Saturday May 15, 2010 - Oconomowoc, Wisconsin

The kids do school work in the morning and I make the commute to Starbucks to keep track of my class. In the afternoon we go for a walk around our unit. The kids are thrilled with the abundance of dandelions that have gone to seed and are ripe for the picking and blowing. There's a small pond behind our unit. It is the recipient of some very bizarre warnings against going swimming or fishing in it.

We notice a small hill behind us, and are bemused at the three - count 'em, 3 - ski lift systems on it. We decide to climb this hill together. The grass is green, it's breezy enough for sweatshirts for most of us, and even Caedmon makes it to the top, though not without a fair bit of complaining towards the end. The view is nice. We're higher than we imagined we'd be, but still hardly high enough to warrant three - count 'em, 3 - ski lifts. And three separate runs we note on a sign on the way up - easy, intermediate, and advanced. Wow. I've never skied in my life but I can't imagine the advanced run being terribly different from the easy one, considering it's just one little hill.

But it's clear from the top that we are at the highest point for MILES. Everything as far as the eye can see is lower than we are. If you want to ski, apparently this is the closest place to do it. After enjoying the view for a while we begin the trek back down. The kids have warmed up enough to want us to carry their sweatshirts for them. In taking Mika's from her, I notice a tick crawling around in it. Joy. We are not fans of ticks. But hey, one tick. No big deal.

We get back down to the bottom and walk to the van to drive over to the grocery store to pick up dinner fixin's. As usual, the kids are obsessed about cheesy noodles. That seems reasonable, so we get the makings for that (pasta, parmesan cheese, a little milk, some salt and pepper) along with a pre-cooked chicken and some asparagus.

On the way out, Gena calls Alec over because she noticed something in his hair. This isn't very difficult, since I buzzed both the boys' heads while we were in St. Louis. She finds another tick crawling around, which I remove & dispatch. We're a bit paranoid now. But we don't find any other ticks before or during the kids' showers, which is a relief. Maybe we'll keep the traipsing through uncut grass to a minimum.