6 pack on the bike path

With the forecasted snow for the next two days (it's only September 10th!!!), I am very much missing the weather we had two weekends ago when we went on a family bike path ride. 

We hauled our bikes down the hill to Canyon Lake and then headed east on the bike path to Memorial Park. I had Ezra in the baby seat behind me and Terry pulled Samuel while Noah and Evie rode. And poor Evie. She had the smallest bike with no gears with her little legs just pumping nonstop, working harder than of all of us, and she didn't complain at all! In fact, at one point, when we had just crossed the bridge at the top of Omaha, she exclaimed, "I just feel so good right now!" Yeah, that's from The Lego Movie, but she applied it appropriately. I think she takes after me - she appreciates being outside.

I mapped out route out on mapmyrun.com and found that we biked nearly 10 miles!

When we got to Memorial Park we stopped to take a short break and drink some water. At first we thought Ezra was sleeping with his eyes open. He was so still and catatonic. 

Then he looked at Terry. Nope, still awake. Just lulled into oblivion on the back of my bike.

What a hard peddling happy girl. 

Terry took my picture while I was looking at Evie, thinking he was taking Evie's. So there's me.

And Noah. I hadn't seen all the improvements made to this park. It's nice. The wind was blowing the fountain water at us, making us cold.

Samuel was so thirsty he had to have 2 water options. He's all sweaty but he didn't do anything except sit there. 

The way back was a little harder since it was all uphill (only a very very slight grade though). We stopped at McDonalds for a special ice cream snack and then at Sioux Park for some playing. That ride was so much fun...even though mapmyrun said I only burned 52 calories for 2 hours of riding :P

church luau

Last year our Director of Connections organized this fun fall kick off event at church called the County Fair. He did it again this year as a luau. I didn't get any photos (because I was so busy with my own kids and laughing at Terry get wet) so I swiped some off the facebook page :) It was a fun day, though sort of windy for all the water! That didn't stop them from dousing poor Terry though... ;)

Complete with bouncy castles, gaga ball and a whole roasted pig!

Poor Pastor Dave received the most votes to get dunked and went first.

Terry was up next - the look of pain! Poor guy didn't even have time to change. He made the best of it though.

Anyone who wanted to get him wet had to pay $1 (which was then used to raise money for youth trip scholarships). Then they were given 3 wet pool balls to throw at this bullseye. If they hit the bullseye the bucket turned over. But some of those kids got tired of missing (or the bullseye wasn't sensitive enough) and they eventually just went up and hit it with their hand! Very cold water, especially with the wind blowing. It felt more like a fall day than a summery August 24th. 

Terry purchased this old vinyl sign and used it as a slip-n-slide! 

Not many went down it, but it looked pretty fun nonetheless. There goes Terry!

2014 fair

Since we came back to Rapid in 2012, Terry's folks taken the kids to the Central States Fair to ride the rides and see the sights, but mostly for the rides. The first year I had no photos. Last year I got a couple from our moms. This year Terry and I both attended so we actually got to see what fun the kids were having. And turns out, I think a big part of the reason Terry's dad likes to take the kids is because he likes the rides for himself :). It sure seemed that way to me anyway. But I like the rides too! I think next year I'll get a wristband as well and have a blast like I used to when I was little. The fair used to be the highlight of my year!

Grace got to go along again as well. Evie loves her little girl cousin. She's the closest thing she has to a sister after all.

And Samuel loved all these little rides, especially the car ones. I think Noah was only in them because they were at the beginning of the midway and he had to start there before he could go systematically through all the rides. He's a perfectionist like that. 

Miniature roller coaster but too little for Samuel. Next was the mirror house and the lady let Evie take Samuel and Grace through even though they were too small. It was hilarious to watch them run into mirrors and look all confused. So funny!

The further you went down the midway, the bigger the rides got. Look at Grampa on that lay down Superman-like ride!

Terry was able to capture a couple shots of his dad really enjoying himself. The same can't be said for Evie in this photo though. Ha!

Grampa was so happy to be crashed into by Noah :)

Samuel loved these motorcycles!

Evie didn't want to do anything real scary so she was content and happy to do the baby rides with Grace.

I loved these flying swings when I was little. My folks have the funniest photo of an Evie-size-me in these swings with my feet all dangling cockeyed sideways like my ankles were broken. I just have weird ankles.

They were even able to see the Asian Elephant show.

The littles plus Evie are trying to turn themselves in this little bear. I posed this photo because you can see Gramma to the side. Proof she was there!

Shari came later with baby Sarah and her friend Caryn. They had a hankering for rides that they had to satisfy. I also love rides and was convinced to pay to go on just one ride - the scariest one there that swings you back and forth until you go upside down. Terry and I did also get to go on the free fall ride. I screamed like a little girl.

There's me, Shari and Caryn. It was SO much fun. I screamed and screamed. I haven't had that much fun in forever.

Halfway up!

Upside down! AH! AH! AWESOME!

When it started to rain we went into the bunny/chicken barn and wandered around. I was quite in love with this miniature bunny. I even let him nibble on my precious camelback a little. :P

After some subs for dinner we headed back out there for maybe another hour, until it was going to rain again. In the end, we were caught in a deluge. I was absolutely soaked by the time I got to the van

Ezra finally got out of his stroller and went on the carousel with Daddy. :) He was so confused.

I like this photo because Samuel didn't care that he was all alone on the ride. He was having so much fun!

