Day 2....Wally World and Noah's Arc

So after much rest (or at least as much as you can get when sleeping on an air mattress in a tent in a garage.) We were off early in the morning to go to Geauga Lake. For my non-Ohio friends this is one of the oldest amusement parks in the country. A few years ago 6 Flags bought them out and added a bunch of neat coasters to it, and then changed their minds about being there. Now it is owned by Cedar Point, which is big on having the biggest, longest, fastest, tallest....whatever "est" in the world. This was to be an exciting day today as we were getting together with a lot of family for the day. Also this was to be Scott and Michaela's first roller coaster rides! We had a group of 17 joining in on the fun, so we made t-shirts for everyone with all our names across the back of them. We arrived at the park not long after the gates open. The weather as I stated in the last entry had been stormy the day before, so a lot of people stayed away from the park, and we had front row parking. It was almost as if we had rented the place out for the day as there was but a few hand fulls of people walking around. The vote was cast, and our first ride was the to be what was once known as "The Batman". Scott was excited and pulled us up to the front row (no wait for it either). Michaela was getting ready to change her mind and was protesting the idea of being on the ride. Scott and I strapped in the seat couldn't see anything behind us and just enjoyed the ride....as we hit the first hill I could hear a female screaming, and could only assume that it was Michaela. After the ride was over I saw that I had been right. Asking what she thought of it I was told..."OH MY GOD THAT WAS AWESOME!!!!" After the ride we went and bought the kids their pict

ure from the stand. Then we ventured off for our next roller coaster. After a few more rides it was about lunch time, so plans were made for the get together and off we went. It was a pretty humid day so everyone changed and headed to the water park. Wouldn't you know it though, before we could get on even one water ride it started to rain and they closed them all down. We found an overhang to sit under and wait it out. After about 30 minutes or so the sky cleared all up and rides opened again. We were able to get in 1 and a half more before it started raining again, and rides closed down. I say a half of a ride because about 3 people got onto the second one, the rest of us had to take the stairs back down. We headed back to the over hang to wait it out again, as it was just one little black cloud in the sky. After about an hour and a half we realized that it wasn't going to "just pass us by" and we were going to have to make a dash for the front of the park. Now mind you we are way in the far back of the park, it is raining bucket of water, lightening is going off all around us, and we need to cross a lake to get to the other side of the park, and then still have to get to the entry/exit area. It was raining so much that I swear I saw Noah on the lake just waiting for the moment to be right to set afloat.
The decision was made to leave the park to get some dinner in the hopes that the rain would stop and we would be able to ride a few more rides. We left and luckily a WalMart has open across the street from the park, so we stopped their first for some dry clothes. Then had dinner at Ruby Tuesdays. Well this took us about 2 hours to accomplish, and it was still raining cats and dogs, so with heavy hearts we headed out of there for home, only to find that many of the ways we could use to get out of the area were flooded out! After a few detours and some back country roads we made our way to Mentor for some custard style ice cream and then back home, with a car full of tired kids and parents. If you would like to see more of our pictures from Geauga Lake, go to:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/annsmore/album?.dir=/

100bre2&.src=ph&.tok=ph77uGFBK.VsmVLy

Then just click on the folder titled "Geauga Lake". If you run into trouble viewing them, just email me and I'll send you the invite by email. The ones that were take in the car were us, after running through the downpour.

DING! You are now welcome to climb aboard.

