Fall Sports

I love Fall!  It is one of my favorite times of year.  I love the weather change, pulling out those comfortable jeans & sweatshirts, no jackets yet, the fall colors, and SPORTS!  I love the start of a new school year and volleyball and football starting up.  We had a blast watching Sean start his first year of tackle football.  I was worried about what he'd think since he hates being "tossed around" by Zach.  But he LOVED it.  He's just like Zach when he says he likes the idea of being able to "hit" someone & not get in trouble for it.  And Sean did great.  He even scored a touchdown this first year.  He's working hard to not gain 5 lbs this whole year so that next year he won't be red-striped.  Once you hit a certain weight, you get red-striped and can no longer carry the ball.  That doesn't sit well with Sean.  

Sean, stretching before the game

Ready to "hit" hard

Zach loves football!  He's in the heavy weight league, so everyone gets to carry the ball because they're all big kids.  He's the go to guy for those short touchdown passes.  He loves it.  Zach had a little set back this year, separating his shoulder during a football game.  Unfortunately he was not able to play in the play-offs after his injury.  And then to rub salt in the wound, his undefeated team ended up losing the championship game.  Zach was pretty disappointed.  Luckily he's still young & has many years of football left!

   

Touchdown!

Sacking the quarterback (he's #93)

And Lauryn enjoyed her last year of volleyball before high school by playing on a school team and a Champlin league.  The fun part was that the Champlin team was all St. Vincent friends.  So basically she got to play with school friends on both teams.  The Champlin team had a wonderful season.  They were undefeated through the season as well.  But unfortunately they lost a game during the play-offs & didn't win the championship either.  She's excited to start volleyball at Totino Grace next year though! 

Ready...

Spike

First Day of School 2011

Another year & another summer down.  I tell you, I feel like I just keep posting first day of school pictures.  It's so hard to comprehend that another year has flown by.  And as I write this, it is already December & this school year is close to being half done.  This is Lauryn's last year of Junior High.  Next year she will be in High School.  That just amazes me.  Zach is in 6th grade this year.  He's loving the fact that he is finally old enough to also be on the school's sports teams.  And Sean...  3rd grade already.  I love my kids ages & the fact that they are little people that we can enjoy.   

First Day of School

Zach, Lauryn, & Sean

Iron Girl

Where to begin with my story of Iron Girl?  I decided to register for this race since a lot of my friends were doing it.  I had just gotten a nice tri bike for Christmas last year & figured it should get put to good use!  But still, I had not taken the time to go out for one bike ride to train for the biking portion.  So the morning of, we are unloading my bike and hear a hiss.  It occurs to me that it sounds like air leaking.  Sure enough, my front tire was flat.  Jim had brought all the tools to blow it up again, but nothing was fixing that wheel.  Thankfully Iron Girl had bike repair men that took a look at it & totally replaced my tube in the tire (& for FREE!).  I was so thankful.  So I walk my bike to the transition area & just in that short amount of time it took me to walk, my front tire was flat AGAIN!  So I stand in line again and they replace the tire again & do a good inspection of the tire to make sure there is nothing in there that is popping the tube.  This time it works & I am relieved (however, I am still nervous that I'll get in to transition after my run portion & it will be flat again).  The race starts and my wonderful friend Carol & I decide we're going to do it together!  So we run our first leg of the race & come in transition to start our bike portion.  And "Amen", the wheel is good to go.  So we set out for the 22 mile bike race & we're going strong.  Just after seeing mile marker 15, I run something over with my bike & feel it pop out from under the tire.  Within a minute, all of a sudden I get a whoosh of air & my back tire is flat.  Now how can one person have THREE flat tires in one day?!?!  Thankfully a volunteer radioed in for the bike repair men to come out but they said it was going to be awhile.  So, Carol (who I owe huge) decides to stay with me.  And then she suggests we start running & let the repair men come up on us.  That way we'll save time & still be moving & making some distance.  Well, we ended up running over FOUR miles WITH OUR BIKES!  By the time they got to us, we were pretty much the last few bikers coming in from the bike portion of the race.  And now that we've run these additional miles, we now have to finish up with another portion of running again.  Although I was pretty disappointed about the circumstances, Carol & I sure had a great time laughing about the situation.  And I'm pretty proud of us for sticking with it & finishing!  And I have Carol to thank for staying with me & keeping me going.  I will always remember this race, that's for sure! 

