Invisible

Zeke got a Happy Meal on Saturday, with a Batman toy. He put in on an outside table while he ran into use the bathroom. When he got back, the toy was gone.

Zeke: Where's my Batman?

Jeremy: I don't know. Where did you leave it?

Zeke: On the table, but he's missing.

Jeremy: Hmm. I guess you'll have to look for it.

Zeke, sweeping his arm over the space on top of the table: He's not invisible . . .

Victor Drives a Bus

Look to your right and you will see a picture of Victor driving a bus at age one. He is ecstatic.

Here he is now, age seven, and still thrilled to drive a bus.

Zeke's Secret Skill

I asked Zeke last week if he had told his teacher that he can read.

Me: Have you told Mrs. S that you can read?

Zeke: No.

Me: Why not?

Zeke, seriously: It is a secret. Just for our family.

Fun Mom Rents a Kayak

Jeremy had Monday off, and suggested we rent canoes.

I was very surprised. The last time we rented canoes was in 2000 or 2001, before we were married. My mom rented them for Pioneer Day or some other summer holiday, and we went to Payson Lakes with whichever of my siblings were not on missions, my cousins Greg and Ben, and probably a few of my sister Lizzy's friends.

Jeremy, not an avid canoer, was interested to learn that our family thought it was fun to paddle around the lake with no apparent destination. And that the goal was not to get across the lake as quickly as possible for lunch.

Our canoe adventure was not going well. Our canoe just didn't seem to move as sleekly as Greg and Ben's canoe, which shot through the water as if in a Boy Scout training video.

And then Jeremy became out of sorts. It is the only time my mother has ever seen him out of sorts, so she recalls it vividly. (Jeremy is rarely grouchy, grumpy, or out of sorts. He is very, very pleasant, even in the face of severe aggravation.) He said, "I give up! This canoe is broken!" And he laid down in the bottom of the canoe.

Our canoe was not, in fact, broken. It was merely weighed down by three other canoes that Greg had secretly tied to it. It was very funny, but left Jeremy without a taste for family canoeing.

So I was surprised that he wanted to take the boys out on the lake. After I remembered that I am fun and adventuresome, off we went. We rented a canoe for Jer and Zeke and a tandem kayak for me and Victor, and paddled around for about three hours. I had never paddled a kayak before, and enjoyed it. Victor was a surprisingly useful boat-mate. We landed on a little island and looked around, which the boys thought was marvelous. And I wore my knee brace and got an awesome tan line from it.