A Visit from Aunt Wika

My sister Rika came to visit for a few days, and Dane loved playing with her.
We went to the mall and played on the cars:



They read books:


Whenever Rika would go out the door, he would cry and call out, "Wika! Wika!"
Of course, one night I left for work while Dane was sleeping. When he woke up to someone who looked a lot like Mommy but wasn't, he was a little upset. But he warmed back up to her quickly.

The highlight of her visit was going to see Harry Potter. Please excuse the following nerdiness:
We made t-shirts that said "Expecto Patronum!" Rika had her wand and I had my cape.
I am feeling super nerdy right now, but we had a great time.



Finally, we took some pictures in a photo booth at the mall.

Yes, that is Dane picking his nose and then eating it.
Anyway, we loved having her here and were sad that she left. Dane still regularly asks for Wika and Ken-i. We're looking forward to seeing Rika and the rest of the family in Oklahoma soon!

Let's See...

It has been forever.
First, a few updates on our apartment:
I made a shower curtain a while ago. Being the pragmatic person that I (usually) am, I have never had one of those decorative shower curtains. We've always had a white, plastic one. Works great, looks ugly. And my bathroom is ugly anyway. But I bought some IKEA fabric and fashioned a shower curtain (yes, it was cheaper than just buying an IKEA shower curtain).
Before:

After:

The bathroom is still ugly, but at least there is some color now. I also applied some vinyl dots.

I've mentioned a couple of times that my parents bought me fabric for curtains in the living room. I finally made them and got them hung up. I found myself feeling a little disappointed once they were up. For some reason, I thought that if I had pretty curtains my house would magically become pretty, too. That did not happen. But the curtains are pretty.


Now on to the Fourth of July.
We went up to Boise to be with Joel's mom and had a great time. The drive up was fine, if cramped, since Jake and his girlfriend, Erica, rode with us. Mom lives in a cool condo community right on the Boise river, so we rode bikes, fed ducks, and went swimming.


(Yes, Joel really rode around with Dane on his back like that. Dane is good at holding on.)


On the Fourth, we rafted down the Boise River...I have no pictures from it, and it was more eventful than I expected. But that's all I'm going to say about that.
Then we saw the fireworks, and once Dane got over the noise, he seemed to really enjoy them.
Thanks, Mom for hosting us for a fun weekend!
We also recently bought ice cream from the ice cream truck recently, which Dane thoroughly enjoyed. Joel got a coconut bar and I got a limon bar. It tasted limey but also like something else that I couldn't quite put my finger on...until I looked at the label and it said "Lime and Salt Bar". Weird. But it didn't actually taste bad. Anyway, we planned on sharing with Dane, but it ended up being more the other way around.



And finally, Joel's mom pulled out some of Joel's campaign posters from when he ran for and was elected as student body president in high school. They made me laugh a lot, so I will now be favoring you with a photo essay in the next few posts entitled
"Joel Frost: A Visionary."