Lebanon Carriage Parades

Kristen, our friend Autumn and I participated in the Lebanon Carriage Parades again this year. It is the 11th year that our friends Cindra and Rich have had an Appaloosa in the parade. The snow made the daylight parade extra nice, while the candlelight parade is always very neat. Enjoy!

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Family Photo Shoot Nov 2010

This year, we got the kids' photos done with a twist. Our 8 1/2 year old rabbit, Oreo, was diagnosed with cancer. I had put off having her pictures taken for years, so I hurried up to get them done in time. We wound up putting her down just two days after the pictures were done. We enjoyed the picture shoot and the time we had left with her, as well as the eight years prior.

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Our Orlando Trip

In November, we took advantage of my business trip to fly to Orlando for some family fun.

Teri

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October and November

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Visually Awesome

Here's a picture of the trophies that the band won at Mason. The video is also on YouTube. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAxYs4Zx6eM

Awesome!!!!

Paul, Amelia and I just returned from the Mason Band Invitational. Greenon had a great show, to say the least. They got first place of 8 AA bands, for starters. Awards at this invitational are done after the small bands (A and AA) go and again after the big bands perform (AAA and AAAA). So, in overall awards, Greenon got first again, of 17 bands total. They also one best visual effect and best auxillary (color guard). They also tied for best general effect.

I have added the video of the performance to my facebook profile. Enjoy!

Teri

Everyday Fall Fun

Here's just a couple of videos and shots of Amelia having fun over the last couple of weeks. Enjoy!

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Fall is Dance Season

I bet you didn't know it, but around here, fall is dance season. In the past few weeks we've celebrated James' first 7th and 8th grade dance (he didn't go last year to one dance and the other was cancelled).

We celebrated a huge win at the Bellbrook Band Invitational. You HAVE to see the video at the URL below. We won our class in all categories (OK, so there were only 2 AA schools) but we also got 3rd overall (we actually beat a AAA or AAAA school!). For the Greenon band, this is a HUGE success. We have two more competitions and they are both bigger, so we were very happy to receive 7 trophies at this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRNvZ4DVv18

Immediately following the competition, Paul and I drove Kristen home for a quick shower and then shoved her out the door to attend the Fairborn Homecoming dance. She went as companion to her friend Jacob, who returned the favor and escorted her to the Greenon Homecoming tonight. Speaking of Homecoming, Greenon actually won the Homecoming Game last night against Ben Logan!

Anyway, enjoy the attached scrapbook!

Teri

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September Fun

Hi All,

This has been a wonderfully busy weekend. First and best, my brother Tim is home from A-stan. Yeaaaaaah!

As you can see, I put together a slideshow of some of the rest of the weekend, although I did not capture anything from our church's hot dog and music fest, which they put on Saturday. The event was quite successful, even though the crew and church band are all a little tired. Our family helped with set up and tear down.

I also didn't attempt to capture the sewage that backed up in our neighbor's basement, with which Paul and the bigger kids have been helping to haul wet-dry vacuum loads up the stairs for her. Paul even got to contain a small amount in our own basement. When the county put pressure on the blockage, it forced a small amount up in our house too. Yuck! Glad I was at Young's and the music fest during those episodes!

What I did catch on film was another session of Amelia and Riley enjoying each other. OK, I'm not sure how much Riley enjoys those sessions, but he does like all the food scraps from the toddler. I also caught a few shots of spaghetti and meatballs, with a little kid somewhere underneath.

In between, I've thrown in a few pictures of Kristy, my high school friend, her daughters Katie (3) and Scarlett (8 mo), her husband Don and her mom Cindy. I took Amelia out to Young's to meet up with them. Kristy lives in Cuyahoga Falls, but was in town to visit "A Wool Gathering". This is a pretty large fiber show for our area, encompassing three large tents and a few smaller ones, all staked out on the back 40 at Young's Dairy. Kristy knits, so she was having a lot of fun shopping while her mom and husband let the kids play and pet farm animals. Of course, Amelia slept until Kristy and her family had left for dinner, then came awake to see angora rabbits and sheep.

Well, it's time for me to go, Enjoy!

Teri

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Late Summer Catch-Up

Hi All,

I apologize for not posting for quite a while. The end of summer and beginning of the school year hit us with both feet. We have been very busy.

