Road Trip Time with my Brother and Sister

This past week I had the awesome opportunity to take a road trip with both Carrie and Andy.

We traveled to Los Angles so that I could attend a wedding shower for my sister-in-law, Sarah.

What an experience!

Driving, chatting, or just staring out the window watching the landscape fly by . . . it was time well spent with my two favorite people.

We traveled in Carrie's RV which turned out to be a very comfortable way to travel.  We made great time on the road even though a few days we had to fight some very strong winds.

Being able to pull over for a couple hours of sleep each night alongside eighteen wheelers in either wayside stations or a random gas station along the way was an new and unusual experience for all of us!

In Los Angles we found a KOA to stay at and use as a home base with the camper.  Renting a car to brave the LA traffic turned out to be a very good idea indeed.

After meeting up with Sarah and other family members on Friday night for dinner on Saturday I met Sarah at the Los Angles Flower Market so we could work on idea's for wedding flowers.  

Never in my life have I seen so many flowers in one space.

It was amazing!

On Sunday, we loaded up the RV once again and head out of LA for a short day trip to Las Vegas.  We found a spot to park the RV overnight in the Circus, Circus RV park and then we were off to explore Vegas and watch the Badgers play in their Sweet 16 game (which they won in amazing fashion!)

Monday morning had us heading out of Las Vegas towards the Hoover Dam.  A sight none of us had seen before that turned out to be very cool.

Then it was onward to home back in Minnesota.  The last day of travel we ended up having a long drive in hopes of staying out in-front of a snow storm that was heading towards us.  We arrive home a little before midnight a whole half a day early!

Truth be told I was a little sad it see the trip come to an end, it seemed to go by so quickly but it was nice to be home also.  Shelby girl seemed overly excited to see me and even Jaz and Emily came out of their rooms to say hi despite the late hour.  I think they were happy I was home too!  LOL

And of course I had to make a vlog about the whole event . . . you can check that out below!

11 Years Old

This past week was a busy one.  

With warm, spring like weather and celebrating Zoe's 11th birthday the week flew by!

I can hardly believe that my little baby girl is now eleven years old.

Such a sweet, fun loving girl she has become.

Can't wait to see what this near year has in store for her.

Below is the our weekly family vlog with lots of Birthday Day highlights!

Tootles!

Week Of February 29th

We've made it through another busy week!

Poor little Ms. Zoe found herself with a case of Strep Throat mid week but was recovered enough by the weekend to play some volleyball.

Zoe volleyball team once again had a strong showing during their Power League on Saturday.  Out of three matches they end up winning all three with a total of eight games won.  We are all so proud of the improvement the whole team is showing.

Here's our weekly Vlog . . . Enjoy!

Cabin Time

This past week turned out to be a busy one.  

On Tuesday Emily had a choir concert which was fun to watch.  What a difference a couple of years make!  The songs were so pretty and the whole choir did a wonderful job.  Emily really seemed to enjoy herself.

The of course we had two night of volleyball practice for Zoe this week and then all the other little bits of items that need to be taken care of throughout the week. 

On Friday night Zoe, Emily and I along with Carrie and her kiddos took off to grandma and grandpa's house and the cabin to take advantage of a Saturday with no activities planned.

After a restful night at mom and dad's we all headed to the cabin bright and early Saturday morning.

Can't even remember the last time we were free to spend some time at the cabin, I pretty sure it was sometime before Thanksgiving.  Having some time to relax in the woods was a wonderful experience and we had the most amazing weather.  Sunshine and warm, it was truly a great day.

Here's this weeks vlog featuring Emily's Choir Concert and some ATVing!

Power League #2

This past Sunday Zoe once again had a Power League Day with her Extreme Volleyball Club.

They played four matches and won three of them in two game sets.

It was so fun to see how much they have improved over the past couple weeks and to finally begin experiencing the joy of winning on a more consistent basis.

Zoe once again did an amazing jobs as the unofficial leader on court.  The girls have nicknamed her their "lucky charm" which is sweet.

Zoe serving was SPOT ON!

  I think she is becoming more comfortable with it and is learning to trust her ability more.

She had multiple good runs (limit 3 aces per league rules) and only missed two serves on side-outs.

Another thing she improved on this week that had me very excited to see was her net game.  She attacked the ball more with her setting instead of waiting for the ball to drop to the bumping height, winning quite a few rallies with great ball placement after her sets over the net.

She also had much more success with being able to bump the ball out of the next on those tricky sneaking drop balls which is a difficult skill to learn.  Learning to know when, and how to pop the ball up and out of the net takes time and skill and I was so pleased to see her perfecting this skill and saving a side-out for her team.

The rest of the week was not very vloging worthy, just our same-old, same-old schedule.

As a result I have lots of volleyball footage to share and nothing else!

Volleyball Tournament

This past weekend Zoe had her first tournament experience with her Prior Lake Extreme Volleyball Team.

The tournament was a two day event spread between three locations and the girls played a total of nine matches.  Which means they played 18 games total.  What an experience!  It was new to most of the girls on the team and it was fun to watch them gain confidence as the day went on.  Even though they only won three of their eighteen games the girls were upbeat and determined to do better. 

Zoe had some amazing games.  She is becoming a true leader on the court which her teammates seem to appreciate.  She was continuously trying to rally the girls, offering encouragement and giving her all on the court.  Makes me very proud to watch.

Zoe also had the opportunity to be the team captain for the weekend.  Normally the coach assigns the duty by individual matches, making sure everyone gets a chance to try it out.  For this weekend she had Zoe take over the responsibility for every match.

So proud of my growing volleyball lover.

You can tell it is something she really enjoys and hopes to improve on.

Here's the video from this past week with lots of volleyball coverage.  enjoy!

Snow Day

This past week the kiddos were very excited to have their very first snow day of the year.

Sent home early from school the first day and a two hour start the following day.

The stuff of kids dreams!!!