So this summer we were off to the mother land of Ohio. After much searching for tickets we could afford for a group of 7 we had to settle for a less then perfect travel itinerary. We left AZ around 7:30 at night to fly into Chicago landing there at 1am their time. We had a rental van there, however the company closed at 1am. So Tim grabbed a spot near the front of the plan and pushed his way to the front of the line when we landed. The rest of us headed for baggage claim to grab our mountain of luggage, and met Tim out front. Needless to say with 7 people and luggage for all we were a bit tight in there! We drove a bit then stopped to arrange things more comfy, and get a bite to eat. And then I started driving. As I neared the Ohio boarder there was a beautiful light show going on all around me. The sky was full of lightning, and the sun was rising. The two combined made for a fascinating drive. However with lightening usually comes rain (at least out East), and as I neared Toledo it started to POUR! I don't mean a light sprinkle...This was the kind of rain that made your ears ring it was so loud...wipers on high didn't stand a chance of clearing it off. I couldn't believe the the kids were able to sleep through it. The rain lasted probably for the next 100 or so miles before it finally started to clear up a bit.
We were supposed to have breakfast with Tim's parents and mine out in Madison. We called as we hit the East side of Cleveland only to be told that Dot had already started cooking breakfast at home. So with a quick change of plans we went ahead and met up with my parents at Eat n' Park. For those that don't know, this is the best resteraunt around...well at least as far as dinner styles go. It's kind of like a Denny's, but better, and they have the neatest smile face cookies. After breakfast there, we headed out to Madison. When we got to the house we walked in to surprise Tim's parents. Dot, you have no idea how hard it was to keep this secret! Sleeping arrangements were made and while a few took a nap, Tim worked on starting up his old 3 wheeler. Eventually I took a short nap also (seeing that I had been up since the day before). Tim tells me that he did get it to run for a bit and drove it down the street and back, but since I was napping I can neither confirm or deny this.

Stay tuned for more updates on our trip. Read about Scott and Michaela's first roller coaster rides. How we actually saw Noah and his Arc. Our BBQ's for Bill and Dot's 50th wedding anniversary, and get togethers with friends!

Updates coming soon!

I know that it has been a bit for an update here, but I wanted to add a quick post to let you know that I haven't forgotten about this site. In fact I'm here most days seeing if anyone has been by to say hello! We are getting ready to head out of here tomorrow for a vacation with the kids. They are all really excited about this! I also have lots to tell about Scott and school and BoyScouts. Don't forget pictures!!! I hope that all is well with everyone and look forward to hearing from you.

Bobcats and soccer...also a little bragging!

I know that it has been awhile since I last updated this, but life gets crazy. I have been filling in full time for a fifth grade class while there teacher is out on maternity leave. It took a few days to get into the swing of things agian ...but once I got going it all came back to me. Now my time in there is over next week. I keep trying to convince her that with only 7 days of school left after she comes back that I don't really mind sticking around the extra few days...she isn't falling for it. Oh well, I guess that will give me time to get things back in order here. The house has stayed fairly clean as EVERY weekend we have been doing open house's in hopes of getting a nibble. That and the thought that someone MIGHT do a viewing when were not around has kept us pretty good about keeping things tidy. The house has been listed now for about a month and we have had a few lookers, but our market is really almost non existant out here right now. The other day I did a count and there were 12 houses for sale just on our 3/4 mile street. In our develpement there are over 300 to pick from...not including all the new ones the builders are still popping out like crazy. The weather here has kicked up to our standard AZ temps. That is we have been in the 100's for the last few days and wouldn't see the end of them until we leave here.
Scott is coming to the end of the school year and has just amazed me every step of the way. Last week he finished up a week of testing to see if he would qualify for the gifted program (my moment of bragging!!!) Things are almost all back to normal here in the Sizemore house. We went to play in a softball game last weekend for the school and it reminded me all about how we used to play at Huachuca. We made up our mind that after our move we'll look into a team to play on. Scott has been doing soccer this time around and Saturday was his last day. We'll be taking the summer off because of the crazy scheadule that were going to be having. With having the house for sale...a trip to Ohio at the end of June...the girls coming up (or is it down?) for summer. On top of all that I need to get us up into place in Colorado by the 1st of July so that we can be there by the time that Scott starts school on the 5th! I know, it just gets crazier and crazier for school scheadules, but this one is actually a standard year round school so there will be lots of time off, as he will be going for about 2 months and vacation for 1. I'm kind of looking forward to it, as it could mean more vacations for us.
One other big thing that has gone on here is that last month Scott was awarded his Bobcat. For those that don't know that is a level in BoyScouts you get as you progress along in their program. He earned his Tiger last year, and now this one...were hoping that within the next few weeks he will have earned his Wolf. The markings on his face are part of the cerimony where he is given his award. Each symbol and color all have a special meaning to it. Also the parent is the one who gets to paint the markings on their face. After that they have to take a pin they are given and present it to the parents for their help along the way. I think Scott was nervous because it took him 17 seconds to pin it. For every second it took to pin was one good deed that needed done before I could put his patch onto his uniform. Scouting is something that he really enjoys, so I'm really glad that we were finally able to find a troop around here that he could get into. He is actually attending a troop that is attached to the LDS church, but if all the LDS troops are like this one, I'll make sure to have them stay with them. Our leader is AMAZING!!! She has so much energy! She has four boys, and 2 are twins that are about 5 months old. And of the 4, none of them are of Scouting age.
I'm not sure where our next adventure will be. We have been swimming as much as we can. I try to soak in our yard, the only thing I will miss from here. I look forward to hearing from everyone...remember that you don't have to create a "Blog" page to do so...all you need to is to click on replay or leave comment...then create a log on name...when you het enter from there the next page is one to create a blog page. Just close the page and your name will be created with no blog page will be formed.

