1st day of school.

Well, after much anticipation, days and days of counting down, shopping done, and spending a whole lot of money for "free education", that day has finally come - The First Day of School!! Cheyenne, Natalie, and Billy were three very excited kids for school to be starting. They couldn't wait!
Billy was excited to be going to a brand new school and his biggest concern wasn't getting lost or figuring out the cafeteria, or staying all day now, no his concern was what is the playground like. So at registration we checked it out and he approved - unfortunately our wonderful school district didn't think too far ahead and the grass isn't ready to play on yet, so no playground as of yet. We were a little worried because we heard he had the meanest teacher in the 1st grade, but Billy's really liked her and didn't think she was mean at all. Yeah!!I think Natalie was so excited to go back because she doesn't have to weed the garden every morning. :) Plus, she gets a locker this year! She gets it today and is really hoping for a top locker - cross your fingers, everyone. Most importantly, she seemed to make up with one of her best friends and the triangle of friendship trouble is broken up by different teachers this year, so she's hoping for the best there, too.And finally, Cheyenne. I think she has been counting down the days since school let out in June. Miss Social Butterfly couldn't wait to get back to her gang! I must say, though, registration was weird. She's at the Jr. High this year, the same Jr. High that I went to. So we strolled around the school and I'd tell about how we'd hang out here and there, and this was the scary part of the school (the dreaded basement), etc. How did I get so old as to have a daughter going there, wasn't I just there a few years ago??!!! Now that she's been there a couple of days, things are going okay. She has good friends in almost every class, and not any classes with the annoying friends - Yeah! However, she's already dreading band, and "DIES" every day because the school is so hot. She even has a dance after school today (not a noon dance). Although she really wanted to hang out with her friends, she thought a dance sounded really stupid, and I told her I'm sure most of her guy friends wouldn't be going to a dance. She agreed. So now they're thinking of going to the first football game tonight - which is at Viking stadium, whoo, whoo! (Again, because our wonderful district just resoded the football field a couple of weeks ago and it's not ready to play on yet, but they're making a really big deal of getting to play at the college.)So we're on day three now and things are going well. The only real complaints are about the bus and they're still trying to figure that one out. Cheyenne changes buses 4 times, takes over an hour to get home, gets home at the same time as last year and leaves 45 min. earlier - she's not loving any of that, plus has to pack her sax with her on these very crowded buses. I'm still trying to figure out when they're actually leaving a getting home. So in celebration of good times on the bus (wink, wink) I made them a bus cake for the first day - which of course Billy was so excited to "Kill the Bus" when we cut it up. :)

The best camping trip ever!

Ah, what fun we had this past week/weekend! Bill took a week off and went 4-wheeling a couple of times, the girls finished up their 4-H stuff, we went school shopping and then camping.

Thursday, we went up to Windy Ridge by Hell’s Hole and found a perfect spot! Bill’s parents were nice enough to lend us their trailer and that made camping a whole lot more fun. We had a nice little creek for the kids to play in and they LOVED it! They made mud traps, piled mud on rocks, and just splashed around. Thursday was nice and warm and Bill and I just relaxed with books in hand and rotated around to stay in the shade as the sun moved all afternoon. We taught them lifelong skills of how to roast the perfect hot dog and make delicious smores – skills all kids need! After we’d only been there a couple of hours Billy announced that “this was the best camping trip EVER!” Bill and I giggled as this is the first camping trip he’s been on. However, at 3:30 a.m. when Billy fell out of the bunkbed we were afraid the “best camping trip” might be ruined. Luckily he wasn’t very hurt and the “best camping trip” continued.

Friday was a little cooler and there was a breeze all day, so we didn’t play in the creek. The kids found the next best thing to water was dirt. And boy, did they have fun! They also found a “secret lair” and fought bad guys a lot. Billy even made a bow and arrow and hunted 7 buffalo and 5 chickens. ;) Cheyenne led Chloe and Maddie in a rock’n version of “Forest Rockband” complete with tree drums, stick guitars, and Maddie playing the flute. Bill took the kids on a couple of hikes to find wood and then all of them went huckleberrying. I was told that Maddie was the best berry picking partner; Jon was the best berry eater; and Billy and Chloe entertained them with a musical made up of one song, which they sang over and over again. By the time we came home we were all tired of the one line song.

Saturday was a little cooler still with it only getting up to around 60*. We still had a blast, though, playing and reading and playing some more. We also had cows around the whole time. On Friday they came and rounded them up, but they forgot some that showed up later. The funny thing was every time Bill would start reading Fablehaven (our family book right now) to us, the cows would show up to listen, too. Around 4 that afternoon, Bill decided we should have some pizza for dinner so he and Cheyenne ran down to Heise and brought back pizza and pop for us for dinner – that was great camping food! We got chased inside a little early that night as it started to sprinkle a little, so we played some rousing games of Uno Attack. That night got pretty cold, but it was so nice to turn on the heater about 6 a.m. We got up, ate cereal in the little boxes (Cheyenne and Natalie said we couldn’t go camping without them, Grandpa), finished loading up and headed home. It was a fantastic, relaxing, wonderful weekend, and I think we all decided we need to do it again, maybe a couple times next summer!

Our Trip to the Zoo

The kids were so excited, especially the little ones who couldn't remember our last trip. They kept asking if we'd see elephants? No. Giraffs? No. Hippo? No. Monkeys? I could finally answer yes! That was good enough and Natalie was really hoping to see the alligator that wasn't out last time. It's not the biggest zoo, or the best, but it's still fun. So off we went and met Bill there, too. It was a whole lot more expensive this time with the three old enough that we had to pay for them and Cheyenne now qualifies as adult prices. Ouch! We saw monkeys, flamingos, the camel with the saggy humps, but many animals were a no show. And the alligator we been waiting to see was about 2 1/2 feet long and hiding under a log, but we could see his foot. The kids really liked the penguins and the lion was big and majestic. My favorite was the huge turtle. But the best thing about the zoo was the park afterwards. We had a picinic and then let the kids all play on the awesome playground outside the zoo. The had more fun there than anything else. I think next summer we'll save the money on the zoo and just go to the playground. :)This was "how big are you compared to the lion".All my monkeys!