Kansas trip continued...

When we were in Wichita we went to the Sedgwick County Zoo. Mark and I hadn't been there in years and they had added a lot of new stuff. It's a really great zoo. The kids liked it a lot. It started out a little rainy but was just nice cloudy and mild the rest of the day. We were there for about five hours. We went with Grandma Mickey (Susie) and Grandpa Russ. My brother Jerry and my neice Amanda met us there. It was a nice family day.

They had added a new penguin exhibit. For those of you who don't know Alex loves penguins, so he enjoyed that a lot. The kids also really liked the petting zoo area. they've had that since I was a kid. They have goats that come and eat right out of your hand. They had a baby goat (I guess that would be a kid) that was so cute. They also had a giraffe feeding area. We got to it just a few minutes before it closed. I never knew how long a giraffes tongue was! Also feels like slimy sand paper...If you can imagine that. It was a neat experience though.

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Memorial Day Weekend Part 2 "The Sternberg Museum"

We woke up Friday morning and had breakfast at the hotel... they had a really nice breakfast buffet. It was $7.50 for adults and free for kids! I know we've paid at least double that before and it wasn't any better...plus friendly service. I do miss that about smaller towns. We packed up and went to the museum. We took our time (it wasn't crowded). There was a new dinosaur exhibit they were working on and it was to open the next day. The lady working on it was really nice and said if we were careful she would give us a quick tour. She was an Art major at the college there and they hired her to do the exhibit. She didn't know a lot about dinosaurs but was learning. Anyway Connor was able to answer some questions for her, like "would these dinosaurs be together? Would this one be hunting this one?? I guess she had set some up wrong and when the curator came along she would have to correct it. She just had a few dinosaur books to go by. Looked like a hard job to me. Anyway we enjoyed the tour and learned a lot about Mr. Sternberg who discovered a lot of the fossils that were in the museum. He found a lot of them right in that area around Hays, KS. Connor wasn't disappointed.

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Memorial Day Weekend Part 1

We had a nice weekend. We left town on Thursday. Our plan was to stop in Oakley, Ks. to visit the Fick Fossil Museum and then on to Hays to stay the night. I called the Fick Museum the morning we left and spoke to a nice lady who said they would be there all day except the lunch hour between 12-1. We pulled in about 3:00 and it was a little rainy and dark clouds (not unusual for Ks. in the Spring) The museum was all dark and closed! We felt like Chevy Chase when he arrived at Wally World. I couldn't understand why this nice lady would tell me they would be open and she knew we were driving from Denver that very day!......... Well as we headed for the highway we noticed people outside pointing at the sky. Then once we got back on the highway we looked back and saw a large tornado behind us! The museum obviously closed due to the tornado warning but we had no idea... glad we made it out of town. I don't think it hit any houses or anything. Apparently there was quite a bit of severe weather and several tornadoes spotted along I-70 around the time we were traveling. We saw several storm chasers in there big trucks like in the movie "Twister". I guess there was actually a storm chaser convention going on in Hays. They picked a good weekend.

We made it to Hays and had a nice dinner with Pam. Then she and Dad headed to Wichita. We went to our hotel. It had a great swimming pool with a big water slide. We had a lot of fun. We checked the weather before going to bed and we were going to be under a tornado watch all night so we left the TV on. The power went out about 3 am but came on a couple of hours later. Alex was really upset about the tornado warnings. He slept with us the entire trip. We got up the next morning and went to the Sternberg Museum in Hays. It is pretty famous for it's fossils. We weren't disappointed. It was great. It has the famous "fish within a fish fossil". We spent a couple of hours there and then headed for Wichita.



I couldn't believe a Holiday Inn would have such a cool swimming pool. I went down the slide a few times too but you really don't want to see those pictures!

Leaving town...

Spent the day doing laundry, packing and getting ready for our trip to Kansas. We are leaving in the morning and driving to Hays, Ks. It is about a 5 hour drive. We are going to spend the night at a hotel that has a big swimming pool with a big slide. The boys are very excited about it. We are going to visit a museum in Hays. It's called the Sternberg Museum. Connor read about it in one of his fossil books. We've driven through Hays a hundred times and seen the signs for the museum but never knew it was anything special. (Who would think in Hays, Ks.). I quess quite a few prehistoric fossils have been found in Kansas. It used to be tropical. The museum has quite a few fossils of prehistoric sea creatures.

After visiting the museum on Friday we are going to drive on to Wichita (about 3 hours away). We are going to spend the weekend visiting with family and return home on Monday. It will be a short trip but will be nice to see everybody.

Hopefully I will have some good pictures to post when we get home. Have a good Memorial Day weekend!

Castlewood Canyon May 19th

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Spring football 2008

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Denver Museum Lecture

Connor has been reading a book called "Cruisin the Fossil Freeway". I think I've written about it before. Well the author is Dr. Kirk Johnson. The Chief Curator of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. He created the Prehistoric Journey exhibit at the Museum. Connor has enjoyed reading about him. He was like Connor when he was a little boy. He loved fossils and rocks. He is now a Paleontologist and Geologist. Anyway he gave a lecture last night at the Museum and we took the kids. Connor was so engrossed.. Even though a lot of it was about Global warming, he touched on his love for fossils and talked about how he had been all over the world hunting fossils. The lecture was in the IMAX room and he showed pictures he had taken all over the world on the big IMAX screen! The look on Con's face was priceless. We were the youngest people in the crowd and there were no other kids.

