Friday was a pretty light day, just swim team and swimming lessons, and a playmate came over to spend the afternoon. She brought her American Girls dolls, so Rylan was one happy little girl!
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| Colin looking on as Rylan and Owen have their lessons |
Saturday morning was devoted to karate belt testing. Rylan was moving up to purple, and Jordan was earning his orange. Testing lasts about an hour for each of them, so it was a full morning.
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| Naomi and Jordan demonstrate behind-the-back wrist grabs (the girl that Jordan likes...) |
Saturday evening was a night out for Dean and I - we were off to a concert!! A few years ago, Harley Davidson built a huge complex just off of the interstate, near Loveland. They constructed a large amphitheatre as well, and put on about 5 concerts each summer. Several weeks ago I saw that Kenny Wayne Shephard was performing there and I snatched up tickets faster than a biker can hop on his hog. The concert was wonderful - he performed several of my favorites. The lightning show all around us was fantastic, and we got rained on a little - but we were prepared. It was entertaining to watch the ones who weren't. KWS is a blues man, but the concert goers were a (ahem) rather colorful group of people. I saw a lot of women in tank tops that were exposing a lot more than they probably realized. I tried to just focus on the stage. Dean also pointed out the sad fact that we always seem to get stuck behind a group of stupid drunk women who are still single for obvious reasons. My Droid took terrible pictures, this is the only decent one I got.. That's Noah in the white, and Kenny in the black.
Kenny finished the concert with a ten minute long performance of Hendrix's Voodoo Child. I remarked to Dean, "No wonder Woodstock went on for days.... the songs are never ending!!"
If you aren't familiar with KWS, I included this audio treat just for you - an instrumental number called 'While We Cry'... Lean back, close your eyes, and just let the music transport you - think of it as a six minute mini-vacation!
On Sunday, Jordan and I participated in the Mother & Son Amazing Race, put on by our city's Parks & Rec. department. We were one of seventy teams that attended the event. We had to complete 10 different tasks, plus a couple of extra surprise ones. It took us a little over an hour to finish. We had a lot of fun!
Here were our tasks:
(Extra) - Join up with the next team to arrive at station, and 'toss' a water balloon back and forth, using only a beach towel stretched between each team.
1. Fish around in a baby pool filled 8 inches deep with green oatmeal and locate 10 pennies.
2. Water bucket brigade - transport water from one bucket to another, using just a plastic cup.
3. Indoor obstacle course.
4. Choice between spoonful of 'mystery food' inside a can labeled 'Dog Food', or transport six dumbbells, one at a time, across a room and back.
5. Keep a balloon up in the air, hitting it back and forth for 30 seconds, without using your hands.
(Extra) - shake two different step counters to a combined total of 200 'steps'as quickly as possible
6. Lego building challenge (just assembling and then disassembling a small lego kit)
7. Newspaper leapfrog - get across a gym floor using only two pieces of newspaper. BUT. You both have to be on the same piece, at the same time. So you stand on one (holding on to each other helps), and then scoot the piece you just stepped off of around from behind you and get it in front of you again. Repeat.
8. Scooter canoeing. Kneel on a little square scooter and use a rubber-tipped stick to push yourself across the gym floor.
9. Toilet paper toss. Toss a roll of TP through a target (much like a football)
10. Remember each and every helper's name that operated each station (we were given the advice before hand to remember their names) and write them down in order - that was hard!
We each got a t-shirt and enjoyed some bbq afterwards. It was a very hot afternoon, and we both sweated and panted as we raced back and forth, but we had a good time! It was interesting (and a little sad) that we witnessed some mom and son teams blatantly cheating - what kind of role modeling is that?? You could also tell which moms were in it TO WIN, and dragged their sons along to do so. Kudos to the teams where the moms made it fun and exciting. This was the inaugural year for this event, but alas, Jordan was at the top of the age range, so he won't be able to participate again. Hopefully the event will be bigger and better when Owen's turn comes around in a couple of years. Boys K-5 can participate.
In the meantime, my dear husband worked and worked on the computer all weekend to get a project for work finished on time. He had to man the little ones as well, while I ran back and forth to all of our events. Thanks hon! I am now making up for lost time on the computer.... can you tell?
