Working on a New Routine

Lexy is working on a new skating routine for a competition in Pittsburgh that will be in September. We worked thought the music a few times trying to pick something that worked of everyone, parents, Lexy, and her coach. We settled on 'Under the Sea' from 'The Little Mermaid'. I have cut the music down to 1 minute for the routine. I can't wait to post some video of her in this new routine, she has some waltz jumps, and very fancy footwork for this one. Fun Fun...

Racing Pictures

We when racing again this weekend. It was 3 in a row, it's starting to feel like last summer again. Isaac always loves to ride. I wish that I could take him more. He did a lot more shifting that he has been doing in the past. He got good starts, much better than he has been. It must be the fact that he is riding more than once a month.

Here he is waiting to 'drop in' to the start area.Amy got this nice picture of him jumping the finish line table top. See the sweat... Yep, riding dirtbikes is a work out. Good picture.

Isaac's number plate on the front of his bike. It's always been there, but Amy decided to take a picture of it this weekend. Turned out great. The last series race is September 18th. Come join us. You can watch, or better yet bring your bike and race...!!

Isaac got some Cub Scout Beltloops

Isaac set a goal of earning 10 Cub Scout Beltloops over the summer. For those of you unfamiliar, it's like merit badges for the younger boys. There are two main categories, Athletic and Academic. Well, he earned 14.
He got: Baseball, Softball, Bicycling, Communication, Family Travel, Fishing, Good Manors, Hiking, Hockey, Pet Care, Reading and Writing, Swimming, Ultimate Frisbee, Video Games. (He wanted to be the first one in the Pack to earn the Video Game Beltloop, it is new this year. No one else in the Pack has earned it yet.)

He also earned he also earned 10 pins, which are continuations of the Beltloops. The boy has to earn the belt loop and complete 4 or 5 more tasks in the same subject.

He earned his Whittling Chip Card, which allows a Cub Scout to carry a pocket knife to Scouting functions.

AND, two Silver Arrow Points to go under his Bear rank.

It was quite the night for him, that is a lot of awards. He call Trisha on the ride home to thank her for all of the help this summer meeting his goal. (Me too, THANKS Trisha..!!)

We do have more pictures from Pack Meeting, I will have to post them later.

Happy Birthday Amy

Yesterday was Amy's 29th birthday, again. Isaac decorated the fireplace with a "Happy Birthday Mom" sign, and Silly Bandz streamer, and some eyes. I don't have a picture of it, sorry. The poor girl was sick and after driving to Beckley she ended up driving back to the house. She went back to bed at 9:00am and got back up at 12:30pm, perfect for her. Except that she was sick. I got out of work at 4:00pm raced home and got dinner and cake going. We made her a Red Velvet cake with Fluffy Cream Cheese Frosting. Different, but really good.

The Fluffy Frosting was very thin and didn't stick to the cake very well. It tasted pretty good, but not the best for frosting and cake, let alone decorating a cake.

Amy sure has been working hard for us. Her days start and 5:30am and she is out the door by 5:50am to drive the Beckley and be in the O.R. by 7:00am. I tell people that she gets off of work between noon and 8:00pm. But it seems like most of the time she is getting off around 3:30pm to 4:30pm. So, we get home about the same time. But, she then has 2 to 3 hours of school charting, care plans, reading, and homework questions to do. It's a tough deal and she is working hard for our future. I love you babe...!!! Happy Birthday...!!!

Racing on Saturday Night

Tyler Mountain is trying to pack in the series races now. They wanted do an 8 race series and didn't get around to get them all run before school started. So, they have decided to have 3 in a row. Last weekend we got rained out just as the second round of motos started. This weekend they got about a third of the way into the second round when this little storm stopped the races... The track in just above the 'a' in Charleston.

I wasn't sure if they would get any races at all this weekend because there was a small band of rain that came through during practice and muddied up the track. Isaac got to ride in the mud, he likes it. He was excited for the racing in the mud, he is smart about it. He takes his time picks his line and eases into the throttle to keep upright and on two wheels.

We'll be back next week...

Trisha Went Home... err.. aaa... to School

Trisha 'The Nanny' left us... I guess that it was time. She had to move on in her life and start college in Cedar City. Here are the pictures from the airport when she left after 2+ months of helping us take care of the kids... And, uumm, taking some cooking lessons.

Isaac getting a hug... Lexy and Trisha hugging at the gate...

Amy Jo and Trisha...

No picture but she did get a half of a hug from me too.

Oh yeah, for those of you that are not sure. She is attending Southern Utah University (SUU) in Cedar City, Utah.

Amy's New / Current Hospital

Amy has been working in Beckley now. I use that term 'working' loosley, she has been doing the hands on work, the charting, care plans, research prior to cases, etc. The only part she is not doing is getting paid for the work. Oh well, 10 more months and she will...

The hospital that she is working in is the Beckley ARH. It's not quite as nice as the Hazard ARH.

Amy is learning a lot about some different surgeries and different ways to put people to sleep. She is getting to see and do the things that she has read and learned about in the books and classes.

This place gets to be a little spooky around the side.

And the back in down right scary.

Power Skating

Grandpa is in town and he took some pictures of the kids at Power Skating. It was fun to see his eyes light up when he saw how well the kids can skate. Then the music started and all the kids on the ice headed to their circles, he was impressed that all the kids there knew the program and hit it.

He caught both kids in this one. Isaac wanted to skate in full pads, so we dressed him up. Lexy is in pink, of course. Here is Lexy in motion.
Isaac is crankin' it through the turn...

