The past couple of days

It's been an interesting couple of days around here.

Yesterday Becca had power skating and group lessons, and ended up taking an open spot for a private lesson with her coach. I guess in the middle of power skating she was in hysterics and the coach went over to see what was wrong. She has previously not had trouble during power skating, so it was a bit perplexing, but she is five and sometimes things she has been fine with are suddenly too hard. Come to find out, the pull on the zipper of her club jacket had come off. Coach Debbie put the pull in her pocket and everything was fine. I am hoping that she passes her group lesson class this session. She is so close and most of her friends moved on last session. If she doesn't, I am sure that it will only take one more session to get through. The summer sessions are 4 weeks instead of 6, and sometimes those extra 2 weeks are just what she needs to get the skills. She started working on her salchow last night as well. I can't believe that my baby is working on her first full rotation jump!

She also took her first dance class today. Of all the things she has done, she has never taken a dance class. I think she had a good time, but dance is just drop off so I don't know. There is a small recital in July, and she is pretty excited about that. Becca asked me on the way home why she was doing this, and I told her that it was because I thought she would have fun. What she really meant was "when do people get to watch me do this". Once she found out that there were recitals, with costumes no less, she is ready to sign up for life.

Tonight was Cameron's next to last baseball game. They beat the other team 14-2 or something lopsided like that. Cameron had a triple with 2 RBI's and was walked at his only other at bat. They put him out on first base right away, but I guess there were no runners for the other team so it wasn't very exciting- not like Saturday at any rate. His last game is Monday night, and I think he will be pretty sad for the season to be over. I am going to call and see if I can find a place for him to play fall ball. It can be hard to find a team since most leagues only accept full team registrations, so I feel like I really need to get on the ball (ha ha) with this.

Not much coming up in the next few days, I think I am just going to hang out at home!

I swear this is the last of the black eye!

 

 

These pictures are from last night- it actually looks worse today! The swelling is going down, and all that is left is bruising. There is a pool of blood in the white of his eye, and I freaked out when I saw it. I called the doctor and he told me not to worry about it, but that he thinks it will take quite a while to heal itself. I am just happy that it's going to heal! :)

We are headed to the rink in a few minutes- power skating and group lessons tonight. I contacted the lady who makes Becca's costumes and we are getting started on a dress for worlds and then right into dresses for fall. This figure skating thing never ends!

I did a research study today for Hallmark- I got to pretend like I was shopping for birthday party items and then give them my opinions. And they gave *me* money! It's a win win for me!!! It was an interesting way to spend an hour of my day for sure.

Not looking better........

Here are today's black eye pictures. The swelling has gone down some(and Cameron got a haircut today)but the black and blue seems to be worse rather than better. He has bruising under his eye, on his cheekbone, and lower on his cheek. I think by the time it is all said and done most of the right side of his face will be bruised.

 

 

I knew there was a reason I don't go to baseball practice!

 

Cameron loves baseball- I am more of an "indoor sports" kind of girl. It always seems so hot at baseball and I get whiney in the heat. I faithfully go to baseball games because I love my son, but I avoid practice like the plague.

Now I know why. HA!

Cameron was on first base and our pitcher was playing third. He threw it to Cameron and I guess he lost it in the sun. Cameron moved his glove to find the ball and it smacked him right in the cheekbone. The poor kid felt terrible, but sometimes things like this happen. David and the coaches made sure he had all his teeth (and to think that most people ask me if I worry about him losing his teeth in hockey) and then asked him if he wanted to rest a bit. He decided to keep playing and the rest of practice was uneventful.

If I had my way, we would have headed straight to the doctors office when he got home. Heck, I probably would have freaked out and called an ambulance or something if I had been at practice. Baseballs to the head seem so dangerous to me. Aside from the fact that the swelling is making it difficult to understand his speech a little bit he is fine- without mom running him to the doctors office. I can't wait to see what he looks like today!

Baseball pictures are Wednesday- I am sure he will look lovely by then!!

