5th Grade

Cole & Jo

Age 10

Football - Silks - Volleyball - Geocaching

Football is over for Cole, as I write this, and over all it was a very good season for him.  His team went 1-2-1 (plus 1 forfeit to add to the wins) for the season and Cole learned that he loves football more now than when he started.

First Touchdown Catch

(and Mom was recording at that moment)

Cole had two catches for touchdowns in his first season, a few punt catches with short returns and he made some great blocks and tackles on defense.

 

 (Click on our actual blog link to view the video)

He states he would like to take a break from sports for a while, practices for football were more demanding than any of his previous sports.  We will see how long he lasts before he asks about basketball or joining Jo at circus because he thinks climbing the silks look fun.

Circus Freak!

Jo is still enjoying circus and the silks.  She is one strong girl as her homework for this class is 60 sit ups & 60 push ups every day.

 The teachers are teaching the kids to pay attention to their form so Jo not only does these amazing flips, drops and hangs from the silks but she is looking more graceful as well.

 (Click on our actual blog link to view the video)

It's hard for me to stay away from watching the kids at every practice or activity because it's like sunshine in my heart, seeing our kids have such fun and succeed in what they love.  But I have started to leave Jo at circus to hopefully become more independent as the girl still was not talking to others in class including the teachers.  It only took about two weeks and I one of her instructors came up to me after class and said, "Jo is so funny.  She has started talking in class and she has such a good sense of humor and is a real joy." Yeah!  She speaks!  That only took about two years.  Again, sunshine in my heart but a little sad as I don't get to see all that she does.  Gosh, parenting is hard.

Volleyball w/ Derian

Made one of Derian's games this season and wow has she grown in strength and skills.  Sure is fun seeing the changes in her along with her confidence.

Always a good time when we spend it with family.

Geocaching...in the snow?

A whole new crop of caches have been set up along the McKenzie Hwy.  If we find 24 of the 36 we earn a coin specially made for these cache's.  So as a family, we headed out to the furthest caches because they will be snowed in soon.

The Observatory already had snow!

OK, I planned and packed for rain, not so much snow as it's only early October after all.

Brrr, was it ever cold but still quite a bit of fun as the kids didn't remember their first visit here.  We however will have to come back again when the sky is clear so we will be able to see all the mountains.

Two caches in the lava beds as the snow fell the whole time.

Another cache at the beginning of a trail that lead to a water fall.

Then we hiked to the waterfall.  This is the part of Geocaching that I love!  Hiking around with my family and seeing things we have not seen before.

All fun and games until Cole fell into the stream getting soaked (Uncle Todd would be proud), slightly hurt and he also broke out into a serious rash.

Oma was smart and had brought meds just in case this happened to him as this would be his third rash he has gotten in a week and we don't know why.  We watched him closely and after we got back to the car, changed cloths and got the heater on high he was getting much better.

We decided to grab one more quick cache for this day, or so we thought.

Now, we all know stories where people have done the one bad thing that leads to another bad thing.  Or rather, one stupid decision turns into another and then another and it snow balls into "What the #$^%^ were you thinking!!!"

Yes, this could have been really bad!

     1. We are driving our Avalon sedan.

     2. Dusk is upon us.

     3. No one knows where we are.

     4. It's still raining and quite cold.

Start of a perfect storm, right?

     5. Let's drive down this dirt road with no place to turn around and the car could high center on some of the washed out parts of the road.

Stop, back out of this road and go home.  Or don't.

     6. Park a mile in on this dirt road.

     7. Oma heads off alone to find this cache because the kids are wet and tired.

I know, we are so smart.

     8. Oma checks in stating "That path was almost straight down, I'm going to try over here for a better path."

Ok, now stop!  Get back in the car and head home.  Or Not.

     9. 1/2 hour later Mom decides to go look for Oma and sees "DID SHE REALLY GO DOWN THIS?" As I can not see to the bottom of this hill/cliff.

     10. I whistle and yell for Jill.  Oh...did I mention the river noise was LOUD!

What the @#$!% do I do now?  I can't leave the kids to go further.

Ok, we didn't send out a death notice nor did I post pictures of Oma in a hospital bed. (though if she does this again I might put here there myself).

Fifteen minutes after I started calling her name she was finally able to hear me and I knew she was ok.  Oma was wet, exhausted from the climb and she DIDN'T find the cache!

 Isn't it a pretty pool of water though?

We have new Geocaching rules, like if it's a cliff and your alone your not allowed to go by yourself!

Oh, and probably the other stuff above could be evaluated as well.

We headed out that dirt road in the dark and to the first restaurant we could find for some hot food and nerve calming time.  Oh, Jill tried to make some sort of dead joke on the drive back and I had to say "Too soon, Jill...too soon".  Not a feeling I ever want to have again.

Let us know if you want to see this beautiful pool of water and we will take you with us. 

     1. On a sunny day.

     2. Driving 4x4's.

     3. Letting some one know the plans for the day.

     4. Packing food & water. (more than what we had any way)

     5. Hiking together! On the easy path that we now know after the fact.

     6. In the year 2013!

At the very least you will get to be apart of our next great adventure of "What the @!&$% were we thinking"!

Epic Battle Oct. 2012

The kids and I think of Andrew (God Brother) often as he is over seas at the moment.  We came up with this idea of making a mini movie in honor of Andrew and this is what we came up with.

(I think the movie file size it to large for our blog as it will not load.)

Please click on this link below and it will take you to our movie at YouTube.

EPIC BATTLE Oct. 2012

(around 7 minute movie)

The whole project took only a couple of days and quite a bit of patients on Oma's part while I sat at the computer splicing it together.

Jo and Cole are scripting the next Epic Battle as the Epicness must go on!