Therefore I am doing a multi-purpose post. The first slideshow I am posting is a collection of photos and videos of the youngest family member. Of note, we took the family to Young's Dairy for putt-putt golf, ice cream and a visit with their farm animals for our "Last Weekend of Freedom" celebration.

The second slideshow is of our trip to Cleveland for the Bement Family Reunion. Paul, Amelia and I drove up for the day. Aunt Phyllis sent us some pictures to augment those we took. After the cakewalk, we slipped away to visit John Christ Winery and then Huntington Beach. Since the older kids have been to all five Great Lakes, we had to initiate Amelia with a dip in Lake Erie.

This has been a season for reunions. Paul and I attended my 20th high school reunion. We had a nice dinner and then a picnic for the families the following day. It was kind of cool to encounter people you once knew so well, seeing them daily. The women are fairly easy to recognize but the guys, well forget it. We did take Amelia to the picnic. Kids ranged in age from 19 to just a few months. I guess we fit right in, with an age range of 1 to 17 years.

Third, I am posting a slide show of our trip to Tennessee over Labor Day weekend. We swam daily, saw most of the families and ate great food. Paul, James, Amelia, Riley and I went to Red Clay State Park, the site of the last Cherokee Council before their removal on the Trail of Tears. We also went to Mountain View Winery. I have included some really nice mountain views from there.

Enjoy,

Teri

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Day 18-Hannibal, Missouri

(Kristen)

Today is the last day of our trip. But, before we could go home we had to do a couple of things. We saw a statue, a lighthouse and looked at the Mississippi River. The statue that we saw was built because of Mark Twain. Mark Twain lived in Hannibal and set his book, Tom Sawyer, in this town. The statue was of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer.

While we were staring at the statue, we saw a sign and some steps that led to a lighthouse. When we went up the first flight of stairs, we saw another flight, and another one. When we finally got to the top, we were exhausted. On the way down we decided to count the stairs. We found out that there were 244 steps. When we got to the bottom, we received a survivor certificate from the souvenir shop.

Then we drove to see the Mississippi River overlook in the city park. As we were looking out, we could see big bushes in the water. No, the river was flooded so bad, we could not see the tree trunks. Since we wanted to get closer, we drove over the bridge and entered Illinois. At the campground across from Hannibal, there was a portajohn in the middle of a pool of river water. Amelia and I went wading. The water did not feel bad at all, so Amelia kept on trying to sit in it.

After a few minutes, we decided to leave and head home. I could not wait to sleep in my cozy bed again. I had so much fun and can’t wait until our next trip. We ended up getting home around 11 p.m.

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Day 17-Pony Express Station

(James)

This morning we woke up, got breakfast and went swimming. Then we went to a Pony Express station in Gothenburg, Nebraska. The “Pony” was a mail delivery service by horseback. The Pony Express started in April 1860. It only lasted 19 months. We went to the Pony Express station. Inside was a little store and mini-museum, where we saw saddles, stuffed horses and cool bookmarks.

After we went to the Pony Express station, Dad and Teri drove for eight hours. When we got to our hotel, we found out we got a first floor room…hooray! We ended up ordering pizza. Kristen and I went swimming while we waited for delivery.

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Day 16-Wyoming

(Kristen)

Today it is sadly time to start our trip home. We left from Oma and Opa’s house to drive nine hours to our hotel. But who said we were going straight there?

On the way we ended up stopping at Fossils Butte National Park in Wyoming. We visited the museum and looked at the fossils. They had fossils of animals, plants, and insects. They had hundreds of fossils of all sizes in the museum. Even Amelia was looking at the fossils. While we were there we also got to drive up the butte. The trail was really rough but we made it. On the top, views were amazing. On the way down we saw a mountain pond. Then we were on the way east again.

We stopped at a place called Little America, also in Wyoming. This place is actually a truck stop in the middle of nowhere. They had a play ground area for little kids. Amelia went down the straight slide by herself and we went down a twisty slide together. She had so much fun. Soon after that, we piled into the car and were on our way. We ended up getting to our hotel at 4 a.m. (Central Daylight Time).

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Day 15-Lava Hot Springs

(James)

The next morning we had breakfast with Oma and Opa. After that we to the Olympic Pool Complex at Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. The first thing we did was go in the pool for a little bit and then we rode the two speed slides. The cool part about the new speed slides is that they start up on a bridge over the road One speed slide one is purple the other is yellow. The yellow one is very fast and it has two humps. The purple speed slide is just a drop; both slides give you a mega-wedgie. I really didn’t care for the curly slides that much. The inside swimming pool has a neat climbing wall. Both Kristen and I failed pitifully at climbing it, but it was very fun to try to get to the top. When we had to give up, we just dropped back into the water. Kristen, Dad, and I went on the dive tower, which was very scary. Kristen jumped off the 5 meter platform; dad and I went off the 5 and 7 m platforms.

