Coming Soon

This past weekend we went down to Hershey, PA to compete in a half marathon. When we signed up in June i had visions of a workout schedule all summer and improving our health along the way. For the most part those stayed as visions, haha. Ok so it didnt go quite as planned, didnt get the boys registered like i wanted to and i was not able to work out as much as planned but we did go, we had some great family time and Robert and I completed the half marathon. we walked it but that was the goal all along, well mine at least, Roberts was to not be last so we made that goal also, finished and not in last place. Anyway we took tons of pictures and i will get them loaded on here this weekend. But as a brief summary we drove down there, went to Chocolate World, did a trolley tour of Hershey and learned all about Mr Hershey, he was an incredible man. We made our own chocolate candy bars, we swam at the hotel, we went to Hershey park (well half of it), we participated in the race, we went back to Chocolate world, did the tour within the building, shopped in the gift shop, then drove home. Left at 730 am on saturday morn and back to our house at 845 pm sunday night, quite the whirlwind, but fun. check back for pictures sometime this weekend.

Michele's Birthday

All gathered around for Michele's Birthday cake, Robert did such a nice job making that for me didn't he. Ok i think Wegmans did a better job.

You can't see her side of the cake but there is a lot of frosting missing.

Ohio Trip May 2010

While in Ohio we went to the Bass Pro Shop.

Grandma Brice being a little crazy.

Kenzie trying to get away from us, really i think she wanted to get through the gate at the top to feed the fish.

The big fish tank, we watched the lady feed them and it was incredible.

We had a little mishap with the trailer and a few things falling off so the next stop we made we took a few pictures to make sure we would know what was missing if it happened again and Grandma Brice couldn't resist getting in the picture.

Cedar Point May 2010

While in Ohio we went to Cedar Point. I will warn you there are no pictures of TJ, Robert or Dustin because they took off and went to do the big rides. I did a few of them with Robert and Grandma Brice watched the other kids. Nick who is not a big fan of the big rides walked around with Kenzie and helped her alot. We also saw a couple shows while we were there and they were great.

Nick and Kenzie waiting in line.

Nick is really enjoying himself isn't he?

Nick and Kenzie floating around on some ride.

Here they are again.

Great Wolf Lodge May 2010

Over Memorial day we went to Ohio and while we were there we stayed at Great Wolf Lodge. Grandma Brice enjoyed the trip with us.

Kenzie sitting in the wolf chair waiting for us to do something i am sure, i think we were just trying to gather everyone so that we could do the next activity. who knows, maybe she just wanted to sit there.

The whole family sitting in front of the fireplace, every family that goes there has to have a fireplace picture, its just tradition i am sure.

At night they had a DJ and a dance party so we were in the lobby dancing. Kenzie and Michele were there also but we were taking the picture, where is Robert, i have no idea!!

Washington DC trip with the 8th graders

Nick is the back left hand corner, this is the whole bus that i spent 3 days with.

Nick and his buddy Dan in front of the White House

Nick in front of the Eternal Flame at Kennedy's gravesite.

Nick in front of the Supreme Court if my memory serves me right

That is a sillouette of Nick at the Lincoln Memorial.

Oops i guess i forgot how to do this, that i have to post the pictures first and then put the description, oh well at least i got the info here for you to read about it.

I spent 3 full days on a bus, 1 bus of 6, with a total of about 280 kids. We left at 7am on Thurs and came back around 11pm on Sat. We went to many musuems, ESPN zone for dinner and medieval times. For the most part the kids behaved but we also had the kids that were just plain horrible. But i did not have any of those kids in my group. they are pretty flexible while you are at a place, giving the kids freedom and the ability to walk around at their own pace. i told my 8 girls that they could go out on their own at the places and if they didnt check back in when they were supposed to i would by walking with them the rest of the time, i think that scared them enough because they all did what i told them to do. here are some pictures

Silly random pictures

Kenzie likes to wear Robert's hat

Kenzie wants to be like her big brothers and read the comics

Grandma brought some fun costumes for Kenzie to wear

What's been going on?

Many things have been going on since April, since i last updated the blog. i don't want to overwhelm but i am going to try to post a bunch of pictures to catch everyone up on our life. but here is a brief update.

Kenzie's foot heeled great, so that was a relief.

April and May, Nick played lacrosse for the school. He really enjoys the sport and cant really get enough of it.

May had Michele and Nick going to Washington DC for the 8th grade trip. 3 days, 6 buses, 280 kids. it was a blast. They saw all the monuments, the capital, a few museums, ESPN zone, the zoo, Medieval times, and a lot of walking!!!

May and June the whole family ran the concession stand for the junior baseball program.

May also had Grandma Brice coming to help while we did the concession stand and Michele had a few training classes. During memorial day weekend we went to visit Mike and Chris in Ohio, really to take some things to store in their garage and while we were there we stayed at Great Wolf Lodge and went to Cedar Point. They offered a great deal for military families so we took advantage of it.

June, Dustin started recreational soccer and is having a blast!!! He only has a couple of games left.

June also had Dustin finishing 5th grade so he will be moving up to the middle school. Nick finished 8th grade so he will be moving up to 9th grade and early morning seminary.

