Memorial Day 2011

Memorial Day is my favorite holiday. It was not until I met my husband that I realized what Memorial Day was truly about. The small town in central Kansas where he was born and raised and we now live has an amazing tradition for Memorial Day. Here are a few pictures I took.

The Thielen cousins: Brooklyn, Garrett, Avery (standing on the ground), Hallie, Anna & Sam.



Sam

Anna



Garrett

Our featured speaker Major Russ Allen, US Air National Guard, US Air Force



American Legion Rifle Squad
My dad is the one on the far right, Joe is the third one from the right.



Major Russ Allen addressing those gathered at the cemetery.



Colleen Allen (Russ's Mom) and her grand kids Maggie and Austin. You can't see Emma, she is sitting on Colleen's lap.



Garrett, Anna and Hallie (my niece) listening during the ceremony.



Anna taking a break to read the program.



After the festivities at the cemetery and Legion we usually gather at the farm for a BBQ. The kids were hiding under Grandma's desk. Hallie and Anna are in the back. Brooklyn and Sam are in the front.

Faith Filled Fun

On the eve of Easter my parents joined the Catholic church. I am thrilled. I joined the Catholic church 12 years ago after I married Joe so it was great news when my parents made the decision to join the catholic church. They spent 18 months learning about the catholic faith before they joined the church during a fantastic Easter Vigil service. Below is a picture my Mom and Dad with their priest, Father Bill. I knew Father Bill when he was our priest in Frankfort.


The weekend after Easter we celebrated Garrett's 1st Communion. I am so proud of how he as grown in his own faith. He certainly makes his parents proud. It was another great service. Our priest, Father Hoover and nun, Sister Marilyn do a really nice service that is ALL ABOUT the kids. He really makes it special and memorable for the kids.
Garrett with his teacher, Mrs. Berger, Sister Marilyn, and Father Hoover.


Garrett doing some of his reading during Mass.



My parents have had a special guest staying with them for a few weeks. This is a picture of Garrett with Father McGovern from Ireland. My parents traveled to Ireland last fall and met Father while attending a Mass in Ireland. He later wrote to them and came for a visit. It just so happened he was here for both celebrations.



Easter at my parents. Sam (3), Garrett (8), McKenzie (8), Anna (5)




So, this is the best family picture we got for Easter.



A picture of Sam playing in Mimma & Papa's yard.


I had to throw this picture in b/c it is the 3rd time Garrett wore his tie in 9 days. We had to have a tie for 1st communion and we got some miles out of that tie. He wore it for 2 Sundays in a row (Easter & 1st Communion). He wanted to wear the tie to his Spring music program at school. I was a bit apprehensive, thinking he would be the only kid in a tie. But as you can see there are 3 of them wearing ties. Guess what? They all had first communion the day before and the boys had decided at school that day that they were all going to wear their ties to the program. Don't they look sharp?

Spring Break 2011

As you probably know, my husband is a farmer/rancher which when you are a teacher Spring Break is not exactly a great time for a vacation. He is busy with new baby calves being born so it is a bit hard to get away from the farm. This year, I did manage to drag him away for 25 hours the the luxurious destination of......drum roll please........Hutchinson, KS. In that 25 hours we went to the Cosmosphere, swam/slept at a hotel, and went to the farm show in Salina. I know you all are anxious for me to start a new career as a travel agent/trip planner....so maybe it was not every ones dream vacation but it was fun to go somewhere as a family. The rest of the week got a little more exciting.....for some of us. Read below to find out.....the rest of the story.

Future Astronauts????

If you have more than 1 kids you will appreciate the picture above. It was the only picture I didn't have to continue to say, "look this way, close your mouth, smile," while I took 15 pictures and hoped at least one of them had all 3 kids with a decent looking face.

....the rest of the story
Joe's mom and her sister took 3 girls (ages 4, 4 & 5) on a train to St. Louis to visit her niece and family. Jody & Tim are the parents of Leah (5 months) and live in St. Louis. The girls had a great time riding the train from KC to St. Louis. While in St. Louis they went to the Magic House, Build-a-Bear and Chuck-e-Cheese (every kids dream). I snagged a few pictures from Jody's blog.
Thanks Grandma and Aunt Debbie for taking the girls on the great adventure.
Thanks Jody, Tim & Leah for hosting and entertaining the travelers.

Hallie, Natalie, Anna


Hallie, Anna, Leah, Natalie


Anna


Hallie, Natalie, Anna.

