Swiming Raquel ...

We have been busy this week watching Raquel swim. Tonight was very exciting as she improved her times and the team also won the meet against Medford.

Between the first week of school, swim meets, the election, mom's meetings, the school open house . .. .we have been thankful dad is still home to help out! Good thing there is only one more work day left!

Cast #4 . . . week 5

Baby Chet was helping feed Roxie at the Cabin!!

Well - Jimmy was very disappointed at his doctor appointment on Friday. He was hoping to leave the doctors in a walking boot - but instead received cast #4! He has now had beige, red, pink, and blue casts!! He is in big blue for the next two weeks. From there he should graduate to a walking boot and physical therapy. There is still no end in sight for when he can go back to work! As you can see - he's getting creative in finding activities he can do without walking . . .

Labor Day Weekend . . .

Beautiful Alma, Wisconsin . . .. this picture is a little hard to see the true beauty . . . but the City is buit into the bluffs and boarders the Mississippi.

Here are the results of the early morning fishing on the Mississipi. They always love catching catfish - as they give a good fight!

These are from last weekend at the cabin. We had beautiful weather and enjoyed playing in the Mississippi. The beach was shut down, so we had to find an alternate plan! We boated out to a sand bar (as did several others) and found a cool place to swim. The water was shallow and the bottom was pure sand. Because Jimmy and Jason are still on crutches, they observed from the boat. Ben thought they all should get wet and had fun splashing everyone. Grandpa took revenge and ended up doing a nose dive into the Mississippi fully clothed. Maria got the whole thing on video . . . but unfortunately I left my camera home that day!!

First day of School!!

YEAH - today is the first day of school. Raquel was up at 5:00 a.m. showering and getting ready for school! Vanessa and Gavino are so excited to finally get to unpack their backpacks at school with all their new supplies. Gavino has asked everyday for the last two weeks to wear his new school shoes . .. . . and has snuck and wore several pairs of his new socks already!!

The boys thought we needed to elaborate on their fish . . . . . .

Weekend at the Cabin

Friday, Jimmy and the kids went to his doctor appointment. He was able to shed his red cast and per the girls choice, he replaced it with a pink cast with white stripes! Sounds like he has two more weeks in a cast - then will graduate to a walking boot and physical therapy.

Friday night after work we headed to the cabin with Grandma and Grandpa. Jimmy and the kids got some fishing in. I took the kids down to the beach yesterday; dispite the cool weather, they had fun!

We packed up and headed home this morning and made it to Willard to the annual church Bazzare. Grandpa was with the kids and noticed the rummage sale was having a fill a bag for a dollar sale. Needless to say - he's still smiling as my kids each filled up a brown paper bag of treasurers.

Sunday night . . .

Along with all the fun Sunday night - we had a situation that was . . . not so fun.

Jimmy was untangling fishing line for Vanessa and decided to cut the line with his hunting knife. When doing that, he dropped the knife and it landed on his foot. After a trip to the emergency room, we learned that the knife cut the tendon that controls his big toe. They stitched up the gash in his foot on Sunday without reconnecting the damaged tendon. The earliest he could seet he specialist was on Tuesday. Tuesday he got to go to Marshfield two times, one to see the Specialist and teh second for an MRI. Surgery was scheduled for Thursday. His brother Humberto took him in to surgery on Thursday. He came home casted up to his knee and with a nerve block to control the pain. We get to remove that ourselves on Monday. He is unable to put any pressure on his foot now for two full weeks. His next doctor appointment is Tuesday . . . so hopefully all is well. Needless to say after day 2 he was completely sick of sitting around with his leg up. He's got a ways to go!

Happy B-Day Blake/Trisha's home!

Last weekend we had fun at Grandpa's. Trisha was home for the weekend and it was Cousin Blake's birthday on Sunday. The kids had fun fishing, swimming, and making a campfire at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Slip N Slide

Last week the kids decided to enjoy the heat playing on the slip N slide!! Good thing they did that last week - as the weather hasn't been as warm this week!

Something

The first picture is cousins Selene (Manny's daughter) and Diego (Miriam's son) Diego is sporting his special suit his Grandma Julie bought him from Mexico!

We did some fun things this weekend - but unfortunately did not have our camera with us!! On Friday night Grandpa and Grandma took the kids to Curtiss to the 5th Anniversary of the Curtiss Travel Plaza. The main event the kids were looking forward to was the piglet catching contest!! Their dad was practicing with them - teaching them all the techniques that he knows on how to catch a piglet!! Even though my kids were, I'm sure, the most educated and the most practiced in pig catching . . . .they seemed to catch a dose of the scardies!! Vanessa talked the smartest . . . but stayed the furthest away!! Needless to say - the kids came away with some great story's . . . but not the championship trophy!! The kids took a fishing trip on Saturday with their dad . . . . but ended up getting skunked. The best thing about their trip was the ice cream cone from the Root Beer Stand in Owen on the way home!! Sunday, we celebrated Grandpa's 55th birthday with good food and family! The kids took full advantage of swimming in the pond after dinner! Since we didn't have any weekend pictures, Raquel wanted to share some of her artwork!! She is helping me out with taking pictures to create some marketing materials for the City!

Fun with Baby Chet!!

weekend with baby Chet

This past weekend Ben and Maria brought there son Chet over while they went to see country jam. We had to jog our memories remembering baby ways. I think the kids did just about everything with him. We took him to the park, and we watched movies -Chet perfered the floors instead of the boys comfy spiderman chairs, and played. Chet was in paradise.

Awesome Florida Vacation

Last Thursday after I was done with work, the girls and I headed out to Milwaukee to begin our vacation. We flew out of Milwaukee on Friday morning, which meant we had to be awake at 4:45 a.m. to catch the shuttle to the airport at 5:25 a.m. All went like clock work and we departed Milwaukee on time at 7:10 a.m. We arrived in Florida a little before 11:00 a.m. (after loosing an hour due to the time change) We had been looking forward to renting a convertible for months . . . . but . . . . after riding a shuttle away from the airport to the car rental place; we were sadly informed that with out a credit card . . . we were unable to rent a convertible. We would have been able to rent any other vehicle on the lot with a debit card, but not a convertible. ((Of course with a few added fees)) After some discussion with Trisha, it was decided that she would just pick us up in Orlando and we would forget the car. Picture number one shows the disappointed faces of the girls after realizing there would be no convertible. On Friday we spent the entire day in Orlando visiting Down Town Disney and watching the fireworks from Down Town. Trisha and Ian treated us to a fancy seafood buffet for dinner, it was a real treat. Saturday, Trisha took us to her favorite beach (on Anna Maria Island). It was picture perfect. The weather was hot and perfect. The girls swam, snorkeled, and built sand castle's all afternoon. We finished up the perfect day watching the sun set in the ocean. Sunday, the girls were so amazed to have the luxury to get out of bed and immediately get into their swim suits to hit the pool at Trisha's house!! Sunday afternoon Trisha swapped her car with her sister-in-law to allow us the opportunity to fulfill our dream of riding in a convertible! We drove about 20 miles to a blueberry patch to pick berries . . . on the way home, the girls were hoping to close the top and turn the air conditioning on!! The stop lights were killers in the heat!! Sunday night we went to a Japanese Steak House and had the meal of our lives! The food was prepared on a grill at our table. Vanessa loved watching the show so much . . . . she forgot to eat!! Monday, Trisha and Ian scheduled a professional photographer to take our pictures! We had so much fun and are so excited to see how the pictures turn out! Tuesday was a long day of travel; but we are happy to report that we made it home safe and sound. It was definately the vacation of a lifetime!