A bang up celebration

This year was a different kind of 4th of July celebration for us.  The norm has been food, fun, friends, and frolic for the 4th.  Nope.  Not this year.  It was "Anderson,  party of 5".  It's a good thing I am so darn happy with this group. We have a blast together.   In true Anderson fashion we stretched out the holiday.  We celebrated on Sunday with the big fireworks overhead at Lake Okobogi.  And then did it again at home the next day.

 Sunday night at the Lake a few hours before the fireworks started.

watching the fireworks overhead.   These girls...I love to see how happy they make each other.

Did he grow up overnight, or is it my imagination?

Home again.  The celebration on Sterling Oak begins.

a few thoughts on this photo,
1.  Is that my 7 year daughter lighting fireworks?  Yes it is.
2.  Is that same child wearing her pajamas outside on a holiday?  Yes it is.
3.  Do you see the large red metal rod sticking out of the fire hydrant?   It's placed there to signal the location of a hydrant when covered by snow.  These metal rods line our city streets. Don't be jealous.  Your city doesn't get enough snow to warrant such a sight.

This is my favorite "street" kind of fire cracker.  I guess.

But, sparklers...I love 'em!

Back to Omaha

A couple of weeks ago, Jeff had business in Omaha.  He asked us if we wanted to join him on the road...of course!  Most of our friends were out of town or volunteering as YW camp leaders so we were on our own.  Jeff had a conference the first morning.  The kids and I swam,  this seems to be our rountine.  He also had a late afternoon reception he wanted to attend. It  would be quick and was downtown at the new stadium.  So, we made big plans to go to a College World Series game.  The new stadium is sa-weet.  So sweet infact, that all of Omaha and  much of the rest of the country was in town to see it.    While Jeff was at his reception I tried to score some tickets.  Arhg...Sold out.  Not a chance.  Not even a scalper on the corner.  I was hoping Jeff was connected to some tickets while at his meeting, and he was hoping I had found some.  No luck.  But, we were already down town on site so we stayed to play.  Several city blocks around the stadium were converted into a games alley and food booths.  It was clearly designed to capture all the tourists dollars.   Whew, we hardly recognized our old city.  We walked around, ate stadium style food and surely left with that all american baseball experience.   Next year...we hope to actually get in and SEE the game.

Brilliant idea

We've been doing a lot of traveling by car lately.  South Dakota is still new to us and so are the little towns and destination spots around this part of the country.  When we get the chance we love to take weekend trips and explore.  Or just leave Sioux Falls for a bigger city.  The kids are really good in the car.  Infact when the twins were toddlers,  I remember the car was one of the "easiest" ( I use that term loosly as they were rarely described as easy) places for us.  But we do still load up a big fat entertaining "car bag" for our trips.  It's typically filled with  paper, crayons, school workbooks (Avery's thing) ipad, ipod, books and magazines.  And now... pipe cleaners.  One quick stop at Target and we have hours of entertainment. 

Pipe cleaners let their creative minds run loose!

Avery made scuba gear complete with a mask and snorkle.   I didn't think to take a picture of the finished product.  I should have.  It was so cute. 

oh dear, looks like Avie could use a mani....Gigi, my girls need you.

Zachary made a weird long pointy thing. He named it the "booger picker 3000" Of course he did.

(Ellie wasn't with us on this trip, she was at girls camp.  We sure missed her though.)

A note to mention: we have bought the more expensive, trendy "toy" version of pipe cleaners called "bendaroos". Don't waste the money. Good ol fashion pipe cleaners will do wonders.

"Andrew's Loose tooth"

        The first week home from vacation Avery was enrolled in a drama camp.   The camp met for 1 hour each day and ended up with a Friday evening performance of "Andrews Loose Tooth".  During the camp the students practiced their parts using loud voices and expression. They also learned  stage placement and the use of props.  Avery was assigned her part of the "dentist" before the camp began.  They wanted the kids to come prepared with their parts memorized BEFORE camp actually started.  Avery was excited to be the dentist UNTIL she got to camp and quickly learned that they wanted her to act like a CRAZY dentist.  Avery was not happy about being crazy.  She does cute and happy really well.  Crazy was another story!  I thought it was a great opportunity for Avery to stretch herself to do something out of her comfort zone!  As much as she didn't like it...she endured to the end.  She acted crazy and silly.  She did it and she did great!  We were really proud of her hard work.  Truly, it was a hard play for her to do.  I am thankful for Avery's "I can do " attitude.

This is a nervous Avery right after finding out she needed to act "crazy and silly".  She wants to go home.

Bravo Avery!  Her 2 besties, Brooklyn and Bryn came to watch the show.   

And, of course no performace is complete without the celebratory ice cream stop.

2 of Avery's biggest fans.

