Last Days of Summer, First Days of School

Just a bit of catching up...at some point I will post about another summer trip to MI but in the meantime this will have to do.  The summer once again flue by.  I have to say it was a lot of work.  It is a constant dance of keeping the keeps going but having "fun" in their minds...in my mind that means off the computer, xbox or phone.  I talked with some other moms who agreed-kids are crabby and spend a lot of time complaining/fighting with one another and how easy it is to just give in to easy/cheap/lazy entertainment.  This summer we did managed to work on some tennis with the kids.  Having the schedule of school is nice but then again the responsibilities of homework and practices come with it. The last couple weeks of summer were so nice except for having to work.  I respect every parent who is able to work year round.  Having to work during the week with the kids at home about did all of us in.  I ended up working a lot more than intended and with the kids at home it really made me think twice about helping out!   Anyway, if your school needs records of any sort for medical or immunizations please send them promptly!

 A last hike to enjoy...we ended up with a bunch of tad poles which got fed to Brayden's turtle...who devoured them

 The kids still find turtles

 Andrea moved from a retainer and her motion appliance to full braces...we have been in twice already for wire replacement and to fix a bracket...in all out spare time!

 One last fun excertion to Safarie Joes Water park

 After returning from MI Ron managed to do something to his back-it was quite bad and put him out of commision for a couple weeks-including over my birthday, not fun for him or me...and yes I did
learn to mow our crazy lawn with the huge lawnmower.

I took the kids to hike out at Red Bud Valley on my birthday.  The trip was complete with rain and lots of rain but the kids had fun.  We even ran into a soccer team mate of Andrea's-so crazy.

The evening of my birthday ORU womens played the Mexican Womens national team.  It was all Mexico and the place was packed...we ended up in the spanish cheering section, which was quite funny, seeing as we don't understand much spanish and evenyone around us was yelling out at the teams, turned out to be a lot of fun.

After one day of working way to long I came home to Becca wanting to make stilts...this was the last thing I felt like doing but we had at it.  Becca had it all planned and knew how to use Ron's power tools-scary.  The kids have a blast trying to walk on them.

 Meet the teacher....once again I was not planning on working but informed that this was part of the deal.  These were the days I missed just being a mom!  James has Mrs Bristow.  She will be wonderful.  We have not had her for any of the other kids but she had been at Metro for sometime.  James was also pretty excited as his best friend is in his class.

Andrea rotates again this year, but Mrs King is her home room.  Brayden and Becca both had her and Brayden's comment to Andrea was to be glad she was a girl because Mrs King didn't like boys....Ha, I think it maybe had something to do with all the energy some of these boys bring and have a hard time
containing!

 First day of Middle School.  Becca didn't seem too nervous, more excited.  It helped that we walked though a shortened day with all her classes the day before so she knew where she was going and had met all her teachers.  Braydens day was  bit confusing as Middle School does sports which start at 7am....but a bit unsure what to expect as basketball season hasn't really started.  We are slowing figuring it all out including how to get everyone to school on time!

 Next day it was everyones turn.  The older kids have Chapel on Thursdays-Becca wasn't enjoying her oxford shirt too much but they all had a great first week.

Its crazy to think that the kids have been in school for a full week, that we have had back to school night already for the Middle School and now this weekend we have finished up with Metro Bash and the first football game.  We are off and racing!!

Middle school boys...need I say, crazy and too many girls running around with them.  Makes me cringe just a bit.

