Hershey Factoy

This show was cool. It included these animals,their trainer and 3 divers. The divers were the crooks and the sea lions and their trainer were the detectives. Actually the trainer was their secretary.

Look at the lights on the light poles. They are shaped like Hershey Kisses. Some are wrapped and some are unwrapped. These are on Chocolate Avenue.

This part of the factory as seen from the mono rail. I ended up riding the mono rail 3 times. The first one was Friday night. I wanted to see the park at night. Only Beth didn't want to ride it with me. Kieth and her didn't ride it. So then on Saturday , we convinced her to ride with us and she liked it. Then the kids had to have Keith ride the mono rail with them, so we did.
Below are the singing cows that we saw on the tour of the factory. Actually it is not of the factory, but a tour they have set up.

Hershey Park

When we came into the park on Saturday morning. This guy was showing the skunk. Hershey Park is connected to Zoo America, which you can enter for free from Hershey Park.

Beth and Chris were not quite as daring at Hershey Park to try new rides. This one was O.K. since it was like a ride at Adventureland. They said their favorite ride was the Frog Hopper which they also have at Adventureland. I thought Hershey Park was a great place for all ages. There was a ton of kiddie rides, but also great roller coasters. We went in Friday night for the "Preview". Youn can go from 7:30 pm -10:00 and then we went all day on Saturday and there were still rides most of us didn't ride.

This year was the first year for the new Boardwalk part of Hershey. It is a water park. My kids had looked up pictures on line and were so excited to be there.

This was an interesting ride. It is suppose to be like you are riding waves in the ocean. Chris waited in line, but decided not to do it as you have to jump off the top.

It was very busy so we didn't get to spend a lot of time doing the water slides.

Lancaster Trip

Here is Keith catching a nap between the competition and the youth rally.

One night after the sessions it had rained so the teens decided to play in the puddles.

Beth and Chris thought I should put this picture in the blog.

This is BEth in the pool at the hotel we stayed at in Lancaster.

The youth rally was suppose to be outside . However it was too hot. They held it instead in a ball room in the hotel. They used the good dishes and cloth napkins. I personally found it humorous as it was for teens and they served hamburgers.

Tirp to Lancaster #2

Here is most of our stuff. It was kind of amazing that we fit 30 people's stuff in 1 trailer! This was taken at Cedarville Univeristy.

Here is Carla, she did a great job with the dramas.

Here is the first drama getting ready to preform.

Here is the second drama preforming.

This is the large vocal group. Don't they look great in their robes!

Tip to Lancaster

I know it has been awhile since our trip, but I thought you still might want to see some pictures. Here are the teens at the church the first night. The church was great! They even bought us Pizza for lunch on Sunday.
Our tire on the trailer blew out! We were following and it was kind of wild how they didn't realize it right away. We also lost the fender, but no one was hurt!

The teens decided to play a huge game of spoons. That is the group of spoons in the right corner. They played in one spot and the spoons were over there you actually had to get up to get the spoons.
We decided we should look at a map before we took off the next day. We had a route from map quest, but it always better for everyone to know where we are going. On the lift is Earl and in the middle is Arvin it was nice of them to go with us.

Keith's Funny!

So Keith calls me on my cell phone shortly after he left for work. He said he picked up our cordless phone instead of his drink bottle. He was in too big of a hurry leaving for work! He seems to do that every night, he reads one more chapter to the kids which takes more time then he expects. Then he has to hurry to get to work on time. The kids thought that it was very funny that the phone was in the back seat of the car.
Last night I went to a meeting for home schoolers. It was a good meeting. Even the new superintendent was there in support of home schooling. They also gave out a list of Field Trips. Beth and Chris are both excited to go to Living History Farms. They will actually get to work on a farm and make a snack to eat.

Parade, Wedding and a Race

We started the weekend with a trip to Pella to get my parents. My mom had to go to the special shoe place in West Des Moines, so the kids and I went to Michaels. They were having a great sale and I bought a pretty shell, candle thing for my bathroom. I'm going to hang it and see how long it takes Keith to notice it. Then we were able to go to my brother Jeff and Sister in law Sherry house. Their daughter Johanna was there. She is always good about playing with the kids. We had a great supper and then we sat around and talked. Jeff also "fixed" my computer. It was a great night! Keith went to Men's retreat for the night and returned home at about 12:30 am.
On Saturday we went to Nevada for the Lincoln Highway Days Parade. Keith's brother was in teh parade. Kim and Steve and Ben came for the parade. This was the first parade Ben really got to watch as he was in parades on the 4th of July. It was fun to watch him. The kids got way too much candy! We went out to lunch and then headed to our church for a wedding. Stephanie my sister in laws Sister married a good friend of Kieth. It was funny as we didn't not realize until the groom started dating Amy(the bride )that he lived that close to us. Joe(the groom)younger brother Jordan was the ring bearer in our wedding. What a small world. It was fun to see my nephew Eli go down the aisle as a the ring bearer. He is only 23 months, but they bribed him with a sucker. It worked! I got to hold my niece, Jael for a while. She wasn't very happy as Stephanie had been busy as Matron of Honor and hadn't spent much time with her. She is growing and getting cuter everyday. Eli even let me hold him for awhile.
After the wedding we went back to Pella. Keith, Christopher, my dad and Joel went to the races in Knoxville. Chris loved it!!! He was so excited he couldn't hardly get to sleep. He also woke up in a good mood this morning. My mom, Beth and I canned 10 quarts of tomato juice. It was a fun time working together.
Today we stayed in Pella for church. Keith had a meeting at our church this afternoon so we all went up to Ames. The meeting went longer than planned, but the kids helped me make some copies and got to play with the Hatfield kids. I was so tired I order pizza from Casey's . Now I"m looking forward to working my last Monday until after school is out. I decided I really couldn't work that many days and school my kids.

Family Camp

This is Beth and her friends Jenny "surfing". They are two peas in a pod. Which means they are two very very silly girls!
Here is Chris at the bottom of his slide. He really still likes the playground. Also notice that he has on no shoes.
We had a great time at Family Camp, however Beth came back sick. I felt bad for her last Friday as she just felt worse and worse as the day went on. We took my parents back to Pella and they took us out to Pizza Ranch. It was good and Beth enjoyed mashed potatoes and ice cream. She didn't really begin to feel better until Tuesday. Then I got it only I didn't get a sore throat.Chris woke up on Thursday night with an ear ache. He doesn't seem as sick and has just kind of laid around.
I'm in the process of getting things lines up for the fall. We had a planing meeting with the teens this weekend and will have a parent kick off on Wednesday so we need to get everything line up.
I still have one more curriculum to order for Beth. Our goal is to start school next week.