Monday, July 28, 2014

A Few Views from our Trip

We traveled through 9 states...
Indiana
Illinois
Missouri
Kansas
Colorado
Wyoming
South Dakota
Minnesota
Iowa
Illinois
Indiana
and
saw some beautiful views.
Variations of the color green...
Land flatter than Kansas (in WY and SD)
Land with NO trees (WY and SD)
Drastic changes in landforms...around each corner
Animals...Plants...and more...

Here are a few of the nearly 300 pictures...
 

These pictures were taken on my last run in Boulder on Tues morning at Wonderland Lake area.

Obviously, Mount Rushmore





 In Wyoming...








At Badlands National Park...

















The sunset at Badlands NP...









Buffalo in Custer State Park...






 Pronghorn and a Prairie Dog...


Needles Highway (in the Custer/Black Hills area)...






Summer Awards


 Although the boys enjoyed climbing the equipment at the Fair, they also enjoyed doing the projects that they chose to present at the Fair.  I enjoyed watching both...the learning and the exploring!





Here the boys are standing in front of their displayed projects.

 JAKE'S WORK...
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Jake's chicken coop...complete with the roost, the nesting boxes, the water supply and the food along with a place to cool off under the coop.  Sounds like the one in our backyard! :)

(I took this with my phone and can't rotate it now)
 Jake wanted to do the splatter painting.  So, he chose to create a Tiger Shark by placing various shaped leaves on top of each other.  After some trial and error on how to splatter the paint, the end result was pleasing!


 JOE'S WORK

 Joe and I discussed models.  He wanted to build a barn. So, we started with that to create this mixed items scene of a farm.  He was very proud of his work and kept thinking of new things to add...Farmer Joe, the picture in the back, etc.
(can't rotate this one either)
Joe was eager to see what would happen with the blue dyed water and the plant.  Each day he enthusiastically exclaimed the current state of being for the plant.  He was very disappointed when the flower eventually began to die. But he also understood the science of what was happening.



While on vacation, we acquired 2 more Junior Ranger badges...


And then there are the swim season awards...
 Jake was the high point winner in his 8 and under age group.  And he received a certificate for his record breaking (3 times) 100 IM.
This is Jake and Nick...Jake broke Nick's 8&U IM record...and the same night, Nick broke the 18&U IM record.

 Joe and his ribbons from the season. He especially likes the blue ribbon from a relay! :)
 And Jake with his baseball trophies.  The right one was for participation and the left one is the 2nd place team trophy from the championship game his team played in.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Finished pottery

 We finally have the pottery in its finished form! 

Joe's tractor dishes...

 Joe's snowman plate...
 Jake's bowl...

 And Jake's burlap bag...
The boys were really excited to see the finished product and were happy with how it turned out!

8

 We celebrated Jake's 8th birthday!  

  On Sunday, we had the family over to enjoy celebrating.  So...we had an M&M ice cream cake then!


    And on Monday, we continued the fun. 
After swim practice in the morning, we stopped by the bakery to grab a donut.  Grammie and Grandpa were there, too.  So, we enjoyed eating donuts with them. 
Later we went to El Reparo for a taco lunch. And then we had dessert for dinner! :)Jake asked for chocolate cupcakes and mint chocolate chip ice cream!   


'Twas a fun celebration!!!! :) 

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Wood, fires, and a toad

 Josh and I spent some time splitting wood over the weekend.  Actually Josh did most of the labor.  But with the hot, humid summer we have had, it was overcast both days which helped a little! (?)

We also were able to burn a bunch of wood that just needed to be burned. 

In the process, a toad was found.  So, the boys proceeded to entertain themselves with the toad for quite some time.  (read that as..."poor toad")  They created a habitat in the wheelbarrow (water, bricks, grass, etc) and played with it there!



"wheeeee..."    Well, Joe's having fun!




an attempted escape

preparing to go down the slide

But the boys had fun and the toad survived...so it's all good!

Championship game

     Yep, you are looking at it.  The boys won each of their games leading up to the final game.  So, they got to play in the championship game on Friday night. 
     The team they played was pretty tough and our boys got beat.  But...they played much better against this team than what was true earlier in the season.  So, that was great to see. 

Another State Park

 This state park has more ups and downs...lots of ins and outs.   We started out crossing the river using a suspension bridge. 



 At one point we went into a canyon area...named Boulder Canyon.  The boys loved traversing the rocks and dodging the water spots through this area. 

  We discovered this solid tree across the path.  So, the boys each took a turn walking across it.  It was about 15 feet up...so a little scary! But they loved it and were glad they did it.






All in all, it was a fun day of hiking!