June we decided to have a pool put in our backyard. it has been a great thing for us to play together as a family and many friends come over to enjoy it with us.

July has brought summer camps and relaxing. So far TJ has been looking for a job and working out. Nick has been in a lacrosse tournament and spent the last week at the military base with Robert participating in a camp. He will attend boy scout camp this upcoming week. Dustin has been in summer recreation camp where he got to go to Seabreeze (a local small but fun amusement park), learned how to sailboard on canandaigua lake, and also gone to the military base for camp. The next 2 weeks he will be acting camp where they will be learning and then performing Beauty and the Beast jr. He is very excited about this and then his summer will wrap up with 1 more week of summer rec camp. Kenzie well she is haning out with her brother and going to the YMCA with Michele.

The rest of the summer could bring some exciting things, but you will have to tune in later to find out what we have done.

I will post some pictures in a little bit.

Kenzie's Accident

Here is Kenzie with her temporary cast on. She fell down the ladder trying to get to the top of the slide. She had done it many times but i guess she just didnt do it right this time. Took her to the ER after she cried for about 4 hrs, we were in and out in record time, only 1 1/2 hrs, but they told us nothing was wrong. then this morning the orthopedic office called to say that the xrays did show 3 fractures so i had better bring her in. she did great each time with the dr and when he felt it and then had her walk on it she grimaced in pain at just the right time so he said yep, put the temporary cast on and said to try to keep her off it for 7 - 10 days, i said yeah right, so i am getting a kid size hard shoe/boot thing for her to wear which will keep it still but allow her to still walk. ok that is the story for now.

Really Random Pictures

Hard to tell what this is but Nick had spent the night at a friends house and when i went to bring him home i got out to get him and dustin took my phone and took a picture. they are making a fort in the background and i think nick was upset that i made him come home.

Dustin and Robert were wrestling during the super bowl, dustin fell off the couch and got this rug burn and insisted that we take a picture, so i went one step further to post it on the blog. he still claims that robert pushed him.

Kenzie is getting ready to go outside, she has her overalls on, boots and hat we were just missing the coat.

Dustin was in ski club and they strongly encouraged kids to have helmets which we followed. He loved ski club and wants to get a season pass next year. Everytime Kenzie saw the helmet she went to it as fast as she could and put it on, it made her very top heavy though

Can you figure out which one doesnt belong. For our anniversary we went and walked around the outlet mall near our house and in the old navy store are the maniquiens (sp) from the commercials so robert just had to get in there, oops did i give away the answer? when kenzie sees this picture she thinks that is our dog even though our dog is black.

Pinewood Derby

This was Dustin's car this year. it did not win as a fast car but it sure won as a nice looking car. Dustin designed it by himself. He was in ski club this year and loved it so that was on his mind when he designed it

We have kept all the cars that the boys have made over the years. Robert made this display shelf to show them all off

These 5 were TJ's. he joined a school den when he was younger and so that is why he has 5 of them

these 3 were nicks

and these 3 were dustin's, plus the ski one but we could not display it yet cause he had to race it

Pinewood Derby

There are supposed to be cars going across this track but i am not a very good photographer.

The boys all getting ready

Getting ready for their cars to go down the track

The boys all showing off their cars

Niagara Falls Trip

Over winter break in feb TJ and Nick were camping with the boy scouts so Dustin, Kenzie and I went to Niagara Falls and stayed at a hotel with Robert. Robert and Dustin were keeping a close eye on Kenzie

Kenzie is thrilled to be in the water but on the steps while Robert is dunking Dustin in the background

If you look real close Dustin is trying to flex his muscles

Kenzie chilling on the chair waving at the others in the water

There was a deck around the pool and when Kenzie stepped on it left these foot prints that i thought were pretty neat

Just our life pictures

February at work is a busy month in general and to add budgets on that is a little stressful, so i made this neat sign for my door and closed my door which rarely happens unless i am not there, hoping that people would let me work, it didnt work real well though. i think it took me about a month to get my budget done. some of that probably is due to the fact that i get so distracted and just start working on other things.

Out to dinner over winter break from school. the place was ponderosa which over the last year has pretty much gone downhill so we wont be going there ever again if i can help it

Kenzie is in a class at the YMCA called Step in "Two" learning. it is for 2 year olds, hence the name. and they only meet once a week for 1 1/2 hours just to get them used to being away from parents and expose them to a structured program. she loves going and this is a picture of her during her valentines party

The boy sitting next to her is named Jon, his mom is a coworker of mine and he was born like 7 weeks after Kenzie so they spend a lot of time together. it is fun watching the 2 of them grow up together, it has been mentioned that they fight like brother and sister and also like husband and wife.

Helping the YMCA

My kitchen was converted into a workshop over the holidays. The YMCA was starting a new Legos Robotics program and needed a special table built to run the robots on.

Kenzie is helping out

Robert showing off his work.

The YMCA used to have a set of uneven parallel bars from their gymnastics program. Robert spend about 2 hours dismantling them for me, here is a picture of some of it, i was not able to get anymore, oh well. The closet that they were in holds 3 large inflatables (bounce house, 18 ft slide and obstacle course) so we needed some more room. Thanks robert for your help.