After we got back from swimming, Oma had a dessert party. Thirty-some people came to the party. There were two girls and two boys near my age. They were only there for 1.5 hours. Then I went downstairs and played on the Wii until the party was over.

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Day 14-Horseback Riding

(Kristen)

Today was the day that I was looking forward to, the horse trail ride. Teri, Oma, and I headed out to see the horses that we would be riding. The horse that I rode was dark brown and tall. His name is Slash and he was a really good horse. Teri rode a horse named Buzz and Oma rode a horse named Ruby. There were 12 people, including us, that went on the trail ride. We all started out by going up the mountain behind our hostess’ house. At one point when we were going up a hill, Slash decided to canter instead of trotting. He actually had a really nice canter. Also there was a small creek that we had to go over. Many of the horses jumped but I made Slash walk over it.

When we got to the top, we got off to have lunch. The sight up there was really nice; we could see Fort Hall, Idaho, and another town. After a few minutes’ break, we climbed back on and headed down the mountain. Going downhill was really painful. We had to go back over the little stream of water. My horse decided that he needed to jump this time. Well, I stayed on, but it wasn’t pretty. When we got back to the horse trailers, I was in so much pain.

The trail lasted about four hours. Slash was well suited for my level of riding ability. The people that we went with were really nice. It was so neat, so exciting and so much fun that I definitely would love to do it again.

Later that day, Opa, Oma, Teri, Dad, James, Amelia and I went to Lava Hot Springs to ease our stiffness. When we got there, we all went in the coolest pool first. Soon after that Dad, James and I went to the next hottest pool and so on. At Lava there are four pools. This time I actually went into the hottest one. Then after that we went back to the coolest one, where the rest of the family was. It actually felt kind of cool after the other three. Amelia was having so much fun because she could walk off the edge and then mommy would catch her. The water felt so good after four hours of riding. We left at 9:30, but Teri and Dad then went to a Bed and Breakfast because it was their anniversary. I got to take care of Amelia for the night.

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Day 13-Dune Riding

(James)

Today we got up at 6:00 A.M., changed into pants, had breakfast and went to the St. Anthony Dunes, Idaho. We got all the safety wear at the rental place: helmet, glasses, and gloves, and then drove out to the parking lot at the dunes. The owner unloaded the three off-highway vehicles (OHVs, what the state of Idaho calls 4-wheelers), gave us rules and showed us how to run his machines. There was one big OHV for two people and two small OHVs for Kristen and me. Kristen and I rode around a few times, then we all headed out to the dunes.

I really liked that I had an OHV that I could ride on my own. My favorite part of the dunes was that we could ride for two hours but I also liked going down the dunes really fast. I took a turn riding on the two-person OHV and when you are the passenger, it is very fun because the only thing you can hold on to is the driver. I think I did pretty well. I only got stuck three times. Kristen got stuck at least three times. The two-person OHV only got stuck once. I noticed that the white OHV liked to stall so we had to rock it into neutral to start it again. The white OHV got stuck a lot easier than red OHV. During the last two minutes, we went at full speed down and up the same hill over and over again. If you go to Idaho, I would ride on the St Anthony Dunes because they are amazing.

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Day 12 - Inkom, Idaho

(Teri)

The kids did not write an entry for today. Mostly, we slept in and played with toys that Oma had picked up at garage sales. All the girls went shopping; Kristen and I got riding boots. The boys stayed behind and broke things. Everything that Opa and Paul touched had to be fixed. They did manage to change the van's oil without incident. All the pictures today are of a little girl enjoying stationary play time.

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Day 11-Sega Canyon

(James)

One exciting thing we did today was that we went to the Sega Cayon, Utah, to see a ghost town, which is a town that has been abandoned. Teri and I thought that there wasn’t much of the ghost town left because big chunks of rocks could have fallen on the houses or the houses have been over-powered by plants. All you could see of the ghost town was three small buildings and they were very hard to find. We also saw a lot of petroglyphs, some up high and some low. We saw many kinds of different petroglyphs: humans, horses, and families. There was a set of petroglyphs that looked like a family and they were life-size. I thought that was really cool because you rarely see petroglyphs up close. I think it is a family because they are left to right drawn smallest to biggest.

