Congratulations to James who earned his Arrow of Light this week! He had earned previously, but received the same night, his Webelos Badge and 4 new activity badges, plus some belt loops. Way to go James!!
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Arrow of Light
Congratulations to James who earned his Arrow of Light this week! He had earned previously, but received the same night, his Webelos Badge and 4 new activity badges, plus some belt loops. Way to go James!!
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Unwritten Rules
Somewhere there is a rule that says you must post first day of school photos! :)
Scot is not included since he started middle school and left nearly 2 hours earlier, but here are pictures of James, 5th grade this year, and Maggie, 2nd grade. Both had a pretty great first day.
Paul waiting to go the bus stop with his bubbles :)
Amy's kindergarten has a phase in program, so she didn't begin with the others. Tomorrow is her first day. We got her backpack all ready to go this morning, including some new floral button flowers to fancy it up. Tomorrow Paul and I will have endless fun together!
It should be a fun year!!
Summer Vacationing
The surprisingly cool morning, in addition to our second day of school, has made it official: our summer of fun is now ready to be memorialized. And what a summer it was!
We had a fabulous trek to the West where we visited friends, family, and just about every church history site along the way. I'm still amazed at all the places we visited; the kids are still amazed that it'll be another year before they can play with cousins again!
I don't have pictures of everything we did (yes, you can sigh a sigh of relief), but we did get some cute ones that I'd like to share.
Get ready...Let's go!! So our vacation began here: bags packed, water bottles filled, tents and sleeping bags stuffed in cozy corners. Books on cd are ready to be listened to and movies are ready to be watched. Everyone was very excited to begin...and by day 3, everyone was ready to arrive.
First day of our journey we stopped at Carthage and Nauvoo, IL. We toured as many restored buildings as possible, played games at the Family Fair and enjoyed the Nauvoo Pageant. That night we camped at Nauvoo Stake Park. While we stopped at a few other interesting spots along the way, this was the most enjoyable.
Amy waiting patiently for a piece of homemade bread at the Family Living Center in Nauvoo.
After two more days of driving, we arrive and get to spend 3 weeks in Salt Lake City, UT!
Day of '47 Parade. We enjoyed going to the parade, but even more fun was getting a close-up view of the floats the week before and voting for our favorite. The picture below us at the rear of BSA's float celebrating 100 years of scouting. Do you think Paul is wondering if the fish is real?
I thought pigs only flew in Cincinnati!?!
Visited friends, the Rogers and Marbles! Can you believe this horde of kids? When we all lived in Chicago there were only two per family. :)
Day trip to American Falls, ID. We visited the Neeley cemetery where my dad is buried, toured the fairly new museum, saw the reservoir and falls, visited Aunt Bea, and drove by the old houses. Visiting our friends, the Adkins, was a big highlight. They treated us to lunch, then horse rides, egg collecting, and feeding the new calves. So fun!!
Grandma really treated us right. Paul loved to water the garden and pick apricots and apples. Everyone loved the fresh baked bread and pies. Yum!
Kennecott Mine was so cool! If you've never been there, you should definitely go.
Hogle Zoo!
Better get your gorilla face on.
Visiting Temple Square. Loved the temple model in the Visitor's Center! We could have walked around it all day long. We visited the Family History Center, the Church Museum, and had lunch at the Nauvoo Cafe. We also loved seeing the wall of temples in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building when we visited with Joel.
Deuel Cabin:
Inside the Tabernacle after a concert. Maggie was amazed at the changing colors on the wall behind the pipes.
Me and my boys outside Joseph Smith Memorial Building:
Family Reunion. We stopped at Bridal Veil falls before heading up to our family reunion. The girls loved being able to have cousins ride along.
Jumping rope was a huge hit at the reunion in Vivian Park.
Hanging out. When the kids weren't playing with cousins or swimming at David's, they were finding all sorts of interesting things to play with at Grandma's house, including some kind of acorn game in the back yard, mattress forts, and crayon structures. This happens to be James' masterpiece. Maybe we shouldn't tell Grandma...
We celebrated my brother Joel's birthday.
Long live ice cream!
And on the way home...
Crazy Horse!!
Mt. Rushmore!!
How could we not stop for free water at Wall's Drug??
Hey, even giant rabbits get thirsty!
Bad Lands were awesome!
