Erik gets braces!

Erik got braces on his 9th birthday yesterday. He's very excited about it, and we are so proud of what a great kid he is. His braces are red-white-blue in celebration of the 4th July.

Kurt the super-thrasher

Kurt is notorious for thrashing around during his sleep. When I fall asleep reading to him I usually wake up with a knee or elbow in my back. He is also still our baby, and he likes to sneak into our bed when one of us is missing. Here's the scene when I tried getting into bed tonight.

PeterEriKurt Sluggers

Baseball season just ended, Kurt & Erik played on the same team together, and Peter played with a bunch of North Barrington kids.

Principal: No Walking to School

Earlier this month, the principal of our elementary school asked me to stop walking my kids to school because she thought it was unsafe. Here's the walking route, and here was my response.

Biplane Ride

Peter got a ride in an open cockpit biplane this weekend while we were at a pilot picnic at the Popular Grove airport. Check out the smile on his face.

Climate Change

The arctic is melting for the first time in thousands of years! But the earth is estimated to be 4.5 billion years old. Is the carbon from power plants and cars a bigger contributor to the warming trend, or are natural causes the underlying cause? I wish the debate was more focused on this.

The Hill, by Ed Hommer.

I loved this book. It's a story about a guy who crashes an airplane into Alaska's Mt McKinley, and at the age of 26 he lost both feet to frostbite. Then 16 years later he climbs the same mountain as a double amputee. He was also an American Airlines pilot, but died just a few years ago while climbing Mt Rainier.