wed pm

Baby burro picture was taken in SD at the Custer State Park. We have enjoyed looking for the burros when we have gone through the park. One trip we had them poking their heads into the car. Bridger just loved it.

We have been busy this week getting Bridger to football games. He is doing a robotics club thing after school two days. It cuts into my time with him on Tuesdays. He likes it, he doesn't like it, one just never knows. Bridger is going to have a sleep over on Sat with Nate (eight up kid). He is so excited. Nate lives in the country and Bridger thinks that we should live in the country.

Darin keeps coaching. He gets a break from a Thursday game this week, but has aSat am game instead. He plans to go with the varsity to Cheyenne Friday night. It will probably seem like a short weekend to him by the time it is done.

So that is us!

zipping

Here is Bridger's zipline I got on a short video. I was looking at pictures and remembered I did not post the video. It is not long.

We got back to the lower 48 last week about this time. It was a long day beginning around 6am and ending for me the following day around 1am.

Bridger and I adjusted back to normal life. I think it was a long week for both of us. He enjoyed his two football games. Darin had his two football games. Darin's teams were the victors in both. NC remains undefeated through last night.

Bridger got to visit the Meline's last night while I went out to dinner with a group of women from the clinic.

We have a wedding to attend this afternoon. My Medical Assistant (like a nurse) is getting married. It should be beautiful day for it. I haven't been to a Catholic wedding for awhile-might be long....

rain, rain, rain

No pictures from tonight's game. The kids played in the rain. I couldn't believe they had them keep playing. All the kids were soaked. I grabbed an umbrella from the car. I was one of the lucky (smart) parents. I did even put Bridger in his rain pants from what we got to take to Alaska. His legs stayed dry. They have to have their shirts exposed, so he didn't wear his rain jacket. He enjoyed himself tonight, again. He ran an extra point in after Barrett scored a touchdown. He stayed aggressive on the line running through the offensive line right after the ball was snapped. We took treats tonight. We decided yesterday to take ice cream bars-not so wise tonight.


Darin after he got to Mon night's game.
Bridger on the move!

I want you to notice the little boy in the right corner. The spikes didn't hold tonight in the rain. The other boys thought his "blue" spikes laying down were a little comical from the rain. They weren't mean about it-each of them had to go and touch his head.

Giants football

Even though Bridger missed the two practices before the game tonight, he came out strong on defense. On the way to the game he told me he was terrible at football. I felt bad for him, but he got it in his head tonight to charge the ball playing defense. He has never been a fast runner. He must have decided that if he could get to the ball before the kid started running he had a chance.

These three pictures go together. He chased the kid back off the line of scrimmage.

And eventually just knocked the kid down. I have that picture also.

Pretty Barrett is also playing flag football. She is such an athlete. She is playing football because her mom didn't get signed up for soccer in time. Their loss I think. She was zipping all around the field making things happen and pulling flags. She is going to play hockey again this year also.

Bridger got to carry the ball a couple of times. He didn't score a touchdown.

On our way home I told him I was so proud of him trying and trying and trying. He told me he didn't "try", he DID it. He then proceeded to tell me the difference between trying and actually doing. I thought it was pretty philosophical of him. He is a little cocky now compared to "I'm terrible at football".

Darin did make it to watch almost all the game since it was at 7pm. What a great treat for Bridger.

I asked him if he got to talk about the cruise at school today. He said yes and he told how much he liked the pool water slides, the video arcade and that he got to drink pop (diet) breakfast, lunch and dinner. I said what about the zipline, the whales, the glaciers, the seals. He said, "oh, yeah." And he did not drink pop for the 3 meals each day, by the way.

back home

Here are some random pictures of our trip. The first is from Skagway. This is a lodge of the Artic Brothers. To belong to the Artic Brothers you have to climb AB mtn. The driver for the zipline company pointed out the mtn, but after awhile they all looked alike. I don't know if in this day and age if women are allowed to join the lodge or not. It is still "AB" after all.

