Shrine Bowl 2009

Brandon was invited to play his trumpet in the Shrine parade and half time of the Shrine Bowl. The Shrine bowl is where the best of the best Seniors go and basically play an all star game of football. This is a benefit game and all proceeds go to help out the Shriner's Hospital. http://www.shrinershq.org/ Well this also applies to the band except you can't be a senior. Brandon went down on Tuesday and they started practice right away. They practiced till 10:30 every night and put together a half time performance. There was a parade in Lincoln on Saturday morning that they marched in and then the Shine bowl that night. It was very impressive, with the little time they had the band sounded GREAT! They put together a short reutine for the half time show and it was very good. Brandon as you will see in one of the pictures even made it on the big screen and TV since it was televised.

Wendy and I went down on Saturday morning for the parade and then hung out at Grammy's. Went swimming and played some.

Father's Day 2009

Father's Day was a GREAT day!!!! I had the best of both worlds. I got to spend it with my Dad and with my Son and wife. Dad was camp host up at Calamus Lake by Burwell so we decided to go up and spend the day with him. Wendy made some great meals and we got to spend some time in Dad's new trailer. What a beautiful trailer. We fished, hung out and just had a great day. I got to be the master angler this day. I

caught 7 trout. Sam did catch the first one though. We met some nice people there and gave all the fish to them since we were having steak that night. :)

Dad's/Grandpa's Birthday

We were lucky enough to be able to have Dad come out and spend his birthday with us. We didn't do a lot but just enjoyed the day. We did go do some fishing at Cottonmill lake here in Kearney. It was fun. Sam was the fisherman of the day catching the most, but Wendy caught the biggest. Then we had some cake to finish it off. It was a great day for all of us. We really enjoy our time with Dad / Grandpa.

4th of July weekend 2009

Happy 4th to all of you.! We have had a good time just hanging out and spending time together. Thurs night we decided to shoot our fireworks and then Friday we are going to the big ones put on by the chamber here in Kearney. On the 4th we are headed out to our friends house at the lake. Will post pictures as we get them. Ashlyne's friend Ona came with us and road the tube for the first time. They had a blast! They even flipped the tube. Wish I would have gotten pictures of that but didn't have the camera on. We all had a great day playing in water and watching/lighting fireworks.

Fire Time

With summer comes one of my favorite pastimes.......FIRE!!!! I love fires in the pit in the back yard. Wether it is a bunch of friends or just the family there is just something about sitting around the campfire.

Samuel Swim Lessons

It is another summer and another round of swim lessons for the kids. This was the first week of swim lessons for samuel and he loves it. He is just full of energy and usually the first one in the water of all the kids. He continues with his classes till the end of June so will continue to post pictures as I have them.

With Wendy being laid off and unable to land a job, she ventured out on her own and started her own business. Mom mentioned that someone in Lincoln was starting a "Miracle Grow" business. So that got us thinking. Why couldn't we do that without having to buy a franchise. So Wendy came up with the idea to do a flower box and garden maintenance business. Basically everyone has a lawn service here, but none of the lawn services maintain people's flowers or gardens. So that is what she is doing. She made up a beautiful flyer and her and Samuel were out dropping on door steps. A couple of weeks went by with not a lot of hope, then all the sudden calls started coming. She has done such a good job her customers are refering her like crazy. She is looking at a 60 day lead time with all the work she has. This has also been great for Brandon, cause his hours were cut back at Hastings and needs to suplement his income. So now he is working with Wendy and doing a great job! So we thank God for his blessing of this company and the work He has provided. It is totally different now and will update pictures as we get them.