Glacier Canyon Lodge

Nothing excites us as much as going to Glacier Canyon Lodge for a couple of nights. It will never get old. We had to take pictures of this trip because it was our first trip with Amanda.







We have our routine down pat now. First we take a bunch of pictures before the kids can mess things up.
Look, the boys have a clean bedroom for once!


Then we watch a movie. It is VERY important to watch the movie on the first night. Night two after water parks, I guarantee that we will not all make it through a movie.




After that, we all head to bed. We have to get a good nights rest so we can hit the water parks in the morning. The water parks do not open until 9 or 10 so that leaves us plenty of time to make a BIG breakfast to keep the kids going until they stop for lunch. I happen to know that Nicko not only ate all of this, but he also had another full plate of food.




Then it is time to put on our wrist bands and head off.




We came back to our room for lunch and then were back at it as soon as possible. After a few more hours of running up endless stairs to get on the rides, screaming their heads off...just for fun, and trying to stay afloat in the wave pool, it is time to head back to the room and find a lower energy way to play. A game of Rumicube is just the thing.



Wake up Amanda! It's not bedtime yet.



One of the things we really like to do is bring cookie dough and bake fresh cookies for a treat after dinner.




The only trick is protecting the cookies from...

(That is Daniel hiding behind Joel and the two of them are so bad at sneaking treats on the sly. They do not even have the nerve to look guilty!)




And then it is off to bed. It takes about two minutes to pass out after a day in the water park. The next morning the sun comes up, but the kids...not so much!

Awana Games 2010

I don't know who was more excited about these Awana Games. Isaac was on a team with his buddy and had a great time. Daniel talked Mom into letting him have the camera to be the official photographer for the day. Both boys had a blast. Isaac was so proud of his performance and Daniel is so proud of his pictures. The top photo is everyone's favorite photo and those action shots can be a bit of a challenge.

A little side note observation that I thought I would share. Joel arrived at the very last second to watch the games. He kept an eye on every single kid on the floor. He figured out which team was going to win based on the athletes on each team. He pre figured scores...you know for fun. He was sitting rather close to a few other men watching their children. Before long all four men were playing along. When their children were on the floor competeing they were very attentive and cheered very loudly like proud fathers do. But when their attention was not needed, they were back to their little game. Joel had a great time at the games and I must say he was pretty close on most of his calls. I guess boys will be boys no matter how old they are.

Photo credits: Daniel Boiten

Frenchship. (Which is a play on Friendship)

Two weeks ago we were eating French chocolates. We were listening to interesting stories about life in southern France. We were using heavenly triple milled French soap that smelled amazing. We had French wine, and we were speaking French. Oh la la!

We were not in France, we had the pleasure of meeting Madame Martine Liquet. She is a teacher in France and she traveled to the US with 14 exchange students from France. She brought us gifts of chocolate, soap, wine, key chains and traditional red scarves that are worn during a festival in the Bayonne area. We sent her home with measuring cups and spoons to help her make a few new recipes from the US.


We had such a great time with Martine. By the time she left, we all thought of her as family. We are all happy that we got a chance to learn about her culture, her cooking and her family. It was also interesting to hear about her views of America.




Here is a list of everyone's favorite aspect of Martine's stay with us.

• Joel - Listening to her tell us about her home and her views of Spain as well.
  
• Heather - Her new recipe ideas and talking to her about parenting.
  
• Amanda - Spa time with Martine and how she compared the US to France.
  
• Nicko - Learning about a new culture and having her stay with us. I also liked it when she got so excited about meatloaf.
  
• Daniel - I LOVED listening to her accent because it was so different and listening to her stories. She has a good sense of humor.
  
• Isaac - Playing Apples to Apples with her when she won.
  
• Alyssa - She gave me a hug goodnight every night and she was so nice.

Martine, you are always welcome with us. Please come back soon. Vous etes toujours bien venu avec nous. Veuillez revenir bientot.

Frost

So many times we think of getting a frost in the spring when it can harm our tender new plants. Also in the fall when we want to hang onto our veggie plants a bit longer, we take sheets outside and cover things up so the frost will not harm anything.

In Wisconsin, a frost when there is snow on the ground is a beautiful thing. Imagine all the trees covered in glitter and sparkling when the sun shines on it. I cannot do this justice with my camera, but I had to at least try to capture a bit of nature's magic.










