We recently started reading books about Skippyjon Jones. The great thing about them is that they are enjoyable for everyone to read (and many of you already know that this is not true of all children’s books). Everett and Skippyjon have several things in common: they both like to bounce on their big boy beds; they both have big imaginations; they both like to act. Chris and Melissa feel an affinity for Mama Junebug Jones and the challenges she faces while raising an active, imaginative child. Usually at some point in each book Skippy is bouncing on his bed and happens to fly past his mirror, at which point he sees his reflection and exclaims “Holy guacamole!”. He then reasons that because of the size of his head and ears relative to his body, he must be a Chihuahua rather than a Siamese cat, and he transforms into El Skipito Friskito, the great sword fighter.

Today Chris took all of the children on an adventure while Momma had some alone time at the house. First we went to Concordia University in Mequon to checkout the ampitheater and hike to the lake. Concordia has been in Milwaukee for well over 100 years, and moved to the 192 acre Mequon campus in 1982. Some time later they restored the bluffs over the lake, and now it is a truly idyllic place. It’s difficult to believe that some of the views from the amphitheater are on Lake Michigan, just a few miles north of downtown Milwaukee.


It’s also somewhat difficult to believe that Lake Michigan is in fact a lake. Everett and Chris had a long discussion about why it wasn’t an ocean, and what distinguishes an ocean from a lake. It’s one of those things that seems obvious until you try to explain it to someone, especially if that someone is asking hard questions. Chris could use a little help here.

We hiked to the lake and played on the rocks for a couple hours while the babies enjoyed some fresh air.


Everett was pretty surefooted on the loose rocks but surprisingly took a spill on the limestone steps; he scraped his knees and arm, and got a fat lip. After we felt that he had recovered enough to eat, we hiked back up the bluffs and went to Qdoba for lunch. Everett had a cheese quesadilla with chips and guacamole. When it was ready he asked “Is that regular guacamole or holy guacamole?”, and Chris answered that it was the latter in a confident manner that seems to come naturally to fathers. On a distantly related subject we should ask Melissa in a future blog post to describe the origins of the internationally-famous recipe “Tomatoes Koomer”. This is pronounced \ kü-‘mer \, even though the spelling is identical to \ ‘kü-mÉ™r \ Ridge Kentucky, which is coincidentally where they were camping the first time she tried the dish.