Our friends and fellow travel partners are going through some pretty awful stuff. Go here to read about it. We were able to travel to Ethiopia with this awesome couple and were even able to meet little Silas. He is the reason (for those of you who know us) we play the game “ambusa”. Ambusa means lion in amharic, the national language of Ethiopia, and we saw Silas and his daddy, Dave, playing it. Our kids love it, Silas loved it.

Just a fantastic little boy, a fantastic family. If you believe in praying, please pray for them. If it’s karma go do something good on his behalf, etc. Just do it, because this little boy lights up this world.

And after that, go give your kids an extra kiss as they sleep because my goodness they are precious little people.

We found ourselves at the lakehouse this weekend. I don’t exaggerate at all by saying it was the perfect weekend. Perfect weather, perfect company, perfect food (albeit too much), etc. Words do not do justice, so pictures will have to!

Zachary doing a flip on the wakeboard. Yes, I’m married to that man.

Trysten trying to ski. Would’ve made it but he let go when the boat got loud. Nice.

Preciousness.

Tariku getting ready to ski.

Tariku learning how to dive.

Ugh too much.

Our chocolate lab, Aristotle, LOVED the lakehouse but mostly the lake. Seriously loved the lake.

Papa John took Trysten out on the jet ski, which he loved.

That’s my eldest, I loathe the day he doesn’t fit in my arms so nicely.

And the youngest (middle is tough to tackle for a pic these days) who continues to impress with her cuteness.

Went on the tubes, normal speed and everything!

My brother, Marcus, doing a Superman on the wakeboard. Impress stuff that guy puts down on that little board. For frame of reference, when I wakeboard I jump about 2 inches off the water but I scream like I’m doing what he’s doing.

The ladies on the tube.

All of us on a paddle boat. The dogs even followed. Abe got tired and tried to climb into the boat but as you can see, there was little room for a 160lb great dane.

Dailah with Marcus and Lindsey.

She took her driving very seriously.

A chip off the ole’ block.

Again, takes her job as person-who-makes-sure-no one-burns-their-lips very seriously.

The boys on the tube.

And Abe, the great dane. Also a very intimidating presence at any house.

Sinus infections suck, and I would know because I get them a lot. But have no fear, today was not without it’s high points.

During dinner we were asking the kids the typical best/worst part of the day questions. Then Zach asks Trysten what his best/least favorite part of school is. His best? New puzzles. His worst?

The other day a kid breathed in his face and he had reeeeeally bad breath.

I was laughing so hard, because I can sympathize. I hate halitosis.

Zach asked if it was worse than the first day of school when he didn’t get breakfast (don’t ask, low point in motherhood that involved a lot of crying–Trysten and hotflawedmama–and lots of apologizing–hotflawedmama–.)

Yes, he said. Worse than that, but the first day came in a close second.

The kid really hates bad breath.

In other news, my habesha is loving preschool. Three days a week he eats lunch there because his class dismisses during one of my classes. So last Thursday I picked him up and didn’t know whether to be proud or horrified at what I saw.

There’s Tariku, just cleaning the tables with a little washcloth while the daycare teachers are putting the toddlers down for their naps. They were all in the same room, but they had left the clean up to my 4-year-old.

Don’t feel too bad for him, he LOVES having responsibilities. He was so excited to show me the great work he did on their tables and can he do it for us too?

Today I felt just sick enough to let him. I think “whistle while he works” will be his new nickname.