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Day 10-Moab, Utah

(Kristen)

Today was a relaxing kind of day. We all went to Arches National Park to see the sun rise. We also got to see the sun set at Canyonlands National Park. In between those two activities, we went back to the cabin to swim and take a nap.

At Arches National Park, there are tons of arches and rock formations. They mostly looked like faces and animals (according to James). The formations that I saw were a T-Rex head, a penguin, a cobra, and many more animals. While we were there, we also saw a formation called Balance Rock. I think that those formations are so neat looking. Another one that we saw that was pretty famous was the Delicate Arch. They say that in the future, this arch will end up falling because it will be too thin. I enjoyed seeing all of the formations while using my imagination.

During the middle of the day we all went swimming. We all also took a well deserved nap. While we were in the town of Moab, the temperature got up to 112 degrees. Lucky for us it was dry heat, but it was still was really warm.

In the evening, everyone loaded into the car and we went to Canyonlands National Park. While we were there, we saw some of the canyon and watched the sun set. But as soon as we sat down to watch the sun set, it started to sprinkle. Luckily it stopped shortly after it started. The sunset was beautiful. Some of the sky was pinkish over to the right of the sun. Above the sun, it was red. I love watching sunsets because they are so colorful

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Day 09-Utah

(James)

Today we woke up before dawn to get to Bryce Canyon to see the sunrise. The sky was very pretty when the sun was coming up. There were pink and purple colors in the sky. The Bryce Canyon colors are orange with white in between. One formation I saw was a white heart against an orange base. We saw two herds of antelope and one antelope buck.

Next we drove the Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument scenic drive. We saw tons and tons of formations. After that we drove into Capitol Reef National Park. At Capitol Reef, we went to a museum that showed how things were made in the past. They sold old fashioned desserts, like homemade ice cream, fruit pies and scones. While we were there, we saw rock formations. One was called the Cathedral Rock, which looks like a stone temple. We also saw a rock that looked like a pyramid. We also saw petroglyphs, which were too high to see properly.

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Day 08-Grand Canyon

(Kristen)

About five years ago we went to the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona. The bad thing was that the canyon was filled with smoke. They had a lot of forest fires that year, so our visit was no fun. We could see nothing but a few feet into the canyon. This year we had to come back to see what we could see this time.

Today when we walked the Bright Angel Trail on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, we could see EVERYTHING. The canyon is very beautiful; the rocks were pretty and a really deep red at times. There were also tan rocks with white lines throughout. When we were walking, there was a rock wall on one side and nothing on the other. When we looked down the path, it was scary because we had no clue how high we were. When we got to the end of the trail, we could see the depth of the canyon. It was amazing at how far down it went and how big it was. When we got to the end of the trail, James and I climbed a rock formation. It was a lot of fun and amazing because it felt like we were on top of the world. Then we had to go back up the trail because the way out was all downhill (fun - right?). The Grand Canyon was wonderful and I am so happy there was no smoke this time.

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Day 07-Mesa Verde

(Kristen)

Today we got to see Mesa Verde near Cortez, Colorado. Mesa Verde in English actually means Green Table. We walked the Spruce Tree House Trail. On that trail we got to see cliff dwellings. It was amazing to see them still in such great shape. It made me wonder how hard they were to build. Teri, James and I got to go down a hole into a kiva that the Native people used. It was small; the ranger said that you could fit 56 people down there, but it would be extremely crowded.

After our hike, we took the Mesa Top Loop drive. On the drive we saw some more cliff dwellings. We saw a dwelling called Cliff Palace from a distance. The Cliff Palace had many rooms. We saw people on the tour climbing ladders into it. It makes you wonder how they made it. This was my favorite cliff dwelling that I saw today.

On top of a cliff was the Sun Temple; there we got to walk right next to the walls of temple. We got to look inside of the temple, which had many halls and windows.

Another thing that we wanted to see was the Four Corners. This place is the only place where four states touch in the U.S. Sadly we could not see it because it was closed.

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Day 06-Southern Colorado Sites

(James)

We went to the Royal Gorge, which is a river at the bottom of a canyon. The rocks and the river were very pretty. The part that looked like fun was the cable car that goes from one side of the Royal Gorge to the other side. We also saw the bridge at Royal Gorge that you could walk across and look at the river.