This is my trying-to-be-inconspicuous shot of all the Sturgis motorcycles we saw. Unfortunately most of them had left the parking lot before I could get the shot taken. Clearly we missed a life-changing opportunity when we did not head north with them to the rally.
Following is a picture of our final rest stop dinner of the trek home. Kids were loving the macaroni & cheese with Spam; we were not loving the return to humidity. We knew we were headed East because each stop that day was progressively muggier. We decided we should splurge for a hotel our last night, and we were so grateful we did. All night we heard thunder, wind, and rain.
A final game before getting into the car. James is explaining the rules:
Welcome Home! The cherry on top was that we were home only one day before getting a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Nielson. And what a wonderful visit it was! We were able to get ready for school, make some decisions regarding our house, and Brian and I were able to celebrate our 14th anniversary. All too soon, we were back to ourselves and getting back to the everyday.
Thank you so much to everyone who made our summer trip so fun. We were enveloped in loving family and friends, who really went out their way to make it a special vacation. We love you all!!
We had a fabulous trek to the West where we visited friends, family, and just about every church history site along the way. I'm still amazed at all the places we visited; the kids are still amazed that it'll be another year before they can play with cousins again!
I don't have pictures of everything we did (yes, you can sigh a sigh of relief), but we did get some cute ones that I'd like to share.
Get ready...Let's go!! So our vacation began here: bags packed, water bottles filled, tents and sleeping bags stuffed in cozy corners. Books on cd are ready to be listened to and movies are ready to be watched. Everyone was very excited to begin...and by day 3, everyone was ready to arrive.
First day of our journey we stopped at Carthage and Nauvoo, IL. We toured as many restored buildings as possible, played games at the Family Fair and enjoyed the Nauvoo Pageant. That night we camped at Nauvoo Stake Park. While we stopped at a few other interesting spots along the way, this was the most enjoyable.
Amy waiting patiently for a piece of homemade bread at the Family Living Center in Nauvoo.
After two more days of driving, we arrive and get to spend 3 weeks in Salt Lake City, UT!
Day of '47 Parade. We enjoyed going to the parade, but even more fun was getting a close-up view of the floats the week before and voting for our favorite. The picture below us at the rear of BSA's float celebrating 100 years of scouting. Do you think Paul is wondering if the fish is real?
I thought pigs only flew in Cincinnati!?!
Visited friends, the Rogers and Marbles! Can you believe this horde of kids? When we all lived in Chicago there were only two per family. :)
Day trip to American Falls, ID. We visited the Neeley cemetery where my dad is buried, toured the fairly new museum, saw the reservoir and falls, visited Aunt Bea, and drove by the old houses. Visiting our friends, the Adkins, was a big highlight. They treated us to lunch, then horse rides, egg collecting, and feeding the new calves. So fun!!
Grandma really treated us right. Paul loved to water the garden and pick apricots and apples. Everyone loved the fresh baked bread and pies. Yum!
Kennecott Mine was so cool! If you've never been there, you should definitely go.
Hogle Zoo!
Better get your gorilla face on.
Visiting Temple Square. Loved the temple model in the Visitor's Center! We could have walked around it all day long. We visited the Family History Center, the Church Museum, and had lunch at the Nauvoo Cafe. We also loved seeing the wall of temples in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building when we visited with Joel.
Deuel Cabin:
Inside the Tabernacle after a concert. Maggie was amazed at the changing colors on the wall behind the pipes.
Me and my boys outside Joseph Smith Memorial Building:
Family Reunion. We stopped at Bridal Veil falls before heading up to our family reunion. The girls loved being able to have cousins ride along.
Jumping rope was a huge hit at the reunion in Vivian Park.
Hanging out. When the kids weren't playing with cousins or swimming at David's, they were finding all sorts of interesting things to play with at Grandma's house, including some kind of acorn game in the back yard, mattress forts, and crayon structures. This happens to be James' masterpiece. Maybe we shouldn't tell Grandma...
We celebrated my brother Joel's birthday.
Long live ice cream!
And on the way home...
Crazy Horse!!
Mt. Rushmore!!
How could we not stop for free water at Wall's Drug??
Hey, even giant rabbits get thirsty!
Bad Lands were awesome!
This is my trying-to-be-inconspicuous shot of all the Sturgis motorcycles we saw. Unfortunately most of them had left the parking lot before I could get the shot taken. Clearly we missed a life-changing opportunity when we did not head north with them to the rally.
