Cousin Heather visits!! '13

My cousin Heather from NJ came our for a quick visit!  How AWESOME!!  It was the BEST to be able to visit with her!!  We got to meet each others kids and actually get to know them and each other!  Her sister in law ran the Madison Marathon so we got to go see the runners cross the finish line!!  Super Great visit!!  THANK YOU SOOOO much for coming to see us!!

Trick or Treat and all that '13

We did a couple pumpkin patches this year.  Corn mazes, hot chocolate, caramel apples and haunted houses!!  All the good stuff!!

These guys did a bang up job on their pumpkin carving!!

We attended our neighbors annual adult costume party.  We are going to have to amp up our costumes as it's been a few years since we have won any prizes!  We had fun as the cowpoke folks!!

Kids did their trick or treating and got their allotment of candy which got us through the to till the Christmas candy started arriving!!

I am still not sure what Chris was dressed as ....

Click here to see all the photos from the pumpkin patches and more.

BNG United Soccer Tournement '13

Acacia is on a new soccer team this year.  It's a team made up of girls from three different towns.  Belleville, New Glarus and Oregon.  They now play on a full regulation sized soccer field with 11 players.  This has been such a great opportunity for Acacia.  She is playing positions that for the past few years she was not able to.  They went to their first tournament and had to play up an age group (14 year olds).  They were also in a bracket of 7 instead of 4.  They came in second over all.  This was the first time some of these girls had even gone to a tournament so making it to the playoffs was a huge accomplishment.

I took a few photos of all the girls together at the award ceremony and in the soccer net.  I did not post them all here but if you want to see them click this link.  If you would like me to send you any files just let me know which ones and I'll be happy to send them to you.

Click here to see a slideshow of all the pictures of the team.

New Schools for Everyone '13

This year Acacia enters 7th grade.  Middle school!  She walks across the golf course to and from school!  She is still doing soccer, violin and the flute.  So far, even with her tween attitude she has managed to make a positive impression on her teachers and reports so far are stellar!!

Chris enters 5th grade.  In Oregon that means the Intermediate School.  He has no interest in any sport or music.  His passion remains in electronics and art.  But, he too is doing very well in all classes and is making new friends!  This is Chris' first year to have a locker.  They only get 3 minutes between classes.  This to me just does not seem possible.  But, it's working!

 

 

Quick Emme Visit '13

Acacia spent a few weeks on the east coast with Emme and Nono this summer.  They spend a week at the Berg's house and then another couple weeks in NC.  Auntie Valerie took them to see Oklahoma and Nono let them drive around on golf carts!!  Emme flew home to Madison with Acacia and spent a few days doing whatever the kids wanted to do.  This included mini golf, bowling, MANY board games, movies, shopping and more.  Since I spent most of this time working I have no proof that they did any of this stuff!  But, they said they did and they were all smiling a lot!!  Thanks for a great visit Emme!!  We love you!!

 

Faglioni's Visit '13

Aunt Kelly had some work to do here in the Madison area so she brought Tyler and Mitchell up to chill with Chris!

 

 

We went to the Farmers Market for fresh sweet corn and that evening went to see a local baseball game - The Madison Mallards.

 

Tyler has far surpassed his Mom ... vertically anyway.

 

And Mitchell creeps closer and closer.  Now, at age 8 it will not be long before his feet are bigger than his Mom's too!

Grandma Wheeler Memorial Service '13

June 14, 2012 my Grandma Wheeler passed away.  We celebrated her LONG life this first week end in August 2013.  For me, this was much more sweet than bitter.  The bulk of my grieving had passed over the past year.  This time allowed me to remember the great times I had with my grandparents and also meet so many new members of my family.  I met a couple cousins, their spouses and kids.  I had a great time and I know that both Grandma and Grandpa were looking down and smiling and laughing with us all.

 

Click here to see a slideshow of all the photos I took from Grandma's Memorial Service

 

 

 

I thought I tried to take a full family photo of everyone.  But I somehow managed to not take any of my parents or the Bergs!!  But at least I have this awesome group shot of everyone!

 

 

Giddy-Up Vacation '13

GIDDY UP!!  The Learish Family headed west this year!!  Man, did we pack in as much as we could!  We packed up the van and headed first to Estes Park, CO.  We rented a little cabin in the woods.  Our back yard had elk and bear wondering around and the front yard was the river!  There were other cabins scattered around so in the evening it was like your typical camp site.  All the kids were running around playing night games, while the adults chilled around a huge fire pit having a drink or two.  S'mores and live folk/mountain music also entertained our evenings.

 

 

 

We went fishing for trout and caught these three.  Plenty for dinner the next night!!

 

On one of several trips into the National Park we found our way to the Continental Divide.  We saw snow, elk, deer and some breathtaking beautiful scenery.

 

We rode a cable car to the top of a smaller mountain and did some more climbing, exploring and fed these little chipmunk like animals (yes, we were allowed to feed these animals).  Acacia took time each day complete the necessary research to become a junior park ranger!

 

Randy and the kids went fly fishing one morning.  They had to hike a bit to get to the river, wearing their hip waiters.

 

We went horseback riding in the mountains.

 

And this is the famous Stanley Hotel, where Steven King stayed while writing The Shining.  This is also where the movie was filmed!  Scary!

 

A day of whitewater rafting proved to be the highlighted activity for the family!! 

 

Lots of hiking and exploring.

 

After a week in Estes Park, we drove north to Cheyenne, WY.  While here we spend a day on the air force base for the open house.  We saw trained attack dog demonstrations and took tours of the missile launch sites.  This we VERY interesting for Randy and I and we spend several hours in a variety of buildings and bunkers.  All top secret, so no photos allowed.  But, Randy and Chris got to take part in a mach missile launch!!  After receiving the code and launch coordinates they fired off 10 missiles!

 

We bought the wristbands for the kids to ride the carnival rides endlessly for 4 days.  I guess they are starting to out grow this activity as they did not ride that many rides!  But, we wandered the carnival site, art fairs and various vendors selling their collectibles and unique creations.

 

We saw a buckin' bull show and the rodeo!

 

There was an Indian Village with dancing, Indian singing, drumming and flute playing. 

 

We saw Dwight Yoakum, Thompson Square and Luke Brian (and man was it raining).

 

After about 6 days in WY we packed up the car again and headed north to Custer Park, SD.

 

We went to Mt. Rushmore!

 

We drove through Needles Parkway.

 

And Custer State Park, where we were ambushed by a heard of bison.

 

On our way home we made a pit stop at Wall Drug and then on to the Bad Lands before driving through the night to arrive back home in Madison.

 

I can't even begin to share all the other things we did on this trip.  It truly was amazing and any part of it I would highly recommend to anyone!!  I can't wait to go back and see the tons of stuff we did not have time to see.  Also, we could not have asked for better weather.  Sunny, 80's - NO humidity and NO bugs what so ever!!  Just perfect!

 

Here is a link to see all our photos from this trip.

 

Click here to see a slideshow of all our Giddy Up vacation pictures!