An EGGcelent Easter!

Easter has come and gone and I am way behind in updating my site. So here is Easter in an egg shell. We went to an egg hunt here in our community. It proved to be an interesting event, as a little kid had taken the "golden" egg that was in Scott's age group section (ok..some wonderfull volunteer hid eggs on the playgroung that the kids were playing on). Anyways all the eggs were found but that one. Kids could care less about all the little plastic colorfull globes that they pick up. They WANT that GOLD one. Kids are willing to mame eachother in hopes of getting it, and when it wasn't found at all they were ready to riot. Finally they (as in the "officails") were able to locate the egg, distract the kids and re-hide it. There are no pictures of the bunny that was there as it was very scary looking. After that we went to WalMart to see their bunny, only to find that he had just excaped his cage where his owners forgot to feed him.

On Easter Sunday we woke up as many parents do on this day. To a very eager child waiting for their parents to get up so that they might hunt the eggs the bunny hid over night. We usually do a dozen eggs per person at the house, so there were 3 dozen for Scott to find. He had a hard time understanding that the older that he gets the more challenging the bunny will hid them! After the egg hunt we had my families tradition Easter breakfast...don't worry Dad...it's slowly catching on here too. Easter Sunday was a perfect day weather wise here so we were soon outside hanging around the pool and even took a dip or two in it.

Later that evening we did up a standard dinner of ham and potatoes, and had our friends come over and join us. I made a cake for dessert. Tammie gave me this really cool pan to make the checker pattern in your cake. I figured that I would make one of those. Well after reading the directions I got to work. I dyed half my batter pink and half blue for Easter. I cook my first and it just looked odd. Tim came in while my second one baked and I explained to him my issue. So he re-read the instructions to see that your not supposed to cook it with the rings in it....OPPS! I pulled that one out of the cake, and made the third layer the way it was ment to be. After stacking and adding jello and whipped cream to it, no one knew better! Leason learned.

Sam's Birthday

We had the girls here this past week and since Sam's birthday is next week after we take them home, we went ahead and did a little party here for her the other day. The timing actually worked out pretty well since I was taking my final cake class the day before we were going to do it. So for her birthday cake she got a 2 tiered "wedding" style cake! She was kind of hoping for a music cake, but with having this one already (4 boxes worth of mix) I didn't want to do another one on top of having all that...so insead I made her some music shapped cookies. I put them in a glass container that I picked up and then painted music notes on that as well to match, and then made the cookies on sticks so it looked like a bouquet of them. I still have a bit to learn with my icing technique, but they still came out kind of neat looking. We have a tradition that on your birthday you get to pick your special dinner, so we had homemade chicken pot pie that night...unfortunatly though it came out REALLY salty (and if I'm saying that you can be sure it was really salty). So I'll have to make that up to her next time.

It has been really great having the girls here again, the week has flown by so quickly that already it is time to take them back.

