First Grade- First Day

Yes, it is the first day of school.  To give you a hint of the excitement in our house this morning, I am posting this before the boys even walk out the door to catch the bus.  They were both up when I got up at 6:20 and Connor was already dressed and had brushed his teeth twice.

Last night we went to Back to school night.  They met their teachers- Mrs. Krogh (Connor) and Mrs. Buck (Carson), brought their supplies, and saw where their lockers were.  Both of their teachers have taught for many, many years and are really great!  Their classrooms are right next to each other, but they are on different lunch/recess schedules, so they won't see each other very much.  I think it will be just fine though!

Here they are last night in front of their lockers:

And here is 20 minutes ago:

We can't have a first day of school without chocolate chip pancakes. 

They look so old to me in these pictures!  I'm excited for them and all that they will learn this year.   

Ranch hands and power plants

The rest of our trip out west was filled with new adventures and learning opportunities.  On Thursday we drove to Belfield, ND to the ranch that uncle Paul grew up on.  We rode horses, fed sheep, collected eggs, rode on 4-wheelers, rode in tractors, shot trap, ate good home-cooked food, celebrated two birthdays and were exhausted after it all.  Here are the pics to prove it....

Uncle Paul gave a little lesson in roping a calf. 

On Friday we drove to Center, ND where Minnkota's power plant  in located.  I often take electricity for granted- it was amazing to see how it all works.  I still don't fully understand it all, but have a new appreciation when I flip the light switch on. 

Hard hats and safety goggles were the apparel of the day.  Not so great for the hair, but better than a concussion or worse!

Inside the plant was hot and noisy.  We had to were headset and grandpa wore a microphone so we could hear him talk.

A sub-station in the background- don't ask me what it does- at least I got the name right.

This is the mine where they get the coal from.  The machine in the background is called a drag line.  It removes the dirt and soil so they can get to the coal.  It was absolutely huge!!!!!  The angled white arm is longer than a football field. 

You better watch out or that piece of coal could end up in your stocking in a few months.....

This is one of the buckets the drag line used to scoop the dirt with.  The size was yet again amazing!

We got to ride in a haul truck.  This truck is loaded with coal at the mine and then drives it to the power plant where it unloads it into a holding tank in the ground. 

Those are tires of the haul truck.  Gives you a little perspective of how huge the trucks are. 

This is one of 3 female drag line operators in the whole country.  Kaelynn also showed us how dirty you can get in a coal mine. 

We had a great time in Bismarck and beyond.  We are now looking forward to our trip to San Diego tomorrow.  Hope you all are doing well!

On the road again....

We have been on the road in the month of August more than we have been home.  We had a great trip to IA and MN and last week we had the opportunity to go to Bismarck for Grandpa in ND's company picnic.  It was special for us all to be there- especially for grandpa.  It was held at the zoo in Bismarck which also has a small amusement park.  The kids had a blast- as did the adults.  Here are some highlights:

Taking a trip on the zoo train- a great way to see the whole zoo :)

No explanation needed....

One of the grizzly bears at the zoo.  He was sweet from behind the glass!

Driving the go-karts.  A scary picture of what is to come.  At least I have 9+ years to prepare myself.

Grandpa even got in a little golf lesson.  Kaelynn's first golf outing was pretty successful!

The fun didn't stop there though.  The next day was filled with more adventures.  More to come.......

Family and Friends

We have been home for a couple of days now and I am getting caught up on cleaning and laundry.  We spent last week in IA and MN and had a great time!  It was so fun to be able to attend the weddings of two special couples.  We felt very blessed to be able to celebrate with them.  We were able to see so many people that are so special to us while we were there.  It felt like we had just seen all of these people a couple of weeks ago.  It's hard to believe that we have been gone from there over a year. 
The Martin family is a family that is very near to our hearts.  We stayed with them while we were down there.  The girls- Kelsey, Mary, and Ashley babysat our kids while we lived in IA and no one compares to them.  Julie and Tim are good friends and it was great to catch up. 

Ashley let Kaelynn wear this flower girl dress that she wore when she was Kaelynn's age.  Kaelynn loved it!!!!

We also got to spend some time with my family in MN.  We went to some really fun places including the Maple Grove Maze (a big indoor play area with lots of tunnels and slides) and Valleyfair.  We got to see my cute pregnant sister and spend great time with cousins. 

We couldn't leave Valleyfair without devouring a bag of Cotton Candy.  HMMMM so good!!!!

I would have taken more pics at Valleyfair except that it was so hot and humid that my camera lens fogged up.  It was like that for a majority of the day.  I was slightly bummed :( 

We are headed out to Bismarck for Minnkota's company picnic and then next week we head to San Diego for a couple of days with some others from church.  We are excited for these times, but also looking forward to the end of travels and the beginning of routine and school :)   

Football camp

Yesterday the boys got a cool opportunity to start thinking about the sport of football and to start working on some football skills.  Phil Hanson a previous NDSU football player and a Buffalo Bills defensive end from 1991-2002 puts on a free football and fitness camp every summer for kids at Fargo South.  Everyone got a T-shirt and then they were put into groups and went through stations to practice football skills for each position on the team.  It was very hot and humid, but the boys worked hard and really tried their best. 

Andy had a meeting, but I kept thinking how much fun he would have had seeing his boys playing the sport he loves so much!  I took lots of pictures and some video so he could get a glimpse of it.

Here's the best picture I could get of Phil Hanson.  He walked around to each of the stations and tried to give some pointers.  He was a big guy!!!    

Here are some action shots of the boys doing some of the skills:

Kaelynn got in on the first skill, but didn't do much after that.  Somehow I don't think her future lies in football :)

Carson had a great catch!

They had to practice tackling.  They were told to wrap around the dummy and push through it- not jump on it.  Both of them did really well with this.

This was the quaterback exercise.  They had to pick up the ball from that orange table and step back.  They were told which color to throw it to and they had to do it before the beep or they would be "sacked".  Carson did very well with his aim. 

They had to practice being handed the ball and tucking it in and then running to the right or left in order to not get tackled. 

Connor has a great 3-point stance!  He might follow in his father's footsteps!

They even got to practice kicking and punting.  Who doesn't like to kick a ball? 

It was really fun to watch them.  It got me pretty excited for the possibility of sitting at high school football games every Friday night cheering on my son/sons!!!  We'll see what God has in store!