 Thank you so much Repair Man!

 Before the race - Carol & Todd and Jim & I

 We thought we were going good on the bikes...

 We are Two Tough Cookies! 

Yes, this bike, these wheels...



Our Crazy Group

Canning with my sister!

My sister & I kept with our tradition to can again this year.  Well, I really should say I canned with my sister and her husband, Pat... because Pat does A LOT of the work for us!  This year we decided to also can spaghetti sauce and I am in love with it!  I don't think I'll ever buy another jar in the store again.  It's such a fun time to spend with my sister and the whole family enjoys salsa & now spaghetti sauce for the year!  Can't wait to continue the tradition again next year. 

Alaska!

We just returned home from the most amazing vacation in Alaska!  There was not one day that went by where I was not thankful to have this opportunity, breathe in the beauty, & get to experience all that we did.  We took a family vote & this was all 5's favorite vacation ever!!!

We started off with a week on land where we toured Anchorage, Fairbanks, Denali National Park, & Seward.  Our highlights were walking the farmers market in Anchorage, seeing a moose walking right in the city of Anchorage, taking a dome train ride through the mountain range & seeing Mount McKinley (only 3% of tourists actually get to see it - you need a clear day), touring Denali National Park & seeing all the wildlife.  Once we got to Seward, that is where we boarded the cruise.

Next we spent a week on the Celebrity Millennium Cruise Ship.  While on the cruise we cruised by Hubbard Glacier and ported in Juneau, Skagway, Icy Strait Point, Ketchikan, & ended in Vancouver.  We did some amazing excursions during our ports.  In Juneau we went on a whale watching excursion where we saw breaching humpback whales & a pod of orca whales.  While in Skagway, we took a helicopter ride up on top of a glacier, got out & went dog sledding, & then took the helicopter ride back down.  In Ketchikan, we went on a bear excursion & got to experience a momma bear protect her 2 cubs from another bear that wanted to share food.  Then once we landed in Vancouver, we stayed an extra day & enjoyed Grouse Mountain, walked one of the largest suspension bridges over Capilano Canyon (450 ft long & 230 ft high), walked the Cliffwalk over the canyon as well, & hiked through the rain forest.  Vancouver is absolutely breath taking!

We took 971 pictures while on this vacation & yet none of them truly capture the "aw" of the moment.  And now I sit, trying to figure out which pictures to post & what are the best stories to share.  I could obviously go on & on, as we just had the most amazing time ever.  So, I am going to do my best to try to limit the amount of pictures posted, but here are my favorites:

 We saw this moose on the outskirts of Anchorage while taking a trolley ride through the city

 We took this picture while on the train ride, Mount McKinley is way out there

 Denali National Park

 We saw 13 caribou

 Our family in Denali National Park

 We saw 6 Grizzly Bear while in Denali National Park

 Bon Voyage!

 While on the cruise, we sailed near Hubbard Glacier

 Our family in front of the Glacier

 The kids on formal night

 Our family in Juneau

 Our whale watching excursion - we saw Humpback whales

 And we saw tons & tons of seals

 And we saw a pod of Orca whales

 In Skagway, we first took a helicopter ride on top of a glacier

 Then we went dog sledding

 In Ketchikan, we went on a bear excursion.  We were on a boat that brought us to many streams, where the bears feed.  Notice the bear in the back ground?

 Here's the Momma bear & her cubs.  We ended up seeing 16 black bear!

