Grab Your Coat and Get Your Primate

St. Louis Park Style Mavens

While the Bishopps were here, but before they'd arrived one morning, we Raleigh Housers took a pajama walk to the neighborhood Starfoxes with Monkey and Gorilla.  As our longtime readers know, when in doubt of what to do, so long as the weather isn't inclement (and, frankly, sometimes, even if it is), we walk.  So it was Saturday morning.  We shot a bit of video so you can make like you were with us, Fans!  You can hash out the difference between a cocoon and an echo right along with us, and--it's true: they are both things, but only one is a sound, which is not quite what Julie said, but you do your best when you land in conversations demanding such distinctions be made before eight in the morning.

Summer Lovin', Had Me a Blast

The Bishopps have gone back to Pennsylvania.  We Raleigh Housers were all sad, but will comfort ourselves by recounting the rest of the good time here for y'all, Joe and Clara's Adoring Fans.  Uncle Scott and Ted took Joe fishing, and though the only thing caught was some warm, late summer memories, fun was had.  Fun was also had at the pool at Uncle Scott, Aunt Kate, and Cousin Nick's hotel.  It featured a choo-choo train that gushed water at periodic intervals and several little slides in addition to a really big slide.  Many parks were visited.  Edible treats of various stripes abounded.

The good times also included an overnight jaunt to Stillwater or, as Joe would say, Steel Toe Waters.  (He's mixing in the name of St. Louis Park's very own local craft brewery, Steel Toe Brewing, with the name of the picturesque town on the St. Croix River, about an hour's drive from the Twin Cities.)  Stillwater is home to the Stillwater lift bridge, which spans the St. Croix, connecting Minnesota and Wisconsin, and a pretty fabulous burger place named Leo's, where one can also get pretty fabulous shakes and malts.

Stillwater is also home to an AmericInn and the opportunity to stay there was, for the bambini, perhaps the most exciting part of our adventure to this corner of the world.  The AmericInn featured adjoining rooms for the two branches of our troop, with two beds in each room, and a pool.  Joe and Birdie got the sleep in the same bed with Purple Pillow Pet, Doll With Funny Green Hair Buns, Duck [Pillow Pet], and Thomas [Pillow Pet].  It was, in a word, amazing.

You are perhaps wondering how everyone slept.  Well enough, Fans, well enough.  The bambini both woke up a few times because they'd come uncovered and haven't yet learned that such are the risks when you choose the bed nearest the air conditioning unit.  This meant we woke up a few times as well.  Duck also fell on the floor at one point, but otherwise, the Pillow Pet Gang and Doll Face slept great.

And so another summer vacation is history and fall is coming on.  We miss you already, Bishopps, we miss you already.

Episode IV: A New Hope

While Julie was typing those last two posts, she heard Joe pounding about downstairs (oh--in his underwear only, of course) and then pausing to say, "I'm Batman!"  This pronouncement reminded her to report that Joe had announced that he would like to be "a bad guy!" for Halloween.  Later he clarified: he would like to be Batman.  We had to clarify: Batman is a good guy.  Other things Joe learned this morning over hot chocolates and milk chocolates at Starfoxes:

Batman has a car.  It can fly!  (Right?)

He also has a motorcycle.

He parks them in the Bat cave.

He has a cape.

Batman and Superman are not related in any way to Star Wars.

Darth Vader is a bad guy.

His space ship is the Death Star.

The good guys are Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, the Wookie Chewbacca, and two robots: C3-PO and R2-D2 (R2, or "Artoo" to his friends--who are legion).

There are more good guys than bad guys and, their space ship, the Millennium Falcon, is way cooler than the Death Star.

"She's the ship that did the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs."

The good guys also fly X-Wing Fighters; the bad guys also fly Tie Fighters.

The bad guys also have Imperial Walkers which are, admittedly, grudgingly, pretty cool.  (Joe: "They shoot fire!")

Occasionally, Joe talks in big gushes about super heros and Star Wars.  Let's just say that in today's weekly class update from his teachers, we were not surprised to read the friendly admonition to remember that weapons of any sort, or books featuring weapons of any sort, were not appropriate choices for show 'n' share.