Solar Eclipse

So school has started and life has been just been very full lately.  I will update later with pics from the beginning of the school year.  One thing I do know for certain that I am grateful for not working the past years with kids at home and having to work the week before school with all the kids at home wore all of us out!  We are slowly finding a routine-unfortunately it requires early mornings which take some adjusting to.  The Solar Eclipse was a big deal for us and for school-the teachers had been planning every subject around this day.  Ron decided that is would be worth it to drive and see the total ecplise.  I kind of thought this was a bit much, especially when two kids are in Middle School and missing a day creates a lot of problems.  WOW!!  I am so glad we made it all work because it was beyond words what we saw.  Sadly Brayden had to stay, with only one day for basketball tryouts there were no other options for him.  So thankful to a great friend who opening her house at 5am for Brayden!!  We were off and driving early that morning, not knowing what to expect traffic wise.  Funny thing was the closer we got to Monday the more people I talked to who where doing the same thing we were.  In fact our neighbor left Sat driving a huge RV up to Kansas because there were no hotels for them to stay at!  First we were headed to St Louis area.....no then west of Kansas city....no then back to Missouri.....The weather and cloud cover made it hard to decide where to go.  Finally we opted for St Louis and I was so glad as Kansas City area ended up with lots of rain.  We ended up at Anadoga State Park, with thoughts of driving to Meremac Cavern State Park.  After stoppping we had about two hours to spare-turned out traffic was not at all bad and with cave tours going on we headed 14 0feet under ground to explore the cave.  We went from a sauna of over 90 degrees to cool and 56...the kids and I were freezing, Ron was in heaven.  We made it out just in time for the beginning of the Eclipse.  The parking lot of full and people were set up in every bit of shade with blankets and chairs-walking out into the sun/heat every now and then to look through their glasses at the sun.  There was a geologist/naturalist who set up a telescope and white board so we all could watch it.

 I ordered glasses late...which meant they never made it.  Thankfully we had fun making a bunch of different viewers and recieved glasses from a friend who ordered extra!

Ready for the big eclipse...underground!

These caverns/room were just beautiful!

Let the ecplise begin...it was just a big picnic for everyone.

 Even with the glasses Rons eyes had were pretty sentitive.

 The beginning.  Impressive but not a lot to see besides the changing shadow

Just a sliver left...by now I was  bit disappointed.  It was still super sunny, not a lot was changing in the environment around us

But then it happened!!  It was beyond amazing, it was someone just kept turning off more and more lights.  The little wind/breeze was totally gone the air was heavy and very very still.  The planets and bright stars came out and we instantly could take off out glasses and look at the sun, or rather a spectacular glowing silver ring in the sky-everyone around the park was cheering.  It only lasted for a min before and bright pop of red shown through on the opposite side of the moon.  We instantly had to grab the glasses and get them on.  The Suns strength is amazing!  The diamond ring was just like it sounds beautiful and only lasted for a couple sec.  Such beauty, such consistency with such power, only possible with our Lords hand.

 No great pictures....with our life this past month we were happy to just be there.  The ring was just a sliver around the moon with our bear eyes, but even the brightness from the corona about washed out the picture.

The moment!!  SOOO cool.

And then everyone loaded up in their cars and headed home....and road loaded with traffic.  I was a little concerned but things evened out and we were about to make it home.  A full, fun almost once in a life time experience day.

Braydens experience...he was not impressed/90% and really no change in light noticed.

Happy 10th Birthday Andrea!

A little bit of a different celebration this year for Andrea.  The past years we have always celebrated with family in MI-she always gets a big party...which the other kids always remind her about.  This year we were back in MI and it was back to the normal small family celebration.  Nice thing about kids is that they really don't seem to mind-as long as there is presents somewhere during the big day.  Andrea's request was going to the zoo.  We haven't been to the zoo in years...besides James with school and with their summer reading pass in hand they were all ready to spend the day exploring. Brayden and Ron missed out on the Hot fun...spending some time with a friend on their boat.  The day was relaxing and fun-long, the kids wanted to see everything.  We explored the building and all the outdoor exhibits.  Cooler temps have been around but we were pretty hot by the time we left.

Waiting for the sea lion show.

Picnic in the shade was actually enjoyable.... a breeze!

Becca about died when I told her she had her finger up the tigers nose....she thought she had it in its mouth.

We made it home with a very tired crew!  Turned out Brayden and Ron made it home in time for a couple presents...Cake and Ice-cream were post-poned till Sunday when we all were a bit more energetic and hungry!

A new puzzle...since she has been doing all the ones we have over and over and over.

A cake baked by Becca and Brayden.

Finally her own ripstick....which we should have gotten a bit earlier so she could have used it while camping at the Conference Grounds this summer