July 2010

We had a busy month of July. This post will be all out of order, because I still can't figure out how to move the photos around. Ugh. The above photo was taken at Fontenelle Forest at their bug exhibit. There were 9 different bugs on a roughly 1-mile trail around the forest. At each bug there was a sign telling facts about the bug and asking a question at the end. You had to write the answer to the question for all nine bugs to get a prize at the end. The boys enjoyed doing this. It was a hot muggy day when we went and therefore, wasn't very busy. The first half of the walk went well. After that, we were all hot and sweaty and ready to be done. The mosquitoes were horrible on the walk, but I had brought bug spray, so that helped.

The day before Fontenelle Forest we had been to the Omaha Children's Museum. It was really crowded that day. Probably the most crowded it had been on one of our visits. It hampered the boys' desire to play, but we still had fun. After the Children's Museum, we headed down to another favorite place, which is the Durham Museum. We looked at all the trains, etc and then went to lunch.

The above photo is from our only trip this summer to the zoo. Last summer we made it to the zoo several times. This summer, however, we have only gone once. I don't know if that is due to us being so busy or the weather being so hot! This photo was taken in the rain forest. We only made it through half the zoo, and still need to see the new Madagascar exhibit. So now we have to go back!

This next photo is of the boys and their cousin, Kiley. Doug took them to Cedar Rapids to visit his family. Since I had just spent a week with the boys alone in Colorado, I stayed home. While they were gone, I used the time paint the boys' room and redecorate it. We did a Star Wars theme and it looks really good! The boys were super excited to have a new big boy room!



The two above photos are from our trip to Colorado. The top one is from one of our days in Estes Park. Julie and I went to Snowy Peaks Winery for a tasting. They claimed to be family friendly and they were! They had a play room where the boys played nicely for nearly two hours while Julie and I tasted and shopped. It was really nice....especially following the horrible morning we had just had. Jack threw a huge fit in our long mountain car drive. It lasted over an hour and was nearly unbearable.
The other photo above is the boys and me at the Alluvial Fan in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a nice area to visit, which was practically right off the main road. The boys enjoyed walking in the cold water and hiking up all the rocks.

The first week of July Charlie took private swim lessons. His instructor, Megan, was great with him and taught him a lot just during five lessons. Charlie seemed to enjoy them, but when we told him we were going to sign him up for another week of lessons, he said, "If you do, I will run away and never come back!" So, luckily for him, the summer got busy and we plan to continue them next summer.
The day after we got back from Colorado, we drove out to my aunt and uncle's lake in Glenwood, IA for a postponed 4th of July celebration. This time the weather was beautiful and there were a lot of us there. We had some good food and fireworks. This photo is of Jack, Charlie, Abby and Anna following Bruce around. They were his fireworks posse. They were so anxious to get the fireworks started that they followed him around until it was time.
On our first full day in Colorado we were in Denver staying with my sister. We drove up to Georgetown, CO to ride on the train. It was a beautiful day and a great ride. The boys loved it.
On Monday, July 5th we drove up to Estes Park, CO to stay for four days. The day we got into town, we went to RMNP for our first couple of hikes. We walked around Bear Lake, which is the photo below. The above photo is on the hike on the way up to Alberta Falls. It was a great walk. The boys practically ran there. The way back was a little slower. We started the hike around 7pm, and by the time we finished it was getting dark. It was perfect timing, though, because the trail wasn't crowded at all.

The above photo is on the 4th of July. We spent the day in Denver and went to a Colorado Rapids soccer game. We didn't get to see much of the game because a huge rainstorm blew in and it poured and poured. We waited patiently up on the covered concourse waiting for the rain to end, so we could see the fireworks. It never did end, so we walked our way back to the car getting soaking wet in the process. They still let off the fireworks and we watched them from the car.
This photo is of Alberta Falls. We had a really good time in Estes Park and Denver and will hopefully go back again next summer.

June Misc.

A few more things we did this month....we went out to my Aunt Marcia's land. It's out past Wahoo, NE. She has a little cabin, tractors, sand and four wheelers. The boys had a great time checking it all out.

Charlie just turned 6 1/2 as well! He asked for me to make him a lemon-blueberry bundt cake. This is his favorite.The above photo is of me, Sherry and Susan. We took our families to the Aksarben Ice Cream Extravaganza in Stinson Park. Beautiful night and lots of fun!

Great Wolf Lodge and Kansas City

In mid June we headed south to one of our favorite places--Great Wolf Lodge. This was our second time there and definitely won't be our last. We always have a great time. This year again we visited T Rex Cafe where the boys picked out, stuffed and dressed a dinosaur...or in Charlie's case, a wooly mammoth! We also ordered pizza from Nick and Willy's again. This time on the trip, the boys played MagiQuest, which is a game at the hotel where you run around trying to find clues and wave your magic wand at them, blah, blah, blah. It was fun, but a lot of work for mom and dad!
Okay, so this blogger is completely baffling me right now. I can't figure out how to move the photos, so the top photos are from Deanna Rose Farm in Overland Park, KS. We stopped there after Great Wolf Lodge and on our way home. We loved it. It was free to get in and then just a few dollars for different activities, such as fishing, goat feeding, and pony rides. We did all of them and had a good time. It was about 95 degrees the day we went, so we didn't get to spend quite as much time at the Farm as we would have liked. We will go back the next time we are down there!

