wonderful

This weekend was the Detroit Free Press Marathon. Four of my girlfriends and I decided to do the Marathon Relay again. We did it 2 years ago and thought it would be great to do it again, and it was! It ended up being an amazingly beautiful sunny, yet chilly day. We were on the road to downtown at 6 am. I was the last leg of the race this time, a 4.2 mile stretch. By the time I was off, the 28 degree temp. from the am had gone to mid 40's but way sunny so I couldn't complain. I ran along the riverfront and it was gorgeous. We had a blast and were glad for the fun time together. The pic on the left was from the night before when we picked up our race packets and out to "carb load" together. You can see by the layers on us in the morning, it was typical cold weather Michigan morning.

eventful

Elyse with the girls.

Elyse and her friend Melissa on the left, Hannah on the right.

Elyse and Wayne.

The way cool car!

Elyse went to two homecomings. She was invited to go with a SENIOR to the other high school's homecoming. After much discussion we decided to let her go. She really wanted to go because she has another good friend who goes to the other school and she wanted to see her there. The boy happened to be just a friend in the end which was just great with us! The best thing was he pulled up in a 57 convertible chevy to pick her up (his grandpa's car). She had a fun time and was home safe and sound by curfew.

The weekend after that she went with a group of friends to her own school's homecoming. They went out to dinner first and then to the dance. We were the chauffers to and from and we liked that much better than her going in a car with a boy. We all can't believe how incredibly pretty she has gotten and grown up-where do the years go?

hectic!

Owen in goal, one he missed, but they won the game 3-2.

The happy football player!

Annual first day of school shot. Tyler is holding up 5 fingers for fifth grade, Owen six and, surprisingly, Elyse refused to hold up finger b/c it was "too stupid". She is first year at high school-9th grade!

Wow, we go back to school and everything kicks in gear again. Elyse started high school swimming in mid-August and had her first meet this week. The team didn't do so well but she got a third place and continues to work on improving her time. No pictures but as soon as I can I'll take some to show. She was very nervous that first day but seems to be enjoying it and not too much homework yet. She's gone to her first football game and is enjoying hanging out with all of her friends. Owen started middle school and seems to like it. He is very happy to go to school each day so far and says his legs are worn out from walking so fast to get from class to class before the tardy bell rings. His soccer team played in a tournament 2 weekends ago and took 2nd overall. His regular season started today and they are playing very well. Tyler had his first football game yesterday, they won but getting a photo is tough b/c they all look the same. I'll work on it next game. He is number 88, plays both offense and defense and is loving tackling. He loves his new teacher (that would be me!) and is enjoying fifth grade so far. My class is great so far, only 18 in my fifth grade. I have my first soccer game tonight with our women's over 30 league-I fully expect to not be able to breathe! My days are spent picking kids up and dropping off and getting ready for each new school day. I usually put the kids to bed by 9, read for 30 minutes and then fall asleep quick! Brian has a different year going on at school this year. He is actually teaching a technology class to a group of 20 kids and seems to be enjoying it although he's not used to the planning part. He's busy driving the kids around to everything as well . It's a crazy time of year but I wouldn't change it for a thing!

satisfying

Brian and the boys at the waterpark.

The girls at the waterpark.

The group of silly stringers.

We weren't able to get much of a connection in Wisconsin so I had to wait until we got home. We had a fun time in the Dells but not sure what the great appeal is to so many. It was an extreme tourist trap-similar to Niagra Falls. We went to Noah's Ark-the nation's largest waterpark and that was big fun, although the weather could have been warmer. Our friends the Robars & Zieglers arrived on Saturday and spent our last day and a half hanging out with them. Sunday the kids had a silly string fight and later we did a pub crawl in town while the kids had fun staying back at camp making a homemade slip and slide. I don't have pictures of our "crawl" b/c I didn't bring the camera. We left 9 am Monday morning and arrived back at home at 7:30 pm.

Our trip was 28 days total-an amazing amount of time to spend together with family and spouse. I would say it was quite successful overall. We are still married and were able to get along pretty well. The kids (like us) had their moments but were great too. I found having Elyse bring a friend worked wonders for all, although I'm not sure if Melissa will come with us again (LOL). Another thing that worked well was having the kids earn points for treats when we stopped-it was well worth the 5 dollars a couple times a day on those long drives! We traveled thru/saw 9 states and realized we've been to 36 states so far. For those of you with just started families, I highly recommend saving money, renting a camper and seeing our country-it is truely incredible! I'll continue to blog here and there to keep those in our family or friends who live out of state up to date on some of the highlights of our year. Look again after the start of the school year since we'll have one in high school, one in middle and one in elementary-YEE-HAH!

bumpy

Wow, what a ride. Probably the bumpiest ride the entire trip, there was no napping, that's for sure! We're here in the "Wisconsin Dells" at our campground. It's very similar to my mom's place, Sandy Pines. We haven't officially seen the Dells part just where we are camping. The river is right here and there is a cool play thing for the kids in the water. There is also an excellent pool to swim in. We left at 8:30 today and arrived at 3:30, not too bad. Of course, we stopped and got some cheese curd-delicious! Kids were great for the most part. Tomorrow, we are going into town to check it out. The connection here is incredibly slow so there may be no pictures for a few days-we'll see.

easy

We love Yogi Bear at Jellystone! He makes a daily visit for picture opportunities around the park-we were lucky enough to catch him.


Today Brian and the boys hung out around the camper and pool most of the day. I took the girls to the mall that's about 15 minutes away. The girls had fun trying on most anything while I watched and spent money. We found many terrific deals for back to school and I found new shoes for a wedding that's just around the corner! We missed a beautiful day but had lots of fun together. We're off to our last destination tomorrow morning-Wisconsin.

monumental

Cuties at Mount Rushmore.

Family shot!

I swear, it wasn't my idea (LOL)!!

Thr rolling hills of South Dakota-we saw lots of that!

Today we slept in a bit and then hooked up our camper to be on our way again. Our first stop was Mount Rushmore, up the mountain again! It was very neat and looks just like it does in all of the pictures. Nonetheless, we did enjoy it and walked around for about an hour. After that, we were on our way to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It was a "monumental" drive, felt extremely long and we were very ready to be done driving after being in the car 8 more hours. Our camping spot is at a Jellystone with a pool, "hot tub", basketball court, and bouncy thing-the kids are thrilled! They quickly jumped out of the car in search of something to do-fine by us. Two nights here and then off to Wisconsin-one week left of vacation.