Fun Surprise

A few weeks ago we were headed out on a hockey trip and decided to check in with Aunt Jean and Uncle John.  If you don't know them, They wrote the book on being hockey parents..!!  Amazing people.  They had just got back from a trip to Japan visiting their son Jim.  After we had a good visit we hung up.  About 20 minutes later they called us back.  "We are coming to watch Isaac play!"  How awesome is that!!?  They drove nearly 4 hours each way, sprung for a hotel room all to come watch Isaac play and spend time with us.

Here is Uncle John and Isaac just after the tournament and a sweet burger at Steak N Shake.

They brought the kids a fun treat of Japanese cotton candy gum.  Weird stuff.  But look at how cool the package is.

 It must have been cammo day, even Lexy was sporting the cammo hat.

 We so love spending time with Aunt Jean and Uncle John.  I wish this picture didn't have Isaac hockey stick hiding Aunt Jean, but it's the best shot I have of all five of us that day.

 Thank you so much for making the trip.  We can't wait to see you again.  Maybe we can make a trip up to your place this spring.  In between games and stuff. ;)

Also, here is a picture of Isaac's end of season poster from the coaching staff of the West Virginia Wild (PeeWee's).  Cool poster...!!

WV Symphony and Pam Tillis

I have such a back log of stuff to blog about...  I don't know how I will ever get caught up.

Last weekend we got the hook up for sure...  Our friend Bruce took up the the Symphony.  He took Isaac before, this time he took all three of us.  And some other friends, A. Rose and A. Rose.  It get's better, the Symphony was doing a show with Pam Tillis.  You know, Mel's daugther, the Queen of Denial...

  And as we were getting ready to go that afternoon, Bruce called us to tell us that we needed to be to the venue early because we were going to meet Pam Tillis before the show.  How cool was that...!!!

 

There were about 10 of us in the Meet n' Greet room at the Clay Center.  She was very nice and so sweet to the kids.  She visited with us, posed for photos, signed glossy prints of herself to the kids.  If you look in there close you can see the monster heels she was wearing.  After Lexy commented on how much she like them Pam told her, "The hard part is picking the shoes, after that everything is gravy."  Then she used that line in her show as well.

Here is a shot of just Lexy and Pam Tillis.

It really was a fantastic show.  What a cool mix of old country and the symphony.  Another bonus was that our seats were the ones hanging on the side walls of the Clay Center.  Isaac said he felt like a king sitting up there. Thank you soooo much Bruce...!!!

They recycle THAT...!!???

Used toilet paper...??!! We found this at Kroger the other night...

Kids and I got a kick out of it.  So, did the cashier and the bagger.  Some old, stiff lipped guy in line was quite offended by our jokes.... "They make it out of paper from other sources..."

Ha...!!!  It is pretty funny...

80 MPH

Oh my have we had fun with this...

LAX

Not the airport.... The game.... Lacrosse or LAX.

Isaac wanted to try lacrosse.  He had heard some of the kids at the ice rink talking about it.  So I looked them up online, emailed, and found out there is not a league here for his age.  But, they do get together every weekend to play.  So now we need the equipment.  The helmet, shoulder pads, gloves, etc. can cross over from hockey.  But the stick...!!??  I didn't have the free funds to drop $30-$50 for a cheap stick, so Isaac got to rolling.  He called Butch and asked if he could sell cookies again.  Then made a double batch of chocolate chip cookies, did the math himself.  AND, because it was St. Patrick's Day he colored the dough green.  Called them Leprechaun Cookies.  He sold six dozen, close enough that I could help him get a stick.  And off we went to practice.  

They both loved it.  Lexy only played catch with a girl from the ice rink who had been practicing with the girls group.  Now she kind of wants to play.

 Isaac loved the physical nature of the game.  Here he is digging into the group after the ball.

 I don't know how I happened to get these pictures.  Here he is with a clean hit on a kid about the same size as him.

 Then Isaac looking over the damage to see if the kid is alright...

He is way into the LAX now...  Here is a quick video of him digging the ball out of the pile and running it down for a shot.