Des Moines and Dam to Dam

At the beginning of June, we went to Des Moines, IA so that I could run Dam to Dam on June 5th. We stayed in a hotel, did some swimming, ordered in pizza and went to Adventureland the next day. We had a good time and the run was great. I hope to do it again next year. The race started at Saylorville Lake and Dam and finished in downtown Des Moines. It rained nearly the entire race this year, but it the end it was a blessing. It wasn't hot and humid!

May 2010

School's out for summer! We are all really looking forward to summer vacation this year. We have a lot of fun things planned. We have tickets to a couple of baseball games. We will be going to Adventureland, Great Wolf Lodge, Denver and Estes Park! I plan on painting the boys' room and doing some running and other projects. Hopefully I get to read a few books as well!
May was a busy month with the end of the school year, graduations, running, Mother's Day, and a trip from Grandpa Denny.
Denny visited at the beginning of the month for a night. He always brings the boys each a set of Hot Wheels cars, which they love.
Mother's Day was the day after I chaperoned AL's prom, so I was a little tired. We didn't do much. We hung out, had a good dinner and the boys gave me some gifts. They got me a new (much littler) camcorder. The last camcorder we had was the one my parents gave me for our wedding in 2001. It seemed small at the time, but seemed huge now! The one we got is awesome and fits in the palm of your hand! I love it. They also got me some new pictures to hang on the walls, once we get them painted!
This weekend has been spent doing mostly fun, unproductive things! Sunday I went to Sherry's house with Susan for dinner and then we went to see Sex and the City 2, which was cute. We had a good time!
Today we went to the Boys Town Memorial Day Run. The boys, Doug and I all ran the one mile race. It was Jack and Charlie's first. We weren't sure how they would do. We were fairly certain Charlie would make it the whole way. We thought Jack might want to be carried, but it all turned out great. I ran with Charlie nearly the whole way and we finished in 12:2something. Doug walked most of the way with Jack and they finished in 17 minutes. I think Jack was almost last. He wasn't super excited about the event, maybe because he's only 4, but Charlie was really excited. About 1/4 mile into the race, Charlie asked if we were done yet. I worried that he might want to quit, but he only stopped to walk a bit and ran the rest of the way. Both Jack and Charlie want to do another race. They were excited to get their t-shirts and their ribbons at the end. They liked having the bibs on their shirts and the timing chip on their shoes. Of course, it all had to come off the moment they were done. I was proud of the both of them for finishing the race and for being so happy along the way. This is a great race to do as a family. There are always a lot of kids and activities and it's so family-friendly.

Some funny things my kids have said:

After playing outside on a hot day, Jack was sweating buckets. Charlie looked at him and then yelled, "Daddy, Jack is leaking!"

Charlie is just finishing up kindergarten and he had seemed to like this little girl, Catie. She also seemed to like him. One day at recess, apparently she tried to hug and kiss him. Charlie came home saying he no longer liked her because she did that and he really didn't want her to do those things. Jack said, "So, just push her down." Charlie replied, "No, I just threw wood chips at her!"

(for some reason, I can't get my photos to move to the appropriate places, so I guess they will all just remain at the top of the post!)

April 2010

April was a long month! Finally, we are on to May. Only one more month before summer break. I am super excited about that. I decided that I would return to school next fall. I am going to attend Univ. of Nebraska at Omaha to get a Masters in Reading with a library media specialist endorsement. I plan on taking two classes this fall, so I will be rather busy! At the school where I teach, because of some staffing reductions, I got moved to teach reading. I am excited to give it a shot and make some changes.

At the beginning of April, my mom's brother, David, passed away. We had a visitation for him at St. John's Lutheran Church.

Emily, Whitney and Jill

Our family at the visitation.

Julie with the boys.

In March, Heather had let me know the Embassy Suites had a special. If you stay a night in April, you get a season family pass to the Omaha zoo included in your stay. So we picked a weekend and stayed at the LaVista Embassy Suites in mid-April. We had a really great time. We hit happy hour and there were enough kids for them to keep each other entertained. We ordered pizza in to our room, ate and then the kids went swimming. We ended the night with a few drinks in our rooms and with the kids watching Star Wars on their little dvd players. The next morning, we went swimming, ate breakfast and packed up and went home! We had a really fun time! The boys enjoyed it too!Heather and me!

The boys loved the hotel pillows. They were perfect for pillow fights.

Ben and Charlie after swimming.

Heather and the boys when we got to the hotel!

Then this month there was Easter. Julie came to visit and stayed a couple of days with us. The boys had fun and she got to experience some of their not-so-fun moments! We spent Easter at our house. Julie, Mom and Bob came over for brunch and then Julie and Nate headed back to Denver that evening.

March 2010

Well, March wasn't a very exciting month. We did quite a bit, but I didn't seem to take many photos. This might be because I started teaching another Metro CC class. This time it's an online class, so it doesn't require me to teach on campus. Some things we did do: we went to a Lancer's hockey game with some friends and the boys, we celebrated Jack's half birthday (he turned 4 1/2) and Barb and Jessie came for a visit. We celebrated St. Patrick's day with a treasure hunt and a leprechaun trap. We also colored some Easter eggs in preparation for Easter. After doing the eggs, we used the vinegar and backing soda to make a volcano erupt. The boys love doing this.

Here are a few of the very few photos I did take:

Jack turns 4 1/2!!

The boys love Star Wars and Scooby Doo.

Our leprechaun trap.

Our finished Easter eggs-Star Wars, of course!



Making a volcano with Aunt Jessie and Grandma Barb.