Let all the crazy out, Evie :)

ranch riding

We've been to the ranch twice in the last month or so. It's always nice to get out of town away from every day life and have some ranch fun. It's so pretty and peaceful. One of the things we always do is walk or ride down to the bridge and throw rocks in the creek. I have fond memories of doing this with baby Noah when we lived out there before we moved to Nebraska. 

Noah was away with daddy trying to get his old motorcycle to work (he's got the motorcycle itch). The other three came with me to the bridge.

Snap went in the creek! It was the first time he'd ever done that. I suppose it was a little too hot for him with his black coat.

We were kind of enamored with Snap. I think poor Snap would like to be a ranch dog permanently.

 About the time we were getting bored, daddy came around on the 4 wheeler and picked up a load of kids. They went for a ride around while I walked back and put Ezra to bed. Noah has been able to drive the 4 wheeler for a while. He goes slow and is doing great.

On Labor Day we went out at the ranch again. Jerry had done some work on Terry's old motorcycle to "make it work," as Terry says. Something to do with the carburetor. And he had the seat reupholstered. When Terry was even younger than Noah, who is nine, he had a motorcycle still smaller than this one to ride around the ranch. So we figured it was time for Noah to learn. 

So that's just what he did: 

students over, thankfulness

Halfway through August we had a former youth group student, Amanda, over to share her first year experience at Stanford. We of course invited all over who were interested in hearing what it's like to be a Christian in college. 

Having students over in our house impresses on me (over and over) how thankful I am to have the house we that we do. God has truly blessed us with this house (this blessing began before we even arrived in Rapid!). It meets all our needs in abundance. 

We have a beautiful back yard with plenty of room for plenty of people.

There were lots of eyes peeled out for Ezra's safety amidst the big boy shenanigans. 

How cute is our little frisbee player? I love those pudgy cheeks. 

It really doesn't cease to amaze me that our dungeon used to look like this. Not the most hospitable place for people to hang out - kind of cold, dark, hard and messy.

And now it looks like this. Plenty of room for plenty of students. God has met our needs :)

Samuel at Watiki

How is it that the summer goes so quickly? We had learned early in the summer that Watiki had new summer hours and was open in the mornings during the week but still didn't make it there until mid-August (our problem is that Terry's day off is Friday so we never go in the evenings when it's usually open). 

But after all the craziness of June youth trips and July vacation and school room renovation, we finally got there on August 15th. It was awesome - the most fun we've had. For one thing, it was dead. We had our pick for tables and short lines. We started out in the pool to get Samuel acclimated to the water. He has not enjoyed swimming there very much but was slowly getting better. We made bounds of progress during this trip. I got him to jump to me in the pool and then we insisted that he go down the kid slides with Noah and Evie. There are three slides to the back of this thing. 

 We started Samuel out on the smallest orange one. He did not want to go and put up a little fight but followed Noah and Evie (since adults aren't allowed up there we couldn't go). And I have to say, Noah and Evie are so great. They just took him along and didn't leave him out and did such a great job encouraging him. He he is coming down the orange slide! 

The next largest slide is the green one. And look at that smile!! 

After that the only one to be conquered was the big yellow one. But that's the funnest, longest one that goes through the restaurant so by the time Samuel went down that, I think his fears were cured. 

Three happy kids :)

We took several photos of the kids in the see-through part of the yellow slide from the inside of the water park but they were terrible. So Terry finally went in to the restaurant (which says "swimsuits welcome!") and took photos from there after I had signaled him that the kids were on the way. This makes me wish I was a kid again. I would never have left. I would have stayed 12 hours easy.

I'm glad our kids get to go. Thanks again to Gramma and Grampa Biers for the yearlong pass! 

Ezra growing up - haircuts and chewing

Little 14.5 month old Ezra only liked to eat pureed foods once we finally got him started eating cereal. It was just so easy for me to blend up whatever we were eating and feed him that instead of chopping and cutting and fighting. So I pureed. And Ezra got to the point where he wouldn't even eat mashed potatoes because they were too firm for him. Little punk. 

So on Monday, August 11 I had made this yummy chicken thigh, potato and carrot crock pot meal for dinner thinking that for sure he would be able to handle the incredibly soft and yummy carrots and potatoes. He would not handle them and did not think they were yummy. He threw an Ezra fit. And mommy felt super guilty for letting it get to this. I enabled him. This is him after he had some force feeding that night and I reached out to facebook for help.

But the good thing about all of it was that his reaction also furthered my resolve and I dug in my heels. It was time for battle. Little Ez was going to learn to chew or he wasn't going to eat. Little punk. So that next day wasn't so fun. And I thought since I was insisting he eat like a big boy, he should look like a big boy too. That first haircut is always so hard when you have a boy because it grows them up immediately. But it was time for him to grow up! So that Tuesday night he donned the haircut cape.

He squirmed and cried a bit until we got started. But funny enough, he calmed down once I got out the razor! Noah and Samuel have both freaked out about the razor, but somehow Ezra didn't mind it. Or he was fascinated by it.

Boom baby! 

He's a big boy now. No more baby. Well, kind of. He'll always be my baby. Though I'll try harder from now on not to spoil him...or myself.

The next day he still wasn't into solid foods. 

But a week later he was! Now he eats old fashioned oats and cut up bananas at breakfast, cut up peanut butter sandwiches for lunch and whatever we are eating for dinner. It's so great!