Canoe trip

Canoe Trip

Yesterday was such a fun day!!! Corey and Hal came up and we went canoeing on the Wapsipinicon River. You can choose a 2 hour, 4 hour, or 6 hour trip. We chose the 4 hour. We got 3 canoes and they shuttled us farther up the river.

We stopped at a sand bar for lunch and we called the place “Butterfly Beach”. It was more like “Attack of the Butterflies” though! We kept stopping on sand bars along the river to swim and relax. Sometimes we canoed and the kids floated along side us. (But it slowed our flow down)

We put on sunscreen, but it didn’t hold all 5 hours it took us. Some of us ended up a little “krispier” than others. Marisa and I had to make a late night run to get some aloe. Ouch! We had some pretty sore arms today too.

Anyway, it was a very fun trip and if anyone ever wants to come visit and try it with us, we would love to have you!!

Summer Vacation begins

Summer Vacation begins…
June 21, 2009

Well, we started out our first full week of summer with a bang! Man! Have we needed this break or what? We have a daily schedule to keep us in line and so far, so good.

We have a daily workout routine and usually workout both morning and night as a family: family walk, tennis, bike riding, etc. We love it except when the humidity becomes unbearable. We also signed up for the library reading program.

Exciting News: Alayna learned how to ride a bike without training wheels!!! We took her up to the big school parking lot and it only took her a couple of times and she had it! She was so excited and so were we.

We kicked butt on the Spring Cleaning. We spent hours on the shed and storage room. We are so close to being completely done. I can hardly wait. Only the kitchen left.

Off topic: Our new favorite way to eat French Crepes is to stuff it with cut up strawberries and bananas and top it with nutella! You have to try it!

We had a good Father’s Day! Happy Father’s day to all you Dad’s out there!

This week:
~The girls leave for girls camp tomorrow. It may be a little wet, but they will have a blast.
~Tyler goes to cubscout day camp on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
~Alayna and I are planning a mommy/daughter fun week since everyone else will be gone. I think we will go see Monsters VS Aliens. Anyone wanna come?
~On Saturday, we pack and then head out to Columbia Missouri to take Marisa to EFY. While she attends that, the rest of our family will be spending the week in St Louis going to six flags, etc. We are so excited!!

PS- see my next Blog entry for our exciting trip yesterday!

WE SURVIVED SCHOOL!!!!

We are officially out of school! Hallelujah!!!!! We are so excited that it is summer and we hope to soak up as much sun as possible. I am not writing my normal newsletter today. Instead, I helped the kids update their blogs so you can hear how things are going here from their perspective. We have a ton of summer plans and will keep you updated as they occur.

Shopping Day 2

Celebration of summer

Enjoying the sunset

Shopping Day

June 7, 2009

June 7, 2009

Finally!! It’s the last day of school tomorrow! I still have to work Tuesday and Wednesday but I will finally get a small break. We have still been busy and we look forward to the break. This week in a nutshell…

~Marisa earned the “Stake Presidents Award” in seminary by memorizing the scripture mastery, reading the New Testament, learning the apostles, etc. She is the only one in her seminary that received it.

~I took Marisa, Kayla, and their friends shopping last Saturday. They all got some adorable clothes. (I have decided that the mirrors in the dressing rooms add 40 pounds). They all had fun and took lots of pictures for Marisa’s modesty collage she is doing for personal progress.

~Yesterday, I dropped Marisa and several friends off at the mall to do more “shopping”. They were there for 5 hours.

~Yesterday Kayla attended a pageant her friend was in. Her friend ended up being runner up for the Miss Iowa Pre-teen Pageant.

~Both Kayla and Tyler had sleepovers at their friends houses this weekend.

~Marisa and Kayla helped run the Daddy-daughter dance for Activity Days at church. They helped girls with crafts and helped with refreshments.

~Tyler had a “Survivor Day” at school this week. Hopefully he can tell you all about it in his blog.

~Marisa is done with school and is now officially a sophomore.

~Marisa and I helped walk all the 1st graders down to Dairy Queen to buy ice cream. Sheesh! It was quite a hike and a bird pooped on Alaynas head while we were walking.

~At my school, I helped run “Latin America Culture Day”. Then I had a slight emergency on Friday when I promised my students a pizza party for staying off the homework lunch list all year, but the pizza place didn’t open by the time the party started. Long story short it became a walking taco day.