Rocky Mountain High

This past week we used part of Scott's spring break to venture into Colorado. It worked out where Scott was ending his 2 week break right as the girls were getting ready to start their break. So we drove up there to see the sights and pick up the girls to bring down here for the week. We got to see all kinds of neat things while we were there. I have to say though that it really was a long drive there. As we headed north in AZ there was lots of snow in the mountains there to see. Really a pretty site to see here in the desert.
Once we got out of AZ into New Mexico the miles past kind of fast...that is until we turned onto I25. I swear that has got to be the longest straighest road in the entire country. Honestly there were NO turns in this road for hundreds of miles. When they did have that rare random curve in the road they would post all these huge yellow signes with arrows to warn you in the hopes of pulling you out of that 30 mile stare you develop as you are going. You really need to click on this picture to enlarge it to get teh idea of the long and never winding road. So as I said our drive was long and uneventfull, but I'm enclosing a few pictures to show you some of the views I had along the way there.

So after a really long drive we got to Castle Rock rock around 9:30 and just went to bed. The next morning we went down to Fort Carson to see some of Tim's friends that were there. We also stopped in the PX and there Scott found "Wacky Packages" cards. For those that don't know these they are made by Topps and are spoofs of different products. Now let me interject something about Scott here before I go on. Scott is a really easy going kid that just takes life in stride. However when he finds something that he likes he dives in head first. For example he has gotten into Lego's. It has to be the kits though, since Christmas he has bought many differnt kits that are to the theam he is into. Well we made him wait till dinner time to open his packs that we got. We picked up 2 for each of the kids. Well within the day he had all his memorized and was begging us to go back to the PX for more. We made him wait till we got back home and when we went to Wal Mart he bought a box of the packages and was able to collect all the regular cards and is now going crazy trying to get all the special cards that they make...and has discovered that there were other sets out there before this one. Anyway I'm way off the track now. After our visit to the fort we drove back up to get the girls for dinner. On the way I was just staring out the window looking at all the wonderfull sites along the way. When all of a sudden I see an elk head up in the distance on the back of a truck. I was courious about that one...as we got closer I was able to verify without a doubt that yes it was an elk head. I've added this picture just because it was one of the oddest things I can ever recall seeing on the road. Back to dinner, it was great seeing them again. Talking with them they are really missing their daddy. After dinner we drove around their neighborhood a bit and then stopped at Michaela's school for them to play a bit. Scott was so excited about seeing snow again. Every minute of our trip all he wanted to do was play in the snow! Our next day there we went out and about and played the tourist that we were. Our fist stop was the Butterfly Pavilian in Denver. This was a small quaint little place. It had 3 different rooms. The first was filled with different bug habitats, and there Scott got the chance to hold a trantula. The next room had a few marine type animals like star fish and urchin's. The last room was set up as a tropical enviroment that was filled with beautiful flowers and tons of butterflys. I'm adding the pictures for these a bit futher below. After there we went to Hamonds candy factory for their tour. The last thing we went to do was the Natural History museum. It was full of all kinds of dinosaur bones and all kinds of neat things to look at there. I wouldn't mind going back there again to spend a bit more time enjoying the exibits that we didn't get a chance to see.

Ok...I think that is enough for now. I still have some other pics to share from the ride home, but I'll save those to share with everyone when we get back from taking the girls home. That's right we have to do the trip again!

Hell froze over!

Well it happened just last weekend, but hell finally froze over! We hadn't gotten rain up here in the desert for 143 days. Now let me put that into prospective for you. Thats the same as 5 months or 20 weeks. So not a rain drop since October here. No snow in the mountians, nothing! Our old record for the desert was a mear 101 days, so needless to say this was shattered. If you've seen the movie "Holes" there is this scean in there where they are back at the camp and the jail gaurd tells them a story that went something like "Once upon a time there was a place that never ever rained....and your standing in the middle of it!". Everyday I've thought of that as I would look to the sky and see not one cloud.
Well Saturday...the day of the community garage sale, I got up for drill to a light drizzle that was a downpour once I hit the freeway. It rained all the way to drill....all the way home from drill...all the way to the play we went to that night...and all the way home too. By the end of the night we had gotten over 3 inches in the day. The water level in our pool was up to the sidewalk. But that was nothing, because most of the cities north of us got several feet...thats right FEET of snow! All the mountians around us were covered, and I do mean covered almost to the bottom with snow. It almost made this place pretty!
So there you have it folks, it is possiable...Hell can freeze over!

