MoNsTeR JaM FiNaLS

Here is the pictures I promised earlier of Cameron's birthday to Monster Jam World Finals in Las Vegas this past weekend. We left early Thursday morning for our flight to Las Vegas. We had been in the air for about 30-45 minutes when the pilot came on and said we were landing in Pittsburgh. This was not on the plans. A few minutes later, he came on and said we were having electrical failure and were landing in five minutes. It was all uneventful - thank goodness. After landing, they told us, we would needed to switch planes. As we were deplaining, the pilot was there and he looked quite stressed. Also, Cameron noticed that they had people dressed in the gray fire suits. He pointed them out to us. We arent sure what really happened but we were glad to be on the ground. We made our flight to Chicago and made the Las Vegas connection without any problems. As were getting ready to land in Las Vegas, that was pretty rough. If that had been Pittsburgh, I would have been very nervous. We made it and was ready to have some fun. We ended up in the "cowboy" suite at our hotel. The pictures of it are on Duane's camera and not sure how to download them. The room had bunk beds, which Cameron spoke for the top bunk. It had the split rail wooden posts all around the room with a cowboy themed border and bedspreads. It was quite cute and very spacious.
After checking in, we went to lunch. We then headed to Planet Hollywood Casino because we had tickets to the evening's Ultimate Variety show. We weren't sure where we were going or how long it would take. Once there, the kids decided they wanted to see the animal show, too. The kids really enjoyed this. It had different animals doing different tricks, jugglers, and other kids entertainment. We had to wait an hour for our other show so we walked around the mall inside Planet Hollywood. It made it seem like you were outside. It is much cooler than Ceaser's Palace!!! The Ultimate show was good but the kids didnt get half of the comedy stuff. It was way over there heads. It was supposed to be the best show for kids. All in all, it was a fun day. The kids were up bright and early the next morning. They were still on PA time zone. The Monster Truck Double Down didnt start till noon. It was a long morning. They were so excited but driving each other and us batty!! :-) I took them down to the exercise room to burn some energy. It did seem to help, slightly! At 9:30, we finally left for the Monster Jam. We knew we would be standing in line but then they would at least be there. When we got there it was quite cool. We had shorts and t-shirts for the day. I had packed our jackets for later in the evening. We ended up using them for the entire the day. After standing in line for about a half hour, Taylor and I decided to go sit in the car and let the boys stand in line. It was much warmer in there! Finally, it was time for the gate to open. Yea!! Taylor and Cameron ran straight for Grave Diggers tent, they wanted to get his signature first. He is Camerons favorite. Duane and I tried to follow them but they were long gone. Parents werent supposed to run. We (Duane and I) finally reached the the tent, Cameron and Taylor were the third 'family' in line. They looked quite pleased with themselves!! :-) After Grave Diggers signature and picture we headed for Maximum Destruction. We had to wait a little longer in this line but it wasnt to bad. He knocked Cameron's Grave Digger hat off his head as he stepped up to get his signature. (Max D and Grave Digger are the two most popular trucks). When it was time for pictures. Tom Meents put his Max D hat over Cameron's hat. We all had a good laugh. The drivers are all very friendly and joke with the kids. The kids had fun going around getting pictures and signatures. We did this for most of the day. The kids also made posters for the actual jam to hold in the air. They had all sorts of different bounce houses for the kids to play on. Later that evening, we watched the qualifying of trucks for the race portion for Saturday evening. By then, it was quite chilly, I am so glad I packed a blanket with us. It was a lot of fun. Donkey Kong posted the fastest qualifying time.
On Saturday morning, we took the kids to Sunset Station where they have a huge play area for kids. We checked them in and wondered around the casino. Duane and I decided to go get breakfast but they wanted $15 per person for the buffet. We werent that hungry so ended up spending almost $15 at Starbucks instead. We thought it was quite funny or crazy. We decided to play the slots for a bit but that wasnt to exciting. We lost a total of $5, big gamblers we are. I think if we would have been winning it would have held our attention a lit longer. We picked the kids up after an hour and half and headed to Monster Jam!! Saturday was much nicer weather wise. It was warm and sunny. Duane and I have slight sunburns to show for it. At least the kids didnt get burned. We finished getting the signatures that we missed on Friday. We also got pictures of the kids with the trucks. The kids wanted to go bowling, so off we go. Taylor won the first game. She had 2 strikes in row. WOW! This was her best game ever. Cameron won the second game. Duane and I watched the kids. They had fun. Back to the Monster Jam for the Finals.
We got there early but they had a lot of entertainment for us so the time went by quickly. The racing was a lot fun to watch. Duane's favorite TAZ ended up in a tree and had to be taken to the hospital. He ended up being okay but unable to do freestyle. During the final race for the championship, it was between Maximum Destruction and Captain's Curse. As Captains Curse was making his way around the turn, he went out of control and ended up in the stands. No people were seated in the area. They block off the lower section with blue tarps. Good thing! The camera man went running as he watched the truck come towards him. Alex Blackwell wasnt injured. Yea! It took a while for them to get his truck out of the stands. It did quite a bit of damamge to the railing. oops. Max D won the racing portion. Now onto Freestyle. This is where thr trucks go over jumps and smash all the objects in the arena. They basically go till there trucks can go no more. Either they have flat tires, tires fall off or most end upside down. US Airforce Afterburner won this portion. He gave a great performance. It was a lot of fun!! After the freestyle portion, Max D came back out and did the first ever Monster Truck back flip. It was awesome. Sunday morning came to quickly and back to PA without much excitement. It was very fun and fast mini vacation! Here are the pictures.
Cam's favorite
Taylor's favorite