1880 Train

After we went to Bear Country we took the kids (and especially the biggest kid, Grandpa) on the 1880 train from Hill City to Keystone. It was an hour ride with a 15 minute stop at the Keystone train station and an hour ride back to Hill City. The ride was pretty and very scenic, but Becca wasn't all that interested and slept most of the way to Keystone.

 

 

 

 

Bear Country USA

On Wednesday we all headed to Bear Country USA. It is a drive through animal park that is really pretty neat. There were quite a few different kinds of animals to see- bears, of course, but also reindeer, timber wolves, buffalo, and goats. There were more than those, but they are the ones that stick out in my mind.

 

I learned quite a few things- like the fact that at least during the late spring reindeer antlers are fuzzy.....

 

 

After driving through the animal area you could get out of your car and go to a place called babyland. They had all kinds of baby animals in fenced areas so that they were safe from the other species but could still interact with each other. We spend quite a while watching a group of baby bears playing with each other. They flopped around with each other and climbed trees. They were the cutest things I had ever seen. I could have stood there and watched them all day.

 

Bear Country was one of my favorite things that we did on this trip. It was a bit touristy, but it was a lot of fun. I had never seen a bear up close like that, the closest I had ever been was at the zoo. These bears were just roaming around the car! It certainly made for an exciting morning!

Lighted memorial picture

 

Apparently I can't post 5 pictures at a time, so here is the lighted picture that I said was in the last post.

Mt Rushmore

 

Since half of my pictures are stored on David's computer, I will start with our trip to Mt Rushmore. We decided to visit in the evening so that we could see the progam and lighting of the monument. We took a beautiful drive up the back side of the mountain and we couldn't see the monument until we were in the parking area. We even saw a mountain goat along the way. It was quite cold and it rained off and on the entire time we were there!

 

When you first enter the park there is a long line of flags that leads up to the viewing area for the monument. There is a flag from each of the states with a marble plaque that says what number the state was and the year that it entered the union. It is really neat to see and adds quite a bit of color to the area, which is mostly made up of different kinds of white and grey marble, so it really stands out.

 

David, Cameron, and I took a walk around the Presidentail Trail. It is a 1/2 mile trail that goes to the base of the mountain and gives you some very interesting views of the monument. The first 1/4 mile is very easy and paved to be wheelchair accessable. Then you start walking the stairs down. Stairs down, not such a big deal. :) Unfortunately, what goes down eventually ended up coming back up- ACK!! It was really quite strenuous- I think it said something to that effect on the sign that I ignored! LOL

 

I was unable to get a good picture of the memorial after it was lighted because I really needed a tripod, but this was the best of what I got. The program leading up to the lighting was about a 10 minute talk by a park ranger and then a 20minute movie about the making of the monument and information about the presidents that are on it. Cameron's favorite was Teddy Roosevelt- he is such a good little conservationist.

I think that all of the kids had a great time at a place that I was afraid would be a little boring. It truly is a beautiful place!

Yes, I did look up George Washington's nose!

 

We had a wonderful vacation last week to the black hills of South Dakota! I am now threatening to move to Spearfish, SD and buy a nice house somwhere along the Spearfish Canyon. I just have to find David a job........... :)

We only had 3 full days to see everything, but we seemed to get it all in. We saw Custer State Park and the Needles Highway, plus part of a roaming buffalo herd that lives there. We went to Crazy Horse monument, and then headed to Mt Rushmore- that was the first day! LOL We went to Bear Country USA and rode the 1880 Train, and then finally we went to Deadwood and Spearfish. While we were in Spearfish we went to an historic Fish Hatchery, and traveled along the scenic Spearfish Canyon. We caught a gunfight in Deadwood, and the kids met "Wild Bill" Hickok and Calamity Jane. I played the slots for the first time ever in Deadwood and walked away a winner- I started with $1 and ended up with $2.50.

Once I get everything sorted out I will post more details of our trip. I came home to a birthday party and have jumped right back in to the rink.