Brian’s first day of vacation was today. We’ve got two blissful weeks of “hiding out” in the city, since we’re not going to Canada this summer. We spent a good part of today working outside with Josh and Grammy, aka “Eeya” – Brian chopped down 4 trees/shrubs that we’ve been wanting to get rid of, and already the outside of the house looks SO much better. Tomorrow we have to attack a particularly messy flowerbed that is the bain of my existence right now… no matter what i do these awful weeds/ground cover plants just take over. it’s a huge bed, which doesn’t help either. hopefully we will be able to make it look half-decent tomorrow!

Josh had a lovely time at Red Robin for dinner tonight, and was extremely sad when his “yawoow” helium balloon from Red Robin sailed off into the branches of our maple tree when we got home. I knew this day would come, the day when he would learn what happens when you let go of a helium balloon… he was SO sad. what made it worse was that you could see that balloon, caught by the uppermost leaves of the tree, a good 70 feet (??) in the air. it would take a ladder truck with a bucket on the end to get it down from up there! Poor little guy, he was hoping that mommy or daddy could jump up and get it, and he was trying to jump high enough himself. Fortunately, cuddles from Daddy and a nice bubble bath took his mind off his troubles.

It’s nice having Brian’s mom here for a week – Josh almost instantly named her “Eeya”. we have no idea why – much like Baou (Grandpa) and Duy (Grandma). But it has meaning to him, and he calls “Oh Eeya!” in the morning looking for Grammy to get up!