Update on the weird cylinder thing...

According to my mechanically inclined brother, that weird cylinder thing found at the Iowa rest area is:

"The weird cylinder thing is used to make drains and drain sewers............be sure to tell the kids that I'm pretty sure they don't clean those things before donating them to way-side rests............."

Which brings to question, why is it at a rest area?

Noelle's First Day of Preschool...

and Mom didn't even cry (much).

Camping Trip

This past weekend, Jeff participated in the Stonewall Century Ride. We took this opportunity to sqeeze in a camping trip. Here is a picture of the girls at the park in La Veta, CO, which is where we waited for Jeff as he finished his ride.

First Day of School

Here is Reese on her first day of 2nd grade at Prairie Hills Elementary School.

Noelle wanted to get in on the picture taking action. She starts preschool on Monday, August 21.

Here is our resident middle schooler. Emily started 6th grade at Timberview Middle School.

Trip to Minnesota

The girls and I decided to take a spur-of-the-moment surprise trip to Minnesota to see my parents. Luckily, my parents rolled with it and didn't send me back home. I first stopped in Cheyenne, WY for an overnighter with my aunt, uncle and their 4 "kids". Here is a picture from the next morning depicting a Wyoming sunrise through a bug-smeared windshield.

We, of course, got Grandpa to take us fishing. Here is Emily with her first catch of the day.

We made a brief stop in St. Paul and had breakfast with my brother.

Here is that weird cylinder thing located at a rest area in Iowa. Someday, I will find out what it is.

Here is Reese with her first catch of the day. She caught this bass and many other fish that would become our dinner. She gave me a run for my money and kept a running tally of how many fish she and I caught.

Our trip overlapped by one day with a trip that my uncle and cousin from Olympia, WA made. Here is my cousin, Sam, playing in the hotel pool with the girls.

Noelle disturbing the goat's breakfast at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, NE.

The girls enjoying lunch.

The girls getting silly at lunch.

Noelle wanted to catch a fish so bad, but settled on having her picture taken with one of the fish that I caught. She proudly claimed all of the fish that were mine in the live well and told everyone about all of the fish she caught.

Kristeen and the Girls are in Town

Reese, Noelle, Kayla, Madison and Emily

Noelle and Madison

Reese, Emily, Noelle and Kayla

Madison

Kayla and Jeff

Emily and Kayla

Kristeen, Madison and Noelle

AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Can you believe this? Someone hit my car!

We were at one of Reese's T-ball games and when we came back to the parking lot, we noticed this little present that someone left for us. Of course, there was no name, no number and no one stepped forward to say that they saw anything.

We just can't have nice things...

The Concrete Jungle

Today, we had some concrete work done at the house. This is part 3 in a series of landscaping projects that we have planned for this summer. About 1 month ago, Jeff rebuilt my front flower beds. Then, we added some river rock to the flower beds and replaced some salmon colored rock that was along the south side of the house with the same river rock. Look for future pictures of the final three phases that we hope to have completed by the end of the summer. These include: a new flower bed in the front yard, a vegetable and herb garden in the back yard and a retaining wall in the back yard. Please excuse the lack of chronological order with the pictures. Blogger does not seem to put the pictures in the same order that I give them.

We had extensions put on the side of the driveway.

The completed patio. The small gray slab originally measured 10'x10'. We increased the size to 18'x30'.

This walkway is a much needed addition and replaces some barely functioning patio pavers.

Another great feature that was added in was a walkway from the back gate to the patio.

There was a crew of about 10 guys hauling in wheelbarrow loads of wet cement to get this job completed. When we were given the time estimate of 1 day for completion, we thought they were nuts. However, they blew our expectations out of the water and proved us wrong.

Memories forever...much to Jeff's chagrin.

Before the walkway goes in...

The crew cleared away so much rock that had been on the side of the driveway and house. When Jeff and I did some rock clearing, it took us so many hours to do just a minuscule portion of what these guys did. The guys managed to get it done in only 3 hours. The rock that you see in the driveway there is going to fill in and replace the red rock around the walkway and patio and had been used to replace some rock in the front flower beds and along the south side of the house.

The lonely original slab is about to be increased by 500%.

T-Ball!

Jeff has taken on the ginormous task of coaching Reese's T-Ball team this summer. Tuesday was the team's first game.

Reese up to bat.

Reese on first base and Jeff is first base coach.

Random Acts of Photography

Pictures taken by Reese and Noelle.

Evolution of Dance

This is pretty funny!

School's Out For Summer...(Do your best Alice Cooper impression here)

Reese's teacher reading the note that Reese wrote for her.

Emily shaking hands with the principal, Mrs. Ford, after receiving her 5th grade diploma.

Thursday was the last day of school for Emily and Reese. The entire 5th grade class celebrated with a pancake breakfast and a video slideshow featuring baby pictures and memories of the past year. There were many tears from teachers and parents, too.

Reese's class marked the end of the year with a pizza and room cleaning party. The first graders were excited to clean tables and put away books. I just wish Reese would be that excited to clean her own bedroom.