Cam and Dennis Anderson

They have Monster Trucks there that they allow you go to for a ride in. They take you over some hills and do donuts. It is quite a bumpy ride!!

My favorite is Monster Mutt

Duane's favorite is TAZ

The kids making their posters

Taylor getting Madusa's signature

Cameron getting Dennis Anderson's signture!!

Spring Cleaning

I got this hair brained idea at the first of the week to begin my spring cleaning. I was thinking it would be one, maybe two days at the most. It is now Thursday evening and I am 2/3 done! I was trying to figure out why my house was so dirty and very dusty in corners and ceilings.etc.... It finally hit me! This is the longest I have ever lived in one place since moving out of state. I also realized that I havent given my house the really good cleaning that it needs because of that! I have moved so much and that was when I would do my cleaning and purging. I now understand how people accumulate so much "junk" and how it ends up where it does. :-)

It has been fun going room to room and giving it a good scrub. The hard part is at the end of day, it doesnt look at that much different. I keep thinking it should look so much cleaner and shinier. I made the mistake and asked the kids if they thought the house looked any different. You guessed it, their answer was "No, not really... is it suppose to?".

Today was Taylors room, she wasnt to happy that I made her help me. I wanted to go through her closet and figure out what would fit for this summer and things she had outgrew. She is a major pack rat, she doesnt want to part with anything. I had to convince that we would go shopping in Las Vegas next week if we got rid of some of her clothes. Well, that changed her tune pretty quickly. Next thing I knew we had a big garbage sack of clothes. A friend came by and we gave them to her for her daughter. She was thrilled. Her daughter has never recieved hand me downs and was very excited. I had told Michele to give back what she didnt want. I would give them to Good Will. She brought Cameron home and said Grace loved everything and wanted everything!! Ahh!! It made Taylor feel really good. I dont think Duane will be to happy when I tell it what it is going to cost him. hee, hee!!!

Tomorrow is Camerons room, it should be pretty quick. He isnt picky or choosy!! Then it is down to the basement. I asked the kids to help me go through some of their toys. I asked if they thought they were ready to throw away any toys, out came the look of horror! I quickly suggested that we donate their OLD toys to Good Will. They were fine with that idea. As I am typing this Taylor said they were going to go down and start going through their toys!! YEA!!! Maybe I will done sooner than the weekend. The end is in sight!

Happy 8th Birthday Cameron

Happy Birthday Cam!!!
It doesnt seem like 8 years have gone by already. I told the kids that they need to quit getting older because every time they get older so do I! :-) It has been fun having both a girl and boy. Cameron is all boy that is for sure! He enjoys life to the fullest. He is one of those kids who has to be doing something at all times or he is 'bored'! He loves being outside with friends playing soccer, baseball, football, skating, sledding, building forts, etc... Always has to be moving. Even in school, his favorite subjects are P.E. and recess, yes, he thinks recess is a subject! He gets upset if he misses those two activities, I guess I should say subjects. Cameron is a fairly happy go lucky kid. He gets along well with others (most times with his sister!) and can be helpful when he wants to be. I love you, Cameron!!
Here is some photo's of his big 8th day! Cameron getting home from school and discovering his presents.

Cameron picked where we ate this evening. His favorite is a place called A & M Pizza, not for the pizza either. He loves corn nuggets. It is like chicken nuggets but with corn instead. The corn nuggets are the middle dish. He was in 7th heaven for his dinner. :-)

Camerons favorite Nascar driver is Dale Jr. Duane found this photo of him in his new car. It even has Jr's signature. Cameron thought this was pretty cool!

Cameron is starting to like to build things. He also likes Indiana Jones so we got him some Lego's to have fun with. Duane and Cameron put it together this evening and here is the finished photo!

Camerons big present is in a couple of weeks. We are going to Las Vegas for the Monster Truck Finals. We are staying in a hotel that has kid themed suites so of course we are in a Nascar room, they didnt have a Monster Truck one. We are all looking forward to getting some warm weather for the weekend. More pictures to come.......

