MEREDITH & DADDY(PHIL) SHARE BIRTHDAY

Today, July 30, we celebrate 2 birthdays - Phil turns the big 40 and Meredith turns 4. Phil teaches at Johnson County(a math whiz) and Meredith keeps everything lively in their home. She is gramms's little sweetie pie! We appreciate and love both of you and hope you have a fun birthday as you share this day together.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Correction to a previous post

Please notice the correction on the Wed. of Camp Gramma post - I named the wrong grandchild watching the chimps - forgive me Molly & Ella.

MAGGIE VISITING GRANDMA'S HOUSE

Maggie wanted to come home with us so she could spend some quality time with grandma. Camp Gramma was so busy that there wasn't a lot of time to spend with each individual grandchild. I love to have them come so until Friday, we are going to be doing lots of things together.

Today we are canning tomatoes and Maggie is doing a good job helping me. In the first picture she is chopping the veggies for stewed tomatoes.



Here she is taking the skins off the tomatoes

And below are the tomatoes she has finished

the pot of tomatoes getting ready for canning



And now we are ready to fill the jars

THE PRAIRIE PUNISHER DUATHLON

Last Saturday morning at 5 a.m. we got up to get ready for the Prairie Punisher. We were to be at the race at 6 a.m. to check in and receive any furthur instructions. Someone from the Olathe News had called Julie and asked if they could talk to us about our team(Julie & Mom) participating in the Prairie Punisher. Julie said she would have me call her and on Friday we see that we were on the front page of the little Gardner Newspaper which is part of the Olathe News.


It was a very foggy & humid morning and here all the runners are ready to start at 7:00 a.m.

Below I am taking the band off of Julie's ankle (it has a computer chip in it to tell the time for running & biking) and putting it on mine before I take off riding.

And here I go - I cannot mount my bike until I cross the white line
just hope I can see where I'm going

I'm almost back and it was hot and humid and a very hard ride (18+ miles) with many hills ( one of them they call heart attack hill)

We look a little worn out but we worked hard. Julie did great on her running and I just enjoyed doing the biking for her. Julie ran 3 miles - I rode 18 miles - Julie ran 3 more miles -- and we did it in 2 hrs. and 17 min. It was a fun time.

Yes, it was a family thing - June biked, I biked, Elisa ran, and Julie ran. If you didn't see Elisa's blog, she and her partner received prizes for 1st place in the teams. Congratulations Elisa! June's team was 2nd place and Julie & I were 4th place.

CAMP GRAMMA 2008 - The Hutchinson News

The News did come and talk to us about Camp Gramma but little did we know that it would end up on the front page of the News the next day.(July 23, 2008)

POOL LASTED JUST LONG ENOUGH

Hey grandkids, count your blessings - our pool lasted through Camp Gramma. Grandpa went out to do something in the yard and found the water pouring out of a hole about the size of a quarter and we saw several places where the heavy plastic was splitting apart. We are so glad it waited until the kids were gone.


It's slowly going down and is all thrown away now.

CANNING BACK IN PROGRESS

We did not have time to pick tomatoes for the last few day so today we had lots. We canned 7 quarts this afternoon and as you can see we will have more to do when we return from KC .

CAMP GRAMMA 2008 - continued

We began our day early Wednesday with breakfast and then all the getting everyone ready and the clean-up around the place. By 9:30 we were ready to load the vans and let me tell you, that is no easy job. We were counting kids many times to make sure we did not leave anyone behind.

Below we are having a short meeting just before we leave.

Our driveway looked like we were having a convention most of the time.

arriving at the zoo in Wichita by 10:15

the babies are all ready and it was HOT

we had a wagon to carry canteens that each grandchild had and it also became a carrier for the grandchildren that were tired of walking

Cooper learned quickly that if you just stay on you won't lose your place

It got pretty heavy on the inclines

giraffes

lunch time and we even found a shady spot on the far side of the zoo

the tables had a play area right next to them so the kids loved that

the camels were busy eating but I asked them to smile and this one did
what pretty teeth:)

elephant

anteater

Molly watching the Chimpanzee - when June first pushed her up to the window where this chimp was, Molly covered her eyes with her hands

WRONG - this is Ella watching the Chimpanzee (Molly has blond hair:)
what I said about Molly was true but she didn't want to stay there long
looks like Ella is enjoying it - sorry Ella for calling you the wrong name!

above the boys are resting about halfway through the jungle

the jungle - hot and humid

some very colorful birds

if you ever are discouraged with how you look - take a look at this rhinoceros - made me glad I'm me!

It was soooo HOT all day and when we returned home - guess where everyone headed!

After supper, our grandchildren love to go walk over the bridge at 30th street and 61 highway

they like to signal for the semis to honk for them and many did and several cars as well

this was up on the slanted slab at the end of the bridge close to the train track where the train had just gone by

Wednesday night we had a campfire meeting where the kids were invited to share meaningful things and tell about when they were saved.

We roasted marshmallows over the fire before heading into our tents for the night.

CAMP GRAMMA 2008 - We Are Family

Rog & I spent Monday getting things ready around our place for Camp Gramma 2008. By 11:30 a.m., the first of our campers had arrived and others were following close behind. Everyone was so excited - especially the cousins - they couldn't wait. For the first time all summer, an ice cream truck drove by our house ringing his bell and of course the kids were sure it was meant for them:)



they are enjoying the treats

Below they are setting up the 2 tents for the boys
there will be 10 boys plus grandpa in these tents

Supper was our first meal and first official Camp Gramma activity

then we had our first meeting or orientation time
Our theme this year
"We Are Family"

the group of 17 campers in their shirts & visors

the girl's tent(dormitory)
in previous years the girls stayed in the playhouse but this year we wanted the playhouse to be available for playing all the time so decided the have the girls in a tent as well - there were 8 of us in the girl's tent

our newest fun thing - our trampoline

we have a new slide because the old one finally cracked and grandpa also put a roof on the little fort

our cafeteria below

Trevin lounging in front of the playhouse above

the swimming pool is a busy place since the weather turned terribly hot just for Camp Gramma

playing table games

Tuesday Morning(6:30 a.m.)
The picture below is what we found after gramma & grandpa quietly left our tents to go in and get started on the day and returned very shortly to check on the grandkids. They were full of energy and ready to go.

the boys and a couple of the girls went fishing and you can see that on June's account of Camp Gramma but below you can see that the girls and gramma, Julie, Susan, Elisa, and Melanie went to the water park

Raegan - Brooklyn - and Molly
at the water park (in the background you can see Ella & Eli)

We finished up Tuesday by going to Trevin's baseball game and then coming home and having a short meeting and some treats

The Hutchinson News dropped in for a visit this afternoon so we understand there will be an article in Wednesday's paper