We tried to eat at a picnic table above the gorge. I said we tried, because we got attacked by gnats. Dad looked like a dog shaking his head. It got very annoying very fast, so we decided to eat in the car.

We drove to the Great Sand Dunes National Park which was tons and tons of fun. The funniest part is that it seemed like it took forever to walk to the dunes. The most fun was going down the hills. The most exhausting part about the dunes is going up the hills. We went up and down a few hills and then left.

On the way to the campsite, we saw Chimney Rock. I thought it was pretty wicked. That night in the campsite we slept in a tepee. In the tepee, there were two cots. I thought the tepee cots were comfortable because I slept on one of them. The only bad part about the tepee is that there a hole in the top where they put sticks in a bundle to hold it up. I think tepees are easier than a tent.

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Day 05-The Betz Family

(James)

The Betz Family is very cool. There is Jeremiah of course, Linus, Juliette, Christian and Megan. I think Megan is a wonderful cook. Linus liked me as soon I walked into door. At first he asked me to play Frisbee with him outside. Then we came inside and there was my favorite toy track, THOMAS THE TRAIN! I haven’t played with it forever but I was pretty impressed with the track I made. After playing on the track with the toys, we had to eat dinner. Megan cooked spaghetti and bread; I really liked it. I played with Linus for a little while with his toys.

The one thing I liked the most was going to the Air Force Academy were Jeremiah works. He showed us around and we saw the chapel. We couldn’t go inside because the chapel was closed when we were there. I thought the funniest thing is that the freshmen have to run around the academy. While we were there, Jeremiah showed us his office and did some experiments for us. He put hydrogen and oxygen in a coke bottle, which made a pretty loud POP as it combined to form water. He also did an experiment called Whoosh where he put methanol in a really big water container. When he lit it, there was some fire, a loud “Whoosh!” and then the fire went out. Jeremiah asked me, “Why did the fire got out”, and I said “There’s no air,” and he said, “Excellent!” After that, he poured the methanol on the counter and lit it. He got his hand wet and then put his hand in it. He let his hand flame for a while and then blew it out. The cool part is when he touched it, the fire changed color.

We went back to Jeremiah’s house, talked until 11:00 and had some peach cobbler. I think Jeremiah has really good humor and he does really good expressions. The next morning, we woke up and had some pancakes and eggs. I built Linus a really cool Lego spaceship. Then we went off on the road again, I just can’t wait to get on the road again. Oh sorry - that song has been stuck in my head the whole entire trip.

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Day 04-The Stevens Family

(Kristen)

Today we got to spend time with the Stevens family. We went to Helen Hunt Falls, went up Mount Evans, and saw where Buffalo Bill is buried.

In the Stevens family there are four kids: Sarah, Sasha, Spencer, and Scott. Sarah is 14, Sasha is 11, Spencer is 8, and Scott is 5. The parents are Sean and Sherri. The kids were so much fun and I wished that we could spend more time with them.

Both families drove to Helen Hunt Falls, which were pretty. While we were going up to stand above the falls, we crossed this little bridge and Spencer went underneath the bridge. Sean told him to get out and we finished the path. We stood on a bridge about halfway up the falls. The view was really cool and amazing. When we went down, Spencer went back under the bridge and climbed down back to the base of the falls. All of the kids followed and it was a lot of fun.

After that we got eat at a picnic area. We all ate our lunch, and we got to see where Buffalo Bill is buried. He was buried on top of a mountain at his request. He wanted to be buried above the mountains and plains. The view was breathtaking up there.

Another thing that we got to do was drive up Mount Evans. When we started out it was about 75 degrees at the base of the mountain. As we were going up the mountain, we stopped at the bathrooms where we saw a herd of mountain goats. There were about ten mountain goats with two kids. We all took pictures and then we were on our way. As we continued going up, we got to see four more mountain goats which were really close to the road. We also got to feel some of the fur that fell off of the goats. When we got to the top of mountain, it was about 44 degrees and windy. The mountain is 14,264 feet above sea level. It was really nice up there and did I mention freezing cold? Did you know that Mount Evans is the tallest mountain you can drive in Colorado? On the way down, I got to drive a little while. It was a little scary, but not that bad. The turns were really tight with sheer drop-offs. Before long, we pulled off and dad took the wheel again. On the way down we also got to see female big horn sheep. There were about ten of them and were neat to see.

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