We enjoyed a nice evening on the patio. The weather hasn’t been so hot the past two days. I have been off of work all week (okay, I’ll be back for a part day on Thursday). Susanna’s sister, Sofia, and her friend, Linda, were scheduled to arrive later in the evening.

We enjoyed a quiet day.  Or as the boys like to call it, “a boring day.” But we all needed a quiet day.  That isn’t to say that we sat around and did nothing all day (even though the boys like to think that).

Susanna got the house ready for her sister’s arrival.  It is nice to be able to relax and not have to stress about being the one in charge.  I just did the chores assigned to me… no planning or stress required.  I figured it is nice to have only one person in charge of getting the house ready, and I’m happy for it to not be me.

I made some progress on the boat and trailer.  In the morning Will and I went to Mid-City Steel to get new cross beams for the trailer.  I finished painting one of the trailer wheels (black paint looks much better than rust).  I even decided to take a little break from the chores and got the lathe out to turn some toys for Ben.  I still don’t know what I’m doing on the lathe, but it is fun to try to turn wood.

After dinner the boys and I watched the end of “Return of the King.”  We started the movie a couple of weeks ago, and it seemed a good way to end a quiet day.

Yesterday we headed north to Massachusetts for a visit to Six Flags amusement park.  We spent the morning at the main park, and the afternoon at the water park.

It was a perfect way the split the day. We were able to do rides before the full heat of the day – and cool off in the water in the afternoon heat.  Of course half a day at each park doesn’t give enough time to do all the rides…. but we have season passes so we will be returning several times this summer (starting with next week when Susanna’s sister, Rebecka is visiting).

Ben was finally tall enough to go on some of the bigger coasters.  He still wasn’t tall enough at 51″ to do the really big rides, but we were able to do more than last year.  The first ride we did when we entered the park was “Thunderbolt,” and old wooden roller coaster.  Ben hadn’t been on one that big yet, and the look on his face for the entire ride was of pure shock.  But he loved it, and wound up doing “Flashback” twice (he convinced Will to ride at the end of the day).  Flashback has a corkscrew and loop that you do first forwards, then backwards.  So in one ride, you are upside down 6 times.  They didn’t make them like that when I was a kid.  Or maybe they did, and I was too chicken to ride on them.

Last Thursday Susanna and I decided to take a break from the house chores and the heat.  I was up in Providence for other reasons that day, so we decided to spend the night in the Hilton Providence.

While walking around Providence, we passed a dining establishment that had been on “Man vs Food.”  The boys enjoy watching “Man vs Food,” but haven’t seen the one for Providence yet…

The boys eventually did calm down last night.  But of course not until Will had to head to my room to fall asleep.  We all slept in.  But not much (up at 6:30 – I guess better than up at 6).  Now to cook breakfast….