Columbus, Ohio

Taylor had a gymnastics meet in Columbus, Ohio this psat weekend. We left on Friday morning, it is a 6-7 hour drive depending on weather. We had great weather so it was a nice drive. We went to dinner and let the kids play in the pool for a while to get rid of some extra energy!! Taylor's competition was for 8:00 am. During the night she started with a fever and wasnt feeling so well by morning. We asked her if she would like to skip the meet. Her answer was a definite NO!!! We gave her some motrin and cough medicine and headed over to the meet. It turned out of the 13 girls on her team, only 3 were feeling okay, the rest was not feeling so hot. Taylor's best friend on the team, Chelsea, was so sick, she didnt even come to the competition. She stayed back at the hotel for the weekend. Bummer! Everyone else had the vomitting thing going on, thank goodness Taylor's was only her normal asthma stuff. Taylor ended up doing quite well in spite of her not feeling well. She competed against 24 other girls in her age group. She got 2nd in beam, 4th in floor, 5th all around, 10th in vault, and 11th in bars. We had planned to stay an extra day so that kids could go to COSI - Columbus Ohio Science Institute, they have been wanting to go there again. We decided it would be better to get Taylor home in case she got worse. We took her to the doctor today, she has an ear and sinus infection along with her junky cough. The doctor put her on a broad spectrum antibiotic to clear it all up! She has been laying around all day today. Hopefully, she will be back to her normal self soon. Taylor is now done with competitions till the 20th of March. We get a little break, it will seem nice. It is a lot of fun going to watch her compete but I know it takes a lot out of her.

Growing, growing, and growing.....

It's official, Cameron has now passed Taylor in the height department. Cameron has went on a growing spurt the past couple weeks. He is really excited. He has been waiting for this forever.:-) His next goal is to pass mom. I have a few years, I think....
Taylor isnt to happy but knew it was inevitable. It is so much fun watching them grow and develop. They are great kids!

We Are Penn State!!!

Taylor and Cameron (in the back ground) in front of Beaver Stadium.

Taylor and Cameron with Joe Paterno ( Joe Pa)

Taylor showing off her medals that she won along with the team trophy award.

Taylor had a gymnastics meet today in State College, home of Penn State University. The meet was held by the Nittany Gymnastics Team. Taylor did really good job competing as did her team mates. They won the team award beating the 2nd place team by 5 points!! Taylor placed in each event. She placed 5th in vault and floors, 4th in Bars, 2nd in beam and 4 th all-around!!! YeA!!

Before the meet started, the kids wanted to see Beaver Stadium in person. They watch all the games on TV and was curious about seeing it live. Taylor wasnt so impressed upon seeing it. The kids thought they were going to get to go inside the stadium. Oh well....

After Taylors meet, we went to Recreation Hall and watched the Penn State Gymnastics team compete. Penn State won that meet also! We all had a great time.

First Gymnastics Meet of 2009

Taylor had her first meet for 2009 today! It was in Hanover, PA. It is about an hour and 20 minutes from home. We had to be there by 7:30 a.m. We arrived at 7:00, there was no traffic. I guess everyone was staying indoors due to the cold. This morning's temp is a record, it was the coldest the kids had ever felt. It was 0 degrees! Brrr! Thank heaven's Taylor has picked an indoor sport. :-) Back to the meet, she was in the 10 and under age group. She had 24 girls in her age group. She started out on Balance Beam. She had a few wobbles but managed to stay on. On the skill's part of her routine, she looked really good. She recieved a 9.125, earning a 7th place medal. Floors she came out of some of her skills with extra steps which are .1 deduction for each little extra step. She received a 8.5, earning a 12th place medal. On Vault, she had to go first and she has a hard time rembering straight arms and 'popping off". She got a 8.25 for her score. On to Bars, last year Taylor really struggled with bars and she has been telling us this would be her best event this year. yea, yea,...... I thought. This past couple of weeks, she has been falling off on her 'squat on' costing her .5 deduction. It is where she gets(squats) on the lower bar getting ready to jump to the high bar. In warm-up she kept falling and I was thinking she was going to do it on her judged turn. She didnt. It was the best bar routine, I have ever seen her do. Even her coaches were surprised. In practice when her coaches "score her", she gets in the mid 8's. Today she got a 9.05. If you could have seen her face when she saw her score. She was really excited. It was really cute. Duane was trying to get her to look at us so we could get it on film but she never did. Bummer! She earned a 5th place medal in bars. For All-Around, she got a 34.925 which was 10th place medal. So, she got a total of 4 more medals to add to her growing collection. Her team earned 1st place. She needed a 32.00 All- Around score to qualify for Sectionals in April. She did it. YEA! She felt really good about her meet. The next two months are the main competition season. She has a meet in two weeks and thereafter for four weekends in a row. Taking us all over Pa, and even to Colombus, Ohio.