Emily's First Cross Country Meet of the Season

Emily had a spectacular start to the running season today. She finished 14th among 100 7th and 8th grade girls. Jeff did a great job with the photography and captured many great shots.

Finish time

Poetry in motion

And they're off!

Part of the pack

Just for you, Paul

At Paul's request, here are pictures of the backyard projects from this summer. Please excuse the weeds, as the landscaping is not complete.

Here is the gazebo that makes the patio a little more usable, instead of a roaster.

The furniture inside the gazebo.

The recently completed swingset. This weekend we plan to fill in with more sand and make sure the concrete is not exposed.

Emily's First Day of 7th Grade

Can you believe that Emily started 7th grade yesterday? Here she is in a dress that she shopped for with a friend so that they could have matching outfits on the first day of school. And although you cannot see it, all of the girls went in last week for manicures and pedicures to start off the school year. We had so much fun that it will become a yearly tradition. On Sunday night, we had a "Welcome Back to School" celebratory dinner at PF Chang's and dessert at Maggie Moo's.

Emily already has a busy schedule lined up with cross-country running and dance. Compound that with both of her sister's schedules and I will need to start looking for a personal driver.

First Day of School 2007

Today marks the first day of school for Reese and Noelle. Reese is in Miss Richards' third grade class and Noelle is in Mrs. Cook's kindergarten class at Prairie Hills Elementary. Emily is the lucky duck today, as it was 6th graders only at Timberview Middle School. Her pictures will be up tomorrow.

July Update

Just an update to let you know how the month of July went. Please forgive the backwards chronology. By the time I remember that Blogger puts the pictures in on top of each other, I am already too far in and don't want to start over. But, the story is still the same.

Towards the end of July, we made our yearly pilgrimage to northern Minnesota. We started out by way of Cheyenne for Frontier Days. Lots of cowboys. Then we headed east into hot and humid weather. Blech. We made a stop in St. Paul for dinner with my brother and a trip to the Science Museum. We picked my aunt up at the airport and made the drive to my mom and dad's house to enjoy the mugginess and bugs. Oh, and the Korean food wasn't bad. Grandpa did take the girls fishing, and even Noelle caught some bass. Grandpa did help her cheat and she reeled in some of his, too. Enjoy the pictures below.

Here are the girls helping Mimi pick raspberries. Later, she made jam for us to truck across the country to my aunt and uncle's house and Paul and Judy's.

Here are Emily and Reese with Mimi and her birthday cake. The girls also picked out the flowers. And before you ask, Noelle was napping, that is why she is not in the picture.
Here are the girls at some rest stop in Nebraska. It just seemed like a nice spot to take pictures.
We stayed overnight in the St.Paul area. While there, we went to the Science Museum of Minnesota. Here is Reese extracting DNA.

Noelle at the telescopes. Reese and Emily doing a germ test.
Overlooking the Mississippi River. You would not believe that no more than 10 minutes after taking this picture, there was a horrible rain that dumped sheets of water. The water was blowing sideways and made driving difficult. We were drenched walking the 50 feet from our car to the hotel.

We were camping again in mid-July. Here are only a fraction of the children who usually are part of our camping group. We may soon qualify to use the group campgrounds. This time we were only about 45 minutes away in Woodland Park. However, it didn't look any different than the campgrounds that are 2 hours away, so we may be doing this more often.

Here are the girls in a field of flowers while we were on a hike.

4th of July camping trip

This past 4th of July, we were camping in Breckenridge, CO, where Jeff competed in the Firecracker 50 with some friends.

Emily at Dillon Reservoir

Noelle at the Reservoir

Reese at the Reservoir.

Justine at the Reservoir.

Florida Trip

We just returned from the Mulder-Vlieg-Hoolsema-Hutt Reunion held at the home of Rich and Lynne Mulder. We had a lot of fun and I actually came back with one more kid than I started out with. Jeff's niece, Justine, will be spending the month with us and I will take her home to Minnesota when I go back in July.

Noelle, who is always mugging for the camera.

Reese during the glass-bottom boat tour in Wakulla Springs State Park.

Emily

Gator

Sunning turtles

Girls at the pool on our way to Florida.

The girls in the Florida Caverns.

Grandma and Grandpa Mulder with only some of the great-grandchildren.

On Monday, we went to Panama City Beach. Imagine our surprise when we found out that the Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum was just down the street from where we were having lunch! Emily just loves that show and we are already planning on going back to the museum for an "interested parties only" tour so that she can actually read everything.

In the frigid waters of Wakulla Springs.

Seeing Joanne Off

This past Thursday, Jeff escorted Joanne on her first Farewell with deployment to Iraq.

Elephant Rock Ride

On June 3rd, Jeff rode in the Elephant Rock Century Ride and finished with a personal best of 5 hours, 40 minutes. Pictured above are a few co-workers who are also gluttons for punishment.

Happy Birthday to Reese!

Reese started celebrating her birthday last week when she had a sleepover with two of her friends. The party concluded the next morning when she had breakfast with her teacher, which was a prize she won at the silent auction held by her school's PTA the month before.

On her actual birthday, she provided a pizza party for her class and then went to the opening of Spider Man 3.

We were scheduled to take our annual Sand Dunes camping trip for her birthday, but some unexpected conflicts came up and we have postponed that trip for later in the season.

The cat cake Windy made at Reese's request.

Reese is 8!

Easter 2007

Easter was spent with Uncle Paul, Aunt Judy, Susan, Marie, Jessica and Julia.

Emily making deviled eggs.

We played many intense games of Scrabble and Jeff's laptop became the official dictionary.

Here sits "Michael the Mean".

Noelle

Reese

Spring Break 2007

This past week found us camping on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico at Mustang Island State Park near Corpus Christi, TX.

We could be found shelling, playing in the surf, sunbathing, building sand castles, hunting crabs (that were always returned to their respective habitats), and touring the local aquarium.

Jeff and Noelle feeding the birds.

Noelle catching crabs.

In the alligator pit at the Texas State Aquarium.

Goofing around on Pier 99.

Playing with the big guns from the USS Lexington.

A warning upon entering Mustang Island State Park.

After a ranger presentation at Padre Island National Seashore, the girls learned to shake out the seaweed and find interesting small creatures.

At dark, Jeff would take the girls out to find "ghost crabs".

One night, Emily and Reese stayed up late drinking and playing cards.

Building sand castles.

No matter where we go, Jeff has his mobile office ready to roll. Note-BlackBerry, laptop, mobile power unit and converter.

The beach at sunrise.

We are literally camped right on the beach.

Jeff picked up some kites for the girls. There was plenty of wind and it was hard not to be impressed with the flying ability of the kites. Here is Reese flying hers while the sun comes up.

Here we are with Ranger Buzz at Padre Island National Seashore.