Tae Kwon Do...

Tournament!!!!!!!!!!!

So... the same weekend we had Xan's birthday, Izzy competed in her very first tournament! She got 1st place (but so did all the other Tiny Tigers) But that is not what is important. She was so excited, Andy and I, and Nana took her to Terre Haute on the 20th (saturday) and watched her compete in her forms class. She did all the forms correctly mirroring the black belt master that was helping with the class. She did perfect!

<-This is outside the Rose Hulman Center where the tournment was held.

This is a view of the floor at the opening> ceremonies the far right is where all the kids are and the left is all of the adults, black belts at the front on both sides. Really big!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is the trophy table below! Izzy was in the back with all the other little White Belts Forms!

look at that highkick!

waiting for our turn on Mat 2 shaking hands with judges

look at the trophy! "Mom, its as big as Dimey!"

Xander's 5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes! Our little Xander is not little anymore. He is officially 5 years old!

Our little man is growing by leaps and bounds. We celebrated his birthday on the Sunday following his birthday (Sept. 16th was his official, but that was on a Tuesday, so we made it Sunday.) Plus he took in cupcakes for his friends at school. But what was so exciting this year is that he was fully participating in the festivities. He opened everyone of his presents, and reacted with them! Of course he opened some little "Cars" figures first, and then we had to convince him to open the others, by holding the cars for him. But he opened all of them by himself!!!!!!!!!!!!! He has never done that before! He also blew out the candles on his cake and when one didn't go out, he moved to blow it out! he was engaged and excited! In attendance at this wonderful event were: of course me and Andy, Izzy and Dimon. Then were Ti-Chi, and Chi-Chi (Dave and Lil),and Nanny (Great Grandmother of kids) Nana, Papa, and Uncle Ryan (Marie and Larry), and Audrey and Israel, Nathan and Julian. (I think I spelled that wrong. Sorry)

It was so exciting! And to top it all off on Wed, the day after his official birthday, he said Mama for the very first time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are some pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please love and protect....

Andy's cousin Paul Rieger has been sent to Iraq for his tour with the Army. WHile he is gone we want him to know that he is loved and missed and we expect him to come home safe!

love you Paul!

The Zoo!!!!!!!!!!!!

This past weekend we went to Cincinnati to go to The Beach. (Our favorite water park in the area.) So we got Dave and Lillian (Andy's parents) to go with us and we all headed over to Cincinnati on Thursday night. (Yes I skipped Spanish and Math, and pulled the kids out of school.... so worth it!) After a long time in the car with the kids and 2 movies later we arrived at the hotel. Izzy spent the night with Ti-Chi and Chi-Chi in their room while Andy, Me and the boys crashed in the other room. The next morning despite the rain we got up got dressed and headed to the water park. (all wearing our swimsuits mind you) It was only drizzling so we figured it would still be fun. Well we pull up to the park and it looks like they aren't open... so we pull in, past where you should pay for the parking and look around. There are maybe 10 cars in the lot. Weird, they should be open. We came on Friday because they were going to be closed on Saturday and we didn't want the kids to try to recover from a day at the park. Well Andy gets out to go look for someone and find out what is going on. After 5-10 minutes Dave gets out and goes to help find someone. Soon they find someone and find out that they decided to close the park all week! This however is not what we were told when we called or what is posted on the main part of the web page! So after some time and words, Andy comes walking out to get the tickets we bought (In May). He tells us what is going on and says that because we were told wrong, they are going to refund out money. Good thing. SO... after a few more minutes Dave and Andy come walking back. They also gave us discounts for the Zoo. (Which Lil had been looking up on her nifty new I phone.) So we decide we are going to the Zoo. So we stop to change out of our swimsuits, thankfully the boys were still in normal clothes. Then headed to the zoo.

Now starts a whole new adventure..... FINDING THE ZOO.......
We get downtown to where the directions say the zoo is and find that the road is under construction. Ok, so we drive around a little looking for a sign that says Zoo this way ->. Does one of these signs actually exist? No, that would be intelligent. So after a few roundy times around a few blocks we stop and ask one of the construction workers, how to get to the Zoo. he tells us to go down one block and turn right and it should lead us right in. Well we say thanks and drive down one block only to realize that the road, that the construction worker just told us to drive down is closed and torn up! Now common sense would say that he should know what is being worked on right? Appearently not. So now we are driving all around the city trying to find the entrance. Now if anyone has ever been to the zoo, you know that it is located in a very hilly part of town and there are a crazy amount of sharp turns and steep hills. Well we drove around every single one of them. At one point I thought we should just park on the street and crawl over the huge fence in someone's backyard and get into the zoo that way, but I got outvoted for actually finidng the real entrance. So 30 minutes later we find it..... It was kinda funny, because it was so crazy.

So we get there and head in. Kids are more than happy to get out of the car, and we rent a stroller and load that up and strap the kids into it (and their leashes for the boys)and head for the animals! we had a great time. And the rain made it so that there were not a huge amount of people, most of the time when we were at an exibit we were the only ones. It was kinda nice. During the big rain drops we found shelter in one of the many buildings. There were so many animals that I havent' seen since San Diego and some I have never seen. Several of the Wild Cats were new to me and it was awesome! Izzy, Lillian and Dimon all fed a giraffe, Xander chased Peacocks and Pidgeons, We were amazed at how fast armadillos run and just how crazy they are! We saw a sloth, though he was all curled up and sleeping. The reptile house was full of cool snakes, including an 18 foot Burmese Python and Chinese alligators. ( I didn't know China had alligators.) We saw Elephants, Zebras, Flamingos, Vampire Bats (just for you Mel!), Ardvarks, which are very funny to watch fight for the prime spot to lay down on. ------------------->

We saw Manatee's, which I have not seen since Sanibel. (12-14 years ago) And I have never seen them in a zoo. Xander loved them, he danced and watched them for about 20 minutes. He really seemed to love them. We saw eagles that have a 8-10 foot wingspan, and guess what???? Andy has the wingspan of a Turkey Buzzard! (The larger wingspan is the eagle we saw.We saw Sigfriend and Roy's white lions. Rhinos, Polar Bears, Spectacled Bear, Black Bear, Siberian Tigers, Kudos, Warthogs, Seals, Lemurs, Parrots, Toucans, Monkeys,and an Anteater andf tons more!. It was really fun and we had a great time.









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stuck in the Turtle shell. Dimon seeing Elephants!

Here we go again.....

First day of classes was today. The first day of my last semester as an undergrad. (hopefully!) Everyone keep their fingers crossed that spanish and math are kind to me. The other classes I have are an anthropology course on Ethnography dealing with food and people, Greek History Bronze age to the Persian Wars, and Bristish Sexuality in the 20th century. I know the last one is weird, but it was a must have for the J400 requirment, and the original one I chose got cancelled. THis was all that was left. So I"m stuck with it. But I think it will be fine. I had my anth course and my Greek History class today, which seem to be good. My Anth will be fine I've had this prof before and really like her. The Greek class is huge and should be fine. So we'll see how 2morrow goes. AHHHHH!