It is still, admittedly, a little unsettling to hear one's four-year-old speak with such zeal about bad guys--who do seem to have cooler stuff (save the Millennium Falcon of course).  But one learns that "gun play" and the like is natural, and how to talk about it with one's would-be gunslingers such that they will not, in fact, be gunslingers.

This is also true: some of Julie's fondest memories are of watching Star Wars with her mom and she will admit that she is excited to watch it with Joe and Clara for the first time.  In the meantime, no child of hers is going to wander about talking nonsense about Batman being in Star Wars and she will hold out hope that she hears Joe inform someone, in all of his four-year-old wisdom, that the Millennium Falcon is the ship that did the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.

Boating Outting

Rest assured, Fans, we have done more than sing and listen to the Velveeta jingle from the eighties.  This morning, we rented two canoes and a kayak and in them, explored the chain of lakes which--for our not-acquainted-with-Minnesota-Fans--includes Lake Calhoun, Lake of the Isles, and Cedar Lake.  Cousin Nick manned the kayak, Joe rode with Aunt Kate and Uncle Scott, and Birdie navigated for Julie and Ted.  We were a yar fleet.*  Julie may have been the most excited: she was in a vessel!  Water borne!  Paddling!  The day dawned downright chilly, but by the time we were out on the water, the weather couldn't have been more perfect for our outing.  We went all about the lakes (through tunnels!--really, under bridges) and then had lunch at a restaurant next to the rentals shack, a mostly fish 'n' chips place called Tin Fish.  Joe allowed that yes, he'd had fun canoeing, but no, he did not want to go again.  But under direct questioning he further revealed that he would go again--if we did not go forever (meaning for as long a time).

*You knew that was coming, Fans.

It's true.  I look cute in everything.  I am, after all, an international style icon in the making.

Off to the boats!

Yes, they are very cool.

Cousin Nick is also super cool.  He gets his own boat.

Awesome.

Sit on my bottom?  What?  But then how would I touch the water?

They're Here! Let the 'Cationing Begin!

Fans!  When last we left you, Joe was dawdling through the days.  It may interest you to know that in one of the days following our last post, he wore two pairs of underwear to school.  Because, it would seem, he'd neglected to notice he was already wearing a pair when he donned a new pair.  We don't make this stuff up, Fans.  We do not.  Make.  This.  Stuff.  Up.

More important, since we were last with you, the Bishopps have arrived for their state visit!  The Great Va-Stay-Cation Summer 2012 has begun!  Hooray!

Cousin Nick can read!  Yippee!

Aunt Kate was thrilled to be reunited with Berenice.

No really.

Our first night together found us having a great big family dinner before heading to bed rather early.  The Bishopps had, after all, left for the airport at 4:45am and lost an hour in the deal as well.  They were able to witness the newest bit of the bedtime act: the singing of the old Velveeta cheese jingle.*  How far we've fallen from Moon River, Fans, no?  We should perhaps not be surprised that Joe wanders around repeating random phrases over and over again: his mother once had numerous commercial jingles memorized and wandered around belting them like Broadway show stoppers, and--it must be said--thats just how she serenades the bambini with it now.  (The obvious crescendo line is the one that includes "processed cheese.")

Most nights Julie performs for both bambini at once from Joe's bed.  Last night, however, she sang the Velveeta jingle to Clara a few times on the couch, and then to Joe a few times on the couch after Clara had been put down.  But, as Julie belts that baby out, she'd no more finished Joe's encore performance on the couch, when floating out from the bambini's room came Clara's cry of "Do it again!"  So Julie did it two more encores from Joe's bed.

So thrills all around for the Bishopps!  For us as well.

*There's no single cheese like Velveeta!
'Cause Velveeta is more than one single cheese!
It's colby, swiss, and cheddar!
Blended all together for a single cheese that melts with ease!
Velveeta!  Processed cheese that tastes so fine!
Velveeta's natural cheeses do the trick every time!
Velveeta really knows how to please!
You know it's great when they clean their plates!
There's no single cheese--by the pound or the slice!--like Velveeta!
[Extra thick!--if doing the added on for extra think Velveeta singles, which, Julie usually is.]