The boys played their first games of the season today! It was a perfect day outside and the boys’ games were conveniently scheduled back to back. We spent the morning cleaning around the house and then went to the soccer fields at 1pm for Cameron’s game. It was SO cute, we learned yesterday that his game today would be against the team of his best little friend Grant and he’d been feeling nervous about being against Grant. When we arrived, Grant and his little brother saw Cameron and came running across the field and they had big hugs before siding off to their respective team huddles. I had some bad luck getting some of the shots today, first I didn’t have a memory card in the camera, then the camera was on the wrong setting so the pictures I did get were blurry, and then the card I’d put in filled up so I had to switch cards! Luckily I did have a second card on me. Anyway, I haven’t cropped or done anything special with any of these pictures yet, but here they are:
This one was taken when Grant was playing goalie and Cameron had the ball and was taking it in for the shot! Actually, Grant got played on quite a lot while he was keeping, but he did an excellent job defending the goal! Then, in the next quarter, Cameron was put in goal for his team. 
He didn’t see much action there though and I had to keep shouting out for him to get up off the ground!
Over at Jacob’s game Cameron and Elise kept themselves entertained by using the cases for our fold-out chairs to do sack races. 
I was really proud of Jacob though. He got a lot of play today and he did a really good job. He ran ALL over the place and was much more aggressive for the ball this year. He also did a good job of anticipating where he needed to be. He managed to stay on his feet ALMOST the entire game. (The other team was doing a little bit of slide tackling and he got knocked down once and was part of a three-man pile-up, he tripped once on his own but got right up, and he was fouled upon once and given a free kick–unfortunately not close to the goal.) He assisted in a goal and got to do several of the throw-ins. Here are some of the best shots from his game–again, still untouched. 
Archive for September, 2008
Ok. It finally happened. In a moment of weakness (actually, it was a long moment of boredom!) I accepted an invitation to sign up with Facebook. So. There it is, I am now on Facebook. It confuses me and I doubt I’ll use it a ton unless people just start contacting me like crazy, but primarily I intend to keep posting any and all of my newsy bits here.
They’re finished!!! There are 19 pages in all! I have one album that only holds 20 pages so I put them in there, so they are finished and in their home. LOL Now I can work on Josh’s frame for work and Cameron’s “About Me” page for 1st grade.
This past weekend I made the trip to Muscatine for my friend Danaka’s baby shower. The shower was very nice and she got all kinds of SUPER adorable little girlie outfits (we sure do hope little Chloe comes out female!!!) 
But I think the highlight for everyone was that Jeanna made it out with the new twins!! Aren’t they precious?!
Introducing Cole and Leonora! 
With their recovering new mother 
Practicing for November 
The proud psuedo aunts 
Despite being passed all around, the little twins slept soundly through the entire baby shower! 
Leonora just got upset when it was time to leave the party (truly one of us…”proud women!”) 
This weekend as I’ve mentioned before, my plans were changed because of the rain. I ended up working on some scrapbooking projects that I’d been putting off (the work frame is next, I promise)! I had a HUGE stack of pictures from the first time we took the kids to the Blank Park Zoo back in 2006! I decided it was high time I got them scrapped, before I forget absolutely everything about the experience. I forced myself to use paper and embellishments that I already had. I broke down the pictures into themed groupings and got to work. As of this afternoon, I’ve completed 14 pages!!! Now, they’re not all neccessarily “something to write home about,” but I only have 4 pages worth left to do before the whole Zoo trip will be finished! I may even get them all done yet today! YAY!
Josh has been talking up Indiana Jones to the kids ever since it became official that they were making a new one. We pre-ordered the Lego Indiana Jones game, and the day it came in Josh and the kids sat mesmerized by it, conquering level after level. Josh was in Missouri the night the new Indiana Jones movie opened, and he went to the special midnight opening show. We have agreed from the beginning that although the kids were all interested, the original Indiana Jones movies were all just a bit to gorey for them to watch until they are older. When Josh came home after having seen the new one, he said that it was not as possibly scary as the others and that he thought the kids would be ok, and like it. Not neccessarily Elena, but at least Jacob. Having still not seen it, I was skeptical, but I negotiated that Josh could take Jacob when the movie was at the cheap theatre. Then Josh waited. I don’t remember the reasons, but while waiting somehow all of the kids got the idea that they were going to see the movie and all were excited about it. The movie came to the cheap theatre, but by the time it got there we had become so busy with work and school and dance and soccer and cub scouts etc. that a trip to the theatre didn’t fit into our schedules. This past weekend however, we had nothing really planned, and the few plans that we had made were called off due to rain. The idea of the movie came up again but the van needed gas and an oil change before we could take it out of town and prices being what they are these days, I convinced Josh that we had better wait until after payday (Monday). We never made a specific plan, and quite honestly I had forgotten all about it until Josh reminded me at lunch yesterday and made it sound like I had promised we’d do it on Monday. I asked him if it meant that he was planning to be home early so we could catch the matinee (which is what we used to do on Wednesdays when there was a movie we wanted to see) which is even cheaper and would get us home at a relatively decent time to put the kids to bed. But Josh had a meeting that was scheduled to run until 5:30, making the matinee an impossibility. Had I known all of this, I would have just let Josh take Jacob on the weekend, but since that hadn’t happened I conceeded that if the kids got ALL of their homework and hosehold chores finished before Josh got home, then we would all go to the movie. The kids were thrilled.