Disney World

We are big Disney fans in our home.  It started clear back when the twins were 3.   They fell in love with the Disney characters (there was nothing cuter than Ellie's love of Minnie Mouse) and we fell in love with happy giggles that Disney brought to our children.  We spent many years vacationing at the Disney Parks.  But, then life got busy.  And, we chose other vacation spots.  This year we realized that Avery doesn't remember much of our Disney days.  Avery spent 3 trips sitting in a stroller, so we can't think she really got much out of her experience there.   It was time we show her the magic of Disney.  After our original disney date was bumped due to the cancelled flight we rescheduled to the tail end of our vacation.  It was hot and crowded. And, happy nevertheless!  While Avery doesn't share the same passion for Minnie Mouse that Ellie did, she quickly became a fan in her own right.  She was in awe of  "It's a Small World"  Immediatly following the ride, she proclaimed it to be her favorite of all time...just like her mama.   So you see, we are STILL Disney fans.  I guess we always will be.


Here a few pics from the day.  If you've seen one Disney picture, you've seen 'em all.  But, here goes anyway...

Did I mention we were hot and sweaty?  I don't think we will ever have one of those famous family Micky shots where everyone looks good.  Oh well.  Here we are in all our glory.

I've got a couple of "possers"  Two girls who love the camera, and a son who can't stand it and will stay 10 feet away from any camera. 

This is one of my all time favorite moments caputured.   No mater how big or small, this is the way we leave Disney, with Zach being carried out.  I remember several  phots that I have in this same scenario different years.  We have different shots of both grandpas, two differnt trips being carried out of the park piggy back style.   This precious boy gets so tired, tries so hard to keep up that at 10:30 he is plum tuckered out.  Take one look at his sweet tired face and your heart will melt.   

Amusement Park Weekend

 Can I tell you how much we loved Universal Studios, Island of Adventure?  Yep, we thought it was AWESOME!   The kids loved it so much because the rides were "thrill" type rides  Big roller coasters!  And, I loved it because the park was so well done.  I mean, it truly rivals Disneyland.  It's creative, well maintained and takes you away to a fantasy place.  I get why the twins love roller coasters.  They are 12.  It's all about speed and thrill.  And, being daring and senseless.  They are middle schoolers for petes sake.  But what about Avery...my 7 year old, soon to be in 2nd grader, she really shouldn't be allowed to LOVE roller coasters as much as she does.   She's tall enough for all the height restrictions and would most often seek out the "front car". So you see, I stand on the sidelines watching my lil family race through the air at record speeds, screaming and laughing with arms in the air.    It's all about the roller coaster for this group.



The Hulk rollercoaster was our first ride of the day. Followed up with Dr. Doom drop.

Thankfully, the park is filled with lots of water rides and little splash park sprayers all around. It was hot, but this was a fun cool down.

Suess landing.   So cute, this land was all about Dr. Suess.  Silly fun.

Zachy with Betty Boop.   Marvel landing. Comic-ville.

The wizardly world of Harry Potter.  This town was spectacular! 

We loved it.  All of it.  Thanks grandma and grandpa for coming with us.

saying goodbye to the cruise

We disembarked the ship on Thur. We were sad to leave but eager to spend the remaining days of our vacation at the area theme parks.

                                                  Avery picked up a little pal.  "Build a bear" a la cruise.

Jeff's parents were in town visiting Debbi and kids. We were lucky to coordinate with them and meet up in our Orlando hotel.  But before we did, we spent the morning in Coco Beach.

  We spent just enough time in this beach town to dip our toes in the ocean and enjoy breakfast at a darling little cafe. 

Really you can't keep my kids away from swimming and slides!  Even here at the hotel in Orlando with grandma and grandpa.

The Bahamas

We spent several days in the Bahama Islands.  Our first port was Freeport Island. Not our favorite island and definatly less than desirable.  Infact, it's very industrial, NOT friendly and an overall tacky island.  With that being said..."show us a beach and we will show you a good time".  After an expensive cab ride, we played in the small town, and enjoyed our day at the beach.  At the beach itself was beautiful.

I spy a tourist...

Thankfully, the island of Nassau was much nicer.  And, it was one of those days where everything just "works out" for the best.  We  orginally planned on the dolphin excursion at Atlantis.  But, after talking to well informed lady we decided to take the ferry over to a small island nearby.  We caught the ferry just in the nick of time.  Wow, the dolphin experience was incredible.  I am so glad we did it.  Avery loved it so much she suggested changing her dream career from veternarian to dolphin trainer.  To save money, I didn't do the excursion...being that I just did  the dolphins last year in Punta Mita, I was fine with it.  Unfortunately, that meant I really couldn't snap any photos either.  I snuck a few while watching on the dock.  Wish  I had more.  The remanider of the day we played at the beach.  I personally loved the hammocks stretched between 2 palm trees lining the beach.  But, the kids loved the water park inflatiables in the bay.  We were so happy with the little island, Blue Lagoon that we stumbled upon.  What a pleasant surprise!

We love combing the beach for seashells.   In this case, a huge piece of coral.  Time to run and catch the ferry back to Nassau...and then cruise back to Orlando.