While the girls were in St. Louis doing their thing, I took the boys on another adventure. Garrett, Sam & I went to Topeka and met up with my sister and her family and my Dad (mom was off with her friends on another Spring Break adventure). Two weeks before Spring Break our plan seemed like a great idea (it was beginning to feel like spring). So, we planned a trip to Nebraska City, NE to see where Arbor Day was "hatched." This would have been really neat had there not been snow on the ground and it was a little warmer. You can see by the pictures that we really had to bundle up. There is this really cool Tree Adventure place within walking distance of this hotel/lodge/spa/conference center. We ended up zipping through the tree adventure and stopping to play a few times and then jumping in the car and driving back to the hotel where we spent a few hours swimming in the warm pool. I do think I might go back someday when the weather is a little better. Neat place....just not when it is cold and snowy.
Should I add this to my resume for when I become a travel agent?
Garrett playing the xylophone.



Sam in the neat tree.


McKenzie (my niece), Sam & Garrett. Notice that there is no snow...this was the inside exhibit.

I forgot to mention my Dad joined us on the trip to Nebraska City. Even if the weather was not ideal the company was GREAT!!!

SNOW CREEK 2011

Calving season is just around the corner which means Joe will be tied to the farm. So, we were looking for a weekend get away for the family. My idea was going to KC, take the kids to Union Station, Science City, and Crown Center for Kaleidoscope and maybe ice skating. When I suggested this to Joe he shuddered, gagged and choked and said all he could think of was kids and GERMS. He suggested we take Garrett and Anna skiing at Snow Creek, so we did. Don't tell him, but it was a great idea. We had so much fun and the kids LOVED it and can't wait to go skiing again.

The kids took lessons in the morning. Garrett is wearing the red coat and blue pants, his little sister is right next to him in the pink.



In the afternoon the kids skied with us. We spent some time on the tow rope lifts and eventually braved the chair lifts. The kids did great.



Garrett and his dad.


Anna working hard on her new skills.


The kids took a few spills but always got back up and were ready to keep going.


Anna and her daddy.



Joe has been itching to take the kids skiing for the last few years so he was quite the proud dad. Here he is at the end of the day with 2 very tired kids.


What I learned about our kids while skiing: Garrett has a "need for speed." He liked to just point his skis down and GO. Anna on the other had was a bit more cautious and worked hard on mastering turning and stopping.

Christmas Catch-up

Last night Joe took a look at our blog and said, "Wow, the kids look so young in these pictures." I guess that was my hint that I was a little behind on my blog. So, here are a few pictures from Christmas. The first few are from Garrett's Christmas program at school.

Here he is with part of his class. His 2nd grade class has 12 kids.


The last number of the evening was the whole grade school singing Silent Night.


Santa always visits after the program and brings bags of treats for all the kids. Here is Sam delighted with what Santa brought.


We celebrated Christmas with the Siefers at Aunt Debbie and Uncle Greg's house near Salina.
This is Joe's grandma with all of her great grandkids. There are 2 boys and 7 girls.



This is Avery, one of my very sweet nieces.


We also celebrated Christmas with my parents and sister in Topeka.


This is another one of my sweet nieces with her parents.


Here we are on Christmas Eve.


This is my parents with their 4 grandkids.


Santa made a visit to Grandma Thielen's house. As you can see another one of my sweet nieces did not think Santa was all that great.

Happy Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

We spent the afternoon at Grandma's house where we carved our pumpkins. This year Garrett got to carve his own pumpkin. Anna did hers with a little help and Sam really had no interest in carving pumpkins.

For about the last 4 years I have really disliked Halloween. It was exhausting. It was a battle to get everyone dressed, the kids were excited and I was yelling. Once everyone was finally dressed I would attempt the picture--I could never get a good picture and would eventually give up. I was mad before we left the house. We usually only made about 5 stops and then at least 1 kid was crying and Mom was exhausted and we had plenty of candy. I think we have finally turned the corner--Halloween was actually kind of enjoyable for me this year. I don't have to carry any kids or worry about dirty diapers. So here are some pictures of my darling little Trick-or-Treaters!

Anna the Mermaid.
My Mom is the costume artist.
Sam the baseball player.
Sam loves to play baseball so I chose his costume this year.
Garrett wanted to be something SCARY so he chose Frankinstein. It was simple so I agreed.
Here is the group picture I managed to get. I guess I had a little advantage this year since Garrett had a mask. That was one less kid I had to worry about having an open mouth or closed eyes.