Intro to woodworking

Following the big storm we had this summer, we had several trees removed.  The largest was a cedar elm (?) and I noticed the logs had a nice character in their cross sections.  Tianhong and I wrangled two from the curb to our backyard. 

My plan was to build two "stools" for the kids to use in the backyard.  I asked them if they wanted to help, and they seemed really excited by the idea.  Of course my quick and easy project quickly spiraled out of control...

Pressure washing to remove dirt and loose bark

Sanding...

and sanding...

and more sanding.

Distracted by a Dremel with a sanding drum

Apply some spar urethane

Done

When I embarked on this project, I didn't know the challenges of working with green wood.  It started splitting and checking almost immediately.  Rather than controlling it a proper way, I figured I would throw a few coats of spar urethane (which I had a half-used can of) and that would slow the moisture loss enough to minimize the checking.  I expected the finish would look bad pretty quickly, but I had no idea "quickly" was less than 24 hours.  Maybe in a year or two, we will sand it all down again and experiment with an epoxy hole fill and finish.

Take me out to the ballgame

For Grandpa's birthday, we bought family tickets to the Frisco Rough Riders.  Our first date, the game was rained out.  On our second try (07/14/2019), Norah was sick so she and Tianhong stayed home.  The rest of us enjoyed unusually cool summer temperatures and a beautiful evening at the ballpark.

Jackson loved watching the game.  The attendant for our section noticed that Jackson was sitting well in his seat while many other children were running around.  She gave him a foul ball from the game as a "thank you."

Jackson was very disappointed when we left at the 7th inning stretch and was already negotiating a return visit...

Happy birthday Jackson

Today Jackson turned 6!

Jackson requested Obstacle Warriors as his party venue, and we all had a ton of fun!

Manage big emotions

Yesterday Jackson crumbled up Norah's paper bag. She got very mad.

She asked me: Could I go to my room for a few minutes? I need to be alone because Jackson made me so mad. I said yes. She came downstairs after a few minutes and told me: I am still mad so I am going to take a walk.

She took a walk in the hallway and around with a very serious look on her face. I went to gave her a hug after two laps and she laughed and was no longer mad.

If only managing emotions is always this easy!

Norah snorkeling at the new water park down the street

July 4th parade

Action Jackson

Neighborhood crowd 

It's a competition!

Ready position - he was crazy serious! 

Jumping for candy thrower's attention

After missing two years of neighborhood parade, we finally caught it this year! And Jackson got 87 pieces of candy after his hard work this morning.