Isn't there something about a weeping willow tree that takes you right back to childhood? Weeping willows make the perfect house when you use your imagination. The dropping branches provide the perfect hideout when you need to get away from the crowd of kids. The buds in the spring are so exciting. And now look at all the sparkles you can get from them in the winter.





This is a picture of the empty lot right next to us. We love our lot for family football games, Bocci Ball, Frisbee, snowmen, climbing trees and all sorts of other things.






And since this is a winter themed post, I am adding a picture of the kids and their snowman they built last week. I don't think I will get too many more opportunities to post winter pictures as spring seems to be on the way for us.


Amanda, Daniel, Frosty the Snowman, Alyssa, Morgan the vain dog that wants to be in the picture, Isaac, and Nicko.

Let The Music Play On

Every other year, the school has a band concert that includes all the bands from 5th grade through high school. It is so fun hearing the step by step progression of the bands. The fifth grade band was adorable. The high school band was amazing and all the of bands in between were incredible. I wish they did this every year.

Here is Isaac playing his little heart on the clarinet. He looks so calm. You would never know he had been so excited and so ready for this concert for days ahead of time. He memorized the entire information newsletter regarding the concert. At dinner he told every one where they needed to go and what room they should report to. Then he told Joel what time we needed to pull out of the driveway to be at school on time and he told me which lens to put on my camera to get good pictures. Is this the same kid that tries getting on the bus about once a week while leaving his lunch bag and clarinet on the driveway?





Here is Daniel doing a bang up job on the trumpet. They played In The Mood...which was the first song played at our reception when we were married. Love that song! Thank you to the entire 8th grade band for picking a song that I JUST LOVE. Thank you to Daniel for practicing it a lot so I could hear it over and over and over again.




And here is Nicko. I love watching Nicko listen to music. He shoulder dances. Big, tough, strong, male bopping away to the tune of big band classic is just not something to be missed in my book. I know that he will probably be horrified that I shared this on a blog. Sorry, Nicko. You just don't know how entertaining you are to watch!



And poor Alyssa had to sit with Mom and Dad while she watched the boys. She reminded me about 4 times that next year she can join band and she is going to be playing the flute. She loves the flute. She can't wait to play the flute. (Funny she said the same things about the piano and that seems to have lost some of it's glamor and excitement.) She is really going to work hard at practicing so she can be really good at playing the flute. ;-) She is in such a rush to grow up and do the things the boys get to do. Sigh.

Coming to a Galaxy near You...

We were invaded this weekend. The kids brought the Legos out and took over half the family room to build, display and TEST their creations. We started out with a pile of Legos that quickly spread.



This is Daniel's awesome car. He designed it to flip and keep going. Joel and Daniel were giggling like little girls as they built a course for the vehicle. I did not get a picture of the course or the boys 'playing cars.' Too bad.



Alyssa built a landing pad for our awesome space ships. The landing station came complete with a crew of really cute Lego men.



We had so much fun. I made my own space ship. I started out just building something to make the kids happy. Then I revised it and had to rebuild it. I created a Space Rescue Vehicle. It is a tow ship for broken down space ships. So here is the empty ship.



The back end opens to let the broken down space ship in.



And here it is with the rescued ship.



Here is the happily and safely rescued space ship. Our fleet of SRV's use the latest technology, training and research to set industry benchmarks in the space rescue field. That is Joel making fun of me. But I don't care. My secret to an awesome SRV? It's color coordinated. :-)




One last shot of my awesomeness!




Here is an interesting side note. We have not purchased one piece of Lego for the kids. These are all Joels Legos from his childhood. I think that is so cool. I wonder how many generations of play we can get from a tote of Legos.

Snow and Wind

I love winter. I love a really good snow storm when we are all at home and in front of a fire. But just as good as a snow storm is the beauty that the storm leaves behind. We did not really have a snow storm, just a few inches of snow and some wind. School was not canceled and life went on as usual, but this morning, we had a beautiful surprise.



As soon as the sun came up, the trees turned back into ordinary, naked trees. But it was so amazing while it lasted.




The snow almost looks like sand dunes, but it sparkles in the sun.



Now the sun is out. The snow is sparkling and it is sort of cheerful. The best part is that the sun is melting the snow off the driveway now. :-) That is really cheerful! Happy Winter Everyone.