I am sitting down to my computer for the first time this weekend, eating a late lunch of what I have decided to call “yummy hot and cold Thai salad.” Although I’ve missed my hubby and kids (at least a little ) I have had a pretty fabulous weekend so far, so I’m going to share about it. At the last minute I changed my plans for Friday night (thanks for being SOOO understanding–you know who you are!!!) and as soon as Josh got home from work I took off toward Coralville. My fabulous husband stayed and entertained himself and the kids without me all weekend. I picked up Kate (and her fabulous husband did the same!) and we loaded up on caffeine to scrap the night away with Angie in West Branch! We had SOOO much fun! We listened to fun music and shared ideas and techniches and products! I scrapped in ways I’ve never scrapped before! I only completed two pages, but by the time I finished the second I’d already lost Kate and Angie to the sandman, so I packed up and took Kate back home and we crashed on her lovely tempurpedic bed. That was about 4:30 am. I slept till around 10am then left Kate to do some homework while I checked out the Hobby Lobby for sales and found a PERFECT album for our vacation photos! Then I made an impromptu trip up to Muscatine to see my folks ever so briefly and gather some stuff they’ve been wanting me to take away. I was able to catch ahold of my good friend Jeanna also who is having her twins on Monday! (I’d kinda hoped to be able to meet the twins, but apparently Jeanna is from good breeding stock that can keep twins in up to the very end!) I ALSO got to meet the illusive David (father of said twins) who keeps such busy hours I’d never been able to meet him before. I had just enough time to grab a quick dinner with Jeanna so we went to the Thai restaurant that my parents RAVE about. I liked it. The atmosphere was calming, the prices not too bad, and although my entree was really nothing special, I LOVED the appetizer that I had been daring enough to order despite the fact that I knew nothing about it. Those leftovers are what I have turned into the salad that I am just finishing up now–a good reheat! After dropping Jeanna off with a fond “adieu and best of luck for Monday and after” I drove back to West Branch for a SECOND night of scrapping with Kate and Angie! MORE FUN! Unfortunately I am ridiculously allergic to Angie’s abode, but I refused to let that annoying fact get in my way! We did a round robin with scrap pages and I started my very first mini-book! But we all had stuff we needed to function for today so we cut the night short and got back to bed by about 1am. If I get to it, I may add pictures here of my new pages. But now I am back at home and Josh and kids are at church so I have a few more minutes to put all my stuff away so the house will be as nice as I found it when I got home (thanks Josh, I can tell you did a lot of work this weekend). So I look forward to a nice relaxing evening with my family, and then we’re back into another crazy week!
The hotel had no breakfast included, so Jacob and I went to the W-M down the street behind the pirate golf place to get some breakfast for everyone and kill the time before the water park opened. This time, I took the camera to the pool with me! 
The water slides wrapped around outside the building–which freaked me out a bit, so I only rode them a handful of times. 
But the hotel also had a big separate pool area that had a lap-like pool, a small children’s wading pool, and a hot tub. The kids and I had an underwater handstand contest. 
We needed to get going because we still had a very long drive ahead of us and now we’d be going right into the work/school week when we got home, but while we were swimming the sun started to come out so we decided to squeeze in one last attraction before leaving Rapid City. Storybook Island. 
We didn’t have a lot of time to let the kids play, but we tried to see and enjoy as much as possible! 
We got back in the van just as clouds started to roll in again! The drive was mostly overcast and fairly dull, so I took a few pictures at the rest stop. 
This was very near the Badlands of South Dakota. 
And farther on down the road, there was a whole lot of nothing! 
And here’s an intereesting shot I took as we were passing back over the Missouri River. 
We stopped in Sioux Falls about 6:30 for dinner at a KFC Buffet and a bathroom/gas pit stop. After dinner we switched drivers and I drove the rest of the way home in the dark while everyone else slept! There was a lot of road construction. Honestly, I don’t remember much between Council Bluffs, Ia, and Des Moines. But I managed to keep it together until just before we turned onto our own road when I must’ve closed my eyes for a longer moment because we veered slightly into the gravel at the roadside, but I got us home safe. Safe, and exhausted! We partially unloaded the van and then just crashed. I slept hard. It was nice to be in my own bed. And it was difficult to get up this morning, but here are Jacob and Elise ready for school in their new souvenir t-shirts! 
Although we still woke somewhat early, we’d had a MUCH better night’s sleep and then a MUCH better hot breakfast. We planned to see one of the caves in the area before leaving, but the kids (and Josh!) voted instead to go to a pirate themed mini-golf course just down the street from our hotel! It gave me yet another opportunity in my life to say “Parrrrrr, matey!” 