Off to the Rodeo

Recently Tim won us tickets to go and see Blake Shelton, Andy Griggs, and Tracy Bird (the country "rat pack" in concert. Our tickets said that the show started at 6pm, but when we got there at 5:45 there was a huge line standing outside the bar where the show was. We ended up standing outside for the next hour and a half. They finally let us in around 7:30, and the group took the stage a bit after 8pm. So a late start, but while we stood in the line Tim went and checked out the different radio boths that were set up and at one of them he got tickets to see the rodeo the following week. Well a friend of ours that had Scott for us that night is a huge rodeo fan, so we went and got a few more tickets for them and the boys to go. But more of that in a minute. The concert was really good. I have to say that I love when "big names" play the bar scean. So much fun, and if your pushy enough you can get right in front by the stage. We had a few girls in front of us that were pretty funny to be by...they kept trying to take pictures of each other and we kept sticking our faces into their shots. Then there were 2 drunk couples next to us. The girls seemed to be very happy in each others company, and the boyfriends didn't seem to mind one bit. Part way through the night though one of the girls hit that "I drank so much so I'm going to cry for no reason" stage. So boyfriend helped her through that...after it was over her and girlfriend were back with eachother again. Crazy night.
So then it was off to the Rodeo. We went with our friends Mike and Tammie and their son Michael and daughter Danille. We stopped on the way at this really yummy mexican restraunt. Once we got to our seats (was just a general admission type of thing in the bleachers) we had a laugh over the guy sitting a few rows in front of us because of his Tshirt. I've encluded a picture of it and in case you can't read it...it says "Tittie's and Beer, Thank God I ain't Queer!". The rodeo was kind of neat to watch. After the show was over we took the boys over and gave them a chance to ride on the mechanical bull that they had set up. The operator of it was nice in setting it pretty slow for them, but after a bit he would bring the speed up a bit, make it turn a bit more. It was funny the look on the kids faces when they realized that there was no way that they were going to be able to hang on any longer!

Warm weather, Cold pool

This past weekend we had some really nice weather, up in the mid 80's. It has been pretty nice here latley, however we haven't had rain here now for more then 134 days and there is none in our forcast either. After going out to pick up a soda machine for Tim we had some friends stop by for a lunch BBQ. The boys were having fun and being crazy, so we let them just dive in and have fun. The water was only around 55 degrees, but that didn't stop them. Oh yeah, and if you ask Scott, his favorite moment was when he pushed me into the pool. So I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the water was COLD!!!
This wasn't the first time this year that Scott had gotten in. In fact early in Feb. he talked me into it. Then the water was only about 50 degrees. After I let him go in...all he could manage was to dip his feet in before he realized that I was slightly right in the fact that the water was on step away from an ice block. So cold in fact that after only a short time in the water, his feet were beet red from it!

Teeth

Well back in January I told you about Scott having a jaw spreader in. Our 2 weeks past by fairly uneventfully. He had a few hurdles to get over, but was a trooper. After the 2 weeks of turning we had to just let it set. Today we went back to the dentist to have that removed and his braces put on. Right now he actually has only 5 brackets on this front teeth. He picked 2 different greens for them. So in the 1st picture to the left is our starting point. Where his teeth were on day one. The top left is one of Scott getting adjusted for the evening. The bottom right is after two weeks of turning and his teeth have spead apart from the adjustments. On the bottom left is him with his brand new braces. He'll have these now for the next year or so.

Cakes

Well I have just compleated my 2nd of 3 cake classes. I've learned all kinds of neat things about how to properly bake a cake, to frosting. We learn all kinds of neat stuff about different types of flowers and what frostings we can use on them to make them last forever. I have the one last class to go over the next month that will teach me how to create a formal cake. Just thought I would share some pictures with you of the different creations I have done.