 Our family, on the cruise

 Docking in Vancouver

 The top of Grouse Mountain, notice the blue mountains in the middle of this picture?  I love it!

We walked the Capilano Suspension Bridge, over a canyon

 And we walked the cliff walk over the canyon

And time to head home.  We had 13 bags of luggage, all full to the 50 lb. max. weight limit!  

It was bittersweet as the vacation came to an end. On one hand, we were all having the times of our lives. The boys loved that they could eat pizza & ice cream at any time of the day, all day long. Lauryn & I were enjoying the shows & night life. Jim loved not stressing about work. Yet, we were all ready to get home after being gone so long & we all couldn't wait to see the dogs. And it was time for us all to try to get back on schedule before school starts up. Alaska is 3 hours earlier than MN, so we were eating dinner at 7:00 (10:00 here), going to bed at midnight (3:00AM here), and waking up at 9:00 (noon here). So we've been having lazy days at our house since returning!

Outer Banks - Corolla, NC

To celebrate my Mom's 60th Birthday, my parents took my whole family on vacation.  We chose the Outer Banks & rented a beach house that slept all our families comfortably.  We had such a wonderful time together, it was sad to see the week end.  The kids always love spending time with family & Sean loves to play with his cousins.  It was an added bonus to spend that time together at the ocean! 

I have so many pictures & stories to share, I'll try to wrap this up as best I can! 

We started off by heading to the airport as a group.  We were quite the production, having 10 kids, 14+ pieces of luggage, 3 car seats, & 2 strollers (one being a double stroller).  Here are all the cousins, in front of our aircraft:

Zach, Sean, Evan, Cade, Logan, Mara, Nora, Olivia, Sydney, & Lauryn

We stayed at a house that had a pool in the back yard, but we really enjoyed the ocean best.  The kids loved digging in the sand, jumping the waves, watching the crabs scamper along the beach, we enjoyed the breeze, and we all soaked up the sun.  Here are a few of our beach shots:

Our family, at the beach

Lauryn & I

The boys enjoyed digging: Evan, Zach, Cade, Logan, & Sean

Burying Sean

Burying Zach

Besides spending a lot of time at the beach, we did some sight seeing & tours.  We spent some time in Kitty Hawk, where we went to the Wright Brothers National Memorial.  The kids got to fly kites, we hiked Kill Devil Hill, & saw where the first flights took place.  We always love when we can teach the kids about history by experiencing it.  Here are a few pictures at The Wright Brothers Monument:

Jim, squeezing the Wright Brothers Monument

Our family at the Wright Brothers Monument

While being along the ocean, we also thought it would be fun to see one of the Light Houses.  We decided on going to Currituck Beach Lighthouse since it was only a few miles from where we were staying.  However, it was such a hot day, we chose to not go inside & hike to the top.  I am sure we missed out on a gorgeous view of the ocean. 

Currituck Beach Lighthouse

Another fun tour that we did was renting open jeeps to see the wild horses.  The kids thought this was great, driving in the open jeep.  There we were, driving along Highway 12, when all of a sudden the Highway becomes a beach.  So we were driving on a highway that did not have specific lanes, instead you found "grooves" in the sand to fit your wheels in so you didn't get stuck.  But this was the route we had to take to get to see the wild horses.  These horses just roam right in to people's back yards.  It was pretty cool! 

Sean in one of the Jeeps

Zach & Lauryn in another Jeep

Pat & Jim - Pat is driving us down the Highway/Beach

Our family, in front of a group of wild horses

And before we knew it, the week was over & it was time to head home.  I was sad to see the week end, as I always love spending time with my family.  I have to admit I even shed a few tears.  But I will always cherish the memories we made & am so happy we had this time together! 

The cousins in front of the beach house:

Sydney, Evan, Logan, Zach, Cade, Sean

Lauryn, Olivia, Mara, Nora

All us adults:

My Dad & Mom, Kelly & Kyle (my brother), Tyler (my brother)

Jim & I, Cori (my sister) & Pat