Wow it has been quite a while since I have posted anything on this blog. Life has been a little hectic with our work schedules as well as the activities of the girls. We have many things that have happened since my last post so I will try to summarize.
Finally basketball is over!!! It was a fun season and great to see our first year team grow over the course of the season. It started off rough with several losses and a few blowout loses but the girls ended the year with a 3rd place finish and two 2nd place finishes in our last three tournaments. As basketball was winding down our start up traveling softball team was gearing up. We started indoor practices the first week of February and now that March is here we are practicing at least twice a week. Maddi is really set on playing catcher this year and since her coach was a catcher she has been getting some really good feedback. The pitcher and catcher position are the most important on the field so she has a lot of learning to do.
Abbey made her first reconciliation and is in preparation for her first communion. The reconciliation service was very nice and Abbey handled it with courage and strength. It is not easy for any of us to examine our conscience and tell somebody all of the things that we have done wrong, it is especially challenging for a 7 year old.
We attended weekly meetings with two representatives from the USD #383 gifted program to help parents understand how gifted children are different from others. It has really helped us understand some of the unique characteristics that we have noticed in Abbey and hadn't truly understood. She is a very bright and special girl!
Abbey and her friend Mallorie from the gifted program signed up to do the MCS Science fair. Abbey did two projects both concentrating on electricity. The first project was creating a circuit from a lantern battery to a flashlight bulb using a paperclip as the switch connects and disconnects the circuit. She also created a battery by connecting lemons using a nail and copper wire in each one and connecting them using wire in a circuit. It was also attached to an led light bulb that would light up just from the power of the lemons. It was very cool and the girls won first place!!
Amy and I went on an adult date weekend in Kansas City, meeting Paulo and Teressa at Houston's restaurant on the plaza and then spent some time just visiting and catching up. At the dinner they announced that they were expecting their second child!!! We are so happy for them. We spent the night in KC and got up the next morning and found a nice bicycle trail to ride. It was quite short requiring roughly 4-5 trips from end to end to get in 10 miles. Amy had a flat along the way which we patched and continued along. It was our first time repairing a flat in the field, I was quite proud of us. We also attended the Kansas City auto show which was really cool to see new concept cars and models that are going to be released soon. The Ford booth was saved for last and didn't disappoint with a 2011 Grabber Blue Mustang Shelby GT500. The only disappointment was that it was locked and they wouldn't let you sit in it.
Just last week we headed to Nashville Tennessee for spring break. We stayed with Amy's sister Renee and had an action packed weekend. I had requested if we go that we don't spend our time setting around the house or shopping. We stopped in St. Louis on the way (which is roughly half way) and visited the arch. The girls had never been up inside it so we took the dryer ride to the top and enjoyed some time looking out over the city. Our first day in Nashville we went to a cave an hour and a half away from Nashville. It was a really neat cave and since it was raining all night and morning there were water falls and streams running through it that they said typically are not there unless they get several inches of rain. That evening we went to the planetarium and got to see Mars and Saturn in a huge telescope. Saturn was really neat because you could see the rings. I know you are thinking woopdy doo, you can see the rings in pictures. It is a whole different experience seeing it in a telescope! Maddi was quite surprised that you could actually see them. The next day we got up and went to breakfast at a little hole in the wall shack called the Pfunky Griddle. It is a fun little pancake house where the griddle is in the middle of your table and you cook them yourself. You order the toppings you want and can create any type of pancake you can imagine. After breakfast we headed to the children's science center and had a blast, then finished the day off watching my niece MacKenzie perform in her high school's production of Little shop of horrors. Sunday was started off with a trip to Church and then a trip to the Frist Art Museum where we saw 16th century paintings and pots, statues, etc. from ancient Greece. They had an interactive art section for children to learn how to draw, paint, make movies and other fun arts. Our last day we drove 2 hrs to Chattanooga Tennessee to spend the day at the Tennessee Aquarium. We walked in a room full of butterflies, watched sharks eat and saw fish, fish and more fish.
On Thursday after our return Maddi went to the eye doctor and tried out contacts. She is already tired of her glasses and after just 4 months of wearing them has now switched to contacts. She did great taking them out and putting them in and is very excited about them. If she sticks with catching in softball it will be better for her when she has to rip her face mask off.
So there is the summary, I will post several pics. now but will most likely post more and expand on the vacation a bit.
All packed up with bikes in tow with hopes of getting to ride the beautiful Tennessee countryside...but we only got in one ride around Renee's neighborhood.
Maddi and Abbey were hooked up to the dvd player all the way there and all the way back. Emmy is just trying to figure out where in the hell we are taking her this time.
The Arch
The arch, from...the arch.
Wow watching 12 hours of movies is tiring.
Wake up dude...your driving!
The Cave
This is a rock deep in the cave where a summer school class from 1903 signed their names that they had been there.
S W 1869 written on the roof of the cave two stories above the floor. Apparently this was one of the main explorers of this cave and he wrote his name on new rooms that he discovered. It was hard to understand how he wrote on the ceiling when it was two stories from the floor but the guide explained that some of the rocks moved when they were cutting in the stairway that went under this particular area.
There were many areas of the cave that had names and dates of past visitors.
The telescope at the planetarium. This room was completely dark aside from the very bright flash from my camera that blinded every person in the room. oops.
This room had a dome in the ceiling and when you stood directly across the dome from somebody you could whisper and they would hear you clear as a bell. If you moved just a foot to the left or right you could not hear them at all. It was very cool.
Breakfast at the Pfunky Griddle
More to come.....
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