On our drive up to the zipline the driver pointed out a lake along side the road that she described as black water. She said the water was black because of the roots of the hemlock trees. She said natives would make baskets and then soak them in the black lakes. It would cause them to be waterproof. The natives used the baskets for trading. The baskets have been found all over Alaska and even down into the Seattle area. I wondered about the poison aspects of the hemlock. If I am remembering right about hemlock.



According to the cruise consultant that Bridger and I sat and listened to one morning each ship has to make a cruise an international cruise. Our international stop was Prince Rupert, B.C. My mom heard a different version of why they stop in a non-US site-so they don't have to pay the crew staff as much since it is international. In each of the ports we stopped the locals that we were around made mention of the stores and jewelry stores along the waterfront being owned by the cruise ships. We did frequent the locals more so than the flashy stores, by the way. I know the quilting stores my Mom went to would have also been locally owned.

Our first adventure was the Lumberjack show. Bridger received a wood chip from one of the contests. It was pretty thin and I snuck it home in the bottom of his suitcase wrapped in a plastic bag. I always wonder what those people that scan the luggage think things are. It was still in the suitcase when we got home. When we declared our purchases on the Customs Form I chose to not list it. After all they want the things you BOUGHT to be listed, but they all ask about nature oriented things.

This is a glacier we cruised up to. I think this is Sawyer Glacier. The name of the cruise is Sawyer Glacier. I heard some cruise person say that what one you cruise back to see depends on the captain's choice. There really wasn't much of an announcement as to what we were doing. The captain said what we were going to be doing that evening after we got back on the ship in Juneau. But there was never any overhead announcement of "we're here". Bridger and I were hanging out with my mom in her room which had a balcony. The ship actually turned around, but her room was on the side that stayed on the inside of the turn. We went to the back of the ship and got a few photos when we realized it wasn't going to turn completely around.

Bridger and I up in the trees doing the Zipline. I asked him several times if he enjoyed the zipline. He said the zips were too short. He made fun of me because I never let go of the rope. I tried a couple of times, but just couldn't let both hands go. He let go every time and yelled most of the time. In the video of him that I took you can hear our other zippers cheering him on. He went first on every zip. No one had a problem with him going first. At the end he was helping everyone take off their harnesses. The guides showed him a lot of attention. They asked about his name and the 3 of them all had skiied at Bridger Bowl. Bridger told them he had skiied there also. They finally asked him about why he knew about the harnesses. He told them he rapelled in his house. They didn't know what to think of that. I explained about the balcony. They thought he was pretty lucky.

We got back to Denver around 7 pm. By the time we got to our car it was almost 8 o'clock. I still had to get gas and Bridger was STARVING. So we really got headed back closer to 8:30pm. We started having fog just before Cheyenne. It was frustrating, of course. It lifted here and there. I did see one accident that must have happened shortly before we came along. The HP was there and a rescue vehicle had just arrived. I got in a line of "1" plates knowing where they were headed and kept on going. Bridger stayed awake the whole time. Somewhere between Glenrock and Casper he started giggling and laughing. I asked what he was watching-Kung Fu Panda. He came in and went to bed for me. Darin didn't wake up for awhile-I had the suitcases unloaded, of course. It was around 1am when we got home.

We had a laid back day. Tomorrow will be difficult getting into the grind of work and school. Bridger did well doing his assigned homework while we were gone. He has just a few loose ends to complete, but do you think I can get him to do it now!

I will post the pictures we took on Facebook soon.

Headed Home

Bridger and Ginni are back in the lower 48. They should be on their way to Denver right now. Ginni called to tell me they were in Seattle. She said that Alice's flight got rerouted and did not know when she would get home.

They had time in Seattle so they went to Pikes Place Market. The Arizona Myers should remember that was the starting point 7 years ago. $2 for a snack at PPM, $8.00 for a ferry ride, $10 for a picture of beer, $70.00 for dinner, 9 months later ... priceless.

Ginni said they had a blast but are ready to be home.

