on the Bus" song the whole way.

Door County Century!

My family came up to ride in the annual Door County bicycle ride. My Mom and Mike rode 30 miles, Shawn and Dylan rode 10 miles, and my Dad and I rode the century ride. It was a perfect day... much better than the cold, cloudy, rainy day we had a couple years ago. Had a great time, fam! Can't wait for next year!

Here we are the morning of the ride... all fresh and clean

Here we are after 80 miles (and 20 to go)... not so fresh and clean, but rather sweaty and smelly. One of my Dad's friend's, Chris, joined us for the ride.

And we can't forget our support crew...

What a team! Great riding with you, Dad.

The Farm!

Before the Door County Century ride, we all visited The Farm, where you can feed and pet the animals and learn about farm life over the past couple of centuries. We try to visit once a year, and it was great to have some family with us this time.

Elin trying to figure out how to feed a goat.

How's this for multi-tasking... drinking and driving!

Dylan's got this feeding thing down.

"Forget the corn... just give me the whole bag!"

"Come on... just one kiss."

Here's one of our favorite friends at The Farm... check out that tongue!

Shawn, Mike, and the troops.

I thought we were going to end up taking this kitten home, April didn't want to let go.

"Awe, c'mon Dad, can't I just jump over and pet the bulls?"

After The Farm, we went to a local restaurant that served its food by train. Outside the restaurant were some pedal go-karts... here's Mike and Dylan cruisin' around.

The kid's eyes bugged out when the train would come out carrying burgers, fish, or fries.

Here's the gang, enjoying lunch after a tough day on The Farm. Cool place!

"'Nastics"

Well, that is what Elin calls it.

She really likes her new leotard. She calles it her "ta dah" suit and even refused to take it off :)

Here is Nate practicing in our kitchen.

Last Days of Summer?

As the days have been getting cooler, my favorite season is quickly approaching! But this last week we've been treated to some fantastic warm and sunny days, so we tried to take advantage to some outdoor activities. Here Nate and his friend (with my help) made a makeshift waterslide... they LOVED it! I had to refill the pool a couple of times because they would spash all the water out. It looked so fun, I wanted to jump in too!

Nate has been into rock-collecting lately. April got him a rock book, and he's determined to find each and every rock in the book... in our backyard (I told him to let me know if he found any diamonds). Elin and his friends graciously humored him in his rock-collecting adventures, and they had a good time. For some reason, Nate reminds me of the adventurous ant Flick in A Bug's Life.

Today we all went to Great Harvest for sandwiches, did a little picnic at a nearby park, and then let out some energy at the park. It's amazing how much time the kids can spend at a simple park... hours. Love it! I don't think we'll have too many warm, sunny days left after Labor Day weekend, so I hope everyone enjoys the end of summer!