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I suspect this is not the first time Cindy and the Kennymen have featured a photo of Miles holding a giant cockroach, but here goes again. We met this little fellow at the Field Museum members night. The curators were holding cockroach races in the basement collection storage area. We also saw a cheetah being skinned and a lot of squids in jars.

Thanks to vacation photographer John Knox for these photos! Miles and I were partners in the duckie for the last day and a half on the river. You can see my paddling skills when faced with a category -1 rapid and Miles’s ability to completely relax, even when in constant danger of running headling into the cane that grows on the riverbanks. Jane lifted this rock for us so that we could hike the canyon. Thanks, Jane! You’re really strong!

We just got back from our much anticipated 5 day river trip on the Rio Grande. We had an amazing time, there’s so much to tell! We’re putting up just a few photos now and will add more, especially once our group photographer John Knox shares his! I discovered it’s difficult enough to keep a canoe or duckie (inflatable kayak) going on a good course on the river, taking a break to take pictures didn’t ever really happen for me! More soon, stay tuned… (the group, minus me, taking the picture. Left to right, John LeRoy [guide], JT [guide], John…

It was history fair night at Newberry, and Liam and his group gathered to give their presentation to parents who were visiting. Their board looked really nice, it was called Michael Collins and the Cost of Compromise, and they did an excellent job with their presentations!

Normally River Forest Nature Preserve is the type of place that makes you think, ‘why are they preserving this?’  Illinois nature at its finest!  But this weekend when myself, Liam and his friend Peter were geocaching it was extremely cool, with a frozen sheet of ice over the entire forest floor that was up 3-6 inches from the ground, so it felt like we were walking on fragile plywood that would occassionally collapse.  Really amazing time.  Strange to think in a week’s time we’ll  be on the Tex/Mex border in shorts and T-shirts.  

Over the 4 day weekend Liam and Miles had various fun times and not so fun times together. After one game-gone-wrong on Monday, I asked them to each write a paragraph about why they should not play the game that caused such problems. Here’s Miles’s response: Liam refused to do the assignment and then didn’t talk to me for an hour. On the subject of confessions, Miles and I have had some discussions about FALSE confessions lately. He told me that he has, twice in his life, confessed to something he didn’t do to save the group, and that it…

With the temperature about to break 50f we went down to Navy Pier for a nice walk and then a movie (nicely missing the rain showers). Miles got to meet the Dr Seuss cat and Cindy got to have the white wedding of her dreams! (latter comment is a joke obviously, just wanted to be clear on that)

Cindy and Liam ran into the Chicago version of the iditarod, the Alaskan dog sled race. Its called the Chiditarod and involves a lot of people dressing up as vikings, pirates, mitt romney supporters and in this case “babies for obama.” They push shopping carts around racing around the city collecting food for needy causes. Cindy and Liam were on their way back from 826chi a writing program for kids.