The first picture is of the Oil Bowl trophy. We won last night 45 - 0. It is our cross town rivals. We warm up on our field and then bus over to theirs. It was 84 degrees when I arrived at our field. When we were getting on the bus one of the coaches asked if I was going to grab a jacket. I wasn't going to but did. I am glad. Within an 2 hours it went from 84 to 47. It was cold. Many of the coaches did not have jackets and had to go the whole game in just a polo.

I hope this day finds everyone healthy and happy.

Part of the filming was in Alaska.

"To see your world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower. To hold infinity in the palm of your hand, An eternity in an hour. William Blake. "

almost done

no pictures this is from weary travellers. I allowed some other travellers to use my internet account to print their tickets. I knew them-it is OK.


We are back in Seattle tomorrow am. We are sort of ready to be home.

Bridger played bingo with me today and won $70 off his card. I took the money back, of course, mean Mommy that I am. He has enjoyed himself. He got a haircut today on board. It was same price I would pay at home and he needed it.

Had a huge lunch that was organized from the differnt restaurants. it was delicious.

No big plans for our last night. Just packing.

See you tomorrow night my husband and father of my child. Miss you...... Love you......

Skagway

Ginni emailed me yesterday and said they were in Skagway. She gave me the ships number so I could call her and it would cost $8.00 per minute to talk so we did not talk yesterday. They did the zip lines yesterday. She said Bridger had a blast. She also said the guides loved his name and kept talking to him. They rented bicycles and rode around town. Bridger's chain came off and got jammed up so they had to walk a few blocks to get back. Bridger did take Ginni out once but she said she landed on her feet. Sorry no picture of that. They are having a great time. Last night they went out to a steakhouse for dinner by themselves since Grammy was with her quilt group. I am not sure were their next stop is. I know that Alice is going on one of the boats from the deadliest catch show somewhere.

We took another loss tonight. The kids played poor in the first half and then held them scoreless in the second. A little too late though, 35 - 0. They kept their starters in the whole game. They even took a time out with 6 seconds left to try to score again. That's a Gillette team for you, no sportsmanship. A little different than my undefeated season last year. But I am helping coach a great varsity team this year.

It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves. --Sir Edmund Hillary

Another Alaska themed quote, sorry, Ginni is not here to sensor.

" I play hockey and I fornicate, 'cause those are the two most fun things to do in cold weather."

I got another update from up north. It sounds like they are having a lot of fun. Today was glacier day. Ginni sent a nice photo of Bridger and Grammy. They called me at lunch to tell me where they were. I did hear in the background "it's a dirty glacier". I want to know if Bridger has challenged Grammy to a race down the double slides on the ship. I also want pictures if he did.

Pretty quiet at home. It is Oil - Bowl week. The freshmen play Gillette Thursday and then Friday night varsity is against our cross town rivals Kelly Walsh for the oil bowl trophy.

E.L.E - Everyone Love Everyone.

Lets stay with the Alaska theme.

"We're all put to the test... but it never comes in the form or at the point we would prefer, does it?"

Pictures to go with Ginni's Blog

Here are the picture that go with the Ginni's blog below.

I have to leave a quote from this classic movie.

"I'm on your side, lady! It's my only politics: anti-wife! Any woman who devotes herself to making one man miserable instead of a lot of men happy don't get my vote. "

from the cruise

I won't be able to download any pictures. Darin got some from me from the cell phone today.

There was an internet special between 3pm-5pm 1/2 price. 37 cents per minute right now. I was online and noticed there is a charge just to send out email $3.95. that is for each email.

i don't now if changing the blog counts for sending something else out.

We had fun today in Ketchikan. We saw the lumberjack show and Bridger got a wood circle as part of the lumberjack/crowd participation. It is rather thin-so I think we can bring it home. They carved a little chair and that gotten given away. Bridger wanted that and i told him to not even raise his hand. We then walked around looking in the gift stores. We bought Darin a jacket. Bridger got a duck call after we rode on the Amphibious Duck boat ride. It wasn't as exciting as I was hoping. They left the plexiglass on and it was a like an oven in there. We saw a bald eagle, but nothing else. We heard on Sunday AM around breakfast we passed by a large group of dolphins. We didnt' see them.

