Summer Birthdays, California, and Buffalo

Although our trip to Europe was big news around here, we did have a few other things of note happen this summer.

 

Tony turned 12 on June 9th! Our kids will have nothing other than DQ cake for their birthdays. So here is DQ cake number 1. Sorry about the pic. I fought the picture and the picture won.

 

 

 Tony spent his birthday loot on a fish tank. Two months later the fish tank STILL is empty. We are having a bit of trouble keeping our fish alive. We are going to start over again this weekend. If anyone out there has any advice for maintaining a fresh water aquarium, please share.

Tony took two friends to "Defy Gravity"...a trampoline jumping facility in Omaha. What a brilliant idea. A giant padded room with a trampoline for a floor. The boys jumped for two solid hours and had an exhausting, sweaty, blast.  This is a picture of them from the monitors in the "parents lounge."

 

On June 18th, Olivia turned 15! Here is our beauty with DQ cake number 2. This one was a "S'mores" version.

The Skubics sent her a practical joke in the form of many dollar bills all taped together and stuffed inside a box. She got a kick out of it and enjoyed the extra spending money for her trip to CALIFORNIA!!!!

 

That is my segue for the next section of this post. Olivia got very involved with her high school chapter of FBLA (click on link for more info) during 9th grade. It is an awesome organization and we cannot say enough about how impressed we are with their advisor and the amazing group of kids that belong to the BHS Chapter.

That being said, in just her first year Olivia has volunteered all over the community, raised funds for various charities, job shadowed, corresponded with the Governor, participated in state (Lincoln, NE), regional (Denver, CO) and national (Anaheim, CA) events and learned valuable skills that will greatly assist her in the future. OK, enough of the serious stuff... here are some fun pics from her trip to California in June!!!

9 High school students and their advisor had to be at the Omaha airport at 4am. Kudos to Whitney's dad for doing the early morning run to Omaha.

After a long flight and a long bus ride, Olivia and her BFF Whitney are all smiles as they make their way to the beach.

First day was spent at the Santa Monica Pier.

 Next day was Disneyland.

We are so glad that Olivia FINALLY made it to the "Happiest Place on Earth". Although, her 4 year old self would have enjoyed it much, much more. The kids got to have two full days at the Disney Parks and went back in the evenings as well. Their hotel was just a quick shuttle ride away and they took full advantage of any free time they had by visiting the park.

 

While at the hotel they participated in various events and workshops. Olivia's group presented their program to a panel of judges explaining the partnership they had with our local hospital throughout the school year.

4,000 FBLA students from across the US and Puerto Rico were in attendance. Can you even IMAGINE the craziness? But what fun memories! The kids handled themselves very maturely and had a great time. Believe it or not, once they landed in California we weren't really even worried about them.

While Olivia was on her big adventure, we took Tony camping for a few days. He has been asking for years to visit the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge just east of Des Moines, IA. If you're ever in that area its worth a visit.

 We stayed in a lovely County campground and Tony was thrilled to discover a creek to play in!

 The refuge was 5,600 acres of beautiful, restored prairie.

 The refuge is also home to a free-range herd of buffalo.

And a herd of Elk...we just saw one.

 There was a beautiful learning center built in what else but the "prairie style" of architecture.

 It blended in so nice with the natural surroundings.

Wildflowers were in bloom everywhere.

We took a long hike around the preserve and loved the buffalo warning signs along the way. Tony was really hoping one would be up close, but no luck that day.

On our way home we stopped at the Des Moines Zoo. It's a nice little zoo. They have a new Australia exhibit where these crazy birds are just wandering around amongst the humans. Can't understand why Tony wouldn't pose next to this guy for me.....?

 

Gotta love donkey's!!!!

 

School starts here August 12th. Just one week from today! Where did the summer go? Olivia kept busy with a 3-day a week babysitting job. Being in high school meant Olivia could venture into Omaha with her friends a bit more. Tony went to Boy Scout Camp for a week and volunteered at the library one day a week. Being 12 means he can ride his bike to the pool with friends this year.  Stay tuned for my next post...Minnesota Camping Trip 2013!!!!