A Sweet Adventure

 Daddy John is taking a couple of the boys out for the day.

Scot-Michael: Well, Nickels, ready for our little road trip?

Nicholas Sahara: I am, rather.  A little jolly is just the tonic we need.

Soon, after an uneventful car ride...

Nicholas and Scot-Michael: We're here!  We're here!

Where, exactly, is here?

(Can you see the boys in the lower right corner of the sign?)

(A stunned silence)

Scot-Michael and Nicholas: Whooooooaaaaaa...

Nicholas: Have a butcher's hook at all these sweets!

Scot-Michael: I think we've died and gone to heaven...

A TARDIS mock-up! Daddy John, an avowed Doctor Who nut, had to take a photo.

Nicholas: Blimey!  The selection!

Scot-Michael: Americans take their candy seriously.  Er, 'Boogers' notwithstanding...

Scot-Michael: We are so never telling Frank about this place.

Nicholas: Oh my giddy aunt, no!  We'd never get the poor lad out!

Home again.  After their sugar buzz wore off, the boys conked out for a backyard snooze.

Gardener's Wisdom

Harriet: What happened to the hostas?!

Giancarlo: They got burned in the heatwave we had.

Wyatt: But we watered everything!

Giancarlo: I think it was just too hot, too early.

Harriet: That's a shame.  I was hoping they'd be really pretty this year.

Giancarlo:  Al gardeners live in hope that this season will be the one when everything is perfect and beautiful.  The reality is that something always happens - it's either too wet or too dry, too hot or too cold.  There's a late frost or a hail storm; to say nothing of insects, rabbits, and those evil, evil squirrels.

Giancarlo: Instead of waiting for that perfect moment,

we need to embrace all of the imperfect moments.

Wyatt: You mean like this?

Giancarlo: Precisamente, i miei amici!

Harriet: You know, you're quite the philosopher.

Giancarlo: Well, after all, I am Italian...

This Old Dog House

 Daddy John: BR has been spending his summer vacation building a house for Annabelle...

BR: >Whew!<  That was a lot of work.

BR: I hope Annabelle will like it.

BR: Time to add some homey touches.  A nice pad to lie down on...

BR: ...her pull-rope toy and chewy bone...

BR: Oh!  Mustn't forget her water dish!  It's going to be a hot summer...

BR: ...And a little personal flourish!

Annabelle: >Sniff, sniff<  Arf?

BR: What do you think, girl? 

Annabelle: Arf!

BR: Don't be thinking you're Snoopy and sleep on top!

Annabelle: >Boof<

BR: Your own little private space; away from... everything.

Annabelle: >Boof<

BR: Hmm.  Now I'm tempted to build one for myself!

Bear-y Nice Postcards from The Last Frontier

 Daddy John: The boys have received a couple of postcards from my sister...

Pete Dakota: Hey, we got some mail from Auntie Sue!

BR: All the way from where she lives in Alaska.

BR: This one has a map and some facts about Alaska.  

You see can see her town listed on the map.  It's right near Anchorage.

Daddy John: Do you think she can see Russia from her house?

BR and Pete: What?

Daddy John: Never mind; old joke.

Pete: And this one has bear cubs on it.  

I wonder if there are a lot of bears in Alaska?

BR: Auntie Sue says the snow in her yard is all gone,

 but there's still quite a bit on the mountains.

Pete: Maybe Daddys John and Steve will take us there some day.

I'd like to see bear cubs.  And moose!

BR: But not up close.

Pete: Wouldn't want to get between Mama Bear and her cubs!