Ektorp, Aspvik, and Heimdal

It’s a pretty big week for the Winns. On Friday Jarom and Alixa will have been married for five long, painful, torturous years. Jarom still doesn’t have a career, but the family now has another mouth to feed. Awesome. He wanted to get something nice for Lixi that fit with the theme for 5th anniversaries, so first he had to find out what that theme was. It turns out the traditional gift is wood, which represents strength and a solidified relationship, while the modern gift is silverware. I’m not sure how it jumped from wood to silverware, or what people have been eating off of for the last 5 years, but I highly doubt that Jarom will be buying a new set of silverware this week. Maybe he will get her a stick.






Lix is getting pretty good at dealing with Jenna, and seems to have a good time with her all day while Jarom is at work. They go on walks around the neighborhood every day so that Jenna can enjoy the weather and Lix can work of the baby weight. Lix’s dad told her that if she lost 40 pounds by Christmas he would sponsor a $200 shopping spree at the stores of her choosing. You might as well dangle a t-bone steak in front of a hungry lion. She is already doing great and will probably reach that goal by October. Jenna also spent her first full day out on a visit up to Jason and Annie’s place in Frazer. They got to see the puppy store, where you can play with the world’s cutest puppies, and took a trip to IKEA, something that Lix has wanted to do for years. It was a pretty neat experience, and a very interesting store. She had hoped for slightly lower prices, and perhaps one or two product names that she could actually pronounce, but did get to try an amazing $1 cinnamon bun. Her biggest complaint was actually the shopping carts, which have for fully rotating wheels instead of the standard American fixed-rear-wheel design. She just couldn’t get the hang of it.






Jenna also experienced her first days without at least one grandma around. It was a good chance to let mom and dad figure things out on their own, but she was plenty thrilled when grandma got back from her week-long sojourn to Africa. I think that grandma was equally excited to get back to her, so Jarom and Lix left them alone and took grandpa out to play nine holes of golf. Alixa is getting ready to play with her dad and brothers in August, and performed admirably, especially when considering her long layoff and recent traumatic hospitalization. The Winns got matched up with a single golfer, who fit the mold of ageless black people. Lix thought he was about 25 until he started talking about his 18 year old child. Grandpa would have had the lowest score, but he had a Van de Veldean breakdown on the second tee and hit 4 consecutive balls into the lake on the left side of the fairway.

These two pics are from last weeks trip to Longwood Gardens with Amanda,

Jenna's first real trip outside!

This is the best picture (out of 1000) taken by grandma while in Africa. Poor Giraffe.

The next big thing for the Winns is a trip out west to Idaho and Utah to visit family and friends August 1-18. If you live in that area and would like to see them, you should let them know. I can’t make any promises for them, but I’m sure they will do their best to squeeze you into their schedule.