What a difference a week makes!

I didn't realize I hadn't blog in such a long time! Funny how last Tuesday it was so nice and warm and this Tuesday is SO opposite! It's back to being cold again :( High of 62 today with some winds. The kids wore shorts to school today too. Atleast they took sweatshirts! Oh and Kaden wore sandals, ugh! Oh well not my fault if he gets cold, I told him to change a few times before we left. Salem has school pictures today, hope he smiles nice! Kaden had them last week. Both dressed up and looked very nice. I did order pictures this year, which probably means the kids will be looking to the side or sitting weird or something. When I don't buy the pics they look great. Ah we'll see how they turn out when we get them around Thanksgiving time.

Let's see, what's been going on around here...took the kids out of school early Friday so we could head to Council Bluffs for Keith's race on Saturday. Arrived before sunset and was able to drive over to Nebraska (10 minutes away) to hit a couple caches! They were in a pretty spot, big trail surrounding a "pond" with a huge fountain in the center. There was a guy playing jazz and they gave boat tours of the pond. Kaden really wanted to do that but it was getting darkish and it costs $3 per person, ouch. So off we went in search of dinner. Wow was that a mess trying to find someplace everyone liked! I wanted Perkins (breakfast) Salem didn't care, Keith didn't say too much, and Kaden said it all! Kaden refused any idea we had, he wanted the 2 mini burgers from Applebees, but we decided to stop at Perkins and check out the menu to see if he liked anything. If he didn't we would go find another place. Well low and behold he LOVED Perkins! Thank goodness! We all got some breakfast foods for dinner, yummy! Headed back to the hotel after that and it was almost bed time. Kids took forever to settle down even after we separated the bed with pillows they kept touching each other and messing around. Salem was fake snoring and fake sleeping, silly kid doesn't realize I can see right through that, but good trying!

It was nice being able to sleep in a bit since the race was only 15 minutes or so away. Grabbed some hotel breakfast and headed out. Found the race course, had to drive almost all the way around this HUGE lake, but it was pretty! There was a kids race and juniors race, but we didn't have enough room for their bikes, so they were kinda bummed. Kaden kept going on and on how he wouldn't be bored if he had his bike. Keith found a cool spot for us to take some pics by a log crossing and rock ride up wall. So we hiked out there and waited for them to start. Things were going well until it was close to time for them to come around for their last lap. I had been hearing some sirens in the background getting closer, but figured with everything else going on in this park it was normal. But then my cell phone rang and it was Keith, oh gosh, what happened! Some guy has crashed pretty hard and they stopped the race so the medics could go in and get the guy out of the woods. They will be restarting soon. 30 minutes later they come through again and it's the final lap. So we get the pics then head out to the start/finish. Fun race, Keith ended up in 2nd place!!! Just shy of 1st place. But he did clinch his 1st place win in the IMBCS MTB series race!! Have to find out when those awards will be held.

After the race we headed to DM to stay with our friends for the night. Keith had a cyclocross race only a few minutes from their house on Sunday. That made it was nicer than having to drive back home and back again, or getting another hotel for the night. The boys had a blast playing with their daughter! She's 2 and the boys kind of forget she's young, not so much the big kids they are used to playing with. But they all did well, played outside for a while. Corley (their daughter) even sat down and played with the boys' Pokemon figures, that was cute! Then inside they got wound up and then down by pretending to be different animals and workers and such. Fun times! Breakfast was IHOP, Kaden's favorite! Talk about stuffed though! Good thing there was a little bit of time before the race to digest. Oh, on the way to their house Saturday afternoon we stopped at the capital. We've seen it from the highway and Kaden always wanted to see it up close, so we stopped. It was closed so we couldn't tour it, but we said we'd try another time. Had a good time checking out the monuments and canons around the grounds.

Race was fun, very hilly in spots. Big "run up", which looked like a death march for the guys after a couple laps. Rick and Corley stopped over to watch the race. Corley is getting good at cheering on the racers! We gave her the cow bell to ring too. I was all over the race course taking pics here and there. Salem and Kaden stayed in pretty much one section with another camera and Corley. Corley wanted to go everywhere the boys did. Told ya it's cute. Keith's field was huge, 28 riders I think. Ton of them! Keith ended up finishing 11th! Not too bad for back to back races. He was hoping for top 10 though.

Back home and the kids broke their bikes out, Keith washed the bugs off his and I chilled.

Monday night brought us to the Cub Scout pack meeting. It was nice to be able to sit back and talk to people, but have to worry about anything tonight. Well, I did have to get the newsletter done and some sign up sheets, but that was at home to bring. It was a good evening, the kids learned how to play flag football and some scouting skills. I avoided Mrs. Chatter box for the most part. Oh that was only after I ran into her at the scout shop when I was buying awards and got stuck talking to her for an hour! So yeah I tried to avoid her last night!

Today it's chilly and I've been lazy. Bundled up in a blanket watching some tv. I should be cleaning a bit. We're having a committee meeting here Wednesday night to discuss some things we don't want all the parents to hear. Normally they are held at the church after the scout meetings, but we've got some more personal things to talk about so we're holding a separate "secret" one. I figure if it's here, Keith and I can both attend and the kids can be locked away in the playroom.

So that about sums it up for now. Everyone is pretty healthy again...knock on wood!

Oh the bird...it's an European Sterling. Haven't seen them here before, haven't seen them since. Which is fine, they're mean birds, we don't want them around here!