This is a great program and the coaches are great...!!!

Double

Isaac went racing on Saturday night. It was the 5th race in an 8 race series. We have decided to only race the series this year. Isaac is only racing the 65cc classes now. He is getting better and better, more and more comfortable on that bigger bike with the 5 speed transmission. He has been talking double for the last three times he has raced. Amy keeps telling him not to. I say make sure it is your call, commit all the way and don't come up short.

Well on the 3rd lap of his first moto he romped on the gas and hit the second double of the back stretch on the track. He was just a hair short, bobbled a little and took off. That was his last lap of that race. He never was feeling it turning the next moto, and we got rained out before the second set of motos so it was just the once. But, Isaac has now doubled on his 65.

He is pretty stoked.

There was a lot of discussion about what gear to be in and how to shift in different places on the track. I am sure that he will be jumping it again. He sure loves the racing...!!!

Three Dozen

Another birthday came and went. I am never thrilled by MY birthday. I like to keep it a secret. It was just a regular day, the way I like it. But Amy and the kids worked hard to make it special. Amy make me breakfast, Lexy woke up early to give me a hug and kiss before work, and Isaac texted me 'happy birthday' as soon as he woke up. Then Amy gone done early enough in Beckley to drive home and make dinner for me. The kids had a blast with her making me dinner. They put together homemade pizza's, pepperoni rolls, manicotti, stuffed shells, bread sticks, and a cake.

Isaac made the cake pretty much by himself.

Here is a quick pic of the Cinnamon rolls that Amy made me for breakfast.
Lucky for me, our bank account kept the presents homemade for the most part. Here is my stash, homemade cards (the best..!!!), some football silly bandz, a new football book cover, some peppermint gum, and some new pens. Plus, it was all wrapped in homemade wrapping paper.

Sweet...!!

Thanks to those of you have called, texted, emailed, FB'ed, and sent packages, too. Now, we can do something else for the next 364 days... ;)

Nanny Pictures

Here are a bunch of pictures from Trisha's camera this summer. Kind of a look from her perspective. I love this first picture.

Trisha has gone home now... We hope that she had fun with our kids this summer. She posted plenty of pictures on her Facebook page.

The New River Area

We when on a last minute tour with Trisha on here last full day in West Virginia. We made a big loop from Charleston up past Montgomery, then through Gauley Bridge and up to Fayetteville. We dropped across 'The Bridge' to the visitors center and ate our picnic lunch. Then we drove back through Beckley, drove by Beckley ARH where Amy is working now, and off to Grandview. We then passed back through Beckley, stopped and the Tamarack, and down I-64 and back to Charleston.

Here are some of the pictures from Trisha's camera...

A waterfall at Gauley Bridge. This is a fun place to stop.

(Here is the lat long for you local people... 38.153607,-81.180164) Here are the kids jumping from rock to rock up to the waterfall. It is only like 200 or 250 feet from parking to the waterfall. But you gotta watch were you are doing. It is easy to fall. Some lady walking by me was looking up at the falls and not where she was stepping. Down she went in to the water, bloodied her knee and everything.

This is a shot of Amy and I at The Bridge.
It was a fun, but long day. Trisha got to see some of the cool stuff here close in West Virgina. We even had time to make a Chocolate Cheese Pie when we got home.

Skate Camp

The kids both did a skate camp last week. It was a space themed camp. The show on Friday had rockets, planets, aliens, etc. Lots of fun...!!

Here is a group picture. Isaac is on the right toward the back with a hat on. Lexy is in the middle front row (Do I have to say that she is wearing pink? No, I think that you all know) Heidi and JD are right behind Isaac. They are the coaches, great people!!!One of the best parts for Lexy is that her friend Alexis is back from a month in Russia. They love to skate together.

Rib Fest 2010

Isaac has been so excited for Rib Fest to come back to Charleston this summer. The boy loves ribs. They moved it over to South Charleston this year and it was a much better venue. I took the kids and we went down there on Saturday afternoon. Amy stayed home to study, and Trisha had gone to Columbus for the day. We got in took one walk around the place and got our RIBs. We were there at a pretty good time and the lines were short. We got ribs from three places, corn on the cob from another, drinks and fries at another, and one last drinks stop. Then off to eat were when. Yeah, Isaac likes his ribs...
Smoken' Joe's Hog Wild Barbeque was the best of the three that we tried. And they were dang good.

Here is Lexy enjoying her $7 lemonade, corn on the cob and fries.
One of the fun things that we did was visit the balloon man. Lexy got a flower, which she loved. She was careful with it so it didn't become 'pop art'.

The balloon guy had a ton of corny jokes and Lexy gave him a corny, fake laugh right back to all of his silly jokes.

Rock Arch at Spring Mill Park

While we were on vacation in Indiana we only go to see Joe Burkart late at night (He works 12-14-16 hours a day). But on Saturday he wanted to take us to Spring Mill Park. We all had a great time there. We even bought some to the fresh milled corn meal, which makes great corn cakes by the way.

One of the things that I enjoyed the most was this rock wall around a flower garden, and especially the arched entry ways.
We took the time for a family picture in front of the arch.

Momma Jo and Me.

And this is the whole bunch, all of the Joe Burkart Family and all of our family.

I do have some more pictures of this place that I will have to try to post later. I snapped some pictures of the plaques on the building that said, "Built in 1820. Restored in 1930." Pretty neat.