Josh got a whole in one (bounced off Elise’s shoe)! 
Then it was to the stockades with us all! 
And the kids got goodie bags on the way out! 
We left just enough time to scurry through the dinosaur park before heading back home. 
On the way home we planned to stop at Wall, SD, to see the famous Wall Drug store. We avoided doing any shopping or eating there, but we took plenty of pictures at all the touristy attractions! 
While there, we had a family vote that decided that instead of heading on home, we would backtrack back to Rapid City and spend one more day in the area! Prolong our adventure! So while the kids dried off a bit, Josh searched for another hotel! 
The vote had not been unanimous. Cameron wanted to come home to play Nintendo on his day off from school. But he stopped complaining as soon as he heard that we got our last room at a hotel with a water park inside! It was almost 4 pm when we got checked in, so we took the kids to the water park for about an hour, then we went to dinner. We ate at a Golden Corral (which was actually quite yummy) so that we’d be sure to finish with enough time to make it back to Mt Rushmore to watch the nightly closing ceremonies and lighting of the monument which we hadn’t seen when we were there earlier. Unfortunately, while we were at dinner, it started to rain, so Rushmore was out of the question. Josh and I were both feeling pretty exhausted, and we had a nice (and fairly expensive) hotel room , so we decided just to go back and relax and make the most of our hotel experience. Josh fell asleep right away. I watched a show about searching for giant octopus on the History channel until Elise pleaded to keep the tv on the channel that was playing National Treasure. I fell asleep shortly after that. The boys played DS.
I forgot to mention one thing about the night before. While driving through the dark Dakota hills, Sweet Home Alabama came on the radio and all of the kids started singing “Sweet Home South Dakota!” Which was very cute and soon became their theme song for the rest of the vacation. But I digress. So that first night was NOT very restful. The beds were hard and the kids took turns trying to climb into bed with us and they were double beds–I am used to sleeping on a king-size, so it was close quarters! And Jacob woke up at like 5 wanting to go to the pool! But the pool didn’t open until 8 and breakfast didn’t even start until 6:30 so we made him wait, but it was too late to sleep any longer. The “hot continental breakfast” was a dissappointment for me. Josh and the kids enjoyed it alright, but the only “hot” thing offered were biscuits and gravy–which I don’t like, and sliced bread that you could toast, but the toaster automatically burned them. Finally the pool opened and we all made a mad dash for the water slide! 
We swam until 10:30 then showered, dressed, and packed up. We checked out right at 11 and headed straight for Mt Rushmore! 
Despite all our travels, Josh and I had never been there before. So it was exciting just to be there. And since the kids had all just seen National Treasure 2 the weekend before, they were all very excited too. I stepped out of my comfort zone and asked a complete stranger to take our picture all together, but I was dissappointed that he only took one and not everyone was looking. 
We walked along the presidential trail and I took some great pictures of the kids and the monument, but halfway through Cameron needed to use the bathroom, so I had to run him back UP the last third of the way which was mostly steps! I was impressed that he made it as far as we had to go without an accident, and equally impressed that I survived as well! While we waited for the others to catch up to us I had Cameron take my picture to prove that I had been there too, and then we got a little goofy with the camera. 
We let the kids pick out some postcards, then it was back to the van. We’d packed water bottles and trail mix snacks etc, and had planned to forego a formal lunch in order to see and do more. We’d hoped to ride the Alpine Slide down the mountainside, but Josh thought Cameron and Elena were too young, so I considered taking the family on the helicopter tour–but I was too afraid, so instead we took the kids panning for gold! 
It was not as easy as I’d thought it would be, and the yeilds were minimal. I tell you, miners must’ve really put in some long hours to collect any respectable amounts of gold! The kids were just as excited by all the fools gold though, and I admit even I had an incredibly difficult time discerning the one from the other. 
Our next stop was the Cosmos Mystery Area. 
BIZARRO! 
I took several pictures, but I don’t know if you can really tell from them just how strange the place really felt. It was pretty difficult keeping steady footing. 
We looked into the maze place but it was getting late and the kids were hungry so we went looking for a fun place to have dinner. We asked and looked around for about an hour but didn’t find anything terribly special so we went to the TGIFriday’s across from our first hotel. The kids and I had never eaten at one so it was still an experience. 
Cameron wasn’t feeling well and he slept through dinner on my lap. By the time we’d finished eating it was after 8pm so we decided we’d better check into our next hotel. It was just across the interstate from the first hotel and dinner. The second hotel had MUCH more comfortable beds, and after laying in them for about an hour Cameron decided that he was ready to join Josh, Jacob, Elise, and Elena at the huge pool. Our room was poolside, so it didn’t take long to get there, but right when we arrived Josh and Elena decided they’d had enough and headed back to the room. The rest of us swam around until about 10:45pm before finally going back to get ready for bed and another big day. The kids claimed not to be tired, but when Josh put the tv on political news coverage, they crashed pretty quickly.