Mom did her quilting thing yesterday. Bridger and hung out yesterday. He has been to the pool many times in 3 days. People for the most part are nice and courteous. Everyone seems to love a child. There are many almost blue-hairs on this cruise-really, go figure. Some kids and Bridger has tried connecting with a few of them. There is a wide range of ages of the few kids.

We ate non-buffet last night. It was pretty swanky. Waiter put napkins in our laps for us. Both Bridger and I were hungry later on last night and ordered room service. There is NO fee for that, seriously!!!

Tomorrow we stop in Juneau. We are going to go see the large glacier and eat at a Salmon bake.

Better go. Unless they have another internet special we won't be on again.

The Garden

I have not heard from the travelers so I do not have anything to update about them. I have kept busy today. I bought wood for the deck. The wood was terrible. I picked through it and even the good pieces were warped. I will have to do some work when I screw it together. It is not secured in the picture.

I mowed the lawn and worked on the garden as well. I have some corn that is ready to pick. The pumpkins are coming along and the mini pumpkins are growing like crazy. I finally was able to pick one tomato today. The lows this week are suppose to be in the 40's. I am just worried a frost is going to hit and wipe out everything.

I hope everyone had a great weekend.

"You remember it. Remember every bit of it, 'cause we are on the eve of a day that people are going to talk about long after we are dead and gone. "

Saturday 9-11

Bridger and Ginni have met up with Alice in Seattle. They left on Thursday for Denver and then flew out Friday. The first picture is of Bridger at the swimming pool in Denver.

The second picture is showing Bridger's great smile. He looks half terrified. Maybe spider man AKA Uncle Rance was on the window of the boat.

Ginni said they made it to Seattle just fine, one delay. Getting to the car rental was fun though. They had to walk from the train stop to the car rental. It was all up hill and they had their luggage. A good samaritan help Alice with her luggage.

When they got settled they rode the monorail to the space needle. Bridger raced to the front pushing other kids out of the way so he could sit by the driver. He got to blow the horn of the monorail when it started. Some women sat by him and he struck up a conversation and he informed them of his trip and everything he was going to do on the cruise. I don't know where he gets that from, Dad.

I will update the blog when I get information and photos.

As far as me. We lost on Thursday to KW 14 -6. My kids played great on defense though. It was 7-6 the whole game and then they scored with 1:04 left in the 4th. Friday night though we rocked Laramie 52-0. I am the D Ends coach for varsity games and they did great. Most of my coaching consisted of "keep doing what you are doing."

No quotes today. Just a moment of silence for 9-11.

Sew Happy

I am not really for sure Darin knew what we were up to last night and how much Bridger was involved. Bridger got into my pattern box and decided he wanted another robe. He wanted to get it done and take it on the cruise. I had some fleece that I hadn't ever used and he was OK with a black robe. He insisted on helping layout the pattern, pinning it and then cutting it.

He really did help and we actually got along without any fighting. He or I ran the foot pedal, while the other ran the material through the machine. I actually did well and stayed focused on what I was doing while he was around. I had to tell him everything I was doing. After he left I managed to sew the neckline/band on backwards. He even got me to put pockets on it. I never do that. After my mistake I improvised and got things fixed. Below is our finished product. He loves it.

Good Bye Summer

It is official, the boat is out of the water so summer is over. With Ginni and Bridger gone the next two weekends and football we will not make it out boating anymore this season. At least I am not having to drag it home in a snow storm like last year.

I figured out what Bridger was doing on my computer this weekend while Ginni and I were working. I have a photo booth program that lets you take silly pictures. I just found them this morning.

Bridger called me from daycare this morning saying he was sick. I asked him if he thought he could go to school and call me later if he was still sick. I have not heard from him so I guess I am not going to get the day off.

All is well here. A couple of more days and I will be alone. Maybe I should fly down and go to the Wyoming - Texas game with Chase and Tori. Have a great day everyone.