BAM

We love to visit Books A Million.

Especially now that it has Yogurt Mountain.

Even better is that last week we met our friend Sis Newell there for a visit.

Lexy found a super fun hat to try on...!

Yo No Se

If you know me at all you know that I am a Will Ferrell fan... I must share this one...
 or watch it on YouTube

West Virginia Tornado

Lexy and I were in Lincoln and Wayne Counties the other day for a meeting and made a quick trip over to see the tornado damage in Cove Gap.  Wow.  What a great experience for her to see the damage.  She took most of these pictures.  I have put them in small because I had a hard time weeding out ones that I didn't want to post, please click on them and look at the damage zoomed in.  It looked like Paul Bunion was pissed of and just swinging an ax as he came through.  Trees were snapped off 5 to 10 feet above the ground.  Utility poles were snapped off, wires were laying on the ground.  Roofs ripped off of houses, travel trailers laid in piles of rubble.  It was quite interesting to see.

On of my project in the area had a point of interest at this house.

Lexy had me stop so she could take a picture of these mail boxes.

This one gets it's own caption.  If you look to the far left of the photo you can see a black spot.  That is an office chair with a man sitting in it, On the porch steps it his wife.  Scattered around the porch are the intact items that they have gathered and moved out of the house.  Over the top of the house is a blue FEMA tarp to try and keep what rain they can out of the remaining house.  Scattered up the hill behind the house is the insulation from the attic.  If you look at the from corner nearest the road you can see the roof drain down spout, it's broke off where the elbow would have been attached to meet up with the eves of the house.

 Sad stuff for an already very depressed and impoverished area.

Basketball Pictures

Last weekend Lexy's Basketball Team the CUBS had their team pictures.  I took these with the phone from behind the photographer.

A little dark, but so cute.  Can't wait for the real ones to come.

 They look pro getting set up for the shots...

 Add the coaches and strike a pose.

 Looking good.

 Goofy shot...

 Not too cocky, they did a #1 shot and a #2 shot...

Current record it 7-0.  One week of regular season to go and the tournament.

Pinewood Derby Car 2012

This is Isaac's last year of Pinewood Derby.  I figured the he better have a bigger part in the construction.  So, I set him up with the band saw, drew some lines on the block and got him started.

 We only had one broken saw blade and look at that sweet truck body.

 A coat of primer...

 A coat of red...

 In the rush I still don't have the 'photo shoot' pics of the truck yet... But here is Isaac at the race.

 Setting the truck on the track...

 That race was a squeeker...

The truck didn't do so well on the track.  It raced out pretty well, but I didn't take the time to set up the axles the way I have in the past.  I am certain that if I'd spent the time he would have done better.  Overall good experience.  Check back for more pictures of the truck.

Thank You...!!!

Elder Weiderholt

Elder Weiderholt moved on to Clarksburg, WV.  He was so fun to have around.  At church the other day the grabbed me and said, "We have to come to dinner at your house either Monday or Tuesday.  I am leaving on Wednesday."  So, we lined it up with MUCH help from Bruce. (Thank you Bruce...!!!)

Here is our picture after dinner of our family with Elder Weiderholt and Elder Dumke.  Great guys...!!

Second Breakfast

After the first hockey game at 7:30am on Sunday morning we all went back to the hotels to check out before the next game at 12:30pm.  As such most of the kids had Second Breakfast.

Here are Isaac and Drake enjoying their second breakfast.

This Holiday Inn Express had a pancake machine.  You just push the yellow button in the lower left hand corner of the machine and two minutes later...

Two pancakes spit out the side.

The kids all loved the pancake machine.  I guess the Jetsons don't have much on Holiday Inn.

We stopped by Barns and Noble to grab some books.  Isaac got the third book in the Skeleton Creek series.  Lexy got the Big Book of Girl Stuff.  As we were checking out we saw a display of fake mustaches. They were calling our name, so we bought a box.  Here is Isaac sporting the tight black 'stash.

Myself, I enjoyed the long red one.  In fact I wore it for most of he semi-final games at the tournament.

Lexy playin basketball