Following is a picture of our final rest stop dinner of the trek home. Kids were loving the macaroni & cheese with Spam; we were not loving the return to humidity. We knew we were headed East because each stop that day was progressively muggier. We decided we should splurge for a hotel our last night, and we were so grateful we did. All night we heard thunder, wind, and rain.
A final game before getting into the car. James is explaining the rules:
Welcome Home! The cherry on top was that we were home only one day before getting a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Nielson. And what a wonderful visit it was! We were able to get ready for school, make some decisions regarding our house, and Brian and I were able to celebrate our 14th anniversary. All too soon, we were back to ourselves and getting back to the everyday.
Thank you so much to everyone who made our summer trip so fun. We were enveloped in loving family and friends, who really went out their way to make it a special vacation. We love you all!!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Happy Birthday, Paul!
Congratulations to Paul for reaching the coveted milestone of all children. Yes, he's finally able to play with marbles, eat peanuts, and build with small legos. He's been doing that already? Well, at least he can do it lawsuit-free now.
Happy Birthday to Paul! May you always enjoy strawberry cake!!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Summer in Ohio
The beginning of June meant the final days of school, full of parties and good-byes. Since then we've enjoyed a week of band camp, including concert, lots of swimming, cookie/cobbler making, and home-grown peas.
I'm grateful to have everyone home for the summer. And I think they all agreed with that statement the first week they were home...then the chores and extra-curricular activities began! In my defense, we have spent a lot of time at the YMCA pool. :)
I just wanted to share a few things. Last Friday, everyone was doing their house cleaning jobs. It was Amy's turn to mop the floor. She was enjoying helping and stated that when she was a mom, she'd always mop the floor so that it could be clean. Not sure if she's saying I do a bad job...or she just really had fun. We'll go with the latter.
Today James was working on the Outdoorsman activity badge for cubs. He wants to know if he can sleep outside tonight under the shelter he built. I say sure! It should be able to withstand the nightly thunderstorms we keep getting.
Hope you are all having a wonderful summer! Feel free to join James tonight to catch some fireflies.
I'm grateful to have everyone home for the summer. And I think they all agreed with that statement the first week they were home...then the chores and extra-curricular activities began! In my defense, we have spent a lot of time at the YMCA pool. :)
I just wanted to share a few things. Last Friday, everyone was doing their house cleaning jobs. It was Amy's turn to mop the floor. She was enjoying helping and stated that when she was a mom, she'd always mop the floor so that it could be clean. Not sure if she's saying I do a bad job...or she just really had fun. We'll go with the latter.
Today James was working on the Outdoorsman activity badge for cubs. He wants to know if he can sleep outside tonight under the shelter he built. I say sure! It should be able to withstand the nightly thunderstorms we keep getting.
Hope you are all having a wonderful summer! Feel free to join James tonight to catch some fireflies.
Ohiopyle, PA
Our new van was inducted into the Nielson way of life very quickly. In its first week of adoption, it received a hitch and a boat-load of camping gear and kids. (We wish it were a literal boat-load, but in this event it was not a real boat. We are excited, however, to try out our new canoe later this summer.)
After months of planning between families, we started our extended Nielson family vacation with a trip to the airport picking up Andrea. She didn't realize she'd have to finish all our packing before we could actually start driving the next day. She's such a good sport. :)
Pennsylvania is not as close as it looks. I guess I was looking at a map of North America. After about 6 hours of towing, including several bathroom stops (did I mention we just potty-trained?), we arrived at Ohiopyle Stake Park in southern PA, just seconds behind Lauren, Ryan, & Annie. Incredibly, we pulled off the surprise of Andrea joining us. While we waited for the fun to begin (Jonathan, Quinn, & Benjamin), we got everything unpacked, tents & tarps up, kitchen assembled, and found the bathrooms.
The rest of our weekend was filled with swings, Cucumber Falls, stars, cousins playing, treasure hunts, slack line attempts, a little sleep, a Sunday sacrament meeting, sling shots, hammock lounges (and/or pirate conquests), Maggie learning to ride a two-wheeler, frequent visits by the park ranger (to the camp next to us), constant attempts to play cards, and food, food food!
I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story. I know it looks like a long story, but it really went very quickly.
We had a fabulous time with our family and are so grateful they took the time to play with us! Thanks to all for helping put this together. Definitely a tradition worth keeping around for a few more generations!
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