"I'm a fearless man, but I'm scared to death of you"

Labor Day

I think Bridger is the only one of us that understands labor day. He had a very relaxing weekend. We on the other hand worked on projects. The deck is making progress and all of the back windows are now painted.

Today the weather is not so good. We are going to go to the lake but I am not sure how much boating we will do since it is only in the 50's as of noon. Bridger is very excited about the trip. Only four more days. We went to sportsman's yesterday to get rain gear for Bridger, he actually fits into an adult small jacket. The forecast for the northwest is .... Rain. I don't know why we ever left? Ha.

I can not believe that it is already September. In another month football will almost be over and hockey starting. I hope all is well for everyone. Good luck to those of you lucky enough to have time to hunt.

"You are bleeding. I don't have time to bleed" Hint: Minn. Gov.

one week to go

I copied these Black Hills pictures from a facebook site about the Black Hills. I didn't enlarge them to check them out, but on the website they were so pretty. Since I am lacking in any real creative thoughts just yet today---you get these. They do make me want to go back and see the Hills, though.

So Bridger asked me yet, again, how many more days until our cruise last night as part of our bedtime ritual. I finally got to tell him next weekend at this very time we will be on the cruise ship. Which he didn't relate to 7 days, but I made it simple and finally said 7 days.

Darin coached two games back to back Thurs and Fri nights. Bridger joined him on the field for both of these. Darin's ninth grade team won and for some reason I don't really remember much about that game. Can't even tell you the score. I guess scores don't mean all that much to me. You win or you lose. Bridger did not like his ball boy responsibilities and told Darin he wasn't going back down on the field anymore. He did like getting to boss the BIG boys around telling them to back up and stay behind their line. There is a player line to stay behind and there is a coach line to stay behind on the edge of the field. Bridger apparently would use the football to go up and down the line pushing them back. The BIG boys seemed to have tolerated him OK.

Friday night he decided he could be the water boy. He ran out onto the field with water girls when they had time outs. He also handed them water bottles when players rotated off the field. At half time I went down to the field to sit with him and one of the refs came up to him and asked him why he wasn't ball boy that night. I was interested to hear how he would handle the question. He was very polite and told the man some other boys were doing it tonight. Apparently, Bridger got fussed at a few times for not having paid attention to when they wanted to trade out the balls between plays. That is ultimately what ended his desire to be a ball boy.

Friday night Darin coached the Sophomore team. The Sophomore team came together when Hulett, WY couldn't make a team this year, but had game commitments. Somehow the Varsity coach from NC fanagled into their schedule. But, he did manage to make it that all the games whether would have been home or away would be played in Casper. It give those smaller schools a chance to come play on the BIG Field. Darin got them to reconsider the game times from 7pm to 5pm. Bridger and I were home by 7pm on Friday night. The Sophomore team is the same boys that Darin coached last year. He remarked how good it was to be coaching them again. They did not win, but it sure was a good game. They played Tongue River and one would think they should be able to beat them. However, these are Seniors and underclassmen who have been playing together for the last few years.

Yesterday we did house work stuff. Bridger got bored with us and played Wii. Around 2pm Staci Porter called for me about some Mary Kay stuff. Bridger heard from Darin who it was and wouldn't leave my side while I was on the phone. Bridger knows the rules-we don't invite ourselves someplace. Since Staci was the one that called us-it seemed to Bridger that it was an invitation to play with Gage. I laughingly told her and we set up a play date.

We took him over and decided to have a childless lunch. We decided FireRock and I happily discovered they had sat up outside patio eating. I won out over the football games being played in the bar area, only to have to listen to a pick-up truck run with a yappy dog inside it while we were there. When the owners finally came out we laughed to see that it was 3 guys. We figured for sure there would be a female involved. Oh yeah-it was a "4" license plate. That number means about as much as a Minnesota license plate to Roger.

More house stuff today and maybe, hopefully, wishing we can make it to the lake also. The boat will be coming home for the winter this weekend no matter what.