Afterwards Kirk Johnson did a book signing and Connor got to have him sign his book. He is a very nice, down to earth man. We were very impressed with him. I told him that Connor was a kindred spirit to him because of his passion for geology and paleontology. He kind of lit up and looked pleased. He wrote a note to Connor in his book..something like "Go dig those fossils"! Connor was on cloud nine. He even let me take a picture. Alex enjoyed it too but was a little boring for him. I was proud of him. It's not easy for a 7 year old boy to sit still for 2 hours. He did great!

Fourth grade field trip

Yesterday was a busy day. Mark and I both went on a field trip with Connor to Manitou Springs. We visited "Cave of the Winds" and "The Cliff Dwellings". We had been to the cave but never to the Cliff Dwellings. It was a perfect day weather wise not too hot. It looked like it might rain but never did.

Mother's Day 2008

I had a wonderful Mother's Day... It was a busy weekend. We had football practice, two football games (we were quite frozen), a birthday party, two sleepovers, homework..etc. Sunday was nice though. We took Alex's friend home and then Mark dropped me and the kids off at "Westlands Park" or as the kids call it "Grandpa's park". They call it that because he works for the city of Greenwood village (where the park is located) and he took Connor there when he was 3 or 4 and showed him when it was still under construction. So he always called it "Grandpa's park" and it caught on with Alex.

Anyway, Mark dropped us off and went to get Quizno's for all of us. Grandpa "Dick" met us there. The four boys played football and I went in for a little while when Grandpa wanted a little break. We ran into Susu and her family at the park. For those of you who don't know who she is, She is someone we call "mama Susu". It was a nice surprise. We came home and I opened my presents. Connor made a nice picture frame for me and Alex made a pretty flower pin. I also received some other fun stuff.. a couple of cook books, new sunglasses, new shoes..it was a good day. Then we had friends over for a cook out. It's was a nice evening and the kids played outside a lot. I hope all you mom's out there had a wonderful day too!

Spring program

The boys had their Spring program at school on Friday. They performed Jazz songs and songs from High School Musical. They did a great job and had fun doing it.

Thursday already

It's hard to believe tomorrow's Friday. Before you know it we will be through May and into June. The kids are winding down the school year. Lots of fun stuff coming up like end of year Field trips, Field day, Spirit week...etc. They are having their Spring Performance tomorrow. I always look forward to those.

Busy weekend ahead... Alex has practice tomorrow night. Connor is going to a Birthday party tomorrow night. Saturday Connor has 2 football games. Alex has one. It should be the last for the season. Connor has a report to finish up this weekend for school.. Guess that's about it so far. (Note to me: remember to get poster board for Con's report).

Alex had his first drum lesson last night. He and I both really like his teacher. He is young and enthusiastic. I think Alex is really going to have fun with it. He's even learning to read music. I didn't realize they actually read music to play drums. I'm not sure what I thought but to me that's an added bonus.

Mark had a busy week but he's off tomorrow so he will be able to come to the kids program with me. I will try to get some good pics of the boys to post on the blog. Starting a new crossword book tonight..yeah! (It's the little things in life). or maybe I'm just boring...haha

Campbell Weekend Update...

It's Sunday night. I just finished reading with Alex. (warning...It's Mommy brag time) He has improved by leaps and bounds this year. I have to credit his teacher because I haven't been reading with him on a regular basis (bad mommy). I got some books at the library today and he picked a Magic Tree house book. I thought it would be too hard for him but he did really well.

Connor needed a book for a book report. He likes a series called "National Park Mysteries". I picked a few for him to choose from. He chose one that takes place in Glacier Natl Park. I think that's in Montana and maybe part of Canada. Anyway he seems excited about it..which is a good thing because he's not into reading fiction very much.

Saturday the boys had 2 football games a piece. Connor's first was a nail biter (if I were one of those moms..which I am, haha) At half time neither team had scored. Then the other team scored. Right after that, Connor ran for a "TOUCHDOWN"! Then with 1 minute to go Connor's team caught an interception and ran it in to win the game. In Con's second game his team was winning until the 2nd half. The other team beat them by 4 pts.

Alex's first game was against a team where the boys where quite a bit bigger and looked older than Alex's team (I think there were some organizational problems this year). Alex was telling everyone that the kids they played against were "like 13 yr olds". Probably more like 9 or 10 but I'm sure they looked that old to Alex. Alex was running with the ball and told me later "Mom, all I could see were legs" haha. They were quite a bit taller than Alex. Alex did have a good run and an interception in his second game. Their team hasn't won a game this year but they've had fun..

Mark made sugar cookies today and the boys and I got into a little frosting fight while decorating them. I think Mark started it... or maybe I did. I can't remember..haha Mark grabbed the camera.









We also ended up going to the rec center to swim Friday night. After Alex took his bath he really wanted to go swimming. I snapped a few pictures.

Friday... Alex loves his baths

I got a couple of pictures of Alex in the bathtub this evening. I know I won't be able to do that much longer. He asked if he could take a bath and I started thinking about how he has always loved the water. He takes showers now but he still loves to play in a bath. He loved his bath from the first time as a newborn. When he was just a few months old, I would sit him in the tub and he would just laugh and splash.. he just loved it. He would still go swimming everyday if we could. Anyway I just